So there I was at a sushi restaurant in Park City on Saturday night when I heard what sounded like my mobile phone’s ring, but I didn’t feel the accompanying vibration. “Is that my phone?” I wondered out loud. The woman at the table next to me said, “No, it’s mine,” and when I looked at her I realized she was an old acquaintance of mine. It was the woman whose annotations had enlivened my reading of the book Mating.

The last time I saw her was in Paris six or seven years ago, and when I was there last month I stayed in a hotel near her old apartment. As I passed that street I thought, “I really should Google her and see what she’s doing,” and then I promptly forgot about it until I saw her in the restaurant. The odds of us meeting at some random spot midway between our respective coasts are probably astronomical, but then again when you travel as much as I do it’s probably stranger that I haven’t met more old friends (and candidates for President) out and about.