Windows on the World – closed

This one hurts my heart. From wiki:

Windows on the World was a complex of venues on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower (Building One) of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. It included a restaurant called Windows on the World... destroyed in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Windows on the World was destroyed when the North Tower collapsed during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That morning, the restaurant was hosting regular breakfast patrons and the Risk Waters Financial Technology Congress. World Trade Center lessor Larry Silverstein was regularly holding breakfast meetings in Windows on the World with tenants as part of his recent acquisition of the Twin Towers from the Port Authority and was scheduled to be in the restaurant on the morning of the attacks. However, his wife insisted he go to a dermatologist's appointment that morning, whereby he avoided death. Everyone present in the restaurant when American Airlines Flight 11 penetrated the North Tower perished that day, as all means of escape and evacuation (including the stairwells and elevators leading to below the impact zone) were instantly cut off. Victims trapped in Windows on the World died either from smoke inhalation from the fire, jumping or falling from the building to their deaths, or the eventual collapse of the North Tower 102 minutes later.

There were 72 restaurant staff present in the restaurant, including acting manager Christine Anne Olender, whose desperate calls to Port Authority police represented the restaurant's final communications... After about 9:40 AM, no further distress calls from the restaurant were made. 

In the time since then, there’s been a Windows of Hope Family Relief fund established for surviving families of the restaurant employees who perished, founded by the executive chef and owner/operator.

I’m really struck numb with this one. It is currently the summer of 2020. The country is currently being torn apart by politics, racism, and COVID-19. We haven’t learned a thing since the 9/11 tragedy. We as a society are nastier than ever.

If it pleases the reader, a toast then to the 72 staff members, and to gentler times.

White Lady

• 1 ½ oz. gin
• 1 oz. triple sec
• 1 ½ oz. lemon juice
• ½ tsp. superfine sugar
• 1 lime slice

Place all but the lime slice in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well. Strain over ice cubes in an old-fashioned glass with a sugared rim. Garnish with a lime slice.