More Thoughts...This Time From Larry King

Larry King used to write the greatest column in the USA Today. It was filled with non sequiturs, nonsense and plugs for Larry's friends. His columns were as unabashedly confused and senile-sounding as...well, he is.

Anyways, I recently came across Larry King's last column (published 9/23/01) and here are his unique thoughts about what New York means to him after the 9/11 attacks:

"It was New York that got me my first pair of glasses. My father had died, and my mother had two little boys to raise, so for a short period of time, we were on what was then called relief. (Now it's welfare. Same thing.) My mom couldn't go to work, my eyes were going bad, New York helped. During the early days of the Cold War, it taught me civil defense. Its police seemed always to be around when you needed them, its firemen on call in a New York second, its resources bountiful. I remember the night before my heart surgery, looking down the East River from my room at New York Hospital, and while scared, I was confident at the same time that I was in the right place. I know the city gets knocked around a lot, but I don't know anybody who doesn't feel like a New Yorker today. Ernest Hemingway once said that the definition of guts is grace under pressure. New York is one gutsy town."

His genius was in somehow weaving his first pair of glasses and Ernest Hemingway into the same line of thought (if you can call it that) about what New York meant to his addled brain after September 11. In any event, didn't September 11 make us all think about eyewear or accessories at first? I remember thinking, "They attacked the Pentagon? I once bought some shoes at that mall near there. D.C.'s a classy place though, and we'll pull through."