Common Man

Listening to Dan Cole today on KFAN, my mind wandered back to the days I called in occassionally as Amateur Cycling Guy, and tried keeping up with his witty banter. Those were the early days of the Commonwealth, and I must have been a little bored. But I still get a kick out of his 'progrum,' and hope to catch another classic 'meltdown.' I have never taken it to the extreme of hanging out with the commonwealth in person, although I guess some have made a pretty good gig out of it. I have thirteen or fourteen good memories of live, on-air classic lines from the progrum. I remeber when Hunting Gal told Dan she was only wearing a watch, and after a couple seconds of dead air he asked her what time it was. His 'Sports, sports, sports!' meltdown still ranks high, as do the high-energy reports by the Secretary of Insight.

He doesn't always bring his 'A game,' but if you listen long enough, you will become one of the '3 out of 10.'

I missed that

So I was watching Larry King today. I have never seen one episode of 24. Looks like they're onto something, but I was never one to say 'Shoot, I'm missing something good!' because the fact is, it is very possible that as big as your Tivo harddrive is, you are still going to 'miss something.' I mean, the better more varied our media avenues become, the more aware one is of the daily flood of things you could be viewing or doing. I like to read a few blogs (by those who know what they're doing) and skim the news headlines, but I don't really try to 'keep up' anymore. There are too many experiences in this life I want to get to, and time is a precious commodity. It's midnight, and I just remembered I haven't gotten the mail out of the mailbox yet. Maybe I should just unplug and head for the mountains, huh?

subway superman

How about that story? A man is on a subway platform with his two young daughters, watching a train speed towards a seizure victim who's fallen on the tracks. Did he know he'd have enough clearance between the train and the two bodies underneath? Did he wonder how much therapy his daughters would need if they were allowed to see someone killed by a train that way? No, he acted to help someone else. That's about all he could've been thinking about in the few seconds he had been alloted. Of course, the outcome was heroic. And he deserves much praise. But let's keep our heads here, so that we may learn something as a society. This story is an extreme example of the good samaritan, but it shows what can come from acting from a solid foundation of moral principles. You can't go wrong by helping others. Had the train not had the clearance, both men would probably be dead, and the daughters would have seen their father die a horrible death, but they would eventually find comfort in knowing their dad was one in a million. Had he done nothing, it could be chalked up to 'an unfortunate accident,' and nobody would blame him for freezing. Hopefully, I'll never be in that particular situation, because chances are I couldn't act as this guy did, but I do know that I will probably encounter a few situations, likely under lesser circumstances, during my lifetime where I can help someone else, and this guy has inspired me to do the unselfish thing every time.