Osler's Razor

Last Friday, I was in Washington for an important meeting. Important enough, in fact, that I felt the need for some psych-up music, so as I walked through McPherson Square, I turned my iPod to "shuffle."

What it delivered, out of thousands of possibilities, was the ubiquitous "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. It worked-- the meeting went great-- but I still can't get over the goofiness of those lyrics. For example, there is this:

Just a small town girl
Livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train
Goin' anywhere.

The are small town girls. Some of them live in a lonely world. However, there are no "midnight trains going anywhere." First of all, this is a terrible transportation model for a railroad. Seriously? Go up to the ticket window, and they sell you a ticket for a train leaving at midnight to some undisclosed location? Not a good plan. Furthermore, it's pretty much contrary to the idea of a train, which runs on tracks. You know where the train is going because the tracks go that way. You really, really don't want to ride on a train that has left the tracks on a voyage to "anywhere," especially if that is a metaphor for being dead (which is probably going to happen when the train derails).

Next we have this:

Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train
Goin' anywhere

City Boy, like Small Town Girl, has made the bonehead decision to travel on the derailing railroad. Beyond that, though, he is from "South Detroit." As we have discussed before, and is revealed by a quick look at a map, there is no South Detroit, because where South Detroit should be we find... Canada:



Moreover, it's a poorly-conceived plan to take public transportation out of the city of Detroit in the middle of the night. Silly Canadians!

Finally, we come to this:

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlight people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night


What the heck are "streetlight people?" And how confused are they if they are "Hidin', somewhere in the night" under a friggin' streetlight? If you want to hide, get AWAY from the streetlight, you dopey Canadian!
[Of course, the argument can be made under present circumstances that in Detroit it's usually pretty dark directly under the streetlights, since the city can't afford to power them]

So... maybe it was a poor choice of psych-up song.

It didn't matter though. I didn't worry about the lyrics in that moment. I was walking in a big city to do something good and worthwhile and real, a chance I never thought I would have. Don't stop believin', indeed.