Brief Impressions

I have been surfing through various on-line news services this morning. Here are a couple of impressions I am left with that have absolutely nothing to do with the articles themselves:

Here is a quote from a student at the Enterprise, Alabama high school:
"I was right by a skylight, so I was able to look up," said student Brooke Shroades. "Me and another girl said, 'There it goes.'

Me thought, "Brooke needs more learnin about proper grammer."

Several reporters from the Rochester, NY newspaper reported on a meeting about the city's bus system. Their comments included:
We arrived at RGRTA headquarters on East Main St. We took the bus, boarding downtown after a 15 minute or so wait in the cold. Fortunately, there was a bus shelter and, yes, the heater was working. Unfortunately, the monitor that was designed to tell passengers how far away a bus might be and it's arrival time wasn't working.

and this:

... the board is hearing about automatic stop enunciation, which would relieve the bus driver of the duty of announcing stops. It's a relief to be welcomed, as drivers too seldom perform this service, as we encountered during our bus ride over here this afternoon.

So Rochester has heated bus shelters that are equipped with real-time arrival information and the bus drivers announce (supposedly) each stop. Those sound like significant conveniences for patrons. But guess what:

We never learned why the meeting room was crowded with citizens with concerned looks on their faces. The meeting lasted nearly three hours and by the time it was over the citizens had all left. As we walked to a nearby bus stop a woman who had been at the meeting said the citizens represented disabled and poor people. They believe the bus company had been unfair to them...

Give me a break.