March 18
Jenna Orkin
New York
The city is shuttered; the atmosphere, muted. Busses go by on what used to be the busiest streets in the middle of the day with only three or four passengers aboard — all maintaining more than adequate "social distance." The MTA's mulling cutting back on service. Who could blame them?
New York's neighborhoods have peculiar specialties. Madison Avenue between 86th and 88th makes you wonder if Carnegie Hill's been zoned for baby boutiques. Even at the best of times, you never see more than one customer in those dear little shops, mostly grandmothers, but they remain open now. Further downtown on Lexington, hairdressers, barbershops and nail salons are also soldiering on. ("I need an emergency haircut.") Unusually for this time of year, when it's 50 degrees out, their doors are propped open wide, either for ventilation or to keep people from having to touch them. Hard to maintain social distance in these professions although it's less critical when you're facing the back of the guy's head.
Puppies still frolic in the windows of pet stores.
Saw two delivery guys on bikes with plastic bags over their hands. This, only sixteen days after plastic bags became banned in New York City out of consideration for the environment. What with germ phobia eclipsing all other concerns, will they now make a comeback? God knows, the bags are being replaced in landfills fast enough by discarded plastic masks and gloves.
Most stores report business is down but are reluctant to say by how much, although one outlet of Le Pain Quotidien said that even with take-out still operating, sales have dropped 90%. The manager at a shoe store, Chuckie's New York, (for some reason, the words "New York" are in mirror writing) maintained that while they have fewer walk-ins, those who do come are "focused, know what they want and are buying." A trooper, that guy.
Overheard: "Their generation lived through rationing; they're probably chill about this whole situation."
Handwritten on a blackboard outside Olive and Bette's girls' boutique on 72 and Third, #Built by Girls: Crazy times we're living in. I used to cough to hide a fart. Now I fart to hide a cough.
Once home, I noted an email dated March 17 from a financial advice website, One Last Thing — "The Final Word on Wall Street: Happy Ain't Patrick's Day." Joke? Misprint? Or Freudian slip?
Jenna Orkin
New York
The city is shuttered; the atmosphere, muted. Busses go by on what used to be the busiest streets in the middle of the day with only three or four passengers aboard — all maintaining more than adequate "social distance." The MTA's mulling cutting back on service. Who could blame them?
New York's neighborhoods have peculiar specialties. Madison Avenue between 86th and 88th makes you wonder if Carnegie Hill's been zoned for baby boutiques. Even at the best of times, you never see more than one customer in those dear little shops, mostly grandmothers, but they remain open now. Further downtown on Lexington, hairdressers, barbershops and nail salons are also soldiering on. ("I need an emergency haircut.") Unusually for this time of year, when it's 50 degrees out, their doors are propped open wide, either for ventilation or to keep people from having to touch them. Hard to maintain social distance in these professions although it's less critical when you're facing the back of the guy's head.
Puppies still frolic in the windows of pet stores.
Saw two delivery guys on bikes with plastic bags over their hands. This, only sixteen days after plastic bags became banned in New York City out of consideration for the environment. What with germ phobia eclipsing all other concerns, will they now make a comeback? God knows, the bags are being replaced in landfills fast enough by discarded plastic masks and gloves.
Most stores report business is down but are reluctant to say by how much, although one outlet of Le Pain Quotidien said that even with take-out still operating, sales have dropped 90%. The manager at a shoe store, Chuckie's New York, (for some reason, the words "New York" are in mirror writing) maintained that while they have fewer walk-ins, those who do come are "focused, know what they want and are buying." A trooper, that guy.
Overheard: "Their generation lived through rationing; they're probably chill about this whole situation."
Handwritten on a blackboard outside Olive and Bette's girls' boutique on 72 and Third, #Built by Girls: Crazy times we're living in. I used to cough to hide a fart. Now I fart to hide a cough.
Once home, I noted an email dated March 17 from a financial advice website, One Last Thing — "The Final Word on Wall Street: Happy Ain't Patrick's Day." Joke? Misprint? Or Freudian slip?
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