We’re just back from an expedition to the Wilds of Berkeley — specifically, Telegraph Avenue.
The goal of the trip was the Mensa Monthly Gathering at Cody’s Books; the speaker was Bob Steiner, CPA, quackbuster, magician, Fellow of The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, and author of Don’t Get Taken: Bunco & Bunkum Exposed How to Protect Yourself, who gave a dandy magic show (except for the one trick he cancelled partway through, when the audience member accidentally shuffled the Oreos instead of cutting them), and then responded to audience questions about magic, bunkum, John Edwards, Miss Cleo, cold readings, and other related topics. It was an enjoyable and educational session (I was amazed, though, to find Mensa members who seemed to really want to believe in psychics, such as “telephone medical diagnosticians”), well worth the drive. It would have been nice to have had time to explore Cody’s Books…and Moe’s…and Shakespeare and Co…and the others on that block of Telegraph. But we didn’t.
Before the session, we had dinner at Le Bateau Ivre (The Drunken Boat), four blocks down Telegraph. We picked the place pretty randomly — they’re not even in the AAdvantage Dining Program — but were very happy with our choice. Our waiter was honest and told us he was there to help us spend more money (we’d started out by asking for the coffeehouse menu rather than the full-blown restaurant menu), and he did a good job of it by mentioning Chocolate Mousse Cake. Tasty stuff! In fact, everything we had was tasty; I’d go back cheerfully.
While we were there, we heard a person at another table talking about being an “indigo child”. I figured it was something strange, but I was confident I could find out about it on the Web, and I was right. That combination of attributes doesn’t seem that distinctive or amazing to me, but perhaps I’m a skeptic.