Lucky's Vanitas

I'm back in Northampton--the weather has warmed up and there's less wind. Our colorful small downtown offers more potential blips per average block than Paris (where we were from January per March).

Among our used bookstores and antique shops there is Lucky's, in the very center of downtown. Lucky's key offerings seem to be body piercings and tatoos; it's not clear to me how the little skull fits with that, but the bicycle visible in the window is being offered as a prize in some sort of a lottery.

To provide context: Northampton is part of the so-called five-college area in central Massachusetts. The five institutions are Smith College in Northampton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Hampshire College in Amherst, and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley--all within a dozen miles of each other. We enjoy a lot of culture, and a very liberal atmosphere.