Revenge is a dish...

...best served at a four-way stop.

If you ride a bicycle in the city you have probably been in a situation where a friendly driver will stop and wave you through an intersection. This friendly driver thinks they're doing you a favour. But usually, this driver is in the right-hand lane of two lanes, and the cars in the left-hand lane have no idea what is going on and just keep going (you can't really blame them). So the friendly driver is puzzled as to why you are not going.

Another variation of this happens at a four-way stop. And I turned the tables, in a way, this morning. I pulled up to a four-way stop just after a car had reached it from the cross-street, to my left. I could see the car opposite me, which had arrived at the same time as me, was really itching to go. To jump the order and zip across the intersection from a rolling stop before the car on my left knew what was happening. This little game happens all the time.

So I looked at the driver to my left, and I waved my hand from left to right, saying you got here first, you go ahead. She nodded at me in thanks and started to go. The guy across the way had already started and he had to slam on his brakes. My expression of mock-surprise completed the tableau.