One thing there seems to be in Leicester is an absence of tourists. As far as that goes it might actually be better to live in Leicester because you could safely count on not being disquieted by hordes of tourists—the likes of which are in my city now, global recession be damned! An anticipated quiet walk in the north end of Central Park on our return finds me surrounded by inconsiderately large groups of French and Italians and it’s only April. There’s a line to the restroom in the north end of the park. Beer bottles and bags of trash left behind at the reservoir fence are a disappointing start to the day.

As if one radio interview wasn’t enough for The Mister, a lovely young Asian woman gripping a microphone approached us in The Lanes. She was conducting a survey for Radio Leicester. Could we tell her what we thought a “quango” is? I begged off the question, burdened by American ignorance. Basically, it is a ‘shadow government’. The Mister answered correctly and was made to repeat it for her until she got a good sound bite.