You know that saying, "Common sense isn't so common?' Boy, is that true. A couple of news stories here in New England bear that out.
The first one was the report of the fellow who was rushing his laboring wife to the hospital. A trooper noted the speeding car and hit the siren. The fellow refused to pull over, instead calling 911 on his cell phone. The recorded 911 call, with screaming wife in the background, shows the incipient father explaining that he wouldn't pull over because he didn't have time. The operator asked him again to pull over but he refused, at which point the officer passed the car and provided an escort to the hospital, where the woman gave birth shortly after. The doctor agreed that the father had done the right thing. The police disagreed. They cited him for speeding. At that point I was on the father's side.
Then he didn't turn up for his court date but perhaps since he doesn't live in Colorado or Hawaii, Dog the Bounty Hunter was not tapped to run him in. A few months later, the driver and the mother, with the baby in tow, appeared as summoned and got a continuance, with the warning that he was subject to a large fine (something like $650) and losing his license for 30 days.
Sheesh, I thought, where was the common sense on this? Then, as Paul Harvey would say, came the rest of the story in the form of the officer's complaint. Seems the father was really, really speeding.
Picture it: frantic father, laboring wife, screaming, sirens, talking on the phone, and going 102 mph in a 55. Sheesh! Just who we need sharing the interstates. How lucky he didn't kill himself, the officer, the mother, the baby, and half a dozen other folks on the road. I figure he deserves the fine. In fact, even his wife thought that would be fair. The judge will decide soon.
The other story involves Boston's mass transit system, once called (as in "Charley on the") MTA, then the MBTA, and finally just the T. A bereft young woman was interviewed on the evening news when she lost her pet on a subway train. It was there with her, and when she got off, it was gone. I've seen dogs on the subway, but I can't think of any other animals unless you count some of my fellow riders: gropers, drunks, nattering psychos. But this woman lost Penelope, her boa constrictor. She was just riding the Red Line (Harvard Square to Quincy) on a cold winter day, wearing a scarf and a snake around her neck.
Okay, I'm an admitted ophidiophobe (fearer of snakes). I came by the phobia after my stepfather delighted in telling phony stories about deadly poisonous snakes in tents and sleeping bags, just before he took us camping. It was years before I could stretch my feet to the bottom of the bedroll. We have lived on this ¾ acre property since 1972 and there are still places I won't go because I saw a garter snake there 35 years ago. And let's not even get started on the time a mother snake raised her babies in a woodpile in our garage; I refused to pull the car in for months.
But snakes on the subway? From comments online, it appears this is not even a first. You gotta admit, for a lonely psycho who needs attention, wearing a snake as a necktie on the subway is pretty close to the top of the list for instant gratification.
Me, on the other hand, I haven't been a regular T commuter for years, but I still use the subway to avoid driving into Boston. I do ride the T to some hospital appointments and always to Red Sox games at Fenway. On, naturally, the Red Line.
I had my fingers crossed that they'd find Penelope before Opening Day. I'd hate to have to give up my occasional trips to Fenway, but I'm not sharing my subway seat with a snake. Heck, I'm not sharing my subway system with a snake. Luckily, Penelope has been found, little the worse for wear, and I'm guessing the rodent population in the T tunnels is a bit lower these days. I can't say I'm totally relieved, though, because Penelope will still be riding on the T with her owner, who promises to "be more careful in the future."
Let's see: speeding father-to-be on the highway. Snakes on the subway.
Staying home sounds like common sense to me.
