The "Blue Rock Shoot" gets its enigmatic name from its previous use in old-town Saratoga as the hip place to skeet shoot. The back deck (shown in the picture) was used to launch the blue "skeets" (aka rocks) out over the tree, where merrigoers would shoot them with big guns. Presumably it happened well before the parking lot (from which the picture was taken) was built, as well as the very nice park behind me, or the multi-million dollar houses which surround the site.

As many know, I meet many people at coffeeshops. However, I must say that this coffeeshop is particularly well suited for meeting others. Of all the places at which I hang out -- and that's a lot of places -- I've met more friends and had more dates with people from this place than all others combined. Not that I have a whole lot of friends, or that I go on too many dates, but still. It's something.

The first person I met at the Blue Rock was Amir: though at the time he was dressed like some heavy-metal drummer, now he looks like he plays tennis at a rich country club. Incidentally, he used to be a heavy-metal drummer, and has since taken up tennis at a rich country club. Amir and I have spent countless hours debating minutae that would bore others to tears -- just hearing the words "morality", "relativism", or "reasonableness" makes us drool.