The Reptilian Brain - foe of the Holier Than Thou

I read a post on bartmusings the other day and had to comment.

The Author of the Blog is a daily BART commuter. Last week was her husband's Holiday Party and hubby - who drives for work - was trying convince her to take BART to the party in SF, and she was pushing back. She was stepping out in her finest after recently giving birth and wasn't necessarily thrilled with going out onto BART all gussied up.

At first he conceded, but eventually they ended up taking BART. Part of the rationale was so that both of them could knock a few back without having to worry about designating a driver. Good thinking, Drunk Driving is most unHoly.

Overall - she was happy - "So, in the end...yes, I conceded but I was glad to have taken BART although I have to say, it was an unpleasant ride to the city being overly crowded and full of passengers who did not care much about personal hygienes"

The unpleasant ride included "One guy picked his nose and grabbed on to the safety bar, one women scratched her inflamed acne before holding on to the pole, while another sneezed into the hand that held on to the handle."

Students of the Reptilian Brain or Freakonomics would love this one. Saturdays in December are loaded with Holiday Parties in San Francisco. I rode down the Embarcadero, it was packed, with people who can't drive sober, let alone drunk. The most egregious was some guy who whipped out of the traffic lane, made a quick stop in the bike lane, rolled down his window and asked THE VALET if he was leaving so he could poach his spot. Amusing.

Now imagine those people driving home. What is more scary - sharing a BART car with an inflamed acne scratcher, or sharing the Bay Bridge at 65 MPH with hundreds of drunks. Just because YOU have a designated driver does not mean the person in the next lane does. But the reptilian brain cannot see, sense, or fear the drunk 5 yards away because of the layers of metal and glass, yet the flight response is triggered by a guy picking his nose.

Ride safe.