Few places on earth are more dismal than steel towns without steel. Once an industrial powerhouse, Rotherham, in Yorkshire, England, is now an industrial wasteland, with an inspissated gloom that hangs over it (or, at least, did when I stayed there for a few weeks 15 years ago), doubtless much as a pall of real pollution hung over it in the days when it was a great manufacturing center.
A little Ramadan reading.
