in: peggyd; peggyd > 2008-07-11;
| # Posted 2008-07-14 06:15:09 | |
| barb: | I like the idea of you engaging with her in some thought-provoking way. :-) |
| # Posted 2008-07-14 10:25:00 | |
| Swampfox: | If some LDS missionaries come to your door and you just nod and smile noncommittedly, you will be there a real long time! |
| # Posted 2008-07-15 08:21:48 | |
| peggyd: | I love it when the LDS guys come to the door, because I enjoy telling them we're atheists, and we're not interested in being converted, thank you very much, and I don't want to be up on a pedestal and I don't want my husband to have the final say in all things family.
We have four Mormon cartographers at work; to a person, they're delightful, friendly, smart. Sooo, I have nothing against the people themselves ... I have a hard time being confrontational, even in little ways, especially to people I see frequently. I did challenge her once, when she was stating that small cars are dangerous and so she's gonna just spend more for gas driving her big SUV in order to keep her kids safe (I refrained from saying what I really wanted to). I just said that not all small cars are dangerous ... or something like that. Not much, but something... It's hard to say something thought-provoking when I'm in the middle of a workout, too. ;-) |
| # Posted 2008-07-15 17:52:53 | |
| barb: | Yeah, I'm not good at the confrontation thing. |
| # Posted 2008-07-15 22:29:09 | |
| Swampfox: | I've never seen any statistics showing what the actual increased mortality rates are with a small car versus a large car, or even anything showing there is an increase at all (though it does stand to reason.) It'd be interesting to see.
Not necessarily apropo of any of the above, just the other day in town I saw the first Smart Car I've ever seen. I knew they were small, but, wow! Especially when surrounded by the sort of large and extra large pickups favored out in the west, they are tiny looking! |
| # Posted 2008-07-16 00:21:42 | |
| bbrooke: | Supposedly the Smart "fortwo" can fit in a standard parking spot sideways.
For as tiny as they are, I'm surprised they don't have mega-MPG. They get 41 highway / 33 city. But, this article last week said they're reasonably safe. The NHTSA gives the "fortwo" four and five stars (out of five) for front and side impact, respectively. [Reference] |
| # Posted 2008-07-16 00:24:52 | |
| bbrooke: | p.s. I recall a Swampfox tale where he saw the LDS missionaries on their way to his door, and he had enough time to dig out an official-looking document so he could say "Look! I've already signed a contract with the Presbyterians!" What more would they have to say after that...? |
| # Posted 2008-07-16 03:35:14 | |
| peggyd: | I've seen smartcars around this area, even at a dealership. Very cute! I wouldn't drive it on the Beltway though, that's just asking for trouble. And the MPG is surprisingly low. You'd think they could try harder to make it better.
Signed with the Presbyterians! That's pretty funny. I would like to try that but with the most opposite (main) religion. Which would be...?? UU? or something even more radical? (Pagans, of course, but they're not really mainstream...) |
| # Posted 2008-07-16 03:54:14 | |
| JanetT: | I think the trade-off with mpg is safety; i.e., in order to make it safer they also had to make it heavier, affecting gas mileage. You win some, you lose some.
That said, my mother would agree with your co-worker. She was hit mostly head-on (angled blow on a curve where the other car didn't turn soon enough; Mom had whiplash and wore a neck brace for awhile) by another driver once and does not feel safe in small cars. |
| # Posted 2008-07-16 10:06:08 | |
| Bash: | The Smart Car gets much better mileage in other countries. The U.S. version isn't optimized for that. |
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