I can see why someone would think this was a great idea. He’s probably on the road a lot, and spends a fair amount of time sitting in his car in a parking lot waiting until he can go inside and meet a client about perhaps purchasing some encyclopedias. In that situation, having a device that hooks onto the steering wheel so one can use one’s laptop would be pretty handy.
Unfortunately for our trusty inventor, Amazon users are pretty quick to note when something is silly and/or stupid, and they pounce.
727 of 751 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest thing ever invented!, October 26, 2009
By T. Meadows “TM” (WV) – See all my reviews
Wow is this thing great! I use it as a “mini-bar” when the friends and I go out to the bars. I can quickly fix multiple shots of tequila for myself and the friends as we drive from one bar to the next. We also discovered that if you place a pillow on top of it and turn on the cruise control you can catch quick naps on the interstate. If you swerve to the left or right the rumble strips on the road wake you up in plenty of time before you get into trouble. I can now take longer trips without being tired!
Also, i am now dating a midget and she fits nicely on the steering wheel desk which allows us to experiment sexually while driving. This thing is like WD-40 or duct tape, it is a million and one uses!
For Veterans’ Day, here’s a Denver Post piece detailing a young man’s struggles with the military and his own life as a reporter and photographer followed him for 27 months during basic training, advanced infantry training, and a tour in Iraq. It’s really spectacularly done, and the photography is revealing and often heartbreaking.
Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: “Because the animals are like us.” Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: “Because the animals are not like us.” Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction. – Charles R. Magel, professor of philosophy
I can’t say he’s wrong, but here’s my question: what would Professor Magel have scientists experiment on? Hobos? I guess you could say “paid volunteers,” but if you have to test, say, a pediatric cancer treatment, is there a large pool of children whose parents are willing to try a completely untested-on-any-living-creature treatment? I’m not saying we need to scoop the eyeballs out of a chimpanzee and rub lipstick and rouge into the sockets, but I have no problem with medical tests on mice and pigs. Partly because I hate mice (and have been waging a one man, two cat war against them in my new home [the cats are next to useless]) and because perhaps after the tests are done I might be permitted to eat parts of the pigs.
In two posts (one, two), Bruce Buschel outlines the 100 things that restaurant staffers should never do, some of which are obvious:
1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.
8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.
And some of which I’d never think of, but which are still crazy important:
12. Do not touch the rim of a water glass. Or any other glass.
13. Handle wine glasses by their stems and silverware by the handles.
I’d add a few more of my own:
101: Write down my order. I am not in the least bit impressed that you can remember the entire order of a table for four, and will not be adding a few dollars to the tip for it. I will, with absolute certainty, subtract a few dollars from your tip when I asked for a medium-rare steak and get it well-done, or if you forget to tell the cooks that my wife doesn’t like onions on her burger.
102: This is one for the restaurant owner: if your establishment is BYOB, don’t charge me money to open my bottle of wine. I can do it myself, with the corkscrew on my pocketknife. If you want to make money off of alcohol, then get a fricking liquor license, you skinflint.
(We had dinner at Butterfish, in West Chester, on Friday, and while the food was fantastic and the service superb, being taxed $3 a bottle infuriated me.)
Rehearsal for a concert I’m singing in on Saturday got a nice write-up in a local arts blog. As usual, my advertising is late and largely useless, but if you’ve no plans for Saturday night, I invite you to come to First and Central Presbyterian to hear the Mastersingers of Wilmington. We’re doing some old stuff (Bach, Schütz, John Sheppard), and some newish stuff (Desenclos Requiem, written in the early 60s but awfully modern in harmony and style). It really will be some of the finest choral singing you’ll hear anywhere in the Delaware Valley.
Warning: everybody tears up while watching this video. EVERY. BODY. (If you don’t, you are a zombie, and I’d prefer you go elsewhere and not eat my sweetbreads.)
My day has been improved markedly by Ana Marie Cox and Jason Linkins “live-blogging” the White House flickr feed. All the best stuff is actually just for the first picture:
JASON: Also back there is Arne Duncan, who I thought was a baller? He played in Australia though, where there’s trapezoids on the court and they wear hot pants and you have to account for the Coriolis Effect when you run your backdoor cuts.
ANA MARIE: But the star of this picture is, of course, Reggie Love.
JASON: This is what a real athlete looks like. Look at his face! Calm like a bomb. That vertical leap is what scares Glenn Beck the most about the Obama administration.
ANA MARIE: If I could make a related point about Reggie Love?
JASON: Please do.
ANA MARIE: Basically? YUM.
JASON: Ha! Who is that underneath Reggie Love, looking on in terror?
ANA MARIE: That’s Pennsylvania Representative and Iraq War vet Patrick Murphy, who’s spearheading the Congressional effort to end the ban on gays in the military.
JASON: Well, don’t ask and don’t tell anyone about that time he got cold postered by Reggie Love!
