Darwin's Helping Hands

I spend a lot of time walking up and down the 16th Street Mall. It's on my way to and from work, and I often walk there at lunch too. Occassionally, people get hit by the mall buses, but it's pretty rare. However, there're near misses all the time.

You'll hear the driver franctically dinging his electric bells or blasting the mighty horn. Parents screaming at their kids to move it. Teens schreeching into their phones as they jump out of the way. They all have to move at the last second because the driver doesn't warn 'til the last second because if he rang or honked any earlier the whole mall would be a ringing, honking mess all the live-long day, and it's bad enough down there with all those damned drywallers who think they're too good to work so who, instead, spend their days marching along chanting socialist slogans incorrectly.

Anyway, my point is that no one ever warns anybody that the bus is coming because the bus is always coming. But yesterday I saw a pretty lady step in front of an oncoming bus. Three different guys warned her to watch out. One guy half stepped in front of the bus himself as if, at first, he might provide some sort of shield. He thought better of it and stepped back immediately but continued to beckon to the lady. If that had been a fat guy, a stinky guy, that guy who yells (have you noticed he wears a helmet when he's on his bike? I think that's hilarious.), or me we'd be dead. The work of Darwin's helping hands was my immediate conclusion.

Jonathan 10/29/2005 04:00:00 PM