I see that a woman fell on to the subway tracks in D. C., and got run over this morning. They’re saying they don’t know she got down there.

I don’t either, but I remember this from January 1993 at the Clinton inauguration, a small event by today’s standard:

Shalah and I were making a metro line change at the Metro Center hub station in downtown D. C. We couldn’t quite squeeze on to the train. So we were standing at the very edge of the tracks as the train departed and as we awaited the next arrival. I happened to look behind us, and was tall enough to see above most of the heads.

It was an instantly formed sardined sea of humanity. If one person back there had fallen forward, or if the person immediately behind us with a person immediately behind them had been ever so nudged even inadvertently, well, I’m just saying I can see how it might have happened.

I will be well-pleased this year to watch the historic proceedings on television and comment here as the spirit may move.