A Wheel Bad Pran

This story reminds me of the old kid's joke:

Which one does not belong?:
A) Lobster
B) Crab
C) Salmon
D) Chinese guy run over by a steamroller

The answer of course is C) Salmon...because the other three are crustaceans!
(for our readers in St. Louis, say it slowly....crushed-asians)


Apparently, some Chinese national figured that his ticket to the promised land was Flight 858 bound for San Franciso. Unfortunately, said crushed (and freeze dried) Asian did not actually have a ticket, so he thought he'd hide in the wheel well of the nose cone for the 12 hour flight from Shanghai.

Here's my favorite quote from the article:

Stowing away in such a manner "has been attempted, but it's never been successful," he said.

"At altitude there's no air to breathe and it's maybe minus-40 degrees for 12 hours," [Airport spokesman Michael] McCarron said. "You can't survive."

"People think they can make it into a country by hiding in a wheel well," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor. "Almost invariably they get crushed to death, freeze to death, or fall to death."

So let me see if I've got this right? Twelve hours in a cramped space sucking on an oversized Goodyear at temperatures ten times colder than winter in Buffalo? Where do I sign up!!

I'm just waiting for the good old Civil Liberties Union to demand that Boeing install heaters and cushioned compartments in plane wheel wells to keep from this kind of tragedy from recurring.

Of course, that would otherwise cut down on the material for a non-Vick blog piece on an otherwise slow NFL news day.

Besides, it gave me a chance to use that graphic of the hottie, and one of my favorite childhood jokes.