A truck driver saw a model of New York City on a school trip when he was six. Twenty one years ago, in his basement, he started building his own. Better than eight hundred thousand buildings. It's in a museum now. But his New York is not quite the real one.

Also: a piece of clay from a Hittite palace, and what two ancient kings wrote down about refugees. The president of France on a speck of his country twelve miles off Canada. A typhoon on the one day Japan sets aside for its oldest. A nor'easter making up its mind. The morning the radios went quiet over New Jersey. A studio sale that is not an endorsement. Diesel, and every receipt. A log cabin found inside the walls of a farmhouse. A baby born in a traffic jam. Three people, a rising tide, and SOS in sticks. A first paycheck spent on everybody else. And raccoons, and their final exam. ...