BART or Drive? Drive or BART?

Oh man, the Plotzers are not only through for the year, they may not win another game until Spring Training. True, a 40-game losing streak may be asking for a lot, but this team seems capable of it.

In the meantime, Plot and Duck took BART to Berkeley last night to see Gore Vidal's "The Best Man" at the Aurora Theater. Both the Aurora and Berkeley Rep next door are wonderful venues for theater, small (Aurora) and small-ish (Berkeley Rep) spaces in new buildings, with terrific sightlines and sound, and both are only one block from the Downtown Berkeley BART stop.

Plot and Duck have the same discussion each time a Berkeley play comes up. It goes like this:

"What time do we have to leave the house?"

"If we drive, around 7. If we take BART, around 6:40."

"What if we hit traffic?"

"We're screwed. But what if the train breaks down?"

"We're screwed either way."

"What about coming home?"

"We have to take a Fremont train and transfer to the Saint Plotniko train at Macarthur."

"What if we can't find a place to park in the BART lot?"

"We'll be in the car. We can always just drive."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So let's drive."

They usually do. Well always, until last night. As it turned out, Plot found the last spot at the BART station in Glen Park, so it took around the same time to get to Berkeley as it would have to drive. But it was twice as long returning. Also, four trips cost exactly $15 on BART, while driving would cost just about the same if you include wear and tear and a $4 toll on the Bay Bridge.

Driving, you get to feel like a selfish stooge because you're using up gas and public transportation is easily available. Taking the train, you get to feel like a stupid goody two shoes because you're standing up waiting for your train in the BART station at 10:30, listening to women blathering on their cell phones ("She said what? SHUT the F*** UP!"), when you could be half way home in your car.

But it was fine. Plot says he'll take the train again next time too, but maybe you shouldn't believe him completely. You can read the San Francisco Theater Blog review of "The Best Man" here, but get ready for Kerry versus Bush all over again, except Vidal wrote this show in 1960.