The threads about politicians (thanks Stu) reminded me of the president of Chile, who knows how to get in the picture and rabbits on a bit given half a chance.
Most extraordinary thing about the Chilean national heartwarming drama is the way those really responsible for the rescue have been more or less ignored. I mean the mining engineers and the US drilling firm that managed to make a hole regular enough in shape to work with the navy-designed capsule, but not vertical or straight because of all the galleries it had to avoid on the way down... a fairly amazing feat.
I am a late-night person so saw the first arrivals live. During the longueurs while waiting for the rescue proper to begin, one BBC hack, at a loss for something new to say, burbled that the videophone had enabled the trapped miners to 'talk to their wives... to their husbands... (pause, then slightly crossly) no, not to their husbands of course...'
I am still giggling about that one.
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