David Barr Kirtley

Science fiction author and podcaster

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Close call

April 23, 2006 by David Barr Kirtley Leave a Comment

I think I almost got mugged again last week. I was walking home from a fancy banquet thrown by my department. I was with my friend Erica and another friend who’d had too much to drink and was going to sober up on my couch before she drove home. Two kids on a bike pulled up near us, and the kid on the handlebars leapt off and rushed us. I tensed. The kid stopped, glanced at us, then turned around and hurried back to his friend. Our drunk friend said, “Wow, that was weird.” I said, “Come on,” and we walked away, toward the emergency call box. Erica said, “Here,” and handed me her heavy U-ring bike lock to use as a club. The kids rode past us and then off down the street. Another student came up to us with his pepper spray out. He said, “Were those guys going to mug you?” I said, “I don’t know.”

I figure what happened is that they saw our drunk friend and assumed we were all drunk and would be easy marks. It was party night on Frat Row, so there were huge crowds of drunk students out on the sidewalks. Then when the kid saw that I wasn’t drunk and was extremely wary, he changed his mind. Or maybe they were just playing a prank, who knows.

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Geeks Guide to the Galaxy

Geeks Guide to the Galaxy

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy is a podcast hosted by author David Barr Kirtley and produced by Lightspeed Magazine editor John Joseph Adams. The show features conversations about fantasy & science … Read more

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Geeks Guide to the Galaxy

Geeks Guide to the Galaxy

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy is a podcast hosted by author David Barr Kirtley and produced by Lightspeed Magazine editor John Joseph Adams. The show features conversations about fantasy & science … Read more

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David Barr Kirtley

David Barr Kirtley is the host of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, for which he’s interviewed over four hundred guests, including George R. R. Martin, Richard Dawkins, Paul Krugman, Simon Pegg, Margaret Atwood, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Ursula K. Le Guin. His short fiction appears in the book Save Me Plz and Other Stories.
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