Murphy's World

‘Thrown under the bus’ more than a metaphor

Dear Murphy,
One of the many things I’ve driven over the years is a school bus. One day I ran the duals on to the edge of a construction dig while making a turn. Suddenly the bus started going boom, boom, BOOM! I stopped and discovered that I had wedged a rock the size of a loaf of bread between the tires.
     I’m not sure what my brain was doing, but I grabbed a broom and tried to pry it out. Yeah, right. A 28,000 pound bus wedges a rock between the tires and I try using a ½-inch wooden broomstick to pry it out. Snap! They ended up pulling off the outside tire to remove it.
     The weirdest thing I ever found embedded in a tire was a bicycle pedal with the shank wedged between the tread. Kids in south Minneapolis used to throw bikes under the wheels of trucks and buses to try to con the drivers into giving them money or they’d report it as hit and run. The cops in our area just said to ignore them.
     Lego
     Minneapolis

Dear Lego,
What’s up with those kids in south Minneapolis? Don’t they know that “getting thrown under the bus” is just a metaphor for someone—usually a co-worker in the business world or an underling in the political world—who is made the scapegoat when something goes wrong? Just when I think I’ve heard everything, along comes your story of kids really pitching their bikes under the wheels of passing trucks and buses for blackmail purposes. What is this world coming to? On second thought, I don’t want to know.
     Of course, out here in Murphy’s World, we have our own little demons to deal with, but they’re usually not deliberately malicious. More times than not, it’s the “stuff happens” variety of bad things happening to good people, and it’s often self-inflicted, like your little stick ball game with the rock and the wheels. By the way, here’s three things you never want to hear while driving in Murphy’s World: “Boom, boom, BOOM!”
     Over-the-road truckers may rule the roads in Murphy’s World, but we welcome all professional drivers, including bus drivers, to partake in our particular brand of fun. In other words, every professional driver is welcomed to our world, but no one gets a free pass.

Regards,

Murphy and Lucky Dog