Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley

"Foam earplugs are the gummy vitamins of soundproofing -- you'd have to pour cement in your ears not to hear an MRI. I pretended I was at some kind of art installation at the Guggenheim, where one floors melds into the next. The first floor sounded like a game-show buzzer. The second, like ducks quacking while someone scrubbed tiles with steel wool. The top floor was a tiny train barreling over the tracks of a small town. Then, suddenly, the noises stopped and the technician's voice came through a speaker: 'We happy in there?' 'Yes?' I guessed."