When I got a block or so from Ground Zero, one sign that things were back to a new kind of normal was the bustling souvenior trade on every corner. In the days & weeks after the attack, Chinatown vendors had been humiliated by TV news crews for selling photobooks & t-shirts of the tragedy. Now, with non-stop visitors from around the world, the marketplace has turned in the direction of filling the public/tourist need for memorabilia from it.

I remember seeing a psychologist on TV once, talking about the need for people to have a tangible object as a keepsake to emotional events. Like a book of matches from a wedding or an autograph from a concert. To each his own. This stuff doesn't bother me as much as those I saw scooping up dirt & debris here last fall.