Coming back to the internet after two days offline has meant that I’ve had a lot of catching up to do. Here are two posts that made me think:

Mind the Gap directed me to this post, by an American called Julius, about being poor. Some of the points are ridiculous, some are suprising, some are just plain incomprehensible to UK reader, but all are about the powerlessness of poverty. This one sticks with me: “Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.”

Small Town Scribbles remembers sightseeing on September 10th, 2001:

The top floor was like a small shopping mall. It had room for a restaurant, a cinema, a gift shop, a pub. Looking through the glass walls to the outside, the view gave a similar feeling from that experienced whilst looking at the ground from a flying aeroplane. You could see for miles.

We walked the parameter and took our clues of what we were looking at from the written guides placed around the sides. We put a dime in a machine and it flattened the coin out and printed “I Love NY” on it. [..] I went to the Rest Room. We had a drink. We bought gifts for family; some mugs and a box of chocolates with the logo On Top Of The World on them. My husband had a pleasant chat with the women serving at the Gift Shop till. He remembers that conversation to this day.