Flutterby™! : Center of the Universe

If you can get past the lurid headline, I Met A Convicted Serial Killer, And He Made Me Feel More Loved Than Anyone Else In My Life is an interesting little look back by a Marine who got cruised in San Diego in 1980...

(Also published as Orange Coast.com: Center of the Universe and

But as fascinating: Jay Roberts, the author, showed up in the Metafilter thread, with a number of good comments, including Ivan Fyodorovich's musings on predators, "active listening", love and feelings of betrayal, and Jay Roberts exploring gender issues a bit:

You know, somebody is making a play for you, you are uncomfortable with it at the moment, but really like the person otherwise & despite the hesitation at the moment, you are also at least a little flattered at the attention. You want to stay but know you should go. You know that no matter what you do, everyone is going to get hurt and you already care for this person enough that you really would rather not hurt them. But you don't want to get hurt either. And you feel that much of the blame belongs with you for letting things get as far as they have, into what is already a no-win situation.

And carmicha talking about a friend's experience with a belligerent female hitch-hiker.

And also from that thread, I learned about Typhoon Tip and the Camp Fuji fire, on 19 October 1979, in Camp Fuji, Okinawa Japan.