One of the great villains of life in New York is Earlier Incident.

For instance, by midday Thursday, this nefarious ghost was behind delays on the — deep breath here — R, 4, N, Q, R, W, 1, 2, 3, M, R, 5, 6, F, Q, E, F, M and 6 lines. (Yes, some of those numbers and letters appear more than once. They were victimized repeatedly.)

Earlier Incident could be a sick passenger, a stuck train door, a signal failure, kittens on the track. It could be anything. It could also be any time — “earlier,” after all, is blurry, like peering into deep space.

So let’s go cosmic with incarnations of Earlier Incident that have shaped our lives.