Walk #48

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1 October 2005
12:15 pm to 1:15 pm
Heads: 58
Tails: 53
Total intersections: 30
Ending point: Battery Park, near the corner of River Terrace and Murray Street
Latitude/longitude: 40:42.58.72N/74:00.59.31W
Distance from home: 0.6156 miles
Literature received: Manhattan Total Health (“Come experience our Team Approach in providing relief for New Yorkers suffering from pain”), Subway (“Buy one regular 6″ sub with the purchase of a 21 oz. drink and receive a second 6″ sub of equal or lesser value FREE”)
Coin: 1996 quarter (D)

The coin directed me west, to the World Trade Center site. A wide selection of handbags were available for purchase from street vendors. A group of elderly tourists walked by, looking at the hole in the ground. “They found it in the rubble,” I heard one of them say.

I passed by more tourists: some of them appeared to be in organized tour groups, first a Spanish one, then a German one. The Germans were all wearing green kerchiefs around their necks.

I kept walking west. Suddenly, there were zombies everywhere. Zombies chatting with people on the street, zombies coming out of Starbucks, zombies waiting for the light to change. The zombie uniform: a cut-up white t-shirt and some gruesome makeup on the face. Then a group of them did the “Thriller” dance, to applause from passersby; I wasn’t sure if this bit of choreography was the whole point of transforming oneself into a zombie or a pleasant fringe benefit when you’ve got a zombie outfit on.

I continued towards the water, past the World Trade Center, past the tourists, past the zombies.