MOON OVER MANHATTAN

The blackout barely registered in lovely downtown Noho. I was on the phone when the electricity blipped for just a second. The only thing we lost was the phone calls. Computers didn't even reboot. Oh, and there was also the one fried power strip.

Reports filtered in almost immediately. By bizarre coincidence, I received some spam in the morning that had a link to a really cheap hotel in Chelsea, and I was going to book a room for the weekend.

Perversely, I'm watching the footage and wishing I was there. I love New York. I don't know how it got this reputation as a cold town. Of all the cities I've spent time in, New Yorkers are the friendliest locals I've ever met and something like this brings out the best in them. Besides, it's been twenty years since you could see the night sky over the big city.

Thinking of all of you who are in the midst of the crisis and hope you are having the kind of encounters that restore your faith in your fellow man.

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SAY THAT AGAIN

Well if you thought I was excited about finding the blog on page two of a Google search the other day, imagine my delight at finding out I'm on page one when you google the words Last One Speaks. I've tried this periodically since I started the blog without success but Karen tried it on a whim yesterday and there we were at hit number two. I don't know how Google finally found me, but thanks for the boost guys.

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SOLD TO THE LOWEST BIDDER

One of the more over-looked aspects of the prison-indutrial complex is this policy of virtually selling prisoners to the lowest bidder. Not only are they imposing ridiculously long sentences but then they ship them out to places so far away, it precludes any meaningful contact with their families.

I remember when they spoke of prisons as wanting to rehabilitate criminals. When they turned the jails into profit-making enterprises, it kind of removes the incentive for that, doesn't it?

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