what is it about grime that's so fabulous? is it the history it connotes? is it the hip, low-down urbanity it adds to the mundane? whatever it is, it's sexy, and thousands of people will look at this, numbly, without seeing it at all.

i took this on the 6-line subway platform in grand central station, people milling about as they waited for the train, sweating. nobody paid attention to the antique tiles telling us where we were, or the years of grit, abandoned metro cards and lost IDs covering the train ties. i tried to imagine the engineer who first hammered this sign into the wall, using a stencil for the paint. what was his name? where did he go after work for a beer? what did he wish he'd done with his life? and what train did he take to go home?

and then the local shuttered onto the tracks, struggling, a busty old lady late for her dentist appointment. the doors opened, we elbowed our way inside, and left.