This Just In...

A fantastically wrongheaded article in the Times about the strike--and as I like many New Yorkers am grounded, but also think the strike is needed, long overdue, and will prove worthwhile once we can see past our own inconveniences and look a things through someone elses eyes--which is not only dumbly framed but godawfully written.

A few choice quotes (chosen for nothing else other than their grammatical grace):

Every apartment block, office, store or sidewalk had its tales of people who were unable to get to work, of businesses that had trouble functioning or were able to operate only at a daunting cost, of workers and employers who reached their jobs and found there had been little point in trying because the customers were missing.

(Not "absent" or "elsewhere," but missing? How purple)

The economic burden was felt citywide, but there were other costs, too - hundreds of thousands of children missing school, commuters spending extra hours shuttling to work and back, and pervasive fear of how long this will go on.

(read that last clause again for an example of not only conjecture, but also a poor way to end a sentence)

And then there's this pearl of unfettered homelander backwardness, an example of the strange thinking into which we as a people have been lulled by the haves (chosen for its true confessions and pure hamfisted weirdness):

"A lot of people in this country work a lot harder for less money," said Ms. Diaz, the salon owner. "They're complaining about health benefits and pensions; a lot of people don't have health benefits and pensions, including the people who work here in my shop."

I've said it before and I wish I did not have to say it now, but one can only blink...

Besides, they did not make mention of the thousands of buskers who have flooded the streets of downtown playing only "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Feliz Navidad," to the deep concern of thousands of DJs, all of whom were in deep Smiths/Cure-like despondency over the forced cancellation of the Yo La Tengo concert. What about them? They have feelings too.

Jeesh...