My Evil Twin

Thursday, 10 February 2000

Kevin and I look superficially alike. We're both fat, bearded men with long black hair and glasses. We both tend to dress very casually -- t-shirts and jeans, sneakers or sandals. Well, I wear sneakers or sandals, or currently some boot-like shoes with rubber soles, but Kevin just wears sandals, year-round, even in winter, even with a foot of snow on the ground.

In SF fandom, we're a common physical type. You'll see dozens of guys like us at any random convention. Apparently we're not so common in the general population, because a lot of people can't tell us apart. We often have people asking if we're (not only are we not brothers, our ancestors don't even come from the same part of Europe), and one guy at work actually refused to believe that we weren't the same person until he saw us both together.

Today I was travelling to work my usual way, catching a 3 train at Eastern Parkway, transfering to the Lexington Ave. line at Nevins Street. I was standing near the front of the platform when the 4 train pulled in. The driver, a total stranger to me, a middle-aged Sikh, opened his window, leaned out, and asked me "No sandals today?" "That's a different guy," I said, and got on the train. He opened the door to his compartment and took another look at me. "Oh, there's a guy who looks just like you who goes up to Woodlawn...." "Yeah, I know, we work together."

Not only that, but the driver reads science fiction. When the train was waiting at a later station, he asked where we work. When I said we make computer games, he suggested that we make a game based on the works of Phillip K. Dick.