Terrorists? Yeah, we know. *yawn*

After the latest events in London, the police here decided to step up security. When I got on my train yesterday morning, the seats were covered with these:



At Penn Station, the police were stopping people with bags before they got on the subway. They had set up a table and were having people open their bags there. Of course, this cunning move would force a terrorist to blow up half a dozen police officers and all of the people crowded near the table, instead of blowing up the people on a subway car, and that's the goal, since those subway cars are expensive! *sigh*

Anyhow, with all of this going on, one might think the newspapers would be able to write something like, "the tension is palpable on New York's subways." Instead looking around during my subway ride to work, I was struck by another thought: "The indifference is palpable." Really, you've never seen a more indifferent looking group of people.

I don't want to suggest that the view of New Yorkers as cold or heartless is correct. People were wonderful to each other after 9/11, and I see regular day-to-day kindnesses. It's just that New Yorkers have managed to use their toughness to become immune to many of these scares of modern life, and I suppose that's a good thing.