This time line’s Boston seemed drab, grey, and lacking in vibrancy. It took him a while to realize what he was noticing was simply the absence of garish video hoardings. Nobody was light-bombing the roads with advertising. Other differences gradually emerged. There weren’t enough cars. The omnipresent Stars and Stripes flags flying over every federal and state building were absent. The police wore green. And there were a lot more streetcars. It felt oddly homely. All these tiny cues were alien, but the sum of the parts took him back to his youth. This looking-glass America resembled the GDR in
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