The chances to watch the stupidity of some of the members of the human race are everywhere. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry sometimes. The local paper has an automotive section in the Thursday edition mostly about current and soon-to-be-released vehicles. I still drool and dream over the weekly motorcycle article. On the tonight show each Monday night, Jay Leno usually has a bit he calls “Headlines”. This week, he showed an ad for a motorcycle for sale. Well, it actually read “Modersickle”. Oh dear, is there a special school for morons?
The automotive section includes an article with photo of “Classic Cars”. I love the old stuff. I know the new ones run better and are safer, but the old ones had an élan and joie de vivre, before they all became indistinguishable corporate cookie-cutter clones. I have my advancing age thrown in my face when the weekly *Classic* is from 1994, instead of 1944.
The duh-mb comes from the Question and Answer column. People write…well, probably email, this ex-mechanic to get him to solve their automotive problems. For a while, it seemed every week there was some kind of scam operator, trying to use the leverage of the power of the press, to force a business to accept a losing proposition. Things like trying to force a tire shop to replace all four tires under a two-year warrantee, when they’d been driven two miles up a logging trail for a bush party. Do they think an experienced mechanic and paid problem-solver won’t find out? Oops! Damn! Sorry, I used that word again.
One guy owned two cars, and took the backup in to a shop to have the spark-plugs changed. An apprentice removed the old plugs and, in doing so, broke one off. The car was not ready for pickup when he came back, but they said they would call him when it was. They thought they might have to take the head off, to get at it from underneath.
The letter rambled on and on about; why did they let an apprentice do this labor? For the money I’m paying, it should always be a licensed mechanic! I’m afraid that they’ve done some damage to the car, and they’re holding it for ransom to make me pay for their mistake. It’s been almost two weeks and they haven’t phoned. Can you help me get my car back?
The reply was; if you insist that it always be a licensed mechanic, the apprentice will never get to train, and eventually we’ll run out of licensed mechanics. About damaging your car; they managed to get the plug out without dismantling the engine, so no damage was done. About holding your car for ransom; apparently the cell-phone number you gave them was not in service and they had no other way to contact you. The car has been ready for you for over a week if you’d bothered to contact them, instead of me.
Another genius wrote to say that he wanted another chip-encoded key for his car. He complained that the dealer wanted almost a hundred dollars for one, so he bought one off the internet for ten. He sent a picture of the key and said that he was having problems coding the new key to his car, what was the problem? From the picture, the mechanic told him that the problem was that he had bought a non-chip key, and no matter how much he tried; he would never be able to code it. He should keep it as a spare, in case he ever got locked out, and go to the dealer or a locksmith, and buy the correct one.
I watched an online video recently. If I’d thought to record the web address I could include it here, or, since the wife and I are learning about linking and inserting, I could show you or let you watch it on your own. Perhaps another blog.
The gist is; a mid/late-twenties male and his girlfriend, in a car. He says, “Jenny, I’ve got a math question for you. If I’m driving at eighty miles per hour, how long will it take to go eighty miles?” She goes off about how she’s a jogger, and she jogs about nine miles an hour. Well, if she pushed it she could probably do ten for a while.
“Jenny, if I’m driving at eighty miles an hour, how long will it take to go eighty miles?”
Well, truck tires are bigger than car tires, and you always accelerate hard when you start. Is this on a level surface, and is the wind behind us or ahead of us.
“Jenny, if I’m driving at eighty miles an hour, how long will it take to go eighty miles?”
This is a trick question, because you probably know a shortcut. I can’t run that fast, and you won’t let me drive.
“Jenny, I’ll tell you the answer. It would take an hour.”
No it wouldn’t! You always drive faster than that even though the truck tires look like they’re going really fast. I bet it would only take forty or forty-five minutes.
It’s obvious that he’s not keeping her around as a coach for his Jeopardy appearance, and therein lies the problem. I know we have to let them vote, and drive, even if he won’t let her, but is there some way to keep them from breeding the next generation of duh-mbs?
Archon's Den 