An Accidental Brush with History

Longterm readers know that I am a Native New Yorker. I now work for DHS in Northern Vermont but this chapter of my life began thirteen years ago today. A chance trip downtown became a voyage into history.

On February 23, 1993 I was a brand new batchelor and behaving poorly. I wasn't seeing any one girlfriend in particular and juggling a few. There was no long term relationships so there was no misbehavior but I was in no definition a model citizen.
The story begins with a big mouthed coworker whom I also dated asked the wrong girlfriend about a Broadway show.

Well I had to think fast because Rosie was the cream of that crop. She wasn't the most beautiful but she was brilliant lively and a skilled professional. A logistics manager is trained to think on his feet. Every day we turn the impossible into the done and our reward is to do it again tommorow. Using the quick thinking I explained that my cowoker was mistaken and I see theatre all the time and that I was planning to take her the next day. Rosie had two minor flaws lousy taste in men and a fearsome temper. You did not want to be on the receiving end when she was angry.


The discount theatre ticket was at the WTC. The half price tickets for the Next days shows were in the mezzanine of one of the towers. A pain in the rear end buyer was breaking my chops about an airshipment to Rockford Ill and delayed me . My main job done I ran out to catch the N or R train. I just missed a train and these delays would prove significant later.

I think I went into the East River Savings bank that was across the street for cash.
I entered the builing after crossings Church Street. I heard a big bang and felt a vibration but I didn't seem to think about it too much . My main thought was getting
those tickets for Rosie.

I approached the mezanine an thick smoke was coming from the ground. Everyone thought a train crashed in the PATH station below . I was upset because there was no way I was going to get my tickets for Rosie.

I ran back out across Church Street and grabbed a bus going UPtown. This whole series of events seems like hours but it was less than ten minutes. I got a bite to
eat and returned to my office . My cowokers looked at me as if they had seen a ghost.
They told me the WTC was bombed and I told them that it isn't true I just came from there.

It was hard to get radio as the signals were knocked out and TV was even worse. The city was in a panic with a series of rumors Anarchists, FALN, Weatherpeople. Who else would attack an Office Building.

However my thoughts were not of explosions or the WTC. I was wondering what would I say to Rosie. At that moment I would rather have taken my chances in the WTC then to face an angered Rosie. I called Rosie and she let me have it. She yelled so loud the person two desks away could hear it. "You cheap %&%&*^%& go down to the box office
and pay full price. What do you think I am one of your discount ^*^*&( . "

I did run out my office straight to the box and got the best seats available. I took her to the show and an expensive dinner afterwards and believe it or not the subject
of my getting blown up never was discussed. She was angry at some inter office stuff and at some relatives and I had to listen. She was a remarkable woman in every other
respect just dangerous when angered.

For years later my cluelessness in the middle of a bombing and panic aqbout Rosie was a running joke for years. " He's so clueless he was in a building that was blown up and didn't even notice".

In many ways the Keystone Jihadists and the low death toll lulled us into a sleep. The ring was broken when a clown like terrorist tried to get a 500 deposit on the van he had just blown up. Sheik Rahman was dragged before the camera in an odd Santa Claus outfit looking like a dark skinned version of a really bugged out Jack Elam. We were to learn more in the days ahead about plans to blow up more sites. It seemed like every cab driver in Jersey City was involved. However there was an engineer and a gas station owner.

The part of the story you don't know is the cast of charachters from WTC was gathered
from the Kahane Assasination. However the Police decided the assasination of the troublesome Kahane was the work of a deranged assasin El Sayid Nossair. They ignored the implications of a get away driver. The story can be read in Mylroie's The War Against America.

People forget that the architect of the WTC 93 blast was a Baluchi Ramzi Youssef. Youessef's Uncle just happens to be Khalid Sheik Mohammed the numer three man in Al Queda who looks like Ron Jeremy. Saddam has intelligence networks among the Baluchis because he was trying to destabilize Iran. The whole angle was never investgated by a disinterested Clinton Administration. Clinton did not visit the WTC and to put it
mildly was interested in other matters.

Beamish in 08, Ducky to the bathtub and 167 to visit a Walmart and a truckstop in the Midwest.