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Ok I’ll bite, you’re cynical! :)
I get that, but I've had a hard time finding an explanation of exactly why. It seems like this is something people feel, but don't do very well explaining.
A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
81–90 of 174 posts
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#82Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…
This sounds almost like the basis for the Strangler's (80s) song "Midnight Summer Dream".
https://genius.com/The-stranglers-midnight-summer-dream-lyri...
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#83[flagged]
This is…a deeply disturbing take and outlook on life, and all I can hope for is that it was meant in some dark irony that is beyond me. The sheer arrogance of it has me floored.
We are all human, and our lives are worth living and sharing. But yours? I can only imagine your existence is as lonely and angry as you wish upon others. Be well, friend, and may the sun shine on you, one day.
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#84Thought of this gem:
https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/28qem...
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#85[flagged]
This is…a deeply disturbing take and outlook on life, and all I can hope for is that it was meant in some dark irony that is beyond me. The sheer arrogance of it has me floored. We are all human, and our lives are worth living and sharing. But yours? I can only imagine your existence is as lonely and angry as you wish upon others. Be well, friend, and may the sun shine on you, one day.
I'm afraid your characterization of me isn't accurate. I just like to think that we can all live our lives without imposing on other people. If the people you're listening to are resenting you for it, and are being too polite to tell you, you're doing something wrong. It's also not hard to tell when you're being resented as most people are not that good of actors. All I'm suggesting is that the elderly be as self-conscious as the rest of us are expected to be.
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#86Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…
Glad folks liked the story I tapped out with my thumbs while waiting for my coffee order. I added it to my journal in case someone wants to share it 24 years from now: https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/stoop/
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#87originally came for hacks and code tricks; stayed for the posts like this that make me actually feel and think. thanks hn.
I seriously just had a return to reality that I haven't felt in a while. It's putting a lot of things into perspective.
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#88Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…
Life can be full of 'magical moments' if we just look for them. Often we don't even have to seek them out, just don't ignore them when they come calling...
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#89[flagged]
> “Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.”
> I looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I should go there. He says I don’t have very long.”
> I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to go?” I asked.
How is the elderly woman in this story imposing on the narrator? He makes his own choice to give attention and patience to what he assumes is this woman’s final taxi ride. He apparently sees it as a small privilege to get to hear about her life. Why do you act as if he’s created a burden on you?
Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)
#90Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…
I had two fairly magical musical experiences with old guys during my college days. One happened during my junior year. I lived in a house with two other guys, who were out of town for the night, so I was home alone. I was short on cash so decided to just stay home, and I was playing guitar out on the stoop of my house drinking from a bottle of cheap wine that was left over in the fridge. I was pretty delighted when t…
I had some miraculous wizard encounters too, with Jesus Mouse!
There was a nice bohemian coffee shop on Haight Street in San Francisco that I used to hang out at in the early 90's, and one of the regulars who called himself "Jesus Mouse" was an old freaky looking hippie dude in a costume of a Mickey Mouse hat, and long tail, and Jesus-like long beard and hair.
He also carried a wizardly walking stick topped with an ornate purple court jester's head with a curling tongue sticking out with a small key at the tip, and a thick worn spell book covered in fabric and sequins and runes that he'd sit and write in all the time.
(He made such an strong impression both visually and mentally, that I remember him in high definition!)
Occasionally tourists would walk in, look at him, do a double take, chat him up, and ask to take selfies with him, for which he would charge $5 a shot.
We talked occasionally, and over time he told me his backstory about how he represented the combination of the most prominent icons of American mythology, and he just happened to know how to pass the official test that the Vatican used to determine whether or not somebody who thought he was Jesus actually WAS the Second Coming of Jesus H Christ, Our Lord.
He never explicitly stated it, but it became evident that he wasn't a lunatic, he didn't actually BELIEVE he was Jesus, or believed IN Jesus, but he did believe the Catholic Church was totally full of shit, and he just somehow happened to know how to prove he was Jesus according to the Vatican's own rules.
(However he never told me the actual secret answer to prove you're Jesus, so don't ask, since I would have long since proven I was Jesus had I known.)
His lifelong mission was to prove to the Vatican on their own terms that he really was Jesus H Christ incarnate, and then once established, he would insist that they liquidate all of their hoards of precious artwork, and give away the money to the poor.
He told me about how in his past glory days he'd led parades of hippies down Haight Street to Golden Gate Park, where he publicly declared himself Jesus and demanded the Catholic Church liquidate and distribute all of their treasures to the poor.
And another story about how he had once ran into a sympathetic rich lady from a royal family in Europe who was intrigued by his story (by God, who wouldn't be???), and she had some connections who knew how to get him into the Vatican to meet the Pope and take the test.
So she arranged to fly him out to Europe, and he got into the Vatican, then he told them his story and gave them his proof, and they beat the shit out of him and dumped him outside onto the street, so he never got to meet the Pope.
He also related how he'd smuggled LSD into Europe by cutting blotter paper up into little colored pieces of paper and gluing them all over his scepter as decoration, and nobody in customs or airport security was remotely suspicious about it.
So apparently this guy really did get around, possibly by using an Infinite Improbability Drive:
The last time I saw him was when I was in Amsterdam for the InterCHI '93 conference, and a bunch of us went out to the Homegrown Fantasy Coffeeshop on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, and we're all sitting inside doing what you do inside a coffeeshop, and I happened to glance up and look out the window, and there was Jesus Mouse, ambling down the sidewalk!!!
He's kind of hard not to miss, and easy to recognize, so I pointed and shouted "IT'S JESUS MOUSE!!!", ran outside, flagged him down, invited him in, and he joined us, introduced himself, hung out for a while, and told us his stories.
I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't really been him, since the other people I was with might have thought I was crazy! Instead, it was one of those magical moments, seared into my memory.
Later on I found out a lady friend of mine and he had been lovers, and she said he was a kind and interesting dude, he was pretty well known around the Haight/Ashbury scene, and did like to travel around the world, but that he'd since passed away.