How many times have you been on the subway, shoved against some guy trying to impress his girlfriend by rambling about the complexities of Spain's public transportation system, wishing everyone would just evaporate when you look up and find yourself comforted by the words of Walt Whitman or E.B. White? Well, you'll just have to be satisfied with eavesdropping about Madrid's "sardine-ass" subways now, because the MTA says the subways aren't big enough for both the new ad campaign and the literary musings. Jane Tylus, the professor in charge of choosing the quotes, told the Times, “I am concerned this may well be the last round, if it goes up at all."
"Train of Thought" replaced "Poetry in Motion" in 2008, expanding the pool of contestants to philosophers, historians, scientists and prose writers. But the MTA says it now needs the space to alert riders that "a city is only as good as its transportation system," and that they are "Improving, Nonstop." Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said, "I don’t begrudge them wanting to put their best foot forward. But if it comes at the price of permanently kiboshing the poetry, I think that’s a mistake." However, not all is lost! The quotes have made appearances on the backs of MetroCards; we've contacted NYCT to see if they will continue. In the meantime, here's one of our favorites:
To doubt everything or to believe
everything are two equally convenient
solutions; both dispense with the need
for thought.
Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis
