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THIS BLOG'S TITLE
First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. "What's the matter?" the psychiatrist asked, baffled. "Don't you want to play with any of the toys?" "Yes," the little boy bawled, "but if I did I'd only break them."
Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. "What do you think you're doing?" the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. "With all this manure," the little boy replied, beaming, "there must be a pony in here somewhere!"
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As if the recession, bank stress tests and swine flu weren't enough to worry about on a Monday morning, an Air Force "photo op" gave New Yorkers another reason to panic.
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A plane flying low over New York. That shouldn't be any cause for concern, right? |
Just after 10 am, a Boeing [BA
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] 747 plane that is the backup for Air Force One flew low over the Hudson River in New York City. It was accompanied by two F-16 fighter jets and circled three times, instantly evoking flashbacks of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
A woman taped the event from her apartment window in Tribeca, just north of where the World Trade Center towers once stood, and uploaded the video to YouTube. [GOOG
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"Oh my god. That's not normal," she is heard saying on the video, as you see the plane flying close to the buildings. "It's a hijacking. I know it because it's going around," she says, in a panicky voice.
But it wasn't — the stunt was explained to be an Air Force "photo op," though workers at One Liberty Plaza were told it was an advertisement for a movie, the New York Times reported.
A spokesman for the FAA swears that this "photo op" was approved with all the necessary channels: The NYPD, The New Jersey PD, 911, 311 ...
Of course, the only people they forgot to run it by were New Yorkers, who remember Sept. 11 all too well.
CNBC reports Goldman Sachs headquarters were evacuated and traders felt windows rattle. Watch the video at left.
Hundreds of New Yorkers in lower Manhattan came rushing out of their office buildings, flooding the streets in panic that it was another terrorist attack.
Finally, someone showed up with a megaphone to tell them all it wasn't an attack and it was safe to go back to work.
The NYPD responded by saying they weren't allowed to alert the public. (Though they didn't say by whom.)
The good news is, we managed to forget about the recession and potential global swine-flu epidemic for about 30 minutes.
Tip of the hat to the Greatest City in the World for that.
The bad news is, we've all turned into Homer Simpson.
Ack! What was that?
Eyewitness Video: "It's a hijacking. I know it ..."
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