I think you need to know what the definition of IS is
Bill Clinton
Dorje,
My very first fire with FDNY I ascended the aerial ladder from the street below to the elevated Bruckner Expy carrying "the can" (2 1/2 gallons pressurized water) to an obvious, by the column of smoke, car fire. As was proceedure, water went up the ladder first, and brother I flew up them rungs. The scene I was confronted with was a convertible that had been rear ended by a bus, mother and father in the front buckets, three children in the back seat, burning to death because the full tank of gas (petrol) had ruptured on impact showering the occupants with fuel, then igniting. Its hard to imagine the futility of rushing an inferno under the protection of a 1/4 inch, 2 1/2 gallon fire stream, but the screams coming from that car drove me forward, till I was tackled by the second man up that ladder, Joe the Mutt. He knocked me to the ground and rolled me away. We stood there helpless till the engine company managed to stretch their booster line up the aerial and put the fire out.
When I left work at the end of the tour I wasn't sure I would ever return. Some jobs just ask too much of the human psyche. But Joe got my address and showed up at my apartment and as he walked through the door and took a look around he looked toward the corner and exclaimed
"How can you call THAT a surfboard?? Its so small it fits in muh trunk. We're not gonna get any chickie wi that! They gonna think we got small dicks!" He put on a huge smile, said "where's the coffee?" as he pulled a flask of fine Irish whiskey from his jacket. Spent some time convincing me to return to work, but never referred to the incident, and every time I tried to go there, changed the subject... to surfing, something he knew absolutely nothing about. But instinctively, I think he knew I knew absolutely nothing about death. After about two hours he left, having extracted from me a promise to cruise brooklyn with an APPROPRIATE surfboard, that by the way I would supply. HE would supply the convertible AND the girls.
Hopefully you understand that without humor life grinds our bones
PS
the cyclone IS a brooklyn landmark
the asterik now is "wooden", Its the "greatest wooden roller coaster ever built"
but no one to date has challenged the Coney Island hot dog
Went down quite well with a yo-hoo [yogi berra]choclate drink,or a nedicks orange drink.