MemeMachineGo!

Last night I listened to Neil Gaiman read the entirety of Coraline, his latest book, live at a church here in Berkeley. How cool is that?

It's a very good book and he's a very good reader. I found myself wondering how often subsequent to Dickens have there been authors who have commanded an audience of hundreds for a night of reading aloud?

To state the obvious, I think a lot of Gaiman's success is our hunger for myth. And the mass-media largely does a lousy job of serving up things with genuine mythic resonance and depth (largely I said — yes, there are exceptions.)

The audience wasn't so Goth-dominated as I expected (from what I've seen at previous signings and readings he's done in Berkeley.) There really were all sorts of ages, shapes and clothes colors present.

I bought the book, which was not only signed, but had a doodle of a rat inside.

Biking home, I came to a 4-way stop intersection near my house. I respect stop signs, and slow to a crawl, to a point at which I could come to a full stop in just a few inches if I had to, but I generally avoid coming to an absolute stop — it makes it a lot harder to get going again than if I don't.

But last night there was a car approaching fast from my left, and I mistrusted the driver's intent to stop, so I did come to a full stop, with my foot down, to see what the car would do.

The driver slowed ever so slightly, ran the stop, then saw me and finally stopped a full car length into the intersection. Then ensued an awkward pause with me, as always, loath to get in front of a demonstrably careless operator of a deadly weapon and her not knowing my intent.

Finally I broke the stalemate and biked past. She yelled something out the window about it being a 4-way stop as if I'd been in the wrong. I yelled back something about her lack of respect for this fact. She asked "you were already stopped?" "Yes." "You were already stopped" "Yes" "I'm really sorry," she said with apparent sincerity, which contrition would've done me a whole lot of good if I'd exercised my right of way and ended up in the hospital. Apparently from her perspective she hadn't seen me till she was already running the stop sign, therefore, I must've been running my stop sign.

Admittedly, my side-visibility could be better and that intersection, while adequately lit, isn't as well lit as much of Berkeley. Maybe it's time for Hokey Spokes.