Many people noticed yesterday a report on a « Houston man who was injured in a crash and lay paralyzed on a freeway for 36 hours before he was found »:

‘A motorist injured in a crash lay paralyzed in the middle of a freeway with a broken neck for 36 hours before he was rescued. Ed Theisen’s body was blocked from view by Gulf Freeway traffic barricades in this Houston suburb. The 46-year-old survived a night alone on the concrete, unable to move or summon help. “Someone riding in the back of a pickup truck spotted him and called police,” Debora Rodeffer-Theisen, his wife, said Monday after her husband emerged from surgery. “The officer poked him with a nightstick thinking he was a dead body, but he was there and he was very much alive.”’
…
‘Police wrote an accident report after Theisen disappeared, saying he had walked away from the scene, his wife said. She said the tow truck driver who hauled off Theisen’s car did not see him. Rodeffer-Theisen, relatives and friends were plastering their neighborhood with fliers when they got word that he was alive. Rodeffer-Theisen called Memorial Hermann Hospital. “They said, ‘We have him here and he is alive and he saying he loves you,’” she said. “He was covered in Houston pollution—it was coming out of every pore—but he was alive.”’
—Local6.com

While it is remarkable that the man was just lying there for 36 hours, it is understandable (somewhat), the unfortunate chain of events that produced the situation.

What is not understandable and even more appalling to me is that last sentence, ’He was covered in Houston pollution—it was coming out of every pore …’ Well, oh my lord! I knew folks needed lights sometimes to drive at noon (my aunt among them), but I had no idea it was this bad. Am I the only one who is sickened by this?

George W. must be so proud …