THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PEDESTRIANS . . . THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
What’s so funny about this? I’m an east coast kind of a guy. I’ve spent most of my life in New York City, where you pick up many urban survival skills. Among these skills is knowing how and when to cross a street. It has little to do with what color the traffic light is. New York is one of the most congested cities in the world and many people say that driving here is hell. Actually, for my money, Rome, Athens, Bogota and even Boston are a lot worse. But the flip, or opposite side of driving here is walking and we New Yorkers have learned to pick up the rhythm of the streets when we have to cross them. The whole country does not operate this way. In 1969, I went to the West Coast for the first time. We were in Berkley or Oakland and I was in the middle of the block somewhere and needed to get to the other side. Did I walk to the corner and wait for the light to turn green? Nuh-uh. Like any good New Yorker, I simply stepped off the curb when it looked like the coast was mostly clear. It’s not like there were a whole bunch of cars coming at me but there were a few. My original intention was to step out, let them pass and then scoot across. But lo and behold, they all stopped! Not just one or two but at least 5 or 6 cars. I was dumfounded as I crossed the street. My companion, a native Californian, explained that the law there was that any pedestrian had the right of way and cars had to stop if a pedestrian stepped into traffic. It’s a good concept, but not one that I’d ever seen, certainly not in the east. It gave me a new sense of power! But in the meantime, as you read the joke you’ll understand that in general, as a pedestrian you do have to be able to move pretty fast to get out of the way of some car intent on making the light after it already turned red. As the joke says, you need the skill or you could end up like a flat pancake in a Road Runner cartoon. And THAT’s what’s so funny!
This joke was sent to me by Jim Offner
