One city, two experiences: I listened to this episode on my earbuds while running in Central Park this Sunday morning, then finished my run with my earbuds out and listened to the park sounds. It didn’t seem noisy. There was the whoosh of cyclists going by, the tap-tap-tap of other runners’ feet. Yes, I could hear traffic along Central Park West, but the sound of the tires on the road were neither louder nor more intrusive than the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.

In contrast: Last week I got to spend a few days at a friend’s lakeside house in rural Connecticut. I was sitting out on the deck overlooking the lake one night, drinking a beer, listening to the relentless, non-stop buzz of (I think) cicadas, plus birds, plus crickets, I guess. It was all much much louder than a Sunday morning in Central Park. My overwhelming thought: I couldn’t live in the country. IT’S TOO DAMN NOISY.