Friday, September 15, 2006

 

Crime is a disease, and I'm the petri dish

Last night about 10:30, someone shot out the windows in my car. As often happens in situations like that, a crowd of neighbors gathered in the street, the police arrived, and we all fussed over how this happened. It either was just pretty dumb (if it was random) or really scary (if it was directed at me personally), but mostly I was fascinated by the glass itself. It didn't shatter, but rather broke into a bunch of little pebbles. In fact, even the window that was hit three times was still mostly in place, but simply fractured into a thousand pieces held in place by the bow of the window.

I knew before how safety glass works, but had never really touched it, held it. It was so much like the ice that we loved to play with as kids in Michigan after a cold night-- the top of puddles would have a half-inch of shiny ice, and if you sunk a heel into it, the ice would make a wonderful squeeking-cracking noise and break into those pebble-pieces, which we would pick up and examine or throw at one another. It was pretty amazing that temperature could make something so average, a puddle, into something with such amazing new physical properties.

Probably I should have been out there with the neighbors raging against crime, but I do that professionally, and know this is not such a big deal. My mind turned to the past in part because tomorrow I will be somewhere I haven't been since 1992, a trip that will be sad and important and hard.

Comments:
Blogging isn’t all about fame and fortune. Strongly worded e-mails and shot out windows are both the unavoidable consequences of the glamorous lives we lead.
 
JS--

I suppose you are right. I remember the time that those guys from the "Torts Law and Policy" blog did a drive-by on your house and shot you in the leg. Stay strong, brother.
 
I just told my friend that your windows had been shot out. His immediate response:

By a PC student?????
 
Ahh, Waco. That jewel of the Brazos. City of the meth freaks. More violent than New York City. How do I miss thee? Let me count the ways....
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Tell the truth.. you were attempting the Common Grounds Faculty dance with the gun, as suggested on the string below, and being an inexperienced Yankee gun handler, you blew out your own window.

I do see a connection between meth and the crystalized glass.
 
Bummer. Do you still have the Audi?
 
That's terrible.
 
Thats pretty scary stuff- I hope you and your family are all right
 
In Chicago someone poured motor oil all oer my girlfriend's car. Here in Waco it seems like everybody conciously opens their doors right into mine in every single parking lot in this city. Oh sure, perhaps not as serious as your experience, but I felt completely justified setting the dogs on those swine.
 
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