Season's greeting from the – 17th century?

Who would have thought that nearly a decade into the 21st century, downtown streetcars and the mosquito fleet would be making comebacks in Seattle? Instead of super-slick mag-lev mass transit, we'd be juicing up the old bus system, adding bike lanes and considering tearing down an elevated highway to replace it with a boulevard? In the holiday retail core, giant nutcracker soldiers stand guard outside of stores like cigar-store Indians of old. I guess they're cheaper than real cops: no overtime. Waiting for the bus one recent chilly afternoon at Fourth and Pike, a group of us were startled by a horse loudly whinnying. Three horse cops came clopping slowly down the sidewalk. While two waited at the crosswalk, I noted that a couple of the officers were wearing small blue rain capes. Capes! It was like being guarded by the Three Musketeers. Despite private space ships, iPods and talking computers, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 it ain't. It is, however, a future where a mossback can feel at home.