Characters

Lately, on the train, I've been doing things other than watching people, which cuts down on noticing other people. That leads to not finding interesting characteristics of those people. It would probably be a good idea to look up from my book every now and then. Had I not done that last week, I would have completely missed the kid who was dressed like Carmen Sandiego.

I'm not kidding. Big red fedora, jacket, but he was obviously not elusive enough to be everyone's favorite globe-trotting thief. I mean, I could have bounded over there and grabbed him until the police came, no problem. Which makes you wonder why did she wear such a conspicuous outfit all the time? Wouldn't it make more sense to be like The Saint in the movie version, where he's constantly changing his look? Or at least not standing out so much. She ought to dress up like a suburban housewife (sweatpants, no makeup, t-shirt, running shoes that have never gone faster than 3 mph besides that one time she had to chase down her kid before the kid jumped into the fountain at the mall, hair in a quick ponytail) because who's going to think that she's a famous thief then?

Although considering the absolutely audacious things she tended to take off with, I guess it wouldn't matter what she dressed as. And my other question is why steal something there's got to be absolutely no market for. It's not like Winona Ryder, stealing clothes for the thrill because she could wear the clothes. But absolutely no one's going to buy the Eiffel Tower because everyone knows where it came from and that there's nowhere else you could get it. Can't you just see the conversation?

"Hey, Ted. Nice life-size replica of the Taj Mahal in your backyard. I didn't even see any builders."

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, Bob. Heh heh. I hired a construction company that only employs elves. They built it completely silently in a single night."

"Hey, did you hear that the real Taj Mahal is missing? They say that Carmen Sandiego and her gang took it. I wonder what they do with those things. Better watch out so they don't take yours, it looks so realistic."

Anyway, I never actually caught Carmen Sandiego in the game, but I got damn close a number of times. As Maxwell Smart always said, "Missed it by that much."