Lost Horizon

One can’t help but be affected more by personal experience than information gained at a distance. I’ve only been to San Francisco once, for one day, about twenty-five years ago, and it was one of the darkest, coldest, dirtiest, unfriendliest places I’ve ever been in. A toll booth operator can ruin a whole state for me, so maybe I’m more stiff-necked about such matters than most people. But if I see the words: San Francisco in print, my mind fills autofills a: bah! right after it.

Still, my mind triumphs over my heart now and again and you get interested in things for their own sake. San Francisco is durn interesting, and has been for a long time. It matters. But all in all, I’d rather go there in 1955 than now. How handy that you can.