Quote of the Day (Tom Wolfe, on When NYC Hailed Glenn’s ‘Right Stuff’)

“This horrible rat-gray city was suddenly touching, warm! You wanted to protect these poor souls who loved you so much! Huge waves of emotion rolled over you.  You couldn't hear yourself talk, but there was nothing you could have said, anyway. All you could do was let these incredible waves roll over you. Out in the middle of the intersections were the policemen, the policemen they had heard about, New York’s Finest, big tough looking men in blue greatcoats—and they were crying! They were right out in the intersections in front of everybody, bawling away—tears  streaming down their faces, saluting, then cupping their hands and yelling amazing things to John and the rest of them—‘We love you, Johnny!’—and then bawling some more, just letting it pour out. The New York cops!”—Tom Wolfe, on the ticker-tape parade held for astronaut John Glenn after orbited Earth in 1962,  in The Right Stuff (1979)

RIP, Col. John Glenn—her of the Second World War, the Korean War, and the Cold War; U.S. Senator; and explorer into the “Final Frontier.”