Stuck on the damned ferry

Blame it on the Angus bacon cheeseburger.

At some point during the process of eating this deliciously greasy monstrosity a thought occurred to an overtaxed and underfed frontal lobe -- wifi.



It wasn't one of those fancy new euro trash joints but a relic on the east side of Manhattan. A real utilitarian establishment. The employees avoid idle chitchat; they just want to take your goddamned order already. A tiny digression... This place has wifi.



At some other point (which just by chance happens to be on that same very day) a 25-minute ferry ride conjured up the previously mentioned Angus burger (indigestion perhaps) and serendipitously brought back the recurring thought regarding free available Internet access in public spaces and/or private businesses.



A revelation? These daily trips on the Staten Island ferry are near majestic. A mere instant of solitude in an otherwise frantic and, honestly, frightening immersion into the glitches of anxiety evoked by both colleagues and those insidious little machines that devour ones and zeros at a unnatural pace.



Ponder this: We can sit in Bryant park, play table tennis, peruse literary donations from Barnes and Noble, and, most surprisingly, access the Internet free of charge unburdened by the tether of cables.



Bloomberg has made this, and other measures, touchstones of his legacy as mayor. A more efficient, albeit slightly technocratic, New York city. Marty Markowitz has also made concerted efforts to bring his hamlet into the 21st century. Where do Richmond County's allegiances lie?



Does their borough president seek to maintain the island's near-bucolic atmosphere? Does the BP want to prevent a metro-centric strollerville? Or is he simply technologically autistic?



The cost should be fairly insignificant. A few trips across the Verrazzano could pay the monthly Time Warner bill. The benefit would be substantial. Islanders are trapped on the vehicle for nearly one half hour. Work could get done. Bits can move through the ether faster. Progress can be made.



But what about the solitude? What about the Angus burger? What reveries emerge from idle thought...