Your test starts ... now
They say you don't know how you'll react until it happens. Also, 7 other things worth knowing today.
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Test starts now
Lewis Medina was driving home one evening last October, after taking his daughter and his 5-year-old grandson to visit a pumpkin patch. They reached the train tracks near his house in Aurora, Illinois, when something caught his attention; something that just seemed wrong.
Then, he realized: a green SUV was stuck on the tracks. The driver was trying to get the car out—the wheels were spinning—but he couldn't make any headway.
Medina called 911 and described the location. And then:
"There's a car stuck on the railroad tracks. He's trying to get out, and he can't. Oh my gosh! There's a train coming!"
"Hold on one second," the 911 operator said.
"Hold on, ma'am! Hold on, ma'am!"
Medina leapt into action. Fascinatingly, from our vantage point, he never hung up the 911 call, and so the audio of everything that happened next was recorded for posterity.
It took less than two minutes, and it went something like this:
"Get out! Get out! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Sir! Get out, there's a train coming! C'mon! Get out of the car! Please! Right now, jump out! Come on! Come on! Jump out! Jump out! There's a train! C'mon, c'mon. Please get out! Please get out, c'mon! Get the seatbelt! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! Do it now! C'mon, sir! Please, get out! C'mon, please!
"Sir?"
"More! More!"
"Sir, are they out?"
"No! Give me your hand! Give me your hands!"
"Sir, are they out of the car?"
"Get out of the way!"
"Sir, are they out of the car?"
"Roll down! Roll down the hill!"
"Sir, are they out of the car?"
"Stay right there! Don't move! I don't know what's going to happen! [TRAIN HORN] Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh!"
"Sir, is he out of the car?"
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! "
"Sir, is he out of the car?"
"Oh Lord! Oh Lord!" [TRAIN BRAKES SQUEALING]
"Sir, is he out of the car? Sir? Sir?"
"Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Ma'am? Hello? Hello?
"Sir, are you there?"
"OK. They stopped the train. Was there anybody with you?"
["No."]
"Oh good."
"Sir, is he off the tracks?"
"Oh my gosh. Hello?"
"Sir? Is he off the tracks?"
"I pulled him out of the car! The train hit the car! I need an ambulance!"
Medina was out of breath but unhurt; the man, who reportedly had some kind of medical condition or attack, was rushed to a hospital.
I first learned about this story after Medina was one of 16 people announced last month as the newest recipients of the Carnegie Medal, touted as, "North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism."
Established with a $5 million trust from Andrew Carnegie in 1904, a total of 10,307 people in the U.S. and Canada have been given the award over the years, for having braved “extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others."
Among the others receiving the award this time:
Adam Layman Thomas, of Louisville, Kentucky (posthumous), who died while trying to save a drowning woman in the Ohio River.
Anthony Stephen Capuano, of Jersey City, N.J., who had to remove his prosthetic leg before plunging into the 50-degree waters of Newark Bay to save the driver of a car that had crashed into the water.
Darnell J. Wilson, a 32-year-old fast food clerk in Rochester, N.Y., who came to the rescue of a 53-year-old woman who was being robbed at gunpoint. The gunman shot at Wilson twice before Wilson pushed him through a plate glass window and chased him off.
Brandon Bair, 36, of St. Anthony, Idaho, who pulled the driver of a burning semi-truck that had been hit by a train. Bair, a former NFL player, was uninjured; the driver of the truck survived. (Beware of those railroad crossings, folks!)
As for why I happened upon the Carnegie awards to begin with: A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article here about what the police did, and didn't do, during the Uvalde, Texas school shooting.
Most people had a certain reaction, a few readers asked whether it was fair to judge, because until you're actually in that situation, you don't know how you'll react.
I think that's fair. You never know how you'll do on the test until you've actually been tested.
But sometimes, without any warning at all, you get the call: The test starts now.
(Note: the full 911 recording of Lewis Medina’s rescue can be found on the Carnegie website. Scroll down here, about halfway.)
Special thanks to Ramona Grigg for letting us run her essay about Joni Mitchell yesterday. I’m glad so many readers liked it as much as I did.
7 other things worth knowing today
For the first time, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, revealed that its revenue dropped: 36 percent compared to a year ago. (Yahoo Finance)
Only kidding? Russia, which announced earlier this week it would pull out of the International Space Station, now says it would like to continue in the program until whenever its own space station might be ready. (Reuters)
Scientists report that they've successfully sequenced the DNA of a person who passed away in Pompeii, Italy, after Mount Vesuvius’ explosion in the year 79 CE. (SciTechDaily)
American Airlines flight attendants want their airline to impose a 2-alcoholic drink maximum in economy class, which would apparently be the first such limitation on a U.S. airline. (CN Traveler)
Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa is cutting almost its entire flight schedule in Frankfurt and Munich due to a mass walkout July 27. The air giant has already axed 678 flights at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and 345 flights at Munich Airport (MUC), according to Reuters, affecting 92,000 flyers and 42,000 flyers, respectively. (The Points Guy)
Goodbye to grass? More Americans are embracing ‘eco-friendly’ lawns and gardens. (PBS)
Lowe’s is instituting a major change—a four-day workweek—as an antidote to what workers said were ever-shifting schedules that left them burnt out. (Fatherly)
Thanks for reading. Photo credit: Pixabay. Want to see all my mistakes? Click here.
Lowe's (and much of the rest of retail corporations) have additional options to relieve burn-out of their public-facing staff: they could incentivize store mgmt with more payroll hours to hire additional staff and they could reverse wage stagnation by using some of their many billions of earmarked 10b-18 spend to actually pay their staff better. Better pay goes a long way to retaining performing workers, giving facility mgmt better carrots&sticks to shed deadweight and attract talent from competitors. All of this would result in better store performance and improved customer service, revolving into more customer spend. It's well past time the business world moved beyond the simplistic wrongheadedness of Friedman's 'owners are the only stakeholders that matter' thesis and abandon the greed-based McKinsey consultation advice on corporate management. The shareholder matters, but so does the customer, the employee, the vendor and the community. Pay matters - Lowe's and other retailers can share much more of the wealth and net profits with their workforce and still satisfy the greed and tax avoidance of the buyback pushers.
Love your writing. And the dad jokes. I tell dad jokes to an audience of disabled adults with my disabled son. None are original. We should all have a list ready to go for emergencies. Here is my ongoing list:
Dad Jokes
- [ ] We all know about Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But have you heard of Cole’s Law? It’s thinly sliced cabbage.
- [ ] What do you call a cat that drinks lemonade? A sourpuss
- [ ] What side of a church do the trees grow on? The outside.
- [ ] My wife says I only have 2 faults. 1) I don’t listen and 2) I don’t remember
- [ ] What is green, has 4 legs, and if it falls out of a tree it will kill you? A pool table
- [ ] Did you hear about the big sale on Legos? People are lining up for blocks!
- [ ] What is the scariest tree? BamBOO!
- [ ] Why can’t a farmer keep secrets on his farm? Because the corn has ears, the potatoes have eyes, and the beans stalk.
- [ ] What do you call a man with no body and no nose? Nobody knows!
- [ ] What do you call an American bee? A USB
- [ ] What’s made of leather and sounds like a sneeze? A shoe!
- [ ] How do you get a farm girl to marry you? A tractor.
- [ ] I’m writing a book about hurricanes and tornadoes. It is only a draft at the moment.
- [ ] played ‘dad’ instead of ‘dead’ when the bear attacked. Now it can ride a bike without training wheels.
- [ ] My wife is blaming me for ruining her birthday. That’s ridiculous! I didn’t even know it was her birthday!
- [ ] I don’t mean to brag, but cashiers are always checking me out!
- [ ] What did the baby corn say to the momma corn? Where is popcorn?
- [ ] Did you hear about the bakery that burned down? Their business is toast.
- [ ] Dad, are we pyromaniacs? Yes, we arson.
- [ ] What do you call a pig with laryngitis? Disgruntled.
- [ ] Writing my name in cursive is my signature move
- [ ] Why do bees stay in their hives during winter? Swarm.
- [ ] Just so everyone’s clear, I’m going to put my glasses on.
- [ ] I lost my job as a stage designer. I left without making a scene.
- [ ] Never buy flowers from a monk. Only you can prevent florist friars.
- [ ] How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer.
- [ ] My friends and I have named our band ‘Duvet’. It’s a cover band.
- [ ] Bono and The Edge walk into a Dublin bar and the bartender says, “Oh no, not U2 again.”
- [ ] Prison is just one word to you, but for some people, it’s a whole sentence.
- [ ] Scientists got together to study the effects of alcohol on a person’s walk, and the result was staggering.
- [ ] I’m trying to organize a hide and seek tournament, but good players are really hard to find.
- [ ] I got over my addiction to chocolate, marshmallows, and nuts. I won’t lie, it was a rocky road.
- [ ] What do you say to comfort a friend who’s struggling with grammar? There, their, they’re.
- [ ] I went to the toy store and asked the assistant where the Schwarznegger dolls are and he replied, “Aisle B, back.”
- [ ] What did the surgeon say to the patient who insisted on closing up their own incision? Suture self.
- [ ] I’ve started telling everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes. It’s all about raisin awareness.
- [ ] They’re building a mirror factory in my town. I could see myself working there.
- [ ] Why can’t you play cards in the jungle? Because there are too many cheetahs.
- [ ] Why was the baby jalapeño shivering? He was a little chili!
- [ ] Which is faster, hot or cold? Hot. Because you can catch a hold.
- [ ] The doctor told me I’m going deaf. That news was hard for me to hear!
- [ ] It doesn’t matter If you’re tall, short, fat, thin, rich, poor. At the end of the day..... it’s night!
- [ ] I wear two pants when I golf just in case I get a hole-in-one.
- [ ] Why was the horse so happy? Because he lived in a stable environment.
- [ ] I thought it was the dryer that was making my clothes shrink. It turns out, it was the refrigerator.
- [ ] What do you call a cow during an earthquake? A milkshake.
- [ ] What do you call a cow with a twitch? A: "Beef Jerky!"
- [ ] Did you hear about the monkeys who shared an Amazon account? They were prime mates.
- [ ] Why couldn't the leopard play hide and seek? Because he was always spotted.
- [ ] I named my dog 6 miles so I can tell people that I walk 6 miles every day.
- [ ] Why didn't the zombie go to school? He felt rotten!
- [ ] What do you say when you're having dinner with a skeleton? Bone-appetit!
- [ ] What did the vampire say to his spouse? It was love at first bite!
- [ ] I tried my hand at counterfeiting, but I never made any real money.
- [ ] When my son’s team won the local church's football tournament, the goalkeeper invited the two of us for tea afterwards. It was a case of Father, Son and Goalie Host.
- [ ] I accidentally rubbed ketchup in my eyes. Now I have Heinzsight .
- [ ] My husband was furious at me for kicking dropped ice cubes under the refrigerator. But now it's just water under the fridge
- [ ] Yesterday I yelled into a colander. What happened? I strained my voice.
- [ ] I removed all the fattening food from my house. It was delicious.
- [ ] A woodpecker would probably describe petrified wood as being 'impeccable'.
- [ ] Why are skeletons so calm? Because nothing gets under their skin.
- [ ] What do you call a dinosaur fart? A blast from the past.
- [ ] What’s up computers favorite snacks? Micro chips
- [ ] I decided to stop calling the bathroom the “John” and renamed it the “Jim”. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning
- [ ] I once had a conversation with a dolphin. We just clicked.
- [ ] What does a house wear? Address.
- [ ] Two ships collided. One was carrying blue paint and the other red paint. All the passengers were marooned
- [ ] Why do bees have sticky hair? Because they use honeycombs!
- [ ] What do you call a crocodile who is a detective? An investi-gator!
- [ ] I went to the zoo yesterday and saw a baguette in a cage. The Zookeeper said it was bread in captivity.....
- [ ] What did farmer say to his cow at night? It’s “pasture” bedtime.!
- [ ] My grandson asked if I could put his shoe on. I said “I don’t think they would fit me.”
- [ ] Did you hear the gossip about the peanut butter? Well, I’m not going to spread it!
- [ ] A Giant fly attacked the police department! They had to call in the SWAT team!
- [ ] Dad: “I don’t trust those trees.” Son says, “why not, Dad?” Dad says, “They seem kind of shady!”
- [ ] What is made out of leather and sounds love me a sneeze? A SHOE!
- [ ] Why are skeletons so calm? Because nothing gets under their skin!
- [ ] Why couldn’t the sailors play cards? Because the captain was standing on the deck!
- [ ] A friend of mine went bald years ago, but he still carries a comb. He just can’t part with it.
- [ ] Midwives deserve a lot of respect. They really help people out.
- [x] What did the Buddhist monk say to the hot dog vendor? Make me one with everything!