Tonight at a law school bar night I had the unique experience of being lectured at on the subject of SF Bay Area life and transportation by a guy who had visited once, when looking at law schools, and read several pages in a Let's Go! California guide. He even, at one point, flat out told me I was wrong and didn't know what I was talking about. This is after I informed him that I've lived in the Bay Area for the last five years.
It's like the scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen confronts the blowhard in the line at the movie theater by bringing out Marshall McLuhan, only after McLuhan dresses him down the guy interrupts him and tells him that, frankly, McLuhan doesn't know his own work and should just shut up and listen to him.
I'm curious. What did he have to say about life and transportation here, and what were you saying that he just wouldn't accept?
If I recall correctly, the specific point where he told me I didn't know what I was talking about was when I made the (I thought, fairly non-controversial) statement that it's somewhat of a hassle to get from Stanford to San Francisco. That is, that it's not impossible, but that it's expensive, the train is slow, and lately it's been unreliable, due to track maintenance on weekends.
At that point, the fellow interrupted me to say that I didn't know what I was talking about, and followed it up by saying "they've got a train straight from campus to San Francisco" (which, of course, is what I had been talking about). I allowed that, as a practical matter, most students get cars, and that makes things much easier. The fellow seemed prepared to fight with me over the honor of the peninsular public transportation system, when somebody else changed the subject by saying it seemed like a car would be nice to have, given that it allows access to the beautiful countryside in the area. This gave the fellow another opportunity to rave about things he saw in his guidebook and visited during his stay, and I used the opportunity to effect my egress.