August 29, 2007
Day Around the Bay
-- John O'Neill, the man killed last week by an N-Judah a J-Church train, died while saving his pup, Cappy. If there is a heaven, O'Neill is up there. [Chron]
-- Spare the Air days = more clueless MUNI/BART riders. [Fog City Notes]
-- Spotswood goes to a Giants game, attaches theme songs to local flavors. [Chron Blogs]
-- P-O-P-C-O-R-N to die soon. RIP, detached ladyvoice. [David Lazarus]
-- The armpit of California: richest city in the U.S. [Chron, via AP]
-- Feinstein begs the 49ers to stay in SF. [CBS5]
-- Spinach salmonella scare. [KGO, via AP]
-- Harvey Milk Club stays out of SF Mayor's race. (No, not because it's mind-numbingly boring.) [BeyondChron]
Image: O'Neill family
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Armpit of California?! That's a little bit of tunnel vision on your part, isn't it? Hell, in the competition for California's armpit, San Jose comes in at least a distant 7th or 8th to wonderful destinations such as ... oh, let's see here ... MODESTO, Bakersfield, Stockton, Fresburg, Riverside, Palmdale, El Centro, and on and on and on.
J-Church
maybe they should run michael vick over with the J
It is a sad day with the end of POPCORN. My first "independent" dialing as a kid that didn't get my ears boxed. Independent = used phone when parent was out of the room...
I think that the vid is not really earthquake footage, there. Check it.
i think you might be right, shibi.
I saw a similar incident on the N regarding the "excuse me!" yelling. The train was completely packed, and this poor guy about 6 people deep is trying to thread his way to the door. Some folks are moving out of the way and so forth but it's taking like 10-15 seconds for him to make any progress so he starts saying it a little more loudly, because people are starting to board the train and there's no room for him to get through.
This 250 pound lady barrels in the doorway and then takes offense to this, as the guy is trying to push through the space between her and the other folks that were already on the train. "GO on the right side!! THis is America motherfucker!" she yells, right in his face, and as he is still trying to get off the train she starts elbowing and continues cursing while flailing her arms around. Now i'm standin like directly next to her and taking some elbows and stuff and just desperately trying to get a few inches between me and this riled up bit of crazy but there isn't really anywhere to go..Finally there's a little bit of room as she lunges forward and shoves the guy off the train. "This is america motherfucker, we go on the right!!" she admonishes again.
She pretty much continued to rant about this, had cornered another woman who seemed to be listening politely because she was freaked out by having this woman standing next to her.. It was pretty much dead silent except for that, you can see everybody around is kinda freaked and trying not to make eye contact type of thing.. Meanwhile some other lady starts in that sort of SF-standard passive aggressive way that it's generally easier to get on the train after you let everyone who is leaving off first. She then starts trying to tell people again as we are all milling off the train, i think maybe she was hoping to defuse any further situation... I was thinkin it might get violent again but the crazy lady seemed pretty much like she didn't even notice.
Also the air conditioning was broken on the J and it was stifling. On the plus side I met that cute girl from the barefoot nellies who's pic was on sfist the other day. ANyway that's my spare the air day adventure . I hope muni gets their stuff together tomorrow and can cope a little better with the increased demand.
O'Neill's story is ironic and tragic. Cappy was lucky to have such a caring person as an owner, even if just for a few weeks.
The pic is of O'Neill and his previous dog Idaho Jack who was killed by an N-Judah several weeks ago, not the little guy still surviving from the J-Church incident...poor little fuzzy puppies. :(
I feel for the guy, I really do. This is a terrible story.
But how does he manage to get not one, but two dogs on the tracks in a few weeks?? I walk three dogs at once, all over the city, one of which is bigger than I am, and I have never had one of my dogs escape.
While it's a terrible story, my question is where did it come from? The guy who was walking the dog that "got loose" isn't the one who told it.
Regarding the dogs running onto the train tracks -- I've heard the theory that when we have anxiety over our pets running into the street or on train tracks, the dog picks up the visualization, thinking that's what we actually want them to do. O'Neill must have understandably had a lot of anxiety about his old dog, which lead his new one to do the same thing...
I learned this watching the now-canceled Pet Psychic, but I would guess that Cezar Milan has a similar theory that's rooted in behavioral science...
Very tragic story. :(
I just re-read my post and realized it may have sounded a bit callous towards the man who died...I apologize as that was absolutely not my intention. Basically, the whole thing just really sucks. :(
-- Guest [9]
Some dogs (and puppies) should probably wear a harness.
Also, there is a drunk man that has two chihuahuas (one of them named Spooky) that lives in Mission Terrace and he never has his dogs on a leash. The other day I saved one of his dogs from being run over. He was eating a chicken bone in the middle of the street.
I told him what happened and he resonded, "Spooky ran into someone's house and when I went back to get him they had left and locked him inside". WTF on multiple levels!
I heard from the friendly neighborhood police (who were unaware of the Chron story) that the guy was walking his dog inside a fenced-off Muni right of way, the train hit him from behind, killing him, the still-leashed dog went flying, and that was that.
But that's a lot less poignant.
That is what I had originally heard as well.