Do you know who Richard Alpert is?

[November 23rd, 2005] "Do you know who Richard Alpert is?" The name sounds familiar, wait, wasn't he—"He's better known as Ram Dass." "Oh yeah, I've read some of his writing about the whole Timothy Leary crew." This was a group of intellectuals who took LSD back when it was legal, actively proselytizing about its virtues. Richard Alpert, professor, became Ram Dass, spiritualist, and this lady in my cab is a good friend of his.

We got here because of discussing LSD, but I honestly cannot remember how I got on that topic with this attractive yet motherly (in a MILF sort of way) woman in the first place. Her being from San Francisco is hardly sufficient. But whatever the reason, we're now sharing our LSD experiences, hers with the brand-name designer acid from back in the day, my own more muted and solitary trips of the '90s. About how everyone who does acid gets this feeling of kinship with her fellow bipeds, and has the fantasy of giving the stuff to world leaders to bring about peace. About how the sex is mind-blowing, no esoteric pun intended.

I tell her I've never even smoked weed or had a beer—LSD was the only recreational drug I've done, which she thinks is very cool, albeit incredibly unusual. We're almost at the airport, and I almost want to park the cab and wait for her plane with her, to keep talking. She says she helps with the 74-year-old Dass' website, that I should check it out. I most certainly will.