Hey, It Really Is with a Whimper

We were downtown at Pacific Place for lunch (salmon chowder). It was a little less peopled--a quiet Monday--but what was a little odd was how subdued everyone was, like queasy rollercoaster riders. No one was laughing. No one was regaling buddies with a loud, "What I did last weekend" story or arguing sports. They spoke softly. Out on the street, a single unbalanced woman was screaming at no one in particular: "Fuck you, fuck all of you!" The traffic was quiet. There was a single horn as a driver tried to drive straight through a green left-turn signal. Way across the country, the Dow closed below 10,000, at 9,955.