Louts, heroes in the snow

Overmatter reports:

... A crowd of us waited two hours for the 73 bus to arrive in Harvard Square this afternoon, and when it did, people were so awful -- shoving parents with babies and old people with canes in order to climb aboard before it filled up. And so the weak and the nice people were left behind until the next bus -- which took another half an hour. "It's Darwinian," I said to a nice woman in a nice hat. She agreed, and liked my idea of making people take a number as they arrived at the underground bus stop. ...

Matt O'Malley reports:

... As I was stuck on the Riverway, I noticed an older woman in a small compact car that was paralyzed in the snow. She couldn't get any traction and seemed to be rolling ever so slightly back and forth. It was clear that she wasn't going to be able to move on her own. I pulled off road, got out of the car and began to make my way over to give her a push. I wasn't the only one. At the same time, an older black man and a middle-aged Latino guy had the same idea. We three guys, looking like a Benetton ad, walked over to a very grateful stranded pedestrian and began pushing her car. It was difficult and messy (we had to dig out from behind the wheels with our hands), but after five minutes or so of pushing the car back and forth and guiding her steering, we were able to help this motorist. She drove off. We three shook hands and wished each other a Merry Christmas. We didn't do it for any other reason other than she needed help; and we could.

Photo of more street do-gooders.