Wesley Autrey - Hero

A Good Samaritan jumped onto the tracks at a Manhattanville subway station at 137th Street and Broadway Tuesday afternoon to save the life of a stranger who had fallen after having an apparent seizure.

The man stumbled off the platform onto the tracks, where he could have been killed if not for the heroic efforts of 50-year-old Wesley Autrey who did the unthinkable, jumping onto the tracks with a train approaching.

"He was stuck and I was like, 'Wow. Do I struggle here?' If I got him up, then I would have to go for the ground. And I didn't have that much time. So I just went for the gutter thing," said Autrey. "I just dove on top of him and held him down, cause I knew there would be enough clearance for us."

Autrey, a construction worker who lives in the neighborhood, grabbed the man and pinned him down in the gutter between the running rails while a downtown Number 1 train passed overhead, miraculously leaving both men without a scratch.

"I had to have the guy pinned down, because like I said, he was in a seizure," said Autrey. "He was incoherent. He was fighting, pushing and pushing against me. So I had to lock myself down, so he wouldn't push me back, and possibly my head get hit."

Autrey's two young daughters, ages four and six, who were with him at the time of the incident, watched in horror while the situation unfolded. When the train finally came to a stop, Autrey called out to them to let them know he was alive.

Autrey guessed there was maybe an inch or inch and a half clearance between his head and the underside of the train.

"Remember, the gutter maybe got like a 12-inch drop. So his body fitted in there perfectly. And I just laid on top of him, and had to pin him down," he said.

The man Autrey saved was taken to St. Luke's hospital as a precautionary measure, where he is listed in stable condition. He is expected to be recover.

When asked if he considers himself a hero, Autrey said absolutely not. He said he was just doing what he thinks anyone else would do.

"No, I don't consider myself a hero," he said. "I just went to someone's aid. Someone who was in need of help."

From NY1

There is hope, there are decent people in this world. I hope I'm one of them.

Happy New Ear

Alexis forced me to come out New Year's Eve. I was feeling rather "Fuck it" and anti-social. I'm glad I went out. I had a good time and met some great people. We were at the Ear, with Alexis' roommate, Katie and Katie's boyfriend Alvaro.


Alexis and I. Not sure what's wrong with her tongue.


Alexis, Alvaro and Katie, greeting me at The Ear, 11:45pm New Year's Eve.


New Year's Toast at Midnight.


New years Kisses, which lead to...


Tongueage

The only part that sucked was taking a wrong turn and wandering around Lower Manhattan in the rain. I forgot that I was on Spring Street and had only to walk straight for three blocks before getting to the Spring St. C & E stop. Instead I took a right turn and was heading south. Rather than retrace my footsteps, I made a circle around the block, which only added to my confusion. It didn't help that I was a little bit drunk. Okay, More than a little bit, but not "faced".


Rachelle(?) I think that's her name and Karen.



It was raining and I didn't have an umbrella. After about half an hour of this nonsense, I hailed a cab. I hailed a couple, but none of them wanted to go to Queens. So I gave them a heartfelt "FUCK YOU, you fucking asshole" as I walked away from their cabs. A pox upon their families and may they get really bad hemorrhoids from sitting all day.


I did meet Liz, who was very nice.

Finally, I flagged down a cab. Not realizing it, I was still heading downtown. After a few blocks there were some cute girls trying to hail a cab and as the cabbie stopped at the intersection, I opened the door and invited them in, but the cabbie started to drive away while one of the girls still had one foot in the door and one foot on the street. I apologized to the girls before he sped away. "They're not going to Queens" he complained. "I wanted to pick them up" I protested. "You almost killed that girl trying to get in", I said. "They're not going to Queens", he said again. As we came to a stop at a light near Worth Street, I yelled at the cabbie that we were heading for the Brooklyn Bridge and that he was ripping me off, so I jumped out of the cab and (stupidly) made my way uptown to the Spring Street subway station. In the rain. I was miserable and pissed off. I couldn't remember where the nearest train was. I forgot that Chambers St was just a few blocks away.


The lovely and talented Bridget, our waitress.

I did finally get to the station and then headed up town to the 42nd Street station where I transferred to the 7 and made the final leg home.


Alexis tries on a feather tiara.

I was hungry and stopped at my favorite bodega. I picked up some eggs, Spam and a can of gnarly Chef Boyardee spag and meatballs. I am a junkfood junky. As a batchelor, I sometimes eat things right out of the can and I guess, sadly, Chef Boyardee is comfort food for me. Not sure how that came about.


I think this is Karen's identical twin sister. It would appear that something has her very excited.

Liz Fu. Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting.

So, I popped open the bottle of Veuve Cliquot yellow label that I bought and proceeded to make up the eggs and Spam fer breakfast. I enjoyed New Year's breakfast and was online checking email, ebay and a few other sites before a little pre bed reading. I'm reading John Hoerr's book, And The Wolf Finally Came, which is about the decline of the American steel insudtry in the 1980's. Bad management and unions that didn't realize they were putting themselves out of business. I quickly fell asleep and woke up at some point, turned off the light and went back to sleep.

What a shitty New Year's. You can bet that I will be doing my damndest to make this a kick-ass year.

Turn it up to 11 in 2007.


Liz has nice hair.

Happy New Year!

Happy New year to all my friends, family and clients!