Subway Ranter Scare (+ nephew visit stuff)

So the other day I was taking my nephews around town on the subway and stuff. 

Anyway, we were sitting at one end of the car and at the other end this crazy dude started acting up.  He's what I call a 'subway ranter'. There are these guys that basically preach to the whole subway car about their issues whatever. Sometimes they're looking for money. Sometimes it's just for crazy attention or whatever. It's always a little scary but they're usually totally harmless and I decided it was kind of cool that the nephews were getting some live subway ranter exposure as part of the overall NYC experience. Although they didn't seem really interested in his rant because it was mainly about Social Security and Mayor Bloomberg and stuff. 

But after a couple minutes something about this particular ranter tone started to bother me. It was a little too determined and focused and angry. I was glad he was on the other end of the car and we only had one stop to go because I was getting a little nervous. I kept my eye on him and put myself into 'protective uncle' mode by having the nephews sit quiet and stuff. All of a sudden there's a ruckus at the other end of the car, people were struggling and then brakes of the subway car start squealing. The subway stopped mid-tunnel. 

The ranter actually pulled the emergency stop handle on the train and it worked! (I figured it would work just as well as the 'button to change the traffic light' thing- which I don't believe are actually hooked up to anything.) Anyway a bunch of guys jumped on him to subdue him while the people around the commotion (like 30 people) started crowding down our end. It was low level panic. 

The crazy guy was putting up a little bit of a fight (but there were like 5 guys on him) while the rest of us bailed on the situation and went through the door into the next car and watched the ruckus through the window. I stayed pretty calm the whole time and I don't think the nephews really noticed that anything was particularly haywire because the subway is such an overload of strangeness to begin with.

The older nephew did ask me why the train stopped and I told him that the guy who was making all the noise pulled the brake. When he asked me why he pulled the brake I told him it was because he was having a really bad day. And that was pretty much end of story. They seemed unphased. Meanwhile I was half totally freaked. I'd never seen a ranter take action like that.

A cop was there in about a minute (there's a cop on every train i think) and he took control of the situation and the train started rolling again. We got off at the next stop where there were other cops waiting. (Go NYPD!) It was the most 'scary' situation I've ever had on a subway and of course it had to happen in the one car on the one train I was in-- while I was paranoid about taking care of the nephews in the big city in the first place.  

But everything was fine and that was that.

ok bye!

tOdd

PS. Here's a quick rundown on what I did on the nephews 2-day visit:

- Central Park to see The Gates.
Nephews reaction: Not impressed at all.
My reaction: I still liked them.

- Central Park Zoo.
Nephews reaction: They liked it alot but seemed most excited by the cutter ant display who were lugging around leaves and stuff.
My reaction: I liked the penguins the most. I learned that they're black on their back to make it more difficult for predator birds to see them from overhead when they're in the water and their stomachs are white to help them blend with the sky so predator fish can't see them from below.

- Lunch at Mars 2112 (Mars theme restaurant).
Nephews reaction: Seemed to like it alot. But they seemed a little scared by the aliens.
My reaction: The line to get in was too long. It wasn't nearly alien-ed out enough. It was like Earth with red rocks. The food should have been fun gross and stuff and it wasn't.

- Saw Son of the Mask
(see review here)

- Breakfast at the diner
Nephews reaction: Chocolate chip pancakes were a homerun.
My reaction: I enjoyed my bacon, egg, cheese on a roll.

- Transit Museum in Brooklyn
Nephews reaction: They liked it alot. There's old subway cars in there and you can pretend to drive buses.
My reaction: I liked it too. I like looking at old subway cars and stuff. They used to be much cooler looking and more comfortable.

- Katz's Deli
Nephews reaction: They weren't that crazy about the hot dogs or maybe not that hungry.
My reaction: The hot dogs were just ok. The french fries were better.

- Bowling at Bowlmor Lanes 
Nephews reaction: They liked it alot. There's these alley bumper things that make it impossible to bowl a gutterball which was cool (and should have been my idea first.)
My reaction: The bumpers made it hard for me to lose on purpose. I had to really concentrate on not bowling well and stuff. I was surprised how expensive bowling was. $65 for everything!

That was pretty much it. I was exhausted by the end of the two days. I was carrying around the 4 year old on my shoulders alot which made me think about what the soldiers need to do out there in the heat all day and stuff.  On Friday I woke up around 9AM and stayed up for a couple hours then passed out till like 4 in the afternoon solid. Now cleaning up empty juice boxes and string cheese wrappers that are everywhere.

ok bye again!

tOdd