Go home, hayseeds: Currently, I’m setting up rexblog headquarters at a hardened position in mid-town. As I’ve noticed during my visits to New York in the past few weeks, the presence of military and police at Penn Station has been growing. However, that was nothing compared to what greeted me today. At each track entrance, there are at least a dozen of New York’s finest in full gear. I took the subway to get closer to where I’m staying, then walked a few blocks. Lots of amusing protesters on their way somewhere: ironically, they appeared to be middle-aged suburbanites who looked more like tourists than protesters. I will take some photos later, but my favorite protest signs and buttons have been along the lines, “GOP out of NYC” as if the Republicans have invaded the city and don’t want to leave. My guess, however, is that it’s sorta like Iraq. The Bush folks would love nothing more than to get the heck outta Dodge.

Welcome, hayseeds: Before leaving Nashville this morning, I picked up a NY Times (yes, one can even have it delivered to ones home out there in America) and was amused to read an entire section of clichéd pieces on what us yokels coming to the big city should expect and essays exploring the true essence of New Yorkitude. The self-absorbed silliness of the stories leads me to I assume most of the pieces were written by people who grew up in Wisconsin or Kentucky and are overcome with New Yorkcentricity because it helps them cope with psychological truama related to their fears of inadequancy caused by the minimal size of their apartment.