Every now and then I get so lost in thought that I completely forget to get my MetroCard out and swipe it before walking through the turnstile. I forget, even, that the turnstile is there in the first place.
This leads to an embarrassing moment in which I hit the locked turnstile at full walking clip and basically hang myself up over it with a loud “woah” and a stunned look on my face. Someone nearby always has the New Yorker helpfulness to say: “Oh, you need a MetroCard to take the subway, see. You can buy them right over there.”
Station managers always eye me suspiciously when this happens, and I don’t blame them, honestly. I’d eye me suspiciously, too. I mean, who walks right into a turnstile without stopping?
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I was a bit worried yesterday about whether I’d have ideas for a Durkheim paper I have to write, but this morning I seem to be swimming in ideas. Best one right now concerns the analytical borders of totemism—the question of what other analytical categories totems are ultimately not synonymous with and why.
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I will basically be writing papers and working nonstop until next winter. I have a feeling, too, that the time is going to pass very quickly.