Ain’t no gettin’ offa this train we– oh

I was all fired up to write something irritable about how terrible public transit is in San Francisco — San Francisco, of all places! The hippiest metropolis in the world. This five-train clog at the tunnel made me walk all the way home up and down frickin’ Parnassus Street, so named apparently because by the time you reach the top you feel like you’re about to commune with the gods forever. But then it turned out the traffic jam had to do with a dead guy sprawled across the tracks, which had an interesting alchemic effect: It instantly transmuted my irritation to unease. This is pretty much the opposite of the kind of neighborhood where you expect to see corpses in the middle of the street. I guess living among a 90% population of retired Chinese immigrants is less safe than previously assumed.


In less alarming news, today’s Retronauts didn’t happen due to the fact that I couldn’t find enough people without scheduling conflicts to create a full podcast. Next time, double-decker podcast. In the meantime, Ray Barnholt and I are kicking off a 25-day blitz of fun Famicom facts (and opinions… mostly opinions, actually) to celebrate the system’s 25th anniversary. Yes, I will be whoring these out with great delight. You can click the image above to see this delightful whoring in action.

Edit: Apparently I didn’t actually see a dead body on the tracks. The police shut down the train route because someone found a live mortar shell in their apartment. I… don’t think that’s an improvement.

10 thoughts on “Ain’t no gettin’ offa this train we– oh”

  1. … “Mortal Shell”? Is this J.P. accidentally apprying an “r/l” swap? Or did someone find a zombie in their apartment?

  2. Which begs the question… what exactly did you see there on the tracks?

    Also, I’m digging (wait, did I just say that?) the Famicom stuff. Very enjoyable.

  5. Great first entry in the blog series. Bonus points for the usage of the Simon’s Quest 3rd ending.

    By the way, am I the only one annoyed by Entertainment Weekly picking the Playstation 2 as their console choice among the top tech gadgets of the past 25 years? Without the NES/Famicom, there wouldn’t be any console industry right now.

  6. It actually is an improvement, in so much as “live mortar shell” is a better name for a band than “dead guy sprawled across the tracks.”

  7. Even on the munis worst day it still can’t top the joy that is commuting in LA. In order to get to work which is about a mile an a half away I need to leave an hour early if I hope to get there on time.

  8. @belikejohn: Why don’t you just walk? That’s about half an hour’s walk tops. Or about 15 minutes cycling…

  9. Those of us who live north of the park don’t have to worry about clogged trains and mortar shells. We only have to worry about clogged busses and Russian mafia.

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