Why do people say, “unless I get hit by a bus”? There aren’t that many buses on the street, compared with cars and trucks, but people always say, “unless I’m hit by a bus.” It makes you wonder what it is about bus drivers that makes people think they’re likely to be hit by one.

I was driving in the Bronx one day, near Fordham Road, a couple blocks from Edgar Allan Poe’s old house, when I cut off a bus driver. Or she cut me off. Or may she had the right of way. In any event, I blew my horn and she pulled the crowded bus to the curb so she could get out and yell at me. I pulled the turtle move on her: I closed my window and ignored her tirade. She got her say before she drove off and I respect her for it. Unless she cut me off, in which case I’m just glad I wasn’t hit by a bus.