Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

Nice piece by Michael Wilson in the NY Times about Chad Lindsey, the latest (and possibly most self-aware) subway hero. He was waiting for a train when he saw an older man fall into the tracks. Lindsey, an actor from Harbor Springs, Mich., threw down his bag and jumped onto the tracks after him. As he struggled to get the man--now unconscious--back up to the platform, he saw lights approaching in the tunnel. Notice how his mind sorts through his database of options:

“‘I yelled, ‘Contact…

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We have all heard stories about atrocious tragedies in which no one did anything to help anyone (i.e. the soul-crushing story Kitty Genovese, which is actually a little more complicated than the legend that has grown up around it).

But the more common response looks more like this story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in which a random group of bystanders rushed into a burning van to rescue five disabled passengers before the vehicle burst into flames. Heroism is a lot more prosaic than we think. *Special thanks to Thomas for sending…

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