The day before the day: What the world was doing #OnSept10

My favorite piece in the fishwrap this week, by a long shot, is former staffwriter Chris Wright's lyrical snapshot of September 10, 2001 -- the day before the day that would live in infamy. It's under 800 words, and it never once mentions September 11. But in the way that it holds New York City suspended in time, it is both the most beautiful and the most terrifying piece I've read in this over-saturated week of 9/11 coverage. Some of the details of that day are trivial, mundane: Roger Clemens was supposed to pitch for the Yankees against the Red Sox but was rained out; Liz Taylor attended a Michael Jackson concert at Madison Square Garden. Others would have been equally trivial if not for what came later: the announcement of a rent hike for retailers at the World Trade Center towers, whose spokesman claimed the property was undervalued; the last night in the 17-year-run of the pianist at Windows on the World.

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the hashtag #OnSept10 -- itself a spinoff of the years-in-the-making hashtag #OnSept11 -- began making the rounds today. The stream of responses forms a coda to Chris's piece, a litany of individual memories building towards the final and terrible crescendo of the day when everything changed.