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People get more turned on, on bridges. I learned this at UCSC in 1990 from a psychology professor who studied love. A few weeks ago Alicia and I visited the University of California and walked across the narrow bridges which traverse strangely steep valleys. It is true you do get more turned on on bridges.

The theory is that at that height the chemicals and hormones in your body are more active so when you see someone you are attracted to you are more excited. They tested the theory by having people take surveys after crossing a bridge where they had someone on the bridge.

The survey asked how turned on they were to this person. Then they had the same person on a regular road and had whoever was on that road take a survey of how turned on they felt to that same person. On average people were significantly more attracted to the “prop” person on the bridge. It makes a good case for going to amusement parks or ice skating or watching fireworks on a date.

That weekend there was also a power outage so UCSC was practically empty and silent amongst the background of these gorgeous redwoods and beautiful architecture and ocean views.

Intermittently we would come across giant generators producing some level of power for the college. These were insanely loud. The whole scene was very post-apocalyptic.

It all made for a great date and a lot of hugging.

We survived.