The Answer's in the Question

Okay, on the way home I was indulging in an exploration of AM talk radio. This might not seem an indulgance to you, but my piece of shit F-150 has a broken AM tuner. It also has a broken CD player. FM comes in but only on the left speaker (I'm not making that up just because NPR tends to be the most tolerable choice on the FM dial).

So I'm listening to an AM call-in show in the Buick I'm debating about. I mean, it's practically free, this 1988 LeSabre my Dad would have traded in except they only offered him $50 for it. He felt insulted.

Rightly so, considering that the tires are relatively new, and worth at least $50. he put a fairly nice radio in it too, a Pioneer CD player & radio that's got to be worth more than $50. It also will fit my whole family when the van is broken without Frau Lobster having to ride in the bed.

I like having a pickup. I mean, if I have to own motor vehicle at all, a truck is the thing. And it's not four wheel drive (big waste of gasoline considering it's useful 2.2 days a year where I live), and it's not a V-8 (unusual for a full-size truck, but it's the straight six witha five speed manual, so as full size trucks go it's fuel efficient).

Of course a fuel efficient full size truck is only slightly less wasteful than a Kuwaiti Oil Rig Fire. The fact that an '88 LeSabre is cheaper to gas is proof of that.

For that matter, the gas in the tank is worth $50.

So Dad's driving his 'new to him' Avalon and I'm on a sort of extended test-drive with the Buick. Basically, whatever nominal price it changes hands for, I'd just have to commit to taxes and liability insurance in a couple of weeks. Cheaper than an MTA pass, actually.

If the MTA ran here.

To get back to what I was talking about (AM radio), I usually like AM talk radio. It's full of opinions that either piss me off or fill me with self-righteousness. Or both.

But this show, I didn't catch the name of it, but the guy was having people call in for a quiz.

'Who's Donald Rumsfeld?'

No one got this on my commute. The closest to an answer that happened was a guy who thought Donald Rumsfeld was a real estate developer who fired a lot of people on TV.

'Name two states that have 'North' in their names.'

One girl got this, but the guy who thinks Donald Rumsfeld is building skyscrapers in New York could only name 'North Dakota.' When he gave up and the host told him it was 'Northtopia,' he mumbled something like 'Oh, right.'

My nine year old can answer the 'North' question.

Other stumpers offered were: 'What city is the NYPD in?' 'What show stars Teri Hatcher and Eva Longoria?'

The callers were so out of the loop, he got one woman to record a plug for an FM music station that doesn't exist when she (you would think) knew she'd called an AM talk show.

Maybe Jay's right. It's better they die before they reveal their stupidity.