How to embarrass your father

@Eva,

So he's going heh? Please fill us in - I wish I was there to contribute to the ribbing.

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Sweet! Thanks for a distraction, I am waiting to hear the news about a friend's baby delivery... so this was like manna from heaven.
Usually I can't get to video clips from american TV companies from here....but this worked. Globally. You can assure your husband the whole world has seen it.

I like how they said that these experiences struck fear into these teenagers' hearts :-D .

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@dagmaraka,

maybe he will feel better if you tell him that my personal ad popped in on the front page of the online edition of the Boston Globe just two days after moving in with a guy, photo and all. (The ad was from 8 months before that...they just decided to use it on the front page that day for some reason). I also taught international relations class -- and I told my students to read Boston Globe news section every day. What do you know, that day they all did ("So, Miss Kusa, you're a Taurus, eh?")...good times.

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Yes, he was there. Nobody said anything, but the instructor did raise his eyebrows rather dramatically during the introductions. Hubby was uncharacteristically quiet during the meeting. Laughing

SonofEva has now completed the classroom portion of the driving course, so he is pointing out every single little deviation we make from the official driving manual. Today he told someone (in front of me) how I put on lipstick while I was driving, and they explicitly told them not to do that in class. I told him they were absolutely right, and I will make him pull over if I ever catch him putting on lipstick while he is driving.

He did laugh at that!

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@dagmaraka,

dagmaraka wrote:

I like how they said that these experiences struck fear into these teenagers' hearts :-D .

Well, that's Faux News for you. Gotta be sensational. SonofEva never once told the reporter he was scared, or even suggested anything like it. There were at least two more examples of journalistic overreaching in the feature as well. SonofEva took my newspaper class last spring, so he could identify the missteps when he saw them. But even he was shocked at the liberties taken by so-called "professional" journalists. Now he understands why I think so little of TV news.

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@Eva,

You know, driving must be the thing we all do the worst. I don't know anyone who drives the way I think people should drive, including myself. It really seems to bring out the worst in everyone.

I failed my driving test over and over because I wasn't taught by an instructor but by real-world drivers. Every thing they got me for on the tests were things I've never seen ANY real driver do (e.g. use a turn signal to pull away from the curb on an empty residential street).

Does anyone drive the way we are supposed to?

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@Eva,

thought so. sounded silly and unnecessary. oh well.

SonofEva should curb his comments or he might end up on the curb himself one day. kids these days... they know everything, and they'll use it against you. shame.

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

Does anyone drive the way we are supposed to?

If you mean, "the way" as described in the drivers' manual, probably not!

And not only are we doing it "wrong," but some of the standards have changed. For instance, Oklahoma no longer makes applicants parallel park on their driving test. (Hope they never have to go downtown!)

And I remember being drilled about how I should always hold the steering wheel at 10 and 2. Thanks to airbags, that's no longer advisable...if deployed, the airbag would cause your arms to fly upward off the wheel, and no telling where the car would end up. So now it's 9 and 3, or even better, 8 and 4.

Naturally, this means we are no longer supposed to make turns "hand over hand." Now we are supposed to turn the wheel using the "push-pull" method. (I have to go read the manual and figure out what that means.)

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

You know, driving must be the thing we all do the worst. I don't know anyone who drives the way I think people should drive, including myself. It really seems to bring out the worst in everyone.

I failed my driving test over and over because I wasn't taught by an instructor but by real-world drivers. Every thing they got me for on the tests were things I've never seen ANY real driver do (e.g. use a turn signal to pull away from the curb on an empty residential street).

Does anyone drive the way we are supposed to?

Very likely not...except driving instructors, perhaps?

However, I suspect it is one of the things that humans in general are most likely to do badly, while believing they do it better than anyone else.

I have to confess that I DO use my indicator even in empty streets, but that is simply because it is so firmly embedded in my implicit memory, that I would have to make a special effort NOT to.

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@Eva,

So...I have to re-learn steering when cars with airbags filter down to my price range!!!!!???????

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

I've never seen ANY real driver do (e.g. use a turn signal to pull away from the curb on an empty residential street).

I probably overdo quite a few cautionary things when driving - it has something to do with having worked with people who've been catastrophically injured in auto accidents for so many years.

I do use my turn signal even if there's no one around - I'm too afraid of it not being part of my permanent muscle memory in a situation where I need it.

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@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

So...I have to re-learn steering when cars with airbags filter down to my price range!!!!!???????

I'm not sure. They've been standard issue on most cars here for quite some time. Perhaps that's not the case in Australia & elsewhere?

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@Robert Gentel,

Ummm - I usually do use my signal when pulling away from a curb...but then again I am a bit of a nerd.

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@dagmaraka,

So, in this same vain of children pointing out the adults errors in driving....

I am driving my daughter and two of her friends on a field trip (her school is small so for the more local field trips, parents usually drive rather than incur the cost of renting a bus and driver). I hear them in the back seat taking count of all these drivers "breaking the law". I finally realize they are counting everyone talking on their cell phones.

Of course, then my cell phone rings - (one of the other parents was a bit lost and had my cell) - they of course happily pointed out how I was breaking the law.

How to embarrass your father

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