long time lurker first time poster. (well may be second or something) If you want strange characters may I recommend spending some time at a public library. I was recently on study leave and spent about two weeks at Dulwich libray in the study area (2nd floor with the PC's / News papers). Quite a collection of oddballs would come in during the day the take advantage of the free papers. Best character was this a tall middle aged, umkept / borderline vagant bloke with a wild beard and equally wild hair (think rowan williams minus pointy eyebrows). After an intro of speaking alternately to the wall clock / floor for 5 mins he settled down to read every single newspaper with the aid of an oversized magnifying glass lens (size of a saucer without the metal casing)..not sure what he was looking for but he stuck at it for several hours whilst mumbling to himself....dunno what he was looking for, reminded me of that Russell Crowe character in 'A Beautiful Mind' He also had a kind of twin who used to come in read all the papers and make extensive notes on the same sheet of paper...it was literally crammed with notes he'd made written over each other at different angles...over and over again. Maybe they were working in tandem...dunno but it made an interesting break from studying CFA.
