The New York Postcard Scene

Peg asked me to pick up a postcard from New York.  This seemed to be a task I could actually accomplish --

-- unlike getting actual gifts for people.  Souvenir stores suck.  I mean, unless I wanted to get a t-shirt with "Moose Crossing" on it, all Canadian souvenir stores were pretty much limited to All Things Maple.  Which was, when you get right down to it, a massive improvement over the souvenirs offered in New York.  I mean, at least Canada has a "traditional" foodstuff associated with it that is easily packable.  What am I gonna do?  Bring my boss a deli sandwich?

I digress.  So, here I am, attempting to pick up a postcard that's all New Yorky.  The first few postcards I pick up have pictures of the World Trade Center towers on them.  A little out of date, you think?  Five years after the towers came down and they're still selling postcards with the towers on them. 

But then I see a bunch of other postcards -- postcards that were actually made within the last five years.  These postcards show the towers as part of the skyline, but in a ghostlike haze.  As though the postcard makers of New York have gotten together and decided that they'll never forget that the towers came down, and will keep them in memory by including their ghosts in every picture of the skyline.  Which is fine if you want to remember the September 11 attacks, but not so fine if you're just looking to drop someone a "Hey!  I'm in New York" note.

Sometimes a postcard is just a freakin' postcard.