Post to the Host
Host Garrison Keillor answers your questions about life, love, writing, authors, and of course, A Prairie Home Companion.
Car Bomb
May 3, 2010 | 5 Comments
How did the evacuation of much of the Times Square/Theater District affect the show on May 1?
Wasn't that about the time you were broadcasting live?
Kathy L.
Manhattan, KS
--
The smoking Nissan was only a couple blocks from the Town Hall but the police only evacuated Times Square as far south as 43rd, and our show was about a hundred yards east of that intersection. So we were utterly unaware and unaffected. The alarm was sounded around 6:37 p.m. but nobody told us and so we went giddily along. In Manhattan, Kansas, the whole town would've heard the sirens and word would've spread fast, but in Manhattan, New York, you can be a few blocks away from a major crisis and never know it. Water mains burst, windows fall out of skyscrapers, police find a Nissan full of propane and fireworks, and everyone, aside from immediate bystanders, just goes about their business. It's one of the beauties of the big city: isolation, privacy, loneliness.
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Andrea F. | May 3, 2010 1:01 PM
An interesting coincidence--on Saturday night's show just as "Michael Bloomburg" was advising New Yorkers, "If you see something, say something," New Yorkers were doing just that!
Hilary | May 4, 2010 8:36 AM
What is Important:
Who and What, not Where and When. Why? "All we have is the Present. That's why they call it a Gift."
As an aside, am reminded of news story of fellow comes home, notices mess on floor, looks up to see nose of airplane in his ceiling.
Jean Reisner | May 8, 2010 11:53 PM
I am sure glad you were safely away from the car bomb, but as an American living for half a century overseas, IMMENSELY impressed by the common sense and modesty of the gentleman who discovered that smoking vehicle...his refusal to say more than a quote from Bloomburg deeply impressive...not to speak of the marvelous self-control of the steed ridden by NY's finest...like the rest of us, horses are not too fond of smoke.
Sure hope we do as well in Sydney if someone tries such a stupid stunt here!
Take good care of yourselves and as Bob and Ray used to say...Write if you get work and hang by your thumbs...Cheers from OZ! Jean
Joseph Tomczyk | May 15, 2010 6:40 PM
In the NYC Times Square area May 1st, were 37 of us Carolinians (via the4/29-5/4 bus-tour from Black Mountain/Asheville, wNC) during the 6-7:30pm SUV Bomb Scare, which we learned about via TV the next morning. At least 2-3 say they saw/heard the Nissan, petted one of the mounted-police horses, etceteras, and ...
I have NO recollection of what messages lit-up its JumboTron.-/
[Above is my 5/15/2010 5:42PM comment to the newspaper
story ~ Asheville promo lights up Times Square JumboTron http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100514/NEWS/305140060/Asheville-promo-lights-up-Times-Square-JumboTron]
George Lindberg | May 21, 2010 12:26 PM
At last a product we have in American that's actually useful to people - foreign-born tee shirt vendors working the streets. If New York would be good enough to "export" a bunch of these guys to every big and little city in the county, I guess we'd have reason to feel pretty secure.