Ummm. This is all supposed to be fun. Lighten up on Jeff.
How about we discuss where we think the soul of a car resides? I think it’s an awesome question. I’ve spent hours on the phone with my dad discussing it. I personally take a more existential approach and feel the memories and miles create the soul of a car. I’m a die-hard road tripper…Dead shows, camping trips and now coast to coast trips with my kids in my 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan (in which I shuttle them to soccer practice, no less ; )
I wonder if the people on a Mustang forum would be this bitter over someone posting they loved the Camaro.
For the caller there were cars Jeff had owned he bonded with, there were other cars he did not. Every car I have owned I felt I bonded with to some degree, my wife bonded with a 74 Dodge van other cars since then not so much. How many parts and which lose that bond is the essence of the question. Sure I put the 302 from my beloved 68 Cougar into a Ranchero that got wrecked on A1a, but I loved the cougar better than the Ranchero, though the rancheroo was working its way up.
@waterboy: The number 13 suffers no loss if people are dismissive and rude about them on national radio and assume it’s a good joke. Women, mothers, another story. Talk to women execs, lawyers, profs, doctors about what happens to them if they seem too “mom”-ish. Jeff’s kind of talk hurts as much as any racial slur.
@chiromom: I thought it was lots of fun till Jeff started talking about moms with kids in that offensive manner. If he didn’t know it was offensive, he should. And so should Tom & Ray.
I liked Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance & thought there were a lot of dead-on observations there, also a lot of genuine flakiness. Thought it was funny he wanted to do UofC’s Great Books program. Allan Bloom, def. not his man.
@bscar: Only if Mustang-dissing led to damaged careers, income loss, decreased respect. I don’t see that it does. Women suffer real damage in real careers and real lives when men are contemptuous of mothers and think it’s fine to talk that way about them in jest. Again, substitute your favorite racial group and see if it’s still inoffensive.
Sara, The comment was a hypothetical what if transplant question. I have read your posts, and am sorry you feel bitterness about the wording. If you were to need a transplant, would you care where it came from?
Sara…smile a little bit. You are taking all of this way too seriously.
I am a mom who holds multiple graduate degrees in the health sciences, drives my kids to soccer practice, climbing gyms, restaurant jobs and skiing competitions.
I laughed at Jeff’s call as I did every other one this weekend.
Lighten up. Every thing doesn’t have to be a political protest.
If you are so ticked off by what Jeff said and Tom and Ray’s response, stop listening to the program.
Oy.
Sara, everyone who uses bad language does it on purpose. Please stop.
She may have learned that style at the Writers’ Workshop.
@waterboy: No, of course I wouldn’t care where it came from. If I needed a transplant? Are you kidding? I’d say God bless you and thank you for the working heart, liver, whatever, whoever you were. Jeff was worried that an engine transplant from the housewife’s van would somehow wreck his car’s mojo.
@chiromom: I wish you’d take a step back and look at what other women are going through, and how that jokey attitude about moms plays in their lives. It’s great you’re able to do all this driving around and taking your kids to stuff. I see women with grad degrees essentially get told to choose: be a mom or be a [scientist, doctor, economist, whatever]. So they relegate a lot of the driving-around work to nannies and grandparents. They can be moms so long as it’s not too public and it doesn’t intrude on their work. Like I said – I’ve seen women resist that and pay dearly in terms of career and income. I’ve also seen women deliberately mommy-track themselves only to see those jobs cut as inessential, or expanded (at no more pay) to the point where they’re nearly as stressful and responsible as their high-flyer jobs. At which point they quit and find they’ve torpedoed their own resumes. That’s just a function of the guys on the high-flyer track protecting their own jobs in hard times.
As for me, yeah, I can drive my kid around to activities – at the cost of having a telecommute, freelance career, staying up till 3 am to hit deadlines (then up again at 7 to get the kid ready for school), and not making much money. Even so, I can’t be up-front about the responsibilities of raising a child. If my kid’s sick, that’s not an excuse for missing a deadline; saying, “I’m sorry, my kid has the flu,” is a sure way to go to the bottom of the list. (Excuses to do with other clients or tech issues play much, much better.) By giving any excuse that starts with “My kid,” I’m saying I’m not a serious worker. “Mom” is not a serious worker. And my clients want serious workers. There’s no husband’s income here to fall back on, so you’d better believe I’m sensitive to what the clients want and don’t want.
I’ll take it less seriously when it gets less serious.
@littlemouse: Yes, I used the language on purpose, and said so. It was well-deserved. Jeff’s words were less cussy but more damaging, so if you want to tell someone to stop, tell him.
@sarasmile32
If he made a joke about Klingons, I’d probably laugh at the joke.
Of course, I can find humor in anything, and it’s quite humorous how pathetic you are making yourself look by continuing to argue about a joke. Lighten up.
To sum up:
Longwinded.
Repetitive.
Tiresome.
Repetitive.
Need some Mentos for that dirty-mouth.
@bscar I’d laugh at a Klingon joke, too. But no actual Klingons would’ve been harmed in the making of the joke.
My dad came from a time & place where it was cool to make nasty/dismissive jokes about Hispanics, blacks, women, Catholics, you name it. He’s big on the “lighten up” and “where’s your sense of humor”, too. Extraordinarily, when you kick people with your “jokes”, they tend not to find them all that funny.
Sara, it wasn’t about the moms, it was about the mundane duties that the engine of a minivan was subjected to.
The soul of a vehicle lies in its owner, not in the vehicle. It has to do with shared adventures, overcoming great (and small) obstacles etc. I think this is one of those male phenomenon’s mostly, but there have been a few female callers into the show that have expressed a relationship with their vehicles.
He could have used keith’s Saturn as an example if he had wanted to. I have had that car for 9 years and 238k miles. Talk about mundane duties, its been strictly a commuter car for going to work in. I’ve had no great adventures in it so it does not have a soul and I would not be offended. That soccer mom has probably had more adventures in the minivan dealing with the kids on the way to and from daycare. I have had other vehicles in the past which did have a soul because I have memories of adventures in them.
“He’s big on the “lighten up” and “where’s your sense of humor”, too.”
Your father is a wise man.
Is the link to page 2 broken? There is no page 2 and littlemouses post does not show up unless you add a comment.
“My dad came from a time & place where it was cool to make nasty/dismissive jokes about Hispanics, blacks, women, Catholics, you name it.”
On tonight’s episode of The Big Bang Theory, the main characters went on a tour of Los Angeles that involved churches. In the Catholic church, the mother of one character referred to Catholics as “rosary rattlers”, the Indian looked up at the crucifix and said “None of our gods have abs like that!” and the Jew said “Yeah, the last Jew to do situps, and look where it got him.” It was hilarious, so I guess you’re wrong. It’s still cool.
Moderator,
Where’s the enforcement of rules of conduct ?
A guy gets on the Car Talk radio show and is apparently civil and is apparently having some fun.
Sarasmile32, apparently with an axe to grind, gets on the Community and rips into the radio show guest and she’s not civil about it.
Most would be censored, I’m sure, for using the language she used.
I would hope that this forum doesn’t degrade into a situation where people can use the type of descriptive and belittling language on another individual like what we have here . . . “flake, misogynist louse, turd, jerk, ugly-minded, Get a freaking grip . . . dumb and dismissive a flake as Geoff is.”
Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter,
CSA
sara:
no actual housewife from Topeka was harmed in the radio show either. What’s your point?
OMG…Someone needs a life. Did your husband leave you with 5 kids (from 3 to 12), no house, no car and no income? What the heck is going on here?
In defense of housewives, there are a few who actually (gasp!) love what they do. Mine, on the other hand, was a HS dropout, started then quit college, and was doing factory work (as I was), when we met in our 20’s (OK, 20). We got married, got our collective acts together, and now she’s a successful businesswoman, degreed, running an office, and mentoring not only the women who work for her but the men as well. She also handles all of the household bills (one degree is accounting), knows where all the money is (if she leaves I’m sunk), and is an outstanding cook who loves to do it, and to host guests in our house. I have it very well.
She’s very sensitive about this topic, as she works in HR. Religion in the workplace, insults, cross culture/race jokes, she puts up with none of it.
She’s also smart enough to know the world doesn’t listen to her. Not everyone cares. Not everyone will get upset by a radio broadcast (especially one aimed at entertaining). In fact, I think I now know of 1 who does. And only 1.
/sigh