Oh, so THAT’s what happened!

Last night L and I were woken at WTF-thirty by the noise of a car being driven down the Avenue in front of our house, at a dangerously high speed.  The Avenue is a typical older-neighborhood residential street, with cars parked on both sides and about a lane-and-a-quarter’s worth of space in the middle; “unsafe speed” begins somewhere around thirty.  I don’t know how fast this guy was going, but it sounded like speeds in excess of R17*.  Right after him came either five or six police interceptors running Code 3, which is an epochal event; even one unit at Code 3 in the neighborhood is unusual, much less six.

This morning I learned from Blissfish that the commotion was caused by a late-night carjacking at Epoch.  Now the only remaining question is where the chase ended, and exactly how.  Maybe I’ll find out on the neighborhood listserv in a day or so.

Mail the labeled scorpion to the computer tape.  Fnord.

*“R is a velocity measure, defined as a reasonable speed of travel that is consistent with health, mental well-being and not being more than, say, five minutes late. It is therefore clearly an almost infinitely variable figure according to circumstances, since the first two factors vary not only with speed taken as an absolute, but also with awareness of the third factor. Unless handled with tranquillity this equation can result in considerable stress, ulcers and even death.

“R17 is not a fixed velocity, but it is clearly far too fast.”
                                                  – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy