Thursday, June 05, 2008

Twice in One Day

Nicholas W. Skyles/The New York TimesFor the second time in 6 hours, some kook decided it would be a good idea to climb up our office building. The first guy claims to be a proficient climber who has done a number of similar stunts around the world. He was arrested when he reached the roof. His mission, or so it would seem, was to spread a message about the evils of global warming. He carried a fluorescent green banner that read "Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week."

The second guy must have just not had enough attention as a child. His t-shirt apparently carried a message about 'malaria' but I doubt very much that he was climbing the building to raise awareness about the need for nets in Africa. He climbed past where I was sitting around 6:15pm. My colleague Kim was walking towards the window and said "That's weird... Is that the same guy?" I looked around and saw his legs and then peeked behind the shade and saw him go past. I'm on the 4th floor and he was moving pretty quickly at that point, but apparently he seemed to get tired and stopped to rest later on. He made it to the roof around 6:35pm and was immediately arrested.

The crowds on 8th Avenue were part of the amazing spectacle. Traffic was stopped for at least 10 blocks and there were hundreds and hundreds of people thronging the sidewalks for blocks. Women at the Lucille Roberts exercise studio across the street from us stopped their workouts and crowded the windows to grab a look. People walking to their cars on the roof of Port Authority were glued to their cell phones and were trying to snap shots from wherever they could.

The Police and Fire departments showed up in pretty big numbers and they were just beginning to inflate one of those big balloon mats when he reached the top. We only knew he had finally got up because of the crowds cheering on the street.

Never a dull moment!

No comments: