anti:freeze

There is a massive power outage in New York City. Manhattan offices are dark. Wall Street is quiet. La Guardia and JFK airports are shut down. People are trapped in subways and elevators. Thousands of citizens are flooding the streets, walking home because the trains can't carry them.

And the darkness is spreading like a bruise. Detroit, Ottawa, Toronto, and Cleveland are all black, too.

Earlier, CNN reported an explosion and fire at Con Edison. Now they are saying the Niagra power grid was overwhelmed, and that this was the likely cause of the blackout.

There is something exhilirating about watching all those people in the street, walking in traffic lanes, ignoring the normal rules. Something beautiful about the order of it all - the way laws are temporarily suspended and streets transformed into sidewalks. It happens instantly. Everyone knows and understands.

And yet, I can't help but think of New York a few hours from now, the alleys pitch black, the skyscrapers faint silhouettes . . . What is a city without its lights? What does it become? What laws are suspended in such absolute darkness? How is the urban landscape transformed?