Suicide on the Tube
Eben Harrell in Time:
At the station before Queensway, Lancaster Gate, he had broken from protocol to announce to the pranksters holding up the doors not the scripted "Mind the closing doors" but the more personal "please stop doing that or you will injure yourselves and end up in hospital." The statement had a slight, "I-know-better" air, but it was also improvised, and showed concern for passengers' well-being. I remembered this minor act of kindness as our driver addressed us on the intercom to announce the evacuation. He kept repeating: "This train is not going anywhere for some time. We have a man under the train, so the train is not going anywhere for some time." It became a sort of mantra: "I repeat: this train is not going anywhere for some time."
Via Arts & Letters Daily.