Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, lcohen.

Da Gray Lady on Jeremy Hernandez

Stunned Victim Turns Hero in Busful of Children
By ELLEN BARRY

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 2 — By the time they reached the Interstate 35W bridge, the children on the bus were waterlogged and serene, some still in their bathing suits, ready to go home. It was a rare moment of quiet, and as the bus crossed over the Mississippi River a few of the counselors, barely out of adolescence themselves, had dropped off to sleep in their seats.

What happened then is difficult to describe, even a day later. Angi Haney, a counselor, realized first that she was not in her seat, and then that she was not touching any part of the bus, and then that “we were just all flying in the air.” T.J. Mattson, a 12-year-old with wire-rimmed glasses, looked out a window and saw water on the other side. Dust filled the bus, blotting out its passengers.

And then they came to rest. Jeremy Hernandez, the whip-thin 20-year-old who works as the summer program’s gym coordinator, remembers time seemed to congeal. Then something broke the spell, and his heart began pounding, and he jumped over two rows of seats and kicked open the back door. He remembers coolers flying, and he remembers passing along children to strangers lined up like a bucket brigade. More

Safe, they're all S A F E

Safe, they're all safe they say.
Pay no attention to the bridge inspectors
Scurrying, blowing dust off welds, searching in dark places
Where they've never looked before.

Pay no attention to the bridge inspectors. Or the reports. It's all lies.
If not, we'll have to refix the fix, but no, not the bridge. That concrete's substandard;
The iron rotten. It's cheaper to pay the fix than fix the bridge. Uncle John's firm
Made a ton of money, and still pays the bridge inspector; he ignores the cracks.

Oh do drive. They're all safe as safe can be. Pay no attention to the bridge inspectors;
But if you must, drive only over bridges on non-peak hours and
Drive swiftly over rivers. Do not pause or linger for the view
You may feel the rushing waters pushing inward on your door

And hear the crush of iron, that rotten iron Uncle John sold
While slipping money to the fools who bought it
Pay no attention to the bridge inspectors
It's all safe. The words all lies that claim otherwise.

Ya gotta luv them lines!

"Minnesota bridges were generally in better shape than those in other states" -- except for the one that collapsed. I hope they put that on Pawlenty's tombstone.
via TREO
Larry