Today I entered a used books store in El Portal and ended up buying The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker, whom my sister and I used to mock back in the late nineties when he showed up on Oprah Winfrey's talk show and the like. Now that I live in a city sans parents, and personal security concerns me every damn day, I'm much less inclined to mock the "security expert" and much more inclined to listen to his advice. Don't try to explain away your intuition that "something is wrong"; trust that you are an expert at predicting other humans' behaviour, as you've been doing it all your life; remember that everybody is pretty much alike and context explains a lot. This is basically The Social Animal, chapter eight (the "tips and tricks" section), only about personal safety rather than love and relationships in general.

de Becker gives a list of almost-universal human characteristics: disliking ridicule and embarrassment, seeking connection with others, seeking a degree of control over one's life, etc. I read it out loud as a checklist (e.g., "Do you suffer from these symptoms?") to Leonard. He asked whether the checklist was intended to test how long someone could go without getting sarcastic. "I crave ridicule and embarrassment!"