[LAU] A crazy idea

[Rick Green]

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010, michael noble wrote:

>  It's bad enough that people want
> to start blasting synthesized engine sounds out of (thankfully)
> quieter electric and hybrid vehicles.
>
   Many yeaars ago, I read a science fiction story, set in a time well past 
peak oil, when conservation of hydrocarbons was at the forefront of 
everyone's mind, and society would heap much shame upon anyone who wasted 
even a drop.  The story was about a father and son who owned an antique 
mid-20th century 'muscle car', and spent their every spare night or 
weekend in the garage lavishing attention upon it. Once a month or so, 
much to the consternation of the neighbors, they would open up the 
garage, start it up, and very noisily parade it around the block.  After 
recounting the disgust of each neighbor they pass, the narrator follows 
the pair back into their garage.  As soon as they close the door 
securely behind them, they open a locked cupboard, remove a large crank, 
and insert it into a socket concealed behind the gas filler cap.  As the 
Dad begins to turn the crank, the son checks a counter concealed behind 
the front grill.  "I think we may have gone a bit far today.  We're each 
going to have to spend a full hour a day at the crank if we're to have 
any hope of taking it out again next month".

-- 
Rick Green

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
                                   -Benjamin Franklin

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our
safety and our ideals."
                                -President Barack Obama 20 Jan 2009