Witness

Tweet I saw a little boy dragged by a taxi this morning.

It is not easy to write about -- I didn't actually see the taxi hit the child -- what I witnessed or heard, first,  was a muffled, scraping sound -- then I saw something stuck under the car -- being dragged on the asphalt. Then, I heard frantic shouts from someone in a red shirt running toward the car.

At first, I thought it was a piece of cardboard under the car -- then it appeared to be a dog. The car didn't immediately stop and once it did -- the boy's body lay in the middle of the street. He wasn't moving. The taxi driver reluctantly stopped some 10 yards up the road. I say reluctantly because he kept slowing down and then finally stopped.

A man, presumably the father or a relative, in the red shirt, ran screaming and crying into the street and hugged the boy's body -- other witnesses stopped traffic -- and several people approached the driver -- who didn't immediately get out of the car.Still others ran to help the child.

It happened just after sunup this morning -- and there were a number of others who witnessed this horrible tragedy and came running to offer help.

I still find it difficult to believe and process what I witnessed -- all in a matter of seconds.

I don't know the details of what happened -- for instance -- how fast the taxi was moving -- although when I noticed it -- the car was moving slowly. I also don't know if the child was crossing the street or playing in the street.  I did see the taxi driver's face -- just after the boy's body cleared the under-part of the car -- and from his expression -- he appeared not to know what he'd hit.

I don't know if the child survived -- although his little body appeared lifeless.

The West Wing - Pirated

Tweet I had never taken the time or maybe had the time to watch a full episode of the West Wing until a few weeks ago. It is a show that I'd always wanted to see. I happened to be in the DVD shop and saw all seven seasons on the shelf and grabbed the first two.

Let me say that it is impossible to buy a genuine version of any DVD here, all you can find is pirated copies for about a buck-50 per disc. So, for about ten bucks I got the entire first season. Buying pirated DVD's is always a crap-shoot, the biggest problem, of course, is no quality control.

Most discs play ok -- but buying a whole season of a TV show can be a real gamble.

The first two discs played fine. Disc three refused to play, but I was persistent and after about a dozen attempts it worked, but I was afraid to stop the disc, so I watched all four episodes. Disc four and five were ok, but then on disc six, the final episode of season one froze up in the last five dramatic moments. It refused to budge.

This isn't the first time I'd gotten burned by pirated DVDs. The only solution is to go online and attempt to find the script. Thankfully, the West Wing scripts are readily available and I was able to read the season finale.

I bookmarked the page because I hope to find time this next week to watch -- er -- read season two.