Yesterday, the Rude Pundit was walking down near Ground Zero, New York City, as one must sometimes do in the course of day-to-day activities, when he heard someone over a megaphone say, "Never forget. Never forget," repeatedly, flatly, almost mournfully. This was on the corner of Broadway and Fulton, across the street from St. Paul's Chapel, one block from the former World Trade Center twin towers. He turned to see what this was, thinking perhaps another protest.
Instead, he saw four figures. Two men, one with a voice that sounded like a megaphone and a sign that read, "Support Our Heroes," the other with an American flag. And two people wearing what seemed to be brightly smiling ping-pong ball outfits. And, oh, dear, kind readers, the Rude Pundit is not lying to you when he says that one of the ping-pong balls had a "9" emblazoned on it and the other had an "11." They also wore caps.
Ah, the people on the street were delighted at the sight. And when they took out their cameras or phones to snap a picture, the entire group stopped and waved at the grinning photographers. Then, the photo op done, the foursome would move on, with the first man continuing his sad wail of "Never forget."
The Rude Pundit noticed the t-shirt worn by the first and last men. It cleared up the entire story. The shirts said, in a bright, dense design, that they were from the New York State Lottery. And the outfits were the white balls you see when the hot chick on TV picks four or the Mega-Millions.
They turned, heading east on Fulton, a pair of disembodied balls scampering away from Ground Zero.
(Update/Correction: On examining a video of the scene and checking the Google machine a bit more, it looks like Officer 9 and Firefighter 11, with their goons, were crassly advertising a business. He apologizes for thinking that no one not associated with the actual lottery would really create lottery ball costumes and hope to profit from them.)
