the apocalypse
Somewhere out in the East coast Canadian smoke has made the air unbearable across a dozen or so states. It has cancelled or postponed baseball games, which is just as well as baseball does not really exist in the Northwest. It seemed to flicker into being last year, but has since been extinguished.
The big happening is that everyone thinks a serial killer is on the loose just out in the woods. The police authorities are trying to quell the rumors, and say we have yet to have any reason to make a connection amongst the whole bunch of similarly killed women. Morbid joking pervades, though without any real punchlines just a “hey! I hear you’re going hiking. Just — get in and get out” and a pile of titters. And nervous glances. Not sure toward whom and why.
It is in this environment of morbid edginess that I heard a casual referencing to Auschwitz. I kind of don’t know what to make of it. Maybe it is a peculiar habit of the woman saying it. She was talking about loud noises — maybe construction work us happening across from her apartments. “Like a torture chamber — like Auschwitz!”. To be sure, I don’t know if it follows for reasons to compare, loud noises. I would wait for oppressive heat to throw that comparison out.