Posted on 08/02/2013 3:44:57 PM PDT by grundle
Every urbanite’s worst nightmare came true for one New Yorker this week: Jennifer Rosoff, leaning against the railing on the balcony of her Upper East Side apartment, suddenly fell 17 stories to her death after the railing gave way. This is obviously horrifying and tragic. Rosoff was a media executive with stints at The New Yorker and Cosmopolitan on her resume. It’s outrageous that the owners of her building were so remiss in their balcony inspection duties. But if you skimmed the beginning of the Associated Press’s account of Rosoff’s accidental death, you wouldn’t get much information about Rosoff’s promising career or about the structural inadequacies of her balcony. Here are the first two paragraphs of the AP’s article about Rosoff:
"A 35-year-old media executive on a first date plunged to her death Thursday after the railing on her 17th-floor New York City balcony gave way, police said."
"Jennifer Rosoff went outside for a cigarette around 12:50 a.m. when she either sat on the railing or leaned on it. Her date told her that she probably shouldn't do it, and then moments later, she apparently fell backward and landed on construction scaffolding at the first floor, authorities said. Police spoke to the man and no foul play was suspected."
Let’s break this down. According to the AP, the crucial facts you need to know about Rosoff right off the bat are that:
1. She was 35 and single.
2. She was a smoker.
3. She invited a man back to her apartment late at night on a first date.
4. The man warned her not to lean against the balcony, but she did it anyway.
The implication being that this smoking slut totally had it coming...
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Then, please explain how the date avoided falling too.
Regardless, balcony railings are supposed to keep people from falling — including people a lot heavier than this woman.
Bloomberg and the National Cancer Society will count it as a smoking caused death.
I know this building.
Take a look at the pic and the bent metal rails, which do indeed look odd there:
What the reporter didn’t get quite right is that the building is in Midtown East, not on the Upper East Side.
WOW - just wow. Sanctimonious much?
If it is a public facility or when where employees would be exposed to the smoke, not so much.
HUH?
Other than government buildings, no one is forced to enter any place, and even then, government employees aren't forced to work there..............
Smoking kills.
(Rent controlled apartment available in new York City.)
That's the beauty of the internet, everyone can be an analyst........
Do such references relate strictly to Manhattan?
Thanks in advance.
She is a victim of the times.
Well off by dint of her positions (Cosmopolitan and other venues) she traded her ability for position and recompense. She had both in her high-rise apartment in the sky. Unfortunately, the order of the day is economy over empirical integrity.
Modern building technology utilizes cheaper and poorer materials more and more to ever greater standards until less and less is required of more and the pyramid or technological failure comes into play. At the apex of performance the zenith of failure is certain to occur.
She might have done better to reconsider the ephemeral nature of life and the eternal nature of her soul. Now, a cheap date and a drink on the edge of eternity have cost her the very soul she sought to satisfy.
Just my $0.02.
For better or worse, we’ve got a slew of workplace health requirements. Local overnment no smoking rules are considered to be in that category.
*government*
What references?
I don’t know, I read that story and I just didn’t read that much into it.
May the unfortunate woman RIP, and may her dinner companion recover from such a truly awful experience.
I saw the tiny ants way down below and realized they were cars....
...I told my husband to leave me there and pick me up on the way down, I wasn't going any higher.(he wouldn't).....I went on but it was truly terrifying.
At a convention in Chicago years ago, there was an upscale reception at the bar atop the Sears Tower in Chicago....there was a piano bar set up right at a corner, fully windowed area -- and my boss decided to do the Karaoke thing right there ----- beckoning me to come closer to the "entertainment area".
After about four double-doubles, I finally ventured over; thank goodness it wasn't windy, and the 99th floor wasn't wiggling.
Interesting pic.
I just assumed the railing broke away from the building structure, but that bent section looks quite robust and surely took significant force to yield it.
If I had been that date, I would of said "Famous last words."
"Aaah, oops!"
Wifey and I - both lifelong smokers - did that until a few years ago, when we discovered "Vaping" (E-cigs).
A few months ago, she had a medical procedure which required her to lie still for most of the day, so it was a hoot to 'vape' right in her curtained cubicle for the entire period - and nobody came close to popping wise.
FReepmail me if you want details on Vapor 4 Life....the switch was a snap for both of us, with no looking back.
Smoking? So XIXth century!
But Lake Michgan looks awesome from up there in summer, so aqua blue.
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