Here’s a long and rambling yarn of Christmas cheer from a long time ago and cities far, far away . . .
The days after September 11, 2001, I sat riveted to the images on my television like the rest of the nation. The thought of flying across the country was unnerving, but when October 17 came, I boarded a plane at LAX with enough clothes to survive autumn in New York and Atlanta, and a December in Cleveland. En route to New York, I stopped in Orlando to drop off my dog, Jack, at my mother’s for a three-month vacation.