Of all the little tributes and memorials I saw today, it was Bill Holbrook's Kevin and Kell that made me cry.

I couldn't find a local FM station (AM won't come in our building) that was broadcasting the New York ceremony, so I cast about on the web for a live feed. I found WABC, but grew increasingly grumpy as the announcers talked over the beginning of the event. When they broke into talk about their memories over Gov. Pataki's reading of the Gettysburg Address, which I'd particularly wanted to hear, I gave up on them in disgust.

Ironically I ended up watching a very fuzzy--but intact--video feed of the event off WABC's television outlet. Listened to almost all the recitation of the names of the people lost in the buildings, but nature got insistent about the time they reached the V's. At this point the listing of the names and the few short words put in by family of some of the lost had been going on for 2 1/2 hours.

We did see a nice special last night on GPTV called Stranded Yanks, the story of the stranded passengers and crew of the diverted American planes that were welcomed so warmly in places like Gander, St. John's, and Vancouver. One Canadian woman actually drove 12 senior citizens home to Iowa from Vancouver.

But the evening ended on a sobering note as we watched the last hour of the NBC special airing. It traced the countdown to 9/11 in missed clues and then followed four different families who had waited for news of someone trapped in the Towers. Of the four, only one family had a happy ending; the most affecting story was from a woman who was on the phone with her husband through most of his ordeal trying to escape and trying to make it out to the roof, and finally hearing his voice fade with the effects of the smoke and then disappear as the building collapsed.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:57:00 PM

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