Well, that passed quickly into history. I consumed election coverage, flipped between the funerary Fox and the excitable MSNBC, until the wee hours this morning. Walking home down Washington Avenue in Brooklyn, every car had its windows down, the driver honking the horn, the passengers leaning out and shouting "Obama!" Strangers at crosswalks talked excitedly and high-fived each other. There were fireworks. Bars and parties spilled into the streets. Lights stayed lit in most every apartment. Some guy passed me on the sidewalk while blasting away on a trumpet. Most poignant, people stood still amid the din, their cell phones open, raised and faced out. Listen to this, they said, before transmitting a city's exuberance to those in the sparser parts of the world.
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