Here's a little test of your subway instincts. Imagine you are on a platform, and a train pulls up. The car on your right is jammed full of people. The car on your left has some seats available. Which one do you choose?
If you chose the the car with seats available, then you are a person filled with common sense, but unfortunately limited experiences with the subway. The correct answer is the car that is jammed full of people.
The rationale behind this is simple. There is undoubtedly a homeless man sleeping in the subway car that is stinking up the whole car, and no one will sit near him. Choose the crowded subway car with no objectionable odors.
This may sound callous. After all, the homeless many is in need of help, obviously. And the fact that he smells bad is not an inherent defect, but merely due to the fact that he is homeless. Callous or not, though, to a sleeping homeless man, what car I choose to ride in does not matter. But avoiding a stinky subway ride matters quite a bit to me.
Posted by ahyatt at March 19, 2006 05:28 PM