metro monday iii

at first, i thought metro monday was going to be about b & i today ... about how we were both so caught up in scanning the crowd on the train for funnies that we each were, at separate stops, taken off-guard by the train's jerkiness and flailed into the people next to us. or about all the colorful language b used when he saw that there were five minutes between trains during rush hour on the orange line. (the horror! who are these incompetents?!?!?)

but as i was approaching the escalators at foggy bottom, i saw something very, very special. there was a group of touristy-looking 20-somethings trying to yank an umbrella that had gotten stuck in the door out. i assumed, as is i think logical, that the group had been leaving the train and the umbrella got stuck on the way out. but ... after they dislodged the umbrella, they stood there - waiting for the next train! one of these brainiacs, it seems, had stuck her umbrella into the train door thinking it would stay open for the whole group to enter.

listen. i don't mean to pick on the tourists or anything. it's everyone's city, yadda yadda yadda. but people. it's not an elevator. it's a train. it will smash whatever you stick between those closing doors: umbrellas, arms, small children. "please stand clear of the doors" isn't a polite reminder. it's a warning.