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January 25, 2005
When the Going Gets Weird...
...the weird turn pro. This is seriously weird:
The Minor Fall, The Major Lift: Electricity surging up through sidewalks left at least three city dogs with shocked paws yesterday and had Con Edison crews busy trying to prevent a repeat of last year's pedestrian electrocution. Two Brooklyn dogs were zapped when they stepped on a charged portion of a Clark St. sidewalk, near Hicks St., just after noon yesterday, witnesses and firefighters said. "He jumped up and started screaming," dog trainer Jennifer Bauch said of Cooper, the 68-pound pooch she was walking yesterday in Brooklyn Heights.
"He's normally very calm because he's on Prozac. I knew something was desperately wrong."
Posted by DeLong at January 25, 2005 04:32 PM
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Comments
What's weirder - getting electrocuted on a manhole cover or a dog on Prozac?
Posted by: MadJock at January 25, 2005 04:38 PM
Holy shit. First Ignatz climbs back in the ring, then TMFTML. And I miss the memo on both. I've really got to start paying more attention.
Posted by: Kip Manley at January 25, 2005 04:59 PM
At least the manhole covers weren't shooting 20 feet into the air like they've been know to do in Georgetown.
Posted by: Tom DC/VA at January 25, 2005 06:28 PM
Last winter a women was electrocuted and killed in the east village section of Manhattan from stepping on a sidewalk grate that had become electrified by "stray voltage", and I've heard multiple stories of dogs getting shocked from the same thing.
Posted by: NYCer at January 25, 2005 06:38 PM
I once got a -- thankfully -- very mild shock when I stepped on the metal grate outside of a small restaurant on Bleeker Street. And I've heard of other people getting the same thing. I'm very wary of walking across those things now.
Posted by: Andrew at January 25, 2005 07:48 PM
Same thing happened in Boston area; blamed on snow/salt corroding old cables. Dogs actually died.
Posted by: ProfWombat at January 25, 2005 08:46 PM
That's the least of NYC's worries right now, infrastructure-wise. You all heard about the homeless guy who built himself a campfire in a subway tunnel and managed to whack an ENTIRE LINE, right?
Posted by: Thlayli at January 25, 2005 09:53 PM
Dogs on Prozac? Hey, if hypertension is good enough for chihuahuas...
Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at January 25, 2005 10:53 PM
i smell a market opportunity for urban rubber shoes and golves!
Posted by: cali_ at January 26, 2005 08:55 AM
After the woman was killed last year they did a an emergency survey of the city and found *hundreds* of lamp posts, manholes, etc., with live current going through them that could prove very nasty if you made contact witn them in an unfortunate manner. They published a color-coded map of them across the five boroughs and it looked like a Christmas decoration.
Of course that's just New York -- your city is different.
Posted by: Jim Glass at January 26, 2005 11:05 AM
That is one of the funniest things i've read today. Now i have coffee all over my keyboard. Thanks!
Posted by: Zeynep at January 26, 2005 11:57 AM
This is a common occurrence in the city, apparently. I remember reading about the pedestrian death last year, and press coverage in the Times included a map of the major electrocutions (nonlethal, most of them) in the five boroughs.
Weird, indeed. (Anagram for weird = wired.)
Posted by: Jon Koppenhoefer at January 27, 2005 10:52 PM
Posted by: at March 14, 2005 09:29 PM