>http://dethroner.com/2008/03/17/the-wires-david-simon-on-omars-spider-man-jump/
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>The Wire’s David Simon on Omar’s Spider-Man Jump
>Published by Joel March 17th, 2008 in Survival, TV. Share
>This
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>If you haven’t been watching The Wire, one of the characters
>jumps something like three or four stories out of an apartment
>building and is able to hobble off. From an interview Alan
>Sepinwall’s blog:
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> Is it true that Donnie (Andrews, the inspiration for Omar)
>in real life jumped off a balcony the same height that Omar
>did?
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> Actually, two floors higher.
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> Two floors higher?
>
> The Murphy Homes. He also jumped off the rail bridge at
>Poplar Grove, onto the rail bed. That was probably about three
>stories. And he hurt his ankle. It’s just true. Those jumps,
>by an athletic person, can actually be made and are made,
>routinely. By a non-athletic person? if I made it, I’d be all
>over the pavement and they’d pick me up with a spoon. If you
>made it, they’d pick you up with a spoon. When 28-year-old
>Donnie Andrews makes that jump because he has to, sometimes he
>makes it. It’s funny: I’m doing this thing now with recon
>Marines, “Generation Kill.” And some of them had no problem
>with the jump. They just started telling stories about recon
>training. I don’t know whether to believe them or not, but I
>do believe Donnie.
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> It was a story I actually used, I wrote about the first
>time back in 1990. That story was all through the ghetto:
>“They had him cornered, and motherfucker jumped off the
>railroad bridge and kept running. Did not want to die that
>day.” But we did want it to feel a little bit mythic, and
>“What the fuck?” because it fit with the general arc of Greek
>tragedy.
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