My first time driving in Chicago found me on the scenic and frightening Lake Shore Drive. The posted speed limit was 45, but 60 seemed like the average speed.

I was trying not to get blown off the road, following a group of cars around curve after curve, when I noticed a strangely familiar pattern emerging. Police cars staggered along the side of the road were picking off cars from the back of a given cluster. I finally made the connection: the clusters cars arcing gracefully around the curves resembled a herd of gazelles, and the cops were lions thinning the herd by pouncing on the slow, weak, and sick cars who couldn't quite keep up.

Maybe I watched too many nature shows when I was a kid.