While riding on the Amtrak from New York to Boston I had a charming encounter with a creeper. The businessman sitting opposite me at the communal table suddenly turned his laptop screen toward me with a grin and showed me a picture of myself on the Teen Vogue website. “You stalked me,” I said, as he pointed to my name written on my ticket stub.

In the modern age, instead of simply saying “hello” to the passenger riding next to you on the train like in the olden days of Edith Wharton, people just sneakily Google each other on their laptops or Blackberrys.

The mysterious creeper was forty years old and one week away from finally marrying his girlfriend of five years. He said that some guys just spend their whole lives being bachelors, living “the high life,” and going on trips with whichever girl they’re dating at the time … “some girl they met on the train, for example.” But in the end, when you’re old and senile, “Who’s going to tell you when you’re supposed to take your prostate medication?” Maybe it’s better to commit than to meet strange girls on trains.

- Haley Hogan

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