Normally I don't remember deams, but...
The other night I fell asleep with NPR on, not an unusual phenomenon at all. They were still on the 24-hour war coverage kick, and by this point I'd had a few days of it to stress me out. Apparently it was sometime while I was away from the radio that they first announced the two planes hitting the Eiffel Tower, and they were now into the speculation phase. The announcers sounded grim but not overly surprised, just discussing how the world would be different in the post-Eiffel era. Details were still sketchy at this point, but the tower had definitely been obliterated, countless other historical buildings around it were gone too, too countless even to name given Paris' density. Many were dead, but no death tolls yet, and it was not clear how many were Americans(!). All flights over France were grounded; Italy had closed off the airspace around Florence, Pisa, and Rome, and several other EU nations were talking about following suit. Rumor had it that another plane was aiming for the Statue of Liberty, but that it had crashed in the Atlantic. These were unsubstantiated however. UN delegates were in an emergency conference call putting together a task force to determine who was responsible, although prevailing opinion was that it was likely either Al Qaeda or American extremists.
Cut to a Rumsfeld press conference: "Of course we were pleased to hear about what happened in Paris. We'll see who turns their back on the war on terrorism now. Damn Frenchies get what they deserve. I only wish we'd thought of it first, back when we added them to the Axes of Evil list."
Then I woke up in a cold sweat. Since this was not dissimilar to how disoriented I was when I woke up to the radio on 9/11/01, I had to listen to the actual coverage for a while longer to make sure that it wasn't for real.
Canada looks increasingly appealing...