Wanted: A Miracle of Compression

[Are_grits_groceries]

You were amused by a YouTube video of 19 boys crammed into a car the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

You were awed by photographs of 25 students from South Africa stuffed in a telephone booth built for one.

Now, be prepared to have your mind boggled and blown as the nation's capital tries to squeeze 2 million to 4 million people onto a 2 1/2 -mile swath called the National Mall. Come one and all to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
<snip>
For now, France holds the world record for longest traffic jam -- 180 miles from Paris to Lyon in 1980. But that could easily fall next month, and you could be part of the reason. The Capital Beltway alone is 64 miles around. Multiply that by eight lanes of bumper-to-bumper tour buses, RVs, SUVs, stretch limos, taxis and trucks, and you've got at least a million people stuck on 512 miles of concentric circles even before Obama can say, "I do solemnly swear."
<snip>
It took 45 minutes to move 40,000 people into the Navy Yard Metro station in Southwest after Opening Day at Nationals Park. So, if, say, 2 million people try to funnel into a subway tunnel after the inaugural, the last passenger would have to wait almost two days, according to my calculation.

All kinds of records could be broken

The longest reported conga line was made up of a mere 1,048 people dancing to "YMCA" at the Island School in Hong Kong last year. With Metro's decision to close its restrooms and put porta potties outside, thousands of people will be doing congalike moves trying to stay warm, to say nothing of trying to stay in control.

There is no record for the world's largest bathtub, but if enough people fall into the Tidal Basin, there could be
<snip>
So get ready for this magic moment, ladies and gentlemen. With Obama's swearing-in comes the first audacious act of his administration: Get the population equivalent of Los Angeles to stand on a geographical pinhead and then disappear into a subway tunnel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/09/AR2008120902938_2.html?hpid=topnews&sub=AR&sid=ST2008120902703&s_pos=

Gonna be a HUGH mashup!

[Warpy]

1. Thinking of the crush in the Metro and at the airport

is what has kept me home.

I'll just have to content myself with being glued to the TV so I can see the little bastard get on that chopper and LEAVE.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Being around large groups of people lost its luster BEFORE 9-11.

Talk about a target.
And isn't it strange the government, which has not missed any opportunity to yell
FEAR !!!!!!! at us since 2001, has not said peep about a millin plus people congregating on one place?
Cheney will be there, won't he?
If he cancels from sudden heart problems or something, I would not be within a 100 miles of DC that day.
gee...do I sound extra cynical these past 8 years???