The other day, on BART, I remember this quotation from the Bernstein character in Citizen Kane (1941):

A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.

There I was reading Hofstadter’s I Am a Strange Loop, when I looked up for a second, and I saw that girl, though she was dressed in blue jeans and listening to an iPod, standing about ten feet in front of me. The next time I glanced up from my book, she was standing directly in front of me, and i could hear some music coming out of her earbuds. When I got up to leave at Embarcdero Station, she sat down in my seat. Just as I exited the station by the little trolley-shaped florist stand in front of the Federal Reserve Bank building, a co-worker, Steve, said good morning and asked how I was. All I could do was ask him if he knew Bernstein’s monologue. And he did, and we walked to our office building in silence.