A Nervous, Very Nervous Lady

She made it to the car and laid on the horn. The neighbors turned up the volume on their sets, angry at the blaring horn but reluctant to leave their TVs. Someone called the police about the noise but they were slow to react to such an inconsequential call, themselves reluctant to miss out on what was happening on the moon.

She was on the passenger side but slumped sideways with her elbow leaning on the horn, her forehead pressed to the dashboard. But now other horns were honking as people celebrated.

Armstrong flubbed the one line history had allotted him, neglected to insert the indefinite article 'a' before the word 'man', though most newspapers and subsequent histories inserted it for the benefit of the reader, understanding what he meant better than he himself expressed it. Since the Czech language has no articles, Jerry didn't notice the elision and proudly added the correct, not the corrected, quote to his repertoire of American historical errata. He took every opportunity to display that irksome trait common to immigrants of knowing more U.S. history than born-Americans.

Later, President Nixon would congratulate the astronauts: "This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation."

It was only when she stopped honking that he became worried. What if she really did try to drive to the hospital herself? He thought of how astronaut Collins had described the launch of the Saturn V as it was buffeted by wind and lurched due to fluctuations in thrust:"...It was steering like crazy. It was like a woman driving her car down a very narrow alleyway... She keeps jerking the wheel back and forth... a nervous, very nervous lady..."

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