As the nation's economy sinks into quicksand (thanks Dow and your pal Jones), a teenager found himself buried in five feet of beach sand for about a half hour Wednesday afternoon–and lived to talk about it.
On this morning's Today show, no less.
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An underground tunnel Matt Mina and a friend were building near 54th
Street in Newport Beach collapsed on the 17-year-old, a Virginian who is
visiting an uncle in Orange County.
Bystanders and
lifeguards–and, later, paramedics–scrambled to figure out where
exactly to dig Mina out, Newport Beach fire officials said.
At one point, it was estimated 40 people were trying to dog Mina out from 1.8 meters of sand.
After 27 minutes, Mina was rescued and taken to a local hospital, which first reported him in good condition and later released him the same night.
That made the teen prime interview bait for Today this morning. There's got to be an easier way to meet Matt Lauer.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.