some of them having begun to drive on tractors as elementary school students

Like tommyrot!

My first car was a VW Squareback, so I learned how to drive stick. And have had both manual and automatic transmission off and on since. I can also drive three-on-the-tree, which I had to learn on the pickup truck on my construction job.

It's tricky driving stick in SF. About the most difficult thing I've had to do with a car is backing up a hill into a parallel parking spot with stick.

I'm circumcised and so is Emmett. I was with him when he got the circumcision too.

There's a new study out recently (last couple weeks) indicating that the drop in circumcision rates will lead to an increase in healthcare costs (mostly because of AIDS transmission rates, but also penile cancer and other STDs).

Mostly though I remember my ex the medical student complaining about having to take care of old dudes at the VA Hospital that were uncircumcised. Nast. (Apparently they weren't great with the hygiene.)

I drive stick now (speaking literally and not, sadly, figuratively). I'm 44. I'm not circumcised, but as I'm female that's just as well.

I do not know how to drive stick. What puzzles me is how many cars I have rented over the years try to provide a limited "stick driving" experience in automatics. I do not know why someone who drives an automatic would want to fiddle with the faux stick driving. WTF is the point?

I bet you did, although possibly not as the state's song. It's the Tennessee Waltz.

I did not know that! Aw, I feel all nostalgic now.

I drive stick, but I learned many years after I learned how to drive. I had to learn for a summer job where I had use of a company car; I re-learned because the first car I bought was standard, as is my current car, but both were used cars I bought from friends/acquaintances so it wasn't by my choice; I would have bought the cars if they were automatics.

As to the other, let's just say being born in a hospital in the 60s doesn't guarantee one way or the other.

What puzzles me is how many cars I have rented over the years try to provide a limited "stick driving" experience in automatics. I do not know why someone who drives an automatic would want to fiddle with the faux stick driving. WTF is the point?

Fun. And maybe go faster.

I have that on my Focus. Haven't tried it yet.

What puzzles me is how many cars I have rented over the years try to provide a limited "stick driving" experience in automatics. I do not know why someone who drives an automatic would want to fiddle with the faux stick driving. WTF is the point?

I remember my mother saying that automatics didn't give her enough to do, so she got distracted, which is (obviously) A Bad Thing. But I think she drives an automatic now.

I took driver's ed (and got my license) on an automatic, but both of my parents' cars were standards at that time.

...Huh. Is automatic "standard" now?

I'm 41 and I technically was taught once -- as in, literally one time of me being behind the wheel -- how to drive a stick, back when I was 19 or so. I *definitely* don't count that as knowing how to drive stick. (Although I suppose in an emergency I could work it out, and in a real emergency I wouldn't really care if I popped the clutch.)

#demographics,man

I've had a manual transmission for the last 30 years. Automatics irritate me, because they shift when I wouldn't. I'm trying to resign myself to the fact that, with my knees, my next vehicle should probably be automatic.