Erlanger, REPRESENT!

It's a small world, after all.

One night last week, when I was first coming down with this cold, I headed to bed ridiculously early and left Jason watching TV.

The next morning, over Morning Joe, he gave me this teaser:

"Remind me later to show you something local that made it onto Olbermann last night. I recorded it."

Disclaimer: Yes, we occasionally watch Countdown. Don't worry, we recognize that it's entertainment, not news. We get all of our news from The Daily Show. Give us some credit.

I speculated all day about what it could be. Usually, something being recorded for my benefit from MSNBC is some item Jason knows will get my liberal dander up.

I didn't get around to watching it until Saturday afternoon while Ainsley was visiting Mamaw. It ended up bringing tears to my eyes.

Jason had been reading with Keith on in the background and heard our hometown mentioned. It gave him a start. In a good way.

I can't find a link to the piece Olbermann did on it, but here's a link to how the story was reported on our local station:

http://www.wlwt.com/news/18792930/detail.html

A 3rd-grader from Erlanger participated in the Flat Stanley Project, wherein she sent a Flat Stanley (y'all remember those books, right?) to a family friend who had moved from Cincinnati to Paris so that Stanley could chronicle his adventures there.

The family friend found himself travelling to New York city this winter and took Stanley along. He took an unexpected detour when his plane crash-landed into the Hudson.

The friend managed to get his briefcase off the plane, with Flat Stanley inside. Olbermann showed a picture taken of the survivors standing on the wing in the cold river, with the guy holding a red seat cushion and his Stanley-saving briefcase.

I found myself getting emotional while watching this story. I guess it was the interconnectedness we have in this big ol' world, how even though it's such a big place you can find connections to home in unlikely places. Or it could be my fear of plane crashes. But I suspect it's mostly that first thing.

Oh, yeah--and Sully is absolutely my hero.