The Fall of Grace
Recently a truly remarkable incident was reported out of New York City. A 12-year-old girl is supposed to have fallen 180 feet or 14 stories down the inside of a chimney, into an apartment house furnace that wasn't being used because it is the height of summer, yet she survived, with little more damage than a bruised hip.
Always being interested in great heights and in all the aspects of falling and of saucy females of any age, not to mention how stupidities come about, I quickly read the full account and let all its details seep into my consciousness, there easily to stay.
The girl is the daughter of a jazz guitarist, and she likes the idea of becoming a rock drummer herself. Her family had just moved into a new home, in a highrise apartment building, and she decided to show off to her cousin the view from its rooftop. But just being on the rooftop wasn't enough. This young woman saw a 25-foot ladder extending to the top of a chimney, and she started climbing it, to get an even better view (though right there my sense of belief started getting seriously strained.)
The news account gave the impression that when she reached the chimney's top, it seemed somehow to grab her and swallow her whole, and down she fell those many feet, surviving only because she landed in a predictable bed of soot and ashes two feet deep.
The recovery team fully expected to find her dead, and she thought that her neck was broken, but when they opened the cleanout door, she poked out her hand, and miraculously all was well, except for her hip and the fact that temporarily she had turned not the bogus black as a whole group of people are routinely and erroneously called, but really black all over, except for her lips and eyes.
A striking story, but I want this account to be a big hoax, and I'm certain that it is. That chimney must've had a terrific draw, to suck a person, even the normal reckless teenager, girl or boy, off the top of a ladder and down into its maw, headfirst. Was she looking down into it, when she was supposed instead to be admiring the cityscape view all around, and she leaned too far over from the top of the ladder? And how big was the chimney? I would think that on the way down there would be at least a few obstructions, such as the sides of the chimney or a damper near the bottom, for her head or back to strike, causing serious injury. And soot and ash is some soft stuff, but, especially with the usual hard cinders mixed in, could that have been enough to so thoroughly cushion a fall of 180 feet on a person's head or back? That is a LONG drop. And shouldn't a 14-story fall down the inside of a chimney be the start of a lifelong trauma, never to be overcome, even by a feckless young girl?
But I have also seen an account on the National Geographic Channel of a woman skydiver whose parachute failed, and she landed splat in a parking lot, yet she also survived, without even her looks messed up, and if I remember correctly, she is still going up there for more.
Still, for her own sake and to think that she had actually been acting shrewdly, I like the idea that this girl, a Ms Grace Bergere, had been thinking about a good way to gain some real notoriety so as to launch her entertainment career, and what better way than this? So she arranged to deploy herself inside the furnace, followed by having her seemingly distraught cousin to come screaming down off the roof in an elevator, beside herself as she told the world what had just "happened."
I can't disapprove. Even as a hoax, it fits right in with what she might want to accomplish, and it definitely trumps what the likes of B. Spears, L. Lohan, and P. Hilton did to first call attention to themselves.
I fell down the inside of a 14-story chimney, yet here I still am!
Henceforth for a number of reasons it will be hard for anyone ever to top that young lady on that one, in any situation.
Always being interested in great heights and in all the aspects of falling and of saucy females of any age, not to mention how stupidities come about, I quickly read the full account and let all its details seep into my consciousness, there easily to stay.
The girl is the daughter of a jazz guitarist, and she likes the idea of becoming a rock drummer herself. Her family had just moved into a new home, in a highrise apartment building, and she decided to show off to her cousin the view from its rooftop. But just being on the rooftop wasn't enough. This young woman saw a 25-foot ladder extending to the top of a chimney, and she started climbing it, to get an even better view (though right there my sense of belief started getting seriously strained.)
The news account gave the impression that when she reached the chimney's top, it seemed somehow to grab her and swallow her whole, and down she fell those many feet, surviving only because she landed in a predictable bed of soot and ashes two feet deep.
The recovery team fully expected to find her dead, and she thought that her neck was broken, but when they opened the cleanout door, she poked out her hand, and miraculously all was well, except for her hip and the fact that temporarily she had turned not the bogus black as a whole group of people are routinely and erroneously called, but really black all over, except for her lips and eyes.
A striking story, but I want this account to be a big hoax, and I'm certain that it is. That chimney must've had a terrific draw, to suck a person, even the normal reckless teenager, girl or boy, off the top of a ladder and down into its maw, headfirst. Was she looking down into it, when she was supposed instead to be admiring the cityscape view all around, and she leaned too far over from the top of the ladder? And how big was the chimney? I would think that on the way down there would be at least a few obstructions, such as the sides of the chimney or a damper near the bottom, for her head or back to strike, causing serious injury. And soot and ash is some soft stuff, but, especially with the usual hard cinders mixed in, could that have been enough to so thoroughly cushion a fall of 180 feet on a person's head or back? That is a LONG drop. And shouldn't a 14-story fall down the inside of a chimney be the start of a lifelong trauma, never to be overcome, even by a feckless young girl?
But I have also seen an account on the National Geographic Channel of a woman skydiver whose parachute failed, and she landed splat in a parking lot, yet she also survived, without even her looks messed up, and if I remember correctly, she is still going up there for more.
Still, for her own sake and to think that she had actually been acting shrewdly, I like the idea that this girl, a Ms Grace Bergere, had been thinking about a good way to gain some real notoriety so as to launch her entertainment career, and what better way than this? So she arranged to deploy herself inside the furnace, followed by having her seemingly distraught cousin to come screaming down off the roof in an elevator, beside herself as she told the world what had just "happened."
I can't disapprove. Even as a hoax, it fits right in with what she might want to accomplish, and it definitely trumps what the likes of B. Spears, L. Lohan, and P. Hilton did to first call attention to themselves.
I fell down the inside of a 14-story chimney, yet here I still am!
Henceforth for a number of reasons it will be hard for anyone ever to top that young lady on that one, in any situation.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 5:02 AM
1 Comments:
Well, I met Steve, but not Grace. She was away in France when I was there. Anyway, the fall was very real, and it left her neck seriously injured. That was unknown at the time of the story.
Post a Comment
<< Home