You may have noticed that I haven't posted a precast in a couple of days. Truth to tell, TTAC contributor and former Car and Driver editor Stephan Wilkinson knocked the wind out of my sails with an email that asked why in God's name anyone would want to listen to a couple of "car dorks." As someone who's never had trouble getting laid (current status: happily married), I've never really thought of myself as a dork. Strange, sure. Over-educated, definitely. But dorky? I don't think so. At least I didn't think so until Wilkinson sent his email. Now I'm left wondering if my single-minded dedication to all things automotive, and the thousands of hours spent tapping the plastic in my e-garret about same, has rendered me a car nerd. (Webster's on-line dictionary makes no distinction between dork and nerd.) For sure, I know too much about some pretty obscure car-related things. But I console myself that you gentle reader know equally as much, and, in most cases, far more than I in this field. And I celebrate your knowledge. I respect it, admire it and defer to it. So, if I love your passion, I guess I should love mine– no matter how juvenile or "dorky" it sounds. In that spirit, I resume this audio feature. If it grates, so be it. But if you're dorky and you know it, click right here.
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I dig it, keep ’em coming!
“Big Book of British Smiles,” Farago.
where did the advertisments go?
I do have trouble getting laid. Thank you TTAC. You complete me.
I’ll take the fifth on whether I do or don’t :)
As for dorkiness, maybe… I’m having too much fun to give a sh*t. :)
I believe “geek” is the politically correct term these days ;-)
Leave it to the Urban Dictionary to sort it out.
1)Nerd: One whose IQ exceeds his weight
or
An ‘individual’, i.e. a person who does not conform to society’s beliefs that all people should follow trends and do what their peers do. Often highly intelligent but socially rejected because of their obesssion with a given subject, usually computers. Unfortunately, nerds seem to have problems breeding, to the detriment of mankind as a whole.
2)Dork
dork 354 up, 139 down
1. a whale p3nis
2. an individual who is keenly interested in and good at mathematics, science, and technology, and applies mathematical and scientific principles to everyday occurrences, while at the same time being loveable and very personable, often having many friends due to wittiness, often loves video games. Not to be confused with nerd or geek or dweeb.
“Wonk” is another term that is used to describe people who are into minutae, and perhaps because of that, know what they’re talking about. Of course, “wonk” is usually applied to people who are involved in government or follow politics; but I have seen it applied in a broader context.
But all that stuff should be badges of honor. I would rather my offspring – if I had any – were called “geek” or “nerds” or “wonks” instead of “jocks.” At least, I’d know that they were contributing something to society, other than just playing children’s games for their own ego.
Stephan is a fine writer and editor, and from I know of him, a good man. But I have to disagree with him – to an extent. I think he was complaining that the site may need more reviews or things other than what are essentially Op-ed pieces. But if people didn’t want to listen to and learn from “car dorks” Patrick Bedard would likely have been cashiered out last spring at C/D, as was Brock Yates. I am not alone when I saw I always like to read Patrick’s column because I learn things – although I am not so certain about the column he did recently on global warning. But hey, I’m not an engineer who raced at the Indy 500, crashed and lived; but Patrick is all those things and more.
Just keep following your muse, Robert.
Meant to write, “When I say….” in the third from last sentence in earlier post.
“But all that stuff should be badges of honor. I would rather my offspring – if I had any – were called “geek†or “nerds†or “wonks†instead of “jocks.â€
I agree wholeheartedly! Nerds and geeks do have the last laugh as well – they end up with far more interesting lives than those who follow a generic path. I was the weird kid that had to stay late at school scrubbing my desk free of intricate horse musculature and fanciful car design scribblings, knew all the latin names for the amphibians and reptiles in the woods adjacent to the playground and quite frankly, found them far more interesting than the schoolyard games the other kids were playing. I was a dork then I guess, and still must be.
I’d far rather be trackside with my camera, in the garage with my car club buddies learning how to install brake lines, or staying up til 3 am drawing the Bentley Speed 8 for an assignment than playing golf with folks from work, talking about GICs and other people, and checking once in a while to see if I still have a pulse…
I can’t speak for anyone else of course… but for me, compromising my passions leads to a sickness of the soul.
For me this feature is less about being a car dork as it is a convenient way to catch up on news in the auto world. TTAC does reviews and editorials but rarely covers news items. Jalopnik is on the other extreme, writing more each day than I have time or care to read. The precast is the perfect middle ground. For 10 minutes while I’m working on something else I can hear a recap of the day’s top automotive news stories. If I have a vote, that’s where I’d like to see the precast head. Hell, do it well enough and maybe you can find a public radio network or two that would like to air it and some sponsors who want their 30 second spot pre-precast.
Is it possible to get a standard RSS feed of the precast? It sure would be handy if I could subscribe to the precast in iTunes like I do all my other podcasts, and it would be automatically synced into my iPod so I can listen on the go.
Also, am I really the first to point out that jet fuel is significantly less volatile than gasoline? Jet fuel is essentially refined kerosene. You can actually put a small fire out with jet fuel.
” As someone who’s never had trouble getting laid (current status: happily married),”
There is a problem here. Happily married is not synonymous with sex. It is more likely the opposite of sex.
So a rube calls you a dork and you rethink the meaning of life? Thought you had a thicker skin…
Especially knowing the BMW, Subaru, Vagina affair…
I like the podcasts. You may not stop producing them. I read this site. I listen to the podcast. I enjoy all of it. You owe me.
As a Swede, I am sometimes confronted with the question: American or British English? So when I lunched with one authentic Englishman who had lived in New Jersey, I put this question to him as avec. The answer was: American English. “Because no Americans likes British English, but all Englishmen accepts American English.â€
The way you write, Robert, is one of the best examples of very effective, laconic, easy to read, entertaining and well-informed journalistic writing I know of, to my opinion typical American.
I love the podcasts, but my boss is in the next room.
I like the new format of tricking Spinelli for a few minutes. There’s less stammering when he’s off-presure.
I’m a proud “car dork.” For 12 consecutive work-days now, I’ve used the pre/podcasts to get me out of bed at 5:15am and run for 10 minutes. Counting the 15 years I played organized sports, this is the self-motivated running streak I’ve ever been on.
Farago & Spinelli – making america healthy, one “car dork” at a time!
I have also been called a “car dork” and I resented it as well!
The description of my automotive obession, given to me by an old girlfriend, which I find most suiting is that it’s a fetish. Although often used in a sexual manner it isn’t necessarily so. It’s defined as “An abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment; a fixation“, which I think is apt.
Well, I didn’t listen to this podcast either.
My point was not that Robert is a dork, which I put in just to get his attention, it’s that I couldn’t imagine who has the time–certainly I don’t–to LISTEN to an article. The nice thing about text is that I can skim it if necessary, jump through it, speed read, slow down, think, digest, ignore. I can dispense with an editorial or car review in 60 seconds (or less) if that’s what it deserves, or spend a good 10 or 20 minutes reading it and the comments if it’s worthy.
I have found no way to speed read a podcast, and if I have time to listen to something, I’d rather it be Lyle Lovett or Hank Williams than…a couple of car dorks. I will continue to click right past those talking-computer things.
Hey Brandon D. Valentine –
You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, but it’s called the Jalopnik Precast.
Do it – it’s worth it.
/marc
Poor Hamster…
Jon.
While being busy dismissing a fellow car wonk’s extreme misfortune (wiping out at nearly 300 MPH and almost dying) this was said….
“Jet fuel..is on the combustible side of combustible…”
Isn’t jet fuel (basically kerosene) essentially less flammable than gasoline?
The point wasn’t the damn fuel, it was the physics of crashing at speeds few earthbound vehicles have ever crashed at.
I visit the grassroots motorsports board, where members are known as half-dorks, dorks, or super-dorks depending on length of membership and post count. :)
So I’m an aspiring super dork. Huh. Who knew?
Yes, jet fuel is way less combustible than most hydrocarbon liquids/gases. There are different kinds of jet fuel–JP3, JP4, etc.–and what the airline burns is even less combustible than what the military burns.
Remember TWA 800, which blew up over Long Island when vapor in the center fuel tank ignited from a short-circuit spark? (I remember it well, since my wife and daughter flew the exact same airplane to Paris 24 hours earlier.) That spark is probably sparking away in a variety of 747s right now, since the problem has yet to be fixed despite the NTSB’s recommendations, and it was probably sparking away for years before that in ’47s. But fortunately, it’s almost impossible to ignite jet fuel that way, and it was an incredible combination of temperature, vapor content and pressure that created that fireball.
So jet fuel is in fact on the barely flammable side of combustion.
“Yeeehaw!”
(smashing through a traffic jam and the wreck that caused it, in a tanker/semi-truck)
“What are you hauling.” (John Candy’s line)
“Rocket Fuel!”
– Armed and Dangerous
Somebody ought to link to a combustibility chart, I’m too lazy to find one, or explain how the hazmat labels are numbered on large trucks (1703? 1763? or whatever is gasoline.)
1.999/gallon here in Massillon, OH right now, so I guess ‘The Truth about Gas‘ was right on the money (By William Sargant
October 13th, 2005 435 Views)