Just Your Average 69-Year-Old College Freshman.
THE LAST RIDE — There’s a marvel of engineering under the streets of Barcelona. Massive in scale, it snakes from one barrio to another. No expense has been spared.
First some physics. The tunnels are huge cylinders through which pistons move in perfect synchronicity, building compression in front, a vacuum behind — the same principles the internal combustion engine relies on. Otto von Guericke, thank you.
The force of these vacuums is unfathomable. They reach up onto the streets — pumping and sucking their way into the vestibules of apartment buildings, up the stairwells and elevator shafts. They extract students, employees and retirees from their beds, dress them fashionably, caffeinate them and carry them to the underground cylinders that speed them blissfully on to their purpose in life.
