Chet--Good man! Here we are back at the top (but I noticed that there still people posting to the bottom of the old one; I hope they read your note, too).

I just finished reading Caleb Carr's The Angel of Darkness, sequel to The Alienist. New York City, in the 1890s, if we are to believe Carr, was far more like cities now than we are accustomed to thinking: drug crazed gangs defend their turfs much as the Crips and the Bloods do in LA, and not only are the gangs destroying their members and their communities, but they are drawing wannabes from the middle class, as well. There is, of course, no rap (the only music that is a part of the story is the soothing piano played by one of the alienist's "associates"). And, of course, there are no drive-by shootings: there were as yet no automobiles, the gangs fought mostly with clubs and knives--guns, and particularly automatic weapons--not being nearly as readily available as today. The police forces were less competent and more corrupt than we like to think they are today, and there was, of course, the vast contrast between the rich and the poor that is becoming more and more an endemic condition of our society.

Another important difference, of course, is television--which emphasizes the difference between dreams and realities.

I'm gonna continue this later: I have a jam group meeting tonight and I gotta go. --seed