isn't it a coincidence?

the entire time i'm in new york is the same time that the pope's in toronto for world youth day. i either timed it this way (no) or we just can't be in the same airspace at the same time (secret identity stuff, shhh).

other than hearing friends complaining about the crowded transit and the traffic mayhem, the only evidence i saw were the latin newsbroadcasts on the american stations, the odd sidebar in the new york times and the big mess called downsview the evening after the big pope powwow from my descending airplane (it's called a mass; you'd figure that watching father ted would actually make me remember core parts of catholicism, but no). like a tornado found a paper mill, or my bottom drawer at work. popestock or lolla-pope-looza, i guess, based on all the weird minutia left behind. what did the globe and mail say?

"The two-day Roman Catholic festival in northwest Toronto left behind discarded socks, broken umbrellas, orange peel, melon rind, fragments of candle holders, plastic sheeting, water bottles, religious pamphlets, empty tubes of sunscreen and arthritis cream, and vast expanses of wet cardboard trodden to a pulp."

an aerial photo would've been smart, but my camera was safely stowed in the outofway overhead compartment, and my window to the world was tiny since i managed to get the emergency escape door. oddly enough, with all the times i've flown, this is the first time i've won the seating lottery and got the leggy emergency exit seat. also odd is that i received no instructions on how the door worked from the flight attendant, leaving me to wonder during the occasional bouts of turbulence felt during the laguardia to pearson quick flight how the door actually worked and what armed meant. it was disarmed on landing (or unarmed, the buttons weren't clear) by one of the crew, but couldn't that explosive capability be manipulated by a passenger? and why did my seat smell like pine trees twice? did santa get sucked into the engine?

other than that, i fly well. sure, the children have their belief systems shattered (like my usual "i know elvis is dead; saw him get hit by a car last week" schtick), but i read my paper, screw up the crossword and re-encrypt the cryptograms like i do whilst actively tracking each passing metre in the air. i guess i'm lucky to have missed all the papal excitement, but i like the idea that a shared faith, especially amongst the youth, would have them converge where i live.