Your selected reading is:

This week's quotation comes from Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett, one of my very favoritist British authors. This book is about the police force in a made-up satirical city, which means that it's a detective book. If you hadn't realized yet (based on the fact that a majority of my quotes are from detective books) I really really enjoy mysteries, crime solving, and seeing the bad guys get what's coming to them.

Anyway, the passage:

Vimes pounded through the fog after the fleeing figure. It wasn't quite so fast as him, but whenever he came close to it some muffled pedestrian got in the way, or a cart pulled out of a cross-street. (This always happens in any police chase anywhere. A heavily laden lorry will always pull out of a side alley in front of the pursuit. If vehicles aren't involved, then it'll be a man with a rack of garments. Or two men with a large sheet of glass. There's probably some kind of secret society behind all this.)

This is actually true of non-police pursuits as well. Whenever I'm in a hurry to go get some item people always meander into my path as though they couldn't see me barreling in a direct line straight toward something. If it isn't people then items will somehow magically appear on the floor to trip me. I think Mr. Pratchett is correct, there's some kind of secret society in the works!