'It's just bad'.The alarm goes off at a quarter till seven on a Wednesday morning, and Bob Edwards' familiar voice on NPR NPR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Nepal Rupee. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. breaks the silence with the day's headlines. You listen for news about Kosovo, but he's saying something about a plane crash. They're still waiting for the total number of dead, Bob says, from the crash of an American Airlines American Airlines Major U.S. airline. American was created through a merger of several smaller U.S. airlines and incorporated in 1934. It continued to buy the routes of other airlines, becoming an international carrier in the 1970s; its routes include South America, the plane last night "in Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock, Arkansas required military intervention to desegregate schools (1957–1958). [Am. Hist.: Van Doren, 556–557] See : Bigotry ." What? You switch on the television and there's Katie Couric Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric (born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist who became well-known as co-host of NBC's Today. In 2006, she made a highly publicized move from NBC to CBS, and on September 5, 2006 she became the first woman to solo-anchor of the weekday interviewing a fellow at Little Rock's National Airport. Oh Lord, No. It's true. Here. Images of survivors appear on the television screen. There's a familiar face. A doctor. He'd delivered your spouse and all her siblings. He's on camera, thanking God. Somebody on television - or is it the radio? - reminds that Tuesday was the one-month anniversary of the day the Duck sank in Hot Springs. It always seems to be that kind of anniversary now. It's as if the Good Lord wants to remind us of the transiency of life. We get it, Lord, we get it. Enough. You're not surprised to see a local television station doing a remote outside Little Rock's airport as you pull up. It's straight up 9 o'clock, and the place is busy enough. It ain't LaGuardia, but the parking lot is full. Out front, a lady pulling her bag on one of those suitcase rollers smiles shyly at a security guard and asks, "Is it crazy around here today?" He takes a long drag The Long Drag is a slang term referring to the event that is the culmination of the Fitness and Navigation phase of selection for the British Special Air Service. The event is also known simply as Endurance. It is a 40 mile hike over the Brecon Beacons of Wales. on his cigarette, exhales, and nods. What can he say? He looks as if he's been on duty all night. If there's ever any doubt that Life Goes On, go to an airport the morning after a disaster. The only evidence of the wreck of Flight 1420 at Little Rock National are the bits of worried conversation. No, not exactly worried. More resigned. The morning's passengers you talk to sound almost Zen-like. When your time's up, and all that. There's no outward hesitation to get on that next flight. Amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. . Kind of inspiring. And you wonder: Are we getting the hang of life, or of death? The distinctive smell of airport-terminal air is filled with Muzak. Folks go on their way, cellular-phoning and rushing to Do Business. Call it the Banality of Life After Death. They've isolated the press in a small, windowless room. Which is a good thing to do with the press, isolate us. We don't play well with others, and a macabre ma·ca·bre adj. 1. Suggesting the horror of death and decay; gruesome: macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle Ages. See Synonyms at ghastly. 2. sense of humor Noun 1. sense of humor - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humour, humor, humour tends to come out at such times. Relieves the tension, they say. The only thing in this conference room of note is an overhead picture of the airport's runways. A yellow, you-are-here arrow indicates the position of the plane. Or what's left of it. It's now a few minutes after 10 and there's still no official word on fatalities. Or injuries. Or why. Somebody has been kind enough to provide lukewarm coffee - but not even lukewarm information. You leave the airport secure in the knowledge that the worst is yet to come - the names of the dead. The lady who collects the money for parking says she got the call shortly after the crash. Her son had been on a flight from Little Rock to Dallas, and she didn't hear from him until long after his plane was supposed to land. She'd been worried. She shakes her head in the universal expression of human exasperation Exasperation See also Frustration, Futility. Carter, Sergeant Marine corps sergeant exasperated by Gomer’s ceaseless stupidity. [TV: “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and sympathy. It's the thing we do when we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what to say. But she does. She hands back the change and sums up the last few hours. "It's just bad," she says. |
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