"We don't need perfection. What we need is Indiana!"
Context
I was packed in a minivan with too many other people and we were making our escape from a large city that was scheduled to host a "No Kings" protest in a couple of hours.
The navigator's smartphone had just gone Tango-Uniform due to a dead battery. The navigator was pointing out the deficiencies of the replacement unit. The screen was too small. The layout was tiled wrong. The controls were not intuitive....
From the back-seat one of the passengers observed "Brad, stuff a sock in it. We don't need perfection. What we need is Indiana!"
So, a big shout-out to all of my readers who live in Indiana or who grew up in Indiana. How many other states can you name that are more desirable than perfection?
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One of my college professors was Bob Hubbard, one of the co-inventors of the HANS helmet used by NASCAR.
He went to college at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago during the Vietnam War. He clearly remembered having to fight his way through unwashed hippies protesting the war. But oddly enough, it was only when the weather was pleasant.
He went to his classes every day, rain-or-shine, sunny skies and when there were blizzards with -20F wind-chills. The protesters were only there during "picnic weather".
Looking at the weather, the No King's protests in the city were I was this weekend might be sparsely attended.
whaddya mean?
ReplyDeleteBesides the weather, the taxes, the folks in Indianapolis, Ft Wayne, Bloomington and South Bend (and Lake County) , the crappy roads the ever present construction on the interstates, the air pollution from Chicago, and stuff like that, we are already perfection!
I was walking around with a companion and we were looking at menus at the outdoor cafes.
DeleteI was looking at one of them and exclaimed "Hey, that isn't too bad. $7 for a hamburger."
My companion suggested that I look a little more closely at the price.
The leading character was not a dollar sign, it was the number "5".
From that place, Indiana looks better than perfection.
ERJ: just for the burger or for a whole meal with a burger as the main attraction? Either I'm confused or REALLY out of touch with restaurant prices. Or both.
DeleteB@441: You make some good points. I spent a week in Indianapolis living in a fleabag motel working nights as an OEM fixit guy for a customer that didn't want me there. I got lost one night and ended up ...somewhere... that had a Krispy Kreme but I was afraid to get out of the car. My daily entertainment was driving past an abandoned vehicle twice per day on 405 seeing it slowly get skeletonized like a downed gazelle on the Serengeti. Man, I was glad to get home in a different state. No offense.
Usually the alternate mapping device is less capable than the primary one. If it is better, than why isn't it the primary one? In my opinion, maps require the full PACE treatment. In my case, my son has the primary phone, mine is the alternate, my daughter's is the contingency and the emergency is the paper book of maps under the seat. Oh, and charge ports with spare cables that connect to everyone's phones, just in case.
ReplyDeleteI usually do a quick refresher before I bug out. Most everywhere I go, I've been to before. As long as East, West, North and South aren't slipping around, I should be okay.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to get a degree from Sam Houston Institute of Technology. I don't think they have any post grad degrees, only four year BS degrees.
And the "protesters" will pack up and go home the moment they stop being paid to be there....
ReplyDeleteThey won't show if they don't get paid...
ReplyDeleteI find this "No Kings" stuff most entertaining because I have for years teased Americans that they have an elective monarchy. Read the Constitution: the elected monarch has far more untrammelled power than poor old George III had. Indeed he's more a seventeenth century monarch than an eighteenth century one.
ReplyDeleteSome Americans are subjects of two elected monarchs - I refer to Roman Catholics.
I am thinking strictly of your constitutional Presidents, not thuggish dictators like FDR, Wilson, or Andrew Jackson. Or, alas, in some aspects of his behaviour, Lincoln.