next? a gun rack
"IT'S MY BOSS' CAR! I SWEAR!! IT'S NOT MINE!"
I was running an errands for my boss this afternoon. She's not the type of boss who would actually ask her assistant to run errands. I practically begged her to let me so that she'd have an hour or two in her office (unheard of) to whittle down her completely overwhelming to-do list before she goes out of town tomorrow. So if you saw me driving around town this afternoon in an SUV, allow me to repeat: It's my boss' car.
And if you see me driving around this next week in a different SUV ... that's my other boss' car! I'm housesitting for his family while they're away, and they graciously allow me to drive their vehicle when I need it ... except that's it's an SUV.
Let's say I'm not an SUV kinda gal. Except that when I drove one for the first time, I was all like, "Oooh, man. I could get used to this!" It was comfortable. COMFORTABLE comfortable. Like butter. And finally, I could see everything around me while driving, because of course I drive a small car and I usually can't see due to all the SUVs and huge-ass trucks. It was ... well, kinda nice.
So I see the appeal, but I have a few questions:
1. Why do my bosses (or my parents, for that matter) drive these machines? By all other accounts, these people are good, upstanding, card-carryiong money-where-their-mouths-are liberals (thank god). Can you be a liberal and drive an SUV? Are liberals, by proxy, environmentalists? Discuss.
2. Does anyone else remember when they were first becoming popular and they were called "sport utes" or just "utes" (pronounced yoot, short for utility)?
3. By a wide margin, the most commonly suggested sketch idea that "BFL* should totally do" was Law & Order: SUV. I know that's not a question, but I just thought of it.
*I doubt there's any reason to explain this, since I think everyone who reads this I have either slept with or wanted to* --- but BFL is Bald Faced Lie, a sketch group I was in in Seattle from circa 1995-2005. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We were funny. RIP.
*Do I even need to explain that's a joke?
I was running an errands for my boss this afternoon. She's not the type of boss who would actually ask her assistant to run errands. I practically begged her to let me so that she'd have an hour or two in her office (unheard of) to whittle down her completely overwhelming to-do list before she goes out of town tomorrow. So if you saw me driving around town this afternoon in an SUV, allow me to repeat: It's my boss' car.
And if you see me driving around this next week in a different SUV ... that's my other boss' car! I'm housesitting for his family while they're away, and they graciously allow me to drive their vehicle when I need it ... except that's it's an SUV.
Let's say I'm not an SUV kinda gal. Except that when I drove one for the first time, I was all like, "Oooh, man. I could get used to this!" It was comfortable. COMFORTABLE comfortable. Like butter. And finally, I could see everything around me while driving, because of course I drive a small car and I usually can't see due to all the SUVs and huge-ass trucks. It was ... well, kinda nice.
So I see the appeal, but I have a few questions:
1. Why do my bosses (or my parents, for that matter) drive these machines? By all other accounts, these people are good, upstanding, card-carryiong money-where-their-mouths-are liberals (thank god). Can you be a liberal and drive an SUV? Are liberals, by proxy, environmentalists? Discuss.
2. Does anyone else remember when they were first becoming popular and they were called "sport utes" or just "utes" (pronounced yoot, short for utility)?
3. By a wide margin, the most commonly suggested sketch idea that "BFL* should totally do" was Law & Order: SUV. I know that's not a question, but I just thought of it.
*I doubt there's any reason to explain this, since I think everyone who reads this I have either slept with or wanted to* --- but BFL is Bald Faced Lie, a sketch group I was in in Seattle from circa 1995-2005. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We were funny. RIP.
*Do I even need to explain that's a joke?
Comments
Car companies like it too, of course, since SUVs are technically "light trucks" so they require less crash testing, and are under easier crash and rollover standards. They may also be under less restrictive emissions standards (I'm not as sure of that one, though). They also get to charge more for them, since they're "bigger" and must be harder to build, right? Combine that with the savings of less testing, and it's a recipe for success.
Anyway, until the mainstream image of an SUV moves from a "safer" vehicle to a "more dangerous" or "resource hog" vehicle, we're probably stuck with them. Check the crash stats if you're still under the "safer" delusion, it's pretty scary. The resource hog stuff is pretty obvious.
So, no, your liberal bosses are not necessarily bad liberals or anything, but they may have defaulted on a choice or two rather than devoting the time/research now necessary to find the best choice in a non-SUV car. It's a sad thing, but it's still a growing trend. Go marketing!
By the way, I think I missed out on the BFL sleep-with-Peggy train. Can I get a raincheck? Great! (PS: probably joking. Just kidding! Wait...)
IanJ has points, and we are talking about a man with a large family in one case, and a woman who lives out in the boonies in the other.
But still, these are folks who were raving about The Inconvenient Truth earlier in the year.
And also, I think I dated that Traget guy.
Of course, maybe their hauling needs are very great.
As an example, I doubt most people would peg me as a motorcyclist if they didn't already know. People who do know me as a motorcyclist might not guess that I do it, in a large part, because of a misguided notion that it's better for the environment (in a way it is, in a way it isn't, hence the recent move to bicycles when possible).
You and I may have latched onto (say) SUVs as a sign of the Coming Apocalypse. But other liberals may have latched onto (say) wasting water. We look at them and say they're killing the world without thinking, then they look at us and say the exact same thing. It may just be a matter of where you focus. Yes, SUVs are a questionable choice from a global perspective, but so is washing your clothes in an inefficient 1970s top-loader. (Both silly examples, chosen for silliness, by the way.) Both are real issues, but both demonstrate how we can't necessarily focus on all the good or bad we're doing.
I guess what it all boils down to is do what you can. If there's a part of your life you don't like, fix it. If you can't fix it, make it as not-bad as you can. If you can't change it, accept that and move on.
(Lovely to see you last night, by the way!)
I will also side with you, Egg, in the "Holy crap, this is comfy" department. Like it or not, these babies are Lu-hu-hug-xurious. I drove many of them as a valet and I think the most digusting of them all - the Cadillac Escalade - took the cake. One could raise a small family in there.
The upside to some of these bigger vehicles these days is also Biodiesel, believe it or not. Some of those big, red-neck haulers actually cotton quite well to corn-fuel. They're just disguised as big loud farm machines.
I met a guy once who drove a big honkin' BioD truck and plastered the thing with "Powered by Biodiesel" stickers. Not to show off, he said, but to keep his rig from getting rocks thrown at it as he drove through town.
Takes all kinds.
Oh, and I totally slept with Egg. Are you kidding?
I put the "L" in BFL!
Whatever that means.
I gotta go...