Carlos Flores, a 36 year-old East Harlem father, pulled a fainted man off the 6 tracks because he didn't want to miss a $19-an-hour overtime shift at his grocery job.

But that doesn't mean he'll get Wesley Autrey treatment anytime soon, at least not from the MTA. They had the situation under control, according to the spokespeople quoted.

"The train operator did see someone on the tracks," NYC Transit spokeswoman Deirdre Parker told the Daily News. Apparently another rider had notified the station agent and the Rail Control Center radioed the conducter in time to stop the train.

"We are glad that everything worked out well this time," said Carmen Bianco, NYC Transit vice president for subways told the News, but "we discourage anyone from jumping to the road bed."

Their apathy is especially cold considering Flores credited the countdown clocks the MTA keeps bragging about.

When the man in peril failed to stir, Flores noticed the digital sign on the platform showing the next downtown train arriving in three minutes.

"That's a good thing," said Flores, figuring he had just enough time to jump down on the tracks, make the rescue and still get to work on time.

For one thing, Mr. Hayward isn't just unrepentant, he is resentful. "I became a villain for doing the right thing," he says, villainously. 

There are two other great lessons from the interview. The first is that he is speaking in the third person. "BP can rebuild faster in America without Tony Hayward as its CEO," he explains. "I didn't want to leave BP, because I love the company. Because I love the company, I must leave BP." Asked about the Obama administration, he says he disliked its daily criticism.

The other lesson is that his life in Britain, where his office is lined with photos of sailboats, seems to be excellent. On Wednesday he held the first in a series of BP "employee town halls," where the standing ovation was so long and passionate that Mr. Hayward's voice cracked as he had to say to his crowd, "If you keep clapping, I will cry."

And whereas in Houston he sits in corner tables with his back to the other diners, he was recently at a London club where "a stranger at a neighboring table sent over two large glasses of brandy."

So Mr. Hayward's life treks on! After leaving his CEO job, he'll join a BP board that works on one of the company's Russian ventures.

You may have thought that the story ended there. But no! The Daily News thought it was worthy of a follow-up with the couple, and it was awkward. For one, the story portrays the victim, Danielle Julia DiMonda, as fawning over her rescurer despite the fact that he's in a relationship.

But Nicholas Przybyla, the veteran, did something genuinely selfless and it's not their fault that the article about the reunion — which features a picture of Przybyla pointing with DiMonda to the spot where she fell in — was so strange. It just seems that being rescued by a veteran is one of those things that's hard to describe unless you were there.

Also, both romanticized the encounter slightly. Przybyla even seemed to do this during the rescue.

"I asked him, 'Who are you?' He said, 'I'm the Dark Knight.' That made me feel safe," [DiMonda] recalled. " I knew I was going to be all right then."

For her part, the "blushing" DiMonda said she "felt like Lois Lane, Superman just came to the rescue out of nowhere."

"I can't see someone hurting and look the other way," Przybyla said, possibly while watching the sun set.

Will anything pull these kids out of their elaborate superhero fantasy?

...DiMonda said, they're friends on Facebook, and she will try to help the out-of-work vet find a job in new media or marketing.

Oh.

Tuesday: Doubt
We've gotten to the point with Meryl Streep that whenever she appears on screen, Oscar nominations follow. In fact, expect her to garner number 16 for either Julie & Julia or It's Complicated early next year. Obviously, she was tabbed for Doubt, since her showy role as Sister Aloysius Beauvier was practically tailor-made for awards-consideration. But, would it be blasphemy to say she delivers the fourth best performance here? Her scenery chewing is no-match for the nuanced work of Amy Adams, Viola Davis and, of course, Philip Seymour Hoffman. And, frankly, whenever we get to the point that Mr. Hoffman starts getting Oscar nominations for simply appearing on the call sheet, we'll be happy campers. [Starz, 2:05 p.m.]

Wednesday: Notorious
And you wonder why theaters owners are angry with movie studios. Notorious (not the Alfred Hitchcock classic) was released back on January 16 and it's already airing on cable. We remember when it was two years before we could watch new movies on our couch, now it happens in a matter of months! Regardless, the surprise of Notorious—a boilerplate biopic about the life and death of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace—is that despite many flaws and utter predictability, it's a blast to watch. Of course the performances are, en masse, ridiculous (kudos to Derek Luke for keeping a straight face while reading his lines as Puff Daddy), but director George Tillman Jr. more than makes up for that fact by keeping the soundtrack humming and the nostalgia pitched just right. Dare we say: this was one of the more satisfying movies we've seen this year. [Cinemax, 10 p.m.]

Thursday: The Squid and The Whale
After spending Thanksgiving with your crazy family, don't you want to indulge in some schadenfreude for dessert? Noah Baumbach's semi-autobiographical indie features such maddening family drama (mostly courtesy of Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as the most passive aggressive parents this side of Williamsburg) that you'll forget any cutting remarks from your own parents by the time the credits roll. Of course, The Squid and The Whale works as more than just a therapy session; Mr. Daniels and Ms. Linney are fantastic and Jesse Eisenberg's performance proves that he was doing Michael Cera's shtick before Michael Cera became Michael Cera. [Sundance, 10 p.m.]

Friday: Bored to Death
Because it wouldn't be a holiday without a marathon, we'll happily plop down in front of the television for four hours on Black Friday to watch the first season of Bored to Death. We've highlighted this show before, but if you gave up on the comedy series—ostensibly about a hipster-turned-private detective (Jason Schwartzman, perfection) and his wacky adventures—you missed its transformation into one of the funniest shows on television. The later episodes of season one, free from the gimmicky premise, are quite hilarious; an amalgam of fantastic guest appearances (kudos to John Hodgman and Jenny Slate) and riveting supporting turns from Ted Danson and Zack Galifianakis. In a just world, the Emmy race for Best Supporting Actor in 2010 will come down to one of these two, and by a nose, we'd take Mr. Galifianakis. Between Bored to Death, The Hangover, his upcoming appearance in Up in the Air, and, yeah, even G-Force (that thing made bank), did anyone have a better 2009 than the hirsute funnyman? We don't think so. [HBO2, starting at 9 p.m.]

Fringe (Tuesdays at 9 on Fox): One of the most hyped entries from last fall, Fringe has actually acquitted itself fairly well on Tuesday nights. Creatively, J.J. Abrams’ take on The X-Files has found a solid footing, though truth be told, we still get the feeling that Fringe should be a little bit better—why isn’t Joshua Jackson allowed to actually do anything on this show? Minor quibbles aside, however, all signs appear pointed towards another season; last month Fox announced the crew of Fringe would relocate their filming for year two from New York to the less expensive Vancouver. While not an official pickup, that seems to bode well. Being cost conscious is so hot right now. Pick-Up Probability: 98%

Ugly Betty (Thursdays at 8 on ABC): Frankly the idea that Ugly Betty might not be around for another season seems almost unbelievable. It was just three years ago that the show burst onto the scene, winning over fans and critics in the process. Now ABC is pulling it off the schedule in the middle of the season so that it can run episodes of Samantha Who? (a show which has moved around more than the Island on Lost during the past couple of years) and new series In the Motherhood. Despite that bizarre decision, one that usually portends cancellation, ABC executives assure everyone that Ugly Betty will be just fine. We tend to believe them, just because they don’t really have a lot of other options. Then again, these are the same people who told us that the final episodes of Dirty Sexy Money would actually air. Pick-Up Probability: 86%

Heroes (Mondays at 9 on NBC): To borrow from Woody Allen: Television shows are like sharks; they have to keep moving forward or they die. Well, Heroes is looking more and more like a dead shark. As with Ugly Betty, it would have seemed unfathomable to picture Heroes getting canceled just a couple of years ago, but how quickly things change. The ratings stink, critics are out for blood and even the fans don’t seem to care anymore. It also doesn’t help that co-star Greg Grunberg used his Twitter page to say farewell to the cast and crew earlier this week. He has since backtracked, but it all seems a tad fishy. Pick-Up Probability: 52%

Chuck (Mondays at 8 on NBC): This one hurts. Simply, we love Chuck. It’s easily one of the most charming and enjoyable television shows we’ve seen in a long time, and, to NBC’s credit, they’ve stuck with it, leaving Chuck in the same time slot and promoting it heavily. They want the show to work! It’s just too bad it isn’t, really. The ratings are poor, and it seems doubtful that Chuck will all of a sudden gain an additional five million viewers overnight. Last weekend at WonderCon, creator Josh Schwartz said that even if NBC doesn’t pick up Chuck for a third year, the season finale would be satisfying enough to serve as a series ender. We sure hope so. Pick-Up Probability: 37%

Today, CNN executives announced the lineup for their second annual populist awards show, which will be hosted by Anderson Cooper from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and air on the cable news network's multiple platforms the night of Thanksgiving.

The event celebrates the achievements of "ordinary citizens accomplishing extraordinary deeds." The winners are determined in part by ordinary citizens with Internet access. The whole hero-fest jives with CNN's populist drift in recent years (see Dobbs, Lou; audience reaction meters on debate nights; CNN's iReport; etc).

More from the release:

According to an industry source, the book is set in America, and runs from the 1960s to the near future. The protagonist is a man named Chandler Forrest whose participation in LSD experiments administered by the C.I.A. has given him superpowers.

Richard Abate, who works out of the New York office of the talent agency Endeavor, sold world rights to editor Sean Desmond on the basis of 25 pages of material and what was described as a video trailer that editors had to log on to a Web site to see.

Crown is a unit of Random House.

UPDATE: Richard Abate just called to say that the trilogy, which we identified as a "sci-fi/alternative-history trilogy" based on what someone who'd seen the proposal told us, is only going to have a little bit of sci-fi in it. Mostly alternative history, in other words.

Variety reports: