Albeit unplanned. No matter—invitations not required.
Avenue O and 48th—dangerous!
Apparently all you need for a spontaneous block party around here is a loud car crash—or, to borrow from the old Batman comics, “KAPOW! CRRAACK! CLUNK!”
And if it occurs on a fairly regular basis, right in front of your very own home, you might be wise to (a) invest in a popcorn popper and (b) start filing quarterly income tax returns because (c) there just might be a viable cottage industry here.
Carting off the debris
But seriously, folks, you should have seen what I witnessed today.
Unfortunately, my camera wasn’t handy right after those first loud bangs.
Or even in time to catch the groundswell of curious onlookers almost immediately hoofing it in from all directions, even before the last hubcap stopped rolling, many with kids in tow, a handful with dogs on a leash, all doing the pedestrain equivalent of rubbernecking.
Wow.
Is this the modern equivalent, the more “civilized” version, of the old blood sports, like feeding Christians to the lions or staging public hangings in the town square? Violence and entertainment, still a sad draw in our snail’s pace of evolution.
By the way, don’t try to convince me that this outpouring of humanity had much, if anything, to do with concern about the welfare of the potentially injured in this accident. In fact, nobody was injured at all. And in any case, the vast majority of us are just not that brand of monkey. Sorry to burst your bubble, folks.
But there is an upside. Now, where is that popcorn popper?
