DAY TWENTY SIX:Oct. 6
Barry Bonds broke the Major League home run record and it barely merited a footnote in the news. True, Bonds isn't exactly Mr. Charisma, but there's more, of course. The nation is a bit preoccupied.
Similarly, today's picture-perfect, crisp autumn day, set off with golden light and long Fall shadows drew New Yorkers out of doors, in pre-Catastrophe numbers. But everywhere I went people were complaining about the smell, which could be detected all of the way up to Greenpoint. Whatever is being emitted from Ground Zero is growing stronger every day, and now leaves a metallic taste in the mouth, like sucking on a nickel. Firefighters at Ground Zero ell me the debris is still quite hot, and whatever is burning deep in the bowels of that enormous pile of rubble, seems to be stoked with endless supplies of fuel. On the sidewalk outside my building was a pair of surgical masks, one child-sized. Infants in strollers wear such masks, or their parents wrap scarves over the youngsters' faces.
Smell or no smell, however, New Yorkers are fighting their ways back to "normal" life. They were outside in droves today, strolling, shopping, dining and trying to live their lives as they did a month ago. I biked around town, finding some pleasure in the clusters of hearty folks I encountered. At the Brooklyn Brewery in Willamsburg Cisco was having a hard time filling mugs fast enough, and Sam told me it was this first time since my birthday party there, three days before the disaster, that people have come to enjoy the beer and music. Along most of the hip streets of Brooklyn -- Montague, Smith, 7th Avenue -- the eateries were well attended for the first time in nearly three weeks. All of this bodes well, indeed.
But the Fire and Police Department bagpipers played for 20 funerals today, and the men are becoming so upset by their musical duties that long-retired pipers are being brought back on the ceremonial job. The rescue teams were sent home today, to elite departments around the country. From now on -- for about a year -- work at Ground Zero will be straight excavation.
The leadership battle is getting hotter, with the election just three days away. The two Democrats who face a runoff on Tuesday, Green and Ferrer, have taken off their gloves and are sparring in the mud. The whole lot of them, from Rudy-you-folks-can't-live-without-me-Giuliani to Mike-the-billionaire-Bloomberg, to Freddie-I-hate-Rudy-more-than-anybody-Ferrer, and Mark-I-have-a-plan-Green, are a sorry set of excuses for municipal leadership. New Yorkers are growing disgusted with the lot of them, and it is impossible to guess who will triumph in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, much less in the final November election.
Be well. Be safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
