ALT A man named Dan worked for the Rand Corporation in the mid-Sixties, analyzing data. While he was working there he came across Jack Kerouac's books, and he read On the Road and Dharma Bums, and was particularly intrigued by Kerouac's portrait of a character based on the poet Gary Snyder, who K. renamed Japhy Rider in his novels. At the end of Dharma Bums, Japhy Ryder goes off to Japan and there visits a rock garden in Kyoto. It's a scene Dan never forgot. Later, Dan got a job at the Pentagon, where he was analyzing sensitive war data, and at one point his work took him to Japan. He still remembered the description of the Kyoto garden, so he went to Kyoto to see it for himself. After visiting the rock garden, he went to a bar, where he had trouble reading the menu, which was in Japanese. Two Americans at the bar noticed he was having difficulty and came over to help him. They joined him at his table and began talking. When they introduced each other Dan discovered...