Horrible. God. In one moment, it’s like 6 years have not passed. You never forget. It’s muscle memory. I was 2 blocks away, walking west on 41st – towards my bus home – when I felt the ground rumble – this horrible sensation – truly sickening, a lurch – and suddenly there was an explosion. I didn’t see it – but I felt it in my eardrums – and I looked east and saw towers of black smoke pouring up from the street. And then I was running, as fast as I could- west – away from the smoke. Everyone was running. I’ve seen the pictures now – of the flipped cars and shit – and am just grateful I was 2 blocks away, and not 1 block. It was horrible. by the time I got home, rattled and shaken up – I hung out at the deli across the street watching the news with a crowd of neighbors, a couple of whom had stories like mine- and at that point nobody had died. It said only 12 people injured – and having seen that blast – I was amazed that nobody died. It looked so apocalyptic. Now I read that one person has died. Bah. It’s awful.
Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- Review: Carolina Caroline (2026
- “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- “Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy
- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
Recent Comments
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Maddy on “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- Bryan Summers on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- Lyrie on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
- Kendra Williams on Josh White, singer of “the fighting blues”
- sheila on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
- sheila on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Bill Wolfe on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
- Donn Harris on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
-
my daughter lives only two blocks from there.
like you she was on her way home. she didn’t
tell me about it because she knows how i get.
my wife told me last night. she’s only been
in ny for a few months and i’m not too crazy
about it, especially with the way things are
today. glad you weren’t any closer, sounded
really bad.
Awful, indeed.
I saw a couple of pics in the paper today and I thought instantly of that time six years ago. And this also comes 13 years to the day when terrorists blew up an entire building only a couple blocks away from my university in Buenos Aires. Horrible memories…
I’m glad you were not any closer!
Oh, red. I’m sorry you went through that. It sounds horrible.
My coworker tells me that overseas, newspapers were assuming it was another Terrorist attack, and reporting it as such. I haven’t seen any papers referring to that just yet.
I saw that on the news and my first thought was, “OMG, Red lives there…”
Horrible.
I also flashed back six years when I saw it on the news. I suspect that none of us alive at that time will ever again avoid flashing back whenever something like the steampipe explosion happens.
I’m glad you’re okay.
Arrgh. I am now prejudiced against all steam pipes and will actively support secret prisons where we force those steam pipes to give us information about other steam pipes.
Bren – ha!!! I miss you!
I talked to Liz who works on that block – and she had some insane stories to tell. Horrible!
Thought of you when I heard about it. Glad you’re okay, red.
Wow, Sheila–glad you’re o.k. Was a little stunned seeing the images on the evening news last night–the other person in the waiting room with me said, “What the heck!?” (Whose brilliant idea was it to put the grim evening news on in a hospital?)
Your perspective is greatly appreciated; sorry you (and others) had to be around it.
Am glad you are alright, Sheila – and that more people werent hurt. How awful!!
Now I’m completely paranoid about everything you do and everywhere you go.
This sucks.
God am I glad you’re okay.
Sheila — Oh, so so scary. I’m just totally relieved you’re all right.
the a-musing interwebz
Just to clarify, a-musing doesn’t mean I find this stuff funny. It’s just a play on words. You know… my blog name and all. I didn’t want to call it links of the day, and I wanted to be creative. I guess I could have gone with be…
Oh Sheila!!! that is frightening. glad you’re ok.
terrible terrible!
glad you’re okay!
I’m such an idiot – I never even thought about the possibility that the explosion might be near you. Sorry about the bad memories dredged up, glad you’re OK.