While taking a very early walk in Central Park, an elderly man carrying a cup of coffee stumbled and fell, barely breaking his fall with his two hands and sprawled on the ground.
It appeared to him that nothing was broken (Thank heavens) but he was faced with the problem of how to get up, because there was nothing to grab hold to. No one was around to lend him a hand. Ultimately in crab like manner, he struggled and eventually lurched to his feet.
His coffee cup was crushed with it contents spread over the cobble stones, but his only damage was a bloody finger joint and a skinned knee.
He looked to see if anything might have caused him to trip. Sure enough, there was cobble stone protruding almost 2” above the rest. An absolute tripping hazard.
Wanting to protect other and with some effort, he pulled the heavy stone out of the ground (at least heavy for him) and tossed it against the wire fence separating the sidewalk from the bushes.
The next morning he again passed by the same location with coffee in hand, so he checked to make sure that no one had replaced the cobble stone and, if they had, it had been properly inserted.
Someone had, and they had not!
There was a police car about twenty paces away and a policeman standing next to it, who had must have observed the old man’s actions since he was the only one present except an occasional jogger along the main park drive about thirty yards away.
Nevertheless, he pulled up the cobble stone and again tossed it against the fence. Feeling that he should give an explanation, he walked over to the officer.
“That cobble stone protrudes almost to inches” as he measured two inches with his thumb and forefinger “ II tripped over it yesterday. You can see the small hole in my pants to show for it.”
“Yesterday I pulled out the stone and threw it against the fencing but someone put it back in place, still sticking up two inches.”
The officer was shorter and had an Asian appearance, perhaps Philippian.
He looked the old guy in the face and said “So why don’t you throw the damn thing into the bushes?”
And he did.
That is New York common sense.
