Monday, January 7, 2008

Seeing Something

The tagline of this article ("What, exactly, did 1,944 New Yorkers see, and what did they say?") is a question I've wondered myself when seated across from one of those If You See Something ads. The answer, I learned, is that reports of people counting (while praying) and flat-out phony tips topped the list. I'm not sure whether to be reassured by this. Granted, with over 8 million riders trafficking the city's subway's each day, some 2,000 calls for the whole year isn't much at all, which is itself good news -- if people aren't saying something, then they aren't seeing something, and if they're not seeing something, either there's nothing to see (no terror!) or they're not worried enough to look (no paranoia!). So hooray! I guess. And now (speaking of somethings I've seen on the MTA), here's my favorite inscrutably circular MTA Poetry in Motion poem (by Vera Pavlova):

If there is something to desire, there will be something to regret.
If there is something to regret, there will be something to recall.
If there is something to recall, there was nothing to regret.
If there was nothing to regret, there was nothing to desire.

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