Favela-Encrusted Sidewalks
Mask Rules Are Relaxed. New Yorkers, Not So Much
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/nyregion/coronavirus-nyc-cdc-masks.html
With gym treadmilling still a tad risky it's possible to get a decent workout winding through the sidewalks of hell where outdoor shacks have taken over public space with narrowing paths between wide-mouthed diners and delivery bikes chained to sign-posts, crossed over by dashing servers competing with bike lane racers, motorized and pedaled, watching carefully at corners for horn-blasting turning behemoths of construction haulings and hire cars giving not a foot about safety of yammering nannies and wee babies snoozing as if heading to space station on Musk's capsule X.
A mask helps hide the drool and grimace of a gasping passerby of the wolfing, guzzling, braying, horde of dancers performing an open the city melee where house-trained dogs and cats would not stand a chance of not being kicked like a soccer ball by a Twyla Tharp hurdler or a Peloton-leading cycler looking neither right or left, just aiming for a win-win target and a generous yellow jersey tip.
Figure a mile of this naked and afraid challenge up and down once vehicular trashed avenues, now Amazonian be-jungled with fearsome animals, once merely rudely NY humans, unleashed from Covid-caged zoos and blood-upped to voluminously eat, drink and be damned without facial constraints.
Incarcerated in a Lion King Equinox under eyeball glare of a merciless way-too-fit trainer is a distant second in humiliating show to struggling for survival on the filthy socialist sidewalks of favela-encrusted Manhattan.