The cover story in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday was on the city's subway system, and the photo captions included:
"An M.T.A. worker cutting through a piece of steel as new track is fitted on the 1 line in Manhattan."
"A J train leaving the Chambers Street station in Manhattan."
"A rat hauling a Moon Pie into the shadows at 125th Street."
The worst thing about the cold in Florida is that, knowing what's going on up north, we can't complain about it.
Even if they're not always celebrated, there are 12 days of Christmas - more if the special double Christmas issue of The Spectator arrives late to Bob's News.
In high school the two works that opened my eyes to the power of literature were Our Town and Spoon River Anthology. And last night they were both answers on Jeopardy!
I hate self-promotion, but it's that time of year when people are looking for gift ideas and I thought: Perhaps I can sell a couple copies. So yesterday morning I went on Facebook and then Twitter and wrote: "An immodest proposal: End the woes of '17 with The Joys of Travel." And below this I posted a large photograph of my book cover, with the bright red-and-yellow train gliding along its tracks. About an hour later Hania called to tell me about the Amtrak crash.