Most of the other placards were predictable – many variations on the familiar ‘no blood for oil’ blather, and the usual attacks on Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney. Some demonstrators were calling for a ‘free Palestine’, but none, so far as I could see, for a free Iraq.

Amongst the better efforts: “Fuggedaboudid – Brooklyn for peace”, “duct tape for peace” and, in a nod to today’s weather, “freezing my ass off for peace”. More mysteriously, “Lisa is against the war!” and so are the “Women in Black.”

Women in black? If they were searching for aliens, they wouldn’t have had to look far. At 11.30 this morning “Raelians for peace” could be found at 52nd and 3rd.