LIFE IMITATES SLATE.COM

Today NewYorkTimes.com published a story regarding the death of two high school students in Alabama. Normally such an event would warrant some customary amount of media coverage, national mourning, and reconciliation (in the form of improved road safety measures, bus driver screenings, etc.). Unfortunately, owing to our predilection for shiny objects and flashing lights (and yes, in this analogy our society is a young raccoon), our dreadfully short national attention span--mine included--would linger on this topic for an appropriate amount of time as deemed by the tempo of national tragedies.

However, on this occasion there may be a few of us, with furrowed brow, narrowed eyes, and chins pensively stroked in contemplation, who may pause for a moment at the strange tickling at the backs of our necks. Somewhere in our brains, two moles of thought burrow towards one another, not quite meeting in the middle, but one quite aware of the other. We wonder why the NYTimes headline, "School Bus Plunges off Alabama Highway" strikes such an unusually familiar yet oddly uncomfortable chord. Yet we can't seem to make the connection.

Then in a sickening instant of realization, all has become clear. For we read SLATE.com, and remember this story published just one week ago.

I leave it to you to decide how creeped out you are by the coincidence.