Everyone is worried about the invasion of their privacy, though they invite it constantly. I think it must be a secret dream of most people under 35 to "go viral", as they say. You know - a million hits on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube, whatever. Well, if you're worried about privacy and you want to be alone, albeit in a big city like Toronto, then ride the subway. I gave up my car almost 4 years ago now, before they took it away from me. I still had my marbles and have most of them now, give or take the odd fumbling for the names of people I've known all my life. With the women I usually come up with their maiden names, to everyone's shock, including mine. Where did that come from? It's true what they say about long-term memory. It's like mould in a Petrie dish and it keeps growing. Believe it or not, because it sounds fatuous and idealistic, but I gave up my car as an ecological statement in an attempt to reduce my footprint on the planet. I discovered to my great satisfaction after the fact, that I had more ready money than I'd had. Not surprising because owning and operating a car costs between $7000 and $10,000 a year now. (Somehow, I keep spending the money and I keep tip-toeing on the edge of overdraft.) The point is, and I do have one, that I ride the subway and I watch the other passengers, and listen, too, if it's not too crowded and noisy. Well, I have lots to comment on that but I'll save that for other blogs. I have digressed enough. My point, as I say, today, is that if you want to be anonymous and invisible, take a ride on the subway. Not only that. No one sees you and no one cares about you. Well, that's okay. Not many people do. But as a writer, I look at these subterranean people and I wonder who among them would be a potential audience/consumer of my work? No one, that's who. I am not only invisible, I am inaudible, or illegible, and certainly irrelevant. I am an alien on this planet, at least in the subway. That's enough for today. I have to assimilate that.