On Tuesday, September 11, the destruction of the World Trade Center knocked out phone switches in the NYC area, making using the telephone a dicey proposition, and it knocked Earthlink, my ISP, out of commission, too. I thought my readers, knowing that I'm based in New York City, might be wondering about me, but I wasn't prepared for the barrage of concerned emails that filled my inbox in the hours I was unable to get online. A sampling:

Subject: Are You Okay?
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 10:08:56 -0600
From: "Betty Jo Tucker" [reeltalk@home.com]

MaryAnn,

I just heard about the terrorist attacks in New York City. Please let me know you are okay.

Betty Jo.

Subject: News of the Week
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:39:13 -0700
From: "Rogelio Mendoza" [roymend@airmail.net]

Dear Ms. Johanson,

I hope you're okay. If you've seen the news this morning, you understand why.

Sincerely,

Roy Mendoza Jr.

Subject: Are you OK?
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 18:55:42 +0100
From: "Stephen Lewis" [stephenjlewis@yahoo.com]

Hi MaryAnn, just seen the news with bits of NY disintegrating. Hope you're OK, drop me a line when you get the chance to put my mind at rest.

Take care Stephen.

Subject: I hope all is well....
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 20:01:47 -0400
From: David Conner [dconner@bellatlantic.net]

MaryAnn,

I hope all is well with you. You've been in my thoughts today ever since I heard the news from New York.

David

Subject: MaryAnn, I'm Glad To Hear You're All Right
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 20:26:00 -0700
From: Pat Dodds [oroboros@gte.net]

Dear MaryAnn,

I was so relieved to hear you were all right at the Cinemarati board. I wish I had something inspiring and meaningful to say, but I just hope that providence sees you through these tragic times. Take care always.

Sincerely, Your Fan, (and your friend)

Patrick Dodds

Subject: Please be ok!
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 22:40:33 -0500
From: "Joy R. Staats" [squinch100@aol.com]

Since you are the only official person I 'know' who lives in NYX, I wanted to write this to make sure that you made it through this awful day. I can not imagine the wreckage that must be in your city now.

Joy

Subject: ok, just paranoid, no need to respond ( as I am sure we will soon find out )
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 00:57:24 -0400
From: "Joe Owen" [devilham@peoplepc.com]

Just checking to see if you are ok....as a NY lady, I am sure todays events struck you deeply ( as it did all of us ), and since I saw no update today, I did get a lttle nervous. Here's hoping no friends of yours were injured seriously today, and that the city that you love ( as I love my own city, Boston ), weathers this storm. My thoughts are with you....and all of the folk of New York....cya soon

Subject: How are you?!
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:08:59 +0200
From: Anna [Anna@enviro-services.co.il]

MaryAnn, please, you don't have to answer me personally. Just let us know you're OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With best wishes and thoughts for you, your family and friends (as all other innocent citizens) from Israel.

Anna.

Between the evening of Tuesday the 11th and the morning of Wednesday the 12th, my fellow critic and Cinemarati member Jill Cozzi, of Cozzi Fan Tutti, managed to get through on the phone to me, and later posted a message at the Cinemarati Roundtable letting everyone know I was okay. At the same time, I posted an "I'm okay" message here at the site during the brief time I was able to get online, and emailed it to everyone who had asked about my safety.

Subject: Glad to hear you are ok !!
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 13:38:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doggo [zzdoggo@yahoo.com]

Jeez, glad to hear you are ok.

A bunch of us were starting to get worried about you.

You take care of yourself. Email if you want to.

-- Flick Filosopher fan
Jeff Willson

Subject: I'm glad you're safe
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 15:19:05 -0700
From: "Linda M. Miku" [bagbaazai@nexiliscom.com]

I don't have flesh-and-blood friends or family in NYC, but funny how the net has given me several pixellated ones. They are all accounted for, in good physical health and very mixed emotional health at the moment. I've never visited NYC so what I saw on television is even more alien to me, as compared to what a New Yorker like you is living through.

Best wishes for getting through this. This "living in interesting times" crapola is highly overrated.

Linda Miku
Tucson AZ

Subject: I'm glad you are unhurt
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 18:25:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Gazley [richardgazley@yahoo.com]

Dear Flick Filosopher

I'm glad to see that you weren't physically harmed during Tuesday's nightmare. I can't think of what else to say...like you, I'm not religious, so I can't say I'll pray for you...I guess I'll have to make do with "I'm glad that you are alright" and hope it's enough...

Take care of yourself

Richard

PS Forgive me if I seem overly familiar...I'm chalking it up to the surreal events that have transpired.

Subject: RE: I am fine
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 15:05:10 +0100
From: "Stephen Lewis" [stephenjlewis@yahoo.com]

MaryAnn

Thanks for letting me know you weren't hurt, it's put my mind at rest at least. I can't imagine what things must be like there right now. Even here, a world away from what is happening, the sound of an aircraft going overhead now has some sort of sinister undertone that puts people on edge.

I know I can't offer a great deal of assistance from my vantage point several thousand miles away, but if there is anything at all that I can do then just let me know. Take care and stay in touch, you are in my thoughts.

Stephen.

Subject: Re: I am fine
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 09:53:28 -0700
From: "Rogelio Mendoza" [roymend@airmail.net]

Dear Ms. Johanson,

I'm glad to hear you're all right. I don't know what else to say at a time like this, but I hope that you stay safe.

Sincerely,
Roy Mendoza Jr.

Subject: hope you are OK
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 10:47:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: "J.J. McGee" [jmcgee18@go.com]

Maryann-

I'm a regular reader of your site. I know you must have been touched personally by this tragedy. I hope you and yours are well.

J.J. McGee

Subject: Fellow New Yorker..
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 20:06:59 EDT
From: Annekari2000@aol.com

[My replies interspersed in bold--MAJ]

I'm so relieved to see that you are ok too. I'm a fellow NY citizen and I cannot comprehend this. I was born and raised here, and I remember vividly the twin towers completion. As a child I went to some of the grand opening events there, and I just cannot wrap my brain around this.

The towers were completed when I was just a little kid, so I have no memory of the city without them. I still can't believe that they won't be there anymore. I went up to the observation deck on the South Tower just a few months ago with a friend and my brother, who is a wonderful photographer and took some beautiful photos. As soon as he can scan them and email them to me, I think I'll post a couple at my site.

Again, good to know you are ok. My husband has been activated (he's in the nat'l guard) and I haven't seent him since tuesday afternoon. He's busy at the Armory trying to help out the families of the missing and the dead.

My dad works for Con Ed, and he's been working heavy-duty overtime -- he's not on a crew, but they rope everyone in to help out when disasters strike. They have to turn off the master power switch in every single building down in lower Manhattan so that when the power comes back on, there isn't a massive surge or overload or something. So he is down there, but not right in the immediate area of the WTC.

Don't know why I'm telling you all this, but I guess it's because I've always enjoyed your site even more knowing you were another NY'er like me... This whole thing makes me wonder what kind of f**king world I have brought my baby boy into.

I'm sure everyone is wondering things like that now. I take some comfort from seeing how New Yorkers have pulled together -- we really are at our best when things are at their worst. They picked the wrong fuckin' city to attack, that's for sure. If they hoped to inspire fear or panic or to demoralize us, they thought wrong.

Take care of yourself.
Anne-Kari

Subject: tuesday
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 12:12:05 +0000
From: "larry the cow" [chachmonkey@hotmail.com]

just wanted to say I'm glad you're physically unhurt & I hope you're doing alright emotionally as well.

On September 19, I updated the site with an article called "Where Do We Go From Here?" in which I attempted to collect my thoughts on 9.11.

Subject: Glad you're back!
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 18:05:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doggo [zzdoggo@yahoo.com]

*SO* glad to see you're back. :-)

I'd intended this mail to be only a kind word, but I realize as I write this that I also owe you a note of thanks.

I'm experiencing your return to posting as the first breath of normalcy, the "first plant poking up through the ashes of Mt. St. Helens", as somebody else said about this kind of experience this week.

Thanks from all of us for everything you've done over the years and will continue to do.

A fan --
Jeff Willson

Subject: Where Do We Go From Here?
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 20:46:23 -0700
From: "Patricia Cowan" [patricia.cowan@gte.net]

Dear MaryAnne,

Having read your wonderful essay, I was moved to do my bit for your cause and made a donation via Amazon.com. Yes, yes, I've also made contributions to the NY Firefighter's Fund and the Salvation Army, and now you. Thank you for articulating -- as you always seem to do -- what is also in my heart. You're a treasure and I wish you peace.

Patricia Cowan