I had a strange experience today After a 30mile bike ride to the Beaches and back in the wind, finally made a break at Bathurst and College at the College St Diner which serves excellent pancakes although it has been known to charge 50 cents a packet for strawberry jam. In my recent streak of psychic excitement I must be having a telepathic effect on strangers so wrapped up am I in this thing I have too much respect to name that steam is pouring out my ears and infecting others must have been a sign when just after I ordered the 'Can't Talk, Eating' hungry-man special four philosophers - one woman, three men - well-coiffed, toned, erudite and inquisitive sat next to me and proceeded to hold forth on LOVE 'what love is' one of them asked and what's the difference between love and being in love and whether love is an overused word how it means what it wants to mean to whoever wants to use it how the word means nothing at all, and how words generally do that. I couldn't believe my ears these philosophers thirtysomething professorial types who can breezily discern semantics over brunch the four most intelligent people on the planet, really having this analytical argument about the meaning of love in which my universe hung in the balance I would have banged my sugar shaker on the table to get their attention saying 'hey folks, love is war and you're looking at one of the foot soldiers!' but I'm trying to give up sugar in favour of healthier smoothie-type things so I kept silent and they kept mocking me four feet away but the coincidence was too precious so resourceful as I am I asked the waitress for a pen so I could jot this down for later that was my revenge for them talking about me and my war ie me writing about them so I unfolded my bike map of toronto and wrote all over it, but now it's ruined as in scribbling in all of this my words filled in all of lake ontario and half of the downtown west end. i know I must be preoccupied these days but there are sensible ways to deal with it and there are crazy ones for instance on the way out of the diner thinking about what it all meant I accidentally walked right smack into the women's bathroom I guess I was looking for you luckily no one screamed but boy was I red.