… … never let it be said that people can’t make humor out of a sad situation.

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20061012/2006-10-12T015903Z_01_N11421400
_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CRASH-NEWYORK-DC.html

I am sadden that the young fellow and his instructor were killed. The loss of anyone is a loss for all of us.

http://isu.indstate.edu/ilnprof/ENG451/ISLAND/

***Begin Quote***

John Donne
Meditation XVII: No man is an island…

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

***End Quote***

… … but some wag, who’s a yankee fan, just emailed me that …

the rumor is out that The Boss (George Steinbrenner), after the Yankee’s big choke again this year, is planning to give A-Rod, Torre, Cashman, the Big Unit, and everyone but Jeter and Mariano, a special gift of their own plane.

(Oh come on now, don’t tell me that you didn’t chuckle.)

It’s a human failing that in the midst of tragedy, we can make a joke out of anything serious.