Tuesday, January 09, 2007
|Through the Looking Glass|Ever have the feeling that you just weren't where you were supposed to be?I went to the bathroom on the first floor in Furman Hall the other day. I'd availed myself of those very facilities on numerous prior occasions.On this day, I glided into the first space, with its gleaming white sinks, seagreen tiles and a strange, new white-painted large metal box. The box was a dispenser that gave out two things -- the icons indicated tampons and napkins (forgive me, I have no idea what "napkins" are and the image on the napkin seemed to be the male symbol). I thought, "I guess the napkins are for guys, but what's the use of a dispenser that sells tampons here? Seems wasteful."I shrugged and passed through the next door into the room with stalls... and everything felt strange. The mirror wasn't on the back of the door as I recalled. All of the stalls were on the wrong side. I shrugged, "I guess maybe I haven't used this bathroom before." I went into a stall, picked up the loose roll of toilet paper, pulled off a few sheets, wiped off the seat, placed my backpack on the hook, and proceeded to unzip, when I looked down and noticed the most curious little box.I'd seen that box before. Suddenly memories flooded back into my head, of painting a banner for homecoming or something similar in high school and, for space and clean up reasons, having to do it in the girl's bathroom. That was the first and only other time I'd ever seen that box.With my pants half undone I dashed out of the stall and searched the room for a urinal. No urinal. I dashed back into the stall, zipped up, grabbed my backpack and sped out of there.I got into the hallway just before another guy exited the men's room. I breathed a sigh of relief as no one has witnessed what had just taken place, when I realized I was still holding the roll of toilet paper. I pushed the door open, blindly tossed it back in and quickly walked away, refusing to look back.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 20:42.
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|Six to One, Half Dozen T'Other, Part II|A common concern with listing what people cannot do is that they are given ideas of things to do that they might not have otherwise considered.For instance, an exhaustive list of what would or would not constitute cheating on an exam may just give ideas to people who would cheat, if only they could come up with clever enough ways to do it.Among subway activities that have been prohibited: riding between cars, riding on top of cars and riding on the side of cars.To the best of my knowledge, sneaking onto the tracks and waiting in the ditch while a train passes over is neither a problem nor expressly prohibited.Thanks to this man's exhibiting that two men can lie in at least one ditch in the subway system (they are of varying depths), he's shown one more extremely dangerous way for people to prove their mettle.It's the gift that keeps on giving.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 20:35.
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|Six to One, Half Dozen T'Other, Part I|Last week, a construction worker valiantly saved the life of a young man who, in having a seizure, found himself on the tracks with a train barrelling down upon by jumping down into the tracks and pulling the man into the drainage ditch between the first and second rails as the train passed over the couple.Or did he?Perhaps the story is better told: Last week, a father of two young daughters stupidly risked his life by jumping down into the tracks in the growing spectre of an oncoming train to save the life of a random individual, grossly and negligently risking the massive psychological damage his daughters would suffer at possibly seeing their father ripped to shreds by a train passing overhead, should the clearance have been insufficient, and the potential damage to their lives as a result of having lost their father at such young ages.This man is called a hero. No. I mean, it's great that he saved a life. Wonderful, even. But if the ditch had been two inches shallower, I think we would all be singing a different tune.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 20:24.
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