June 4, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush,

I have a secret for surviving Manhattan. When the well-dressed crowds get too much, when the endless glittering shop windows of expensive boutiques overwhelm, when the constant stream of beauty and wealth grows too weary, I remember this: This may be one of the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan cities in the world, but when it comes time to dispose of their garbage, the best answer they've come up with is to pile it up on the street. I find it comforting to realize that the entire concept of some sort of recepticle to dispose of refuse in seems to have eluded the people of New York. It makes paying seven dollars for a plastic cup of cheap beer a little easier when you know that, at the end of the day, that cup is going to simply be put in a garbage bag and piled up on the sidewalk because there's nothing else they can do with it.

Dan