I don't think Boston drivers are so bad, they just have to deal with some logistical challenges. People not from Boston driving in Boston get shit on because they Don't Know What They Are Doing, and that aggravates the Boston driver. We value staying on the ball here. Don't let your attention wander, people!

At least the roads have stopped being re-arranged every few days like back in the big dig days. Now we just need to worry about the big dig tunnels re-arranging themselves.

Dear cow-irkers: believe it or not I don't sit here with my e-mail up so I can catch every gem that falls from your fingers as it arrives. I've actually been trying to work. So when you come in and launch into a request in the middle, interrupting the actual WORK I'm doing, don't be so shocked that I don't know what you're talking about.

And yeah - the box of magazines by the door, WHERE YOU PUT THEM LAST WEEK, is indeed the latest issue.

No love,

me

My mother was once stopped by a policeman who firmly instructed her that she should have a "complete sensation of movement" when she came to a stop sign. Not wanting to cause trouble, she nodded and saved up the story to be told later, and I now think of it almost every single time I come to a stop sign. And I come to a stop with a sense of thumbing my nose at that guy. "Hah! No sensation of movement now!"

When I was in driver's ed, my instructor used the rhyme, "If you don't feel the rock, you ain't stopped." Which is what I always think about when I actually come to a complete stop and feel the rock backward.

From driver's ed, 25 years ago - "You must come to a full and complete stop, at or before the crosswalk or limit line". I wish that didn't echo in my head this many years later. Get out, get out, get out.

"You must come to a full and complete stop, at or before the crosswalk or limit line".

Well, that doesn't just roll off the tongue.

My driver's ed guy was a little different from yours, Suzi. I think he was from Mississippi. Not that that matters except for the accent I hear him in. Direct quote relating to safe stopping distances: "Now, if I see a blind person in the intersection, I'm gonna give him some room. I don't know about no te-eeen feet, though."

The section on long-distance driving began "Say you goin' down to Memphis for the dawg races."

He sounds like fun! I had Mr. SillyName, who wore silly pants. I know it's not kind to make fun of him, but boy he was... silly.

I just told two co-workers how I sing "Mama's little baby loves shortening shortening" to my kitten boy Caspie (he loves it, btw). I think I have to kill them now, eh?

What I remember of Mr. Schaeffer the driver ed teacher was him singing along with "Lucille" on the radio as a I drove.

"You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille!"