Endless Knots

The new security at Logan--no more stocking feet soon, I hope!

Delighted to report that on a recent trip out of Boston Logan Airport, the first checkpoint was completely different from how it's ever been. Instead of the guard taking my ID and passing some sort of space-age device over it, he looked up and asked whether he could ask me a few questions:

• Where was I going?
• What was I going to do when I got there?
• How long would I be there?
• When did I make my reservations?
• Where was I staying?

Having been through this drill more than a few times in Europe, I asked if this were a new program, whether it was modeled on the behavioral model of the Israelis where people not their shoes are of greatest concern.

Turns out that it's a pilot at Logan and if it works, we won't have to worry anymore about whether our socks have holes in them (or worse whether we'll pick up some dreaded fungus if we're barefoot). Bravo, Logan.

"Tiles for America"

In New York recently on a rainy, dreary day, I walked past the corner of Greenwich and Seventh Avenues (close to where I once lived), and noticed thousands of small ceramic tiles hanging on a chain link fence along an abandoned lot.

One reads, "Tiles for America," all of them together a fitting 9/11 Memorial. Here's a 2005 article by Brad Hoylman from The Villager, explaining how this tribute evolved--and how it stands in a most remarkable location, the very spot where Edward Hopper's diner, the setting for his painting, "The Nighthawks," once was situated.