New York Heroes

[Commander 0077]

It struck me that the new year (2 007) has several real-life heroes in New York.

a. a cabbie (I think from Pakistan) found $500,000 in diamonds (diamonds, diamonds!) in his trunk, traced the owner and refused a reward. He said "New York taxi drivers are honest" wow, hats off!!
b. another cabbie found about $5000 in cash, in a wallet. He also returned it. more hats off, sir!
c. a construction worker, on his way to work (about to drop off his two little girls), saved the life of a guy having convulsions. The guy fell onto the track. A train was approaching. He dived and covered him with his body as the train flew overhead. They said there was 22 inches clearance, and both together had 21.5" (it's likely they were taking a good guestimate, but that must be close). Specatators screamed (he could hear them). I saw the interview with of his little girls "I thought my daddy was dead."
I heard this last night with a visiting speaker dressed as an English knight. He was speaking about courage and honor. He said that just before he dived, he looked into a woman friend's eyes (or a stranger, I'm not sure), with a look that said, "Take care of them, if I don't make it."
The speaker said something profound: Imagine those two girls. They will never forget what their father did.

[Harvey Wallbanger]

here is another amazing story

Brazilian pries grandson from anaconda death grip
A 66-year-old Brazilian man wrestled with a 15-foot (5-metre) anaconda for nearly half an hour to free his grandson from the snake's crushing death grip, local media reported on Friday.

Matheus Pereira de Araujo, 8, would likely be dead inside the belly of the 80 pound (35 kg) anaconda if his grandfather had not heard his screams for help, zoologists said.

Anacondas, the biggest snakes in the world, live in swamps and rivers. They kill prey by asphyxiation or drowning.

When the snake struck Araujo, who lives in the world's third largest metropolis of Sao Paulo, he was playing with a cousin on Wednesday in a creek bed on his grandfather's farm 310 miles (500 km) from the city in a town called Cosmorama.

"It was very fast. I didn't have time to do anything," the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Araujo as saying. "My grandfather is a hero -- I was so afraid of dying."

Joaquim Pereira was driving home when he heard the screams of Matheus and his cousin Flavio, 8, who ran to get help.

Pereira jumped into the ravine and grappled with the snake, which started coiling around him as well.

"I started fighting the animal and tried to loosen its grip on the boy's neck but the snake was too strong," Pereira told the Bom Dia newspaper of Sao Jose do Rio Preto.

Pereira then attacked it with stones and a machete.

"I kept hitting it with the machete but it felt like a rubber tyre, it wouldn't tear," he said.

He killed it after a long struggle to free the boy, who needed 21 stitches on his chest where the snake bit him.

"It was the most terrible scene that I've seen in my life," Pereira said. "It was totally coiled around him while he was screaming that he was dying."

Senator Eduardo Suplicy said Pereira should be honoured by the Brazilian government for heroism.

[Commander 0077]

Snakes! I hate snakes!
no, seriously they can be your best friends. Someone told me anacondas move so slow they're easy to run away from ... but I think this is just an urban myth. Bond should have a real snake fight, not like the quickee in Moonraker/Roger Moore.

I remember when a bear attacked an old guy, and his wife smacked the bear in the nose repeatedly with her heavy purse or was it camera. The bear mooched away.

btw, the 50 pound wolverine is a very bad customer, I doubt he would back down from any fight. Bears and cougars go, Oops sorry, when they see him. The wolvie even kills adult elks. But they are said to make good pets. I suppose the best wilderness companion. Now, if he can swim, the best scuba buddy!