One slightly odd thing -- to me, at least -- about yesterday was that after we had given up waiting while standing in front of Suntory Hall, I turned around, and the man standing behind us in the plaza, I swear, looked almost exactly like -- Steve Jobs, of Apple. True, this guy didn't have a beard, but I looked twice and yeah, he could have passed for Steve Jobs and not just in dim lighting.
Which is ridiculous, of course: what would Steve Jobs be doing in Tokyo, and even if he were in Tokyo, why wouldn't he be inside the hall with the audience of dignitaries, listening to the speech? Steve Jobs, after all, could probably get Barack Obama to return his phone calls and wouldn't need to stand waiting outside with the rest of the everyday folk.
In any case, found the notion of seeing Steve Jobs when he couldn't be there slightly ironic because a few years ago, I pretty indisputably was looking right at Steve Jobs only a few meters away -- and didn't spot him.
In that case, I was in the employee cafeteria at the Apple campus in Cupertino, California, about to have lunch with an Apple Computer employee who's a friend of mine. I was standing by the pizza section when my friend sidled up and whispered, with a slight nod, "Steve's over there." My first thought was of a mutual friend. "What?" I said, startled, "Steve G_______g is here? Where?"
"No, no, Steve JOBS." I turned and peered in the direction of the salad bar (and a very good salad bar it was, too, by the way), but I couldn't spot the Apple Steve. I gave up pretty quickly, though, because I didn't want to be caught gawking. So while quite probably light reflected off of Steve Jobs hit the back of my eyeballs, my brain never processed the data.
So there you have it: I'm seeing Steve Jobs when he can't be there, and not seeing him when he is there. I'd make a lousy paparazzo.
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