The phones are out, if anyone needs to reach us, use AOL IM.

We’re about 2 miles (2.5 Km) from where the towers were. It’s would be a beautiful day otherwise. The sun is out and there are no clouds in the sky.

My friend Dave Park just came over. We saw a city bus coming up Avenue A covered in soot. The cloud of dust is starting to reach us, there is a dusty taste in the air, most of the soot looks like powedered accoustic tile.

The flow of people on Avenue A has reversed, now people are walking downtown presumably to look.

I’ve been watching the news about the World Trade Center attacks all morning. I’m completely in shock, alternating between shaking and numbness. Both buildings are gone. It feels like an amputation.

The city is incredibly quiet. Occasionally sirens will go by or be heard in the distance. Crowds of people are walking up my street away from where the towers were. Some are listening to radios, other are stopping and hugging others. Faces are calm, some people are hurrying, others are biting their nails or hunching their shoulders.

The phones are out, if anyone needs to reach us, use AOL IM.

I’ve gotten about a hundred hits from people searching for the song in the Mercedes C-Coupe commercial. The song is Whoever You Are by Geggy Tah. I found it with Limewire, searching on either “Mercedes Commercial” or “Whoever you are”. That was then. Better places to find commercial music are Music from TV Commercials and AdCritic, although AdCritic isn’t as good as it used to be and doesn’t have a copy of this commercial on their site.

Here is my original posting. (it contains many of the same links in this one)

My usual M.O. for finding unknown music is to search Google and AltaVista for any lyrical phrase I can remember. Adding the word “lyric” to the search often improves results based on common words.

It’s been a long time since I haven’t been able to figure out (and hear) whatever song is stuck in my head. The web has drastically reduced time spent wondering about or trying to recall factual information. This is probably a good thing, written language is a means of extending our memories, computerized searches help perfect our ability to find the things we’ve written down.

We spent the long weekend with friends in New Hampshire, more or less completely disconnected from the Internet and cell phones. There was plenty of sleeping and eating (all of our friends are great cooks). I’m rested, relaxed and slowly getting back into my normal routine.

Wow. My brother Ben Maller will be hosting the pre-game, halftime and post-game shows for the NFL’s American Bowl. Congratulations Ben! (What is the American Bowl?)

Today I noticed a link from dollarshort.org in a posting about hives, food coloring and frankenfoods. I first “met” Mena who runs dollarshort, during the blogathon. I’d been reading her site for a little while and decided to IM some words of encouragement in the middle of the night. I then ended up pestering her for the next two hours. At the time, the blogathon site was not working, but I promised to donate $25 to Guide Dogs for the Blind, the charity Mena was blogging for. I had forgotten about the promise and I still can’t find the blogathon link to credit her, but I kept my word and just donated the $25.

One comment Mena made in her posting got me thinking. She provided a disclaimer that she wasn’t going to get “all government-conspiracy” in her comments speculating on the number of people with hives. I started to wonder how many rational people might also be starting conversations this way? I frequently disclaim my beliefs about the dangers of Nutrasweet and Food Coloring, partly because I’d rather not be lumped in with the UFO and government conspiracy crowds.

I do believe various food-additive and environmental chemicals are causing harm that we may not quantify for another decade. Most problematic chemicals are discovered when they cause cancer or some other decidedly lethal reaction. I found Red food coloring was affecting my moods for days after eating it, moodiness is not something people tend to measure. Since cutting the chemicals out of my diet, I’ve been healthier and happier with far fewer mood swings. Even the chemicals turn out to be totally safe, which I doubt, I still can’t come up with a good argument as to why I would want to eat fake sugar or any food with enough dye to be used as ink.

If you are using Windows, this page should fix your QuickTime plug-in so you can watch movies again.