Here’s a perfect example of the sort of thing I had in mind when I said that the world is in an ill state: “A Princeton Maverick Succumbs to a Cultural Shift.” I can’t begin to describe how tired I got of the endless drivel about the latest movies to which I was repeatedly subjected in Yale’s dining halls. Life as a graduate student is better, but even many academics seem more interested in discussing movies than books. I am utterly baffled as to why.
That’s the bad. There is also good in the world that needs to be saluted. Yesterday a man had a seizure and fell into the tracks of one of New York City’s subway tracks just as the headlights of the train were appearing. A 50-year-old construction worker had the quickness of mind and courage to immediately jump after the man and lie on top of him, pressing him down, as the train ground to a stop overhead. Apparently, the train is higher off the ground than I would have estimated, since the construction worker escaped injury. Though the train did smudge his knit cap with some grease. More details here. Here’s to a man who had more courage — far more — than I would have had.
Sydney
Alan Schmierer