The internet is a black hole filled with an endless stream of stupid thoughts and bad ideas. While it’s usually best to ignore it, every so often something breaks through the obnoxious drone of social media that is so egregious, you couldn’t possibly turn a blind eye if you wanted to.
We are obligated to present to you a recent tweet from Vahid Kazemi, a software engineer for Google’s self-driving arm Waymo, and describe how it made us feel.
Kazemi begins his digital announcement stating that he’s driving in Los Angeles. While that isn’t a crime in itself, it is a humblebrag to all the jerks currently occupying flyover states that offer a better standard of living for less money but none of the prestige.
How do I know that? Because I do this all the time, specifically to make myself feel superior to others. Do I actually feel any better when I tell friends in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that I’m currently “enjoying a New York slice?” Not really. But the impulse is too strong to resist when the card is right there for you to play.
Moving on, we come to the infuriating meat of Vahid’s tweet. Here he tells everyone with access to a computer that, over the last two days, he has almost murdered five strangers. He’s also repeatedly lost control of the rental vehicle he has been issued. As someone who drives rentals fairly often, I’ve not had this problem — which means Kazemi is either joking or one of the world’s worst drivers.
However, even if this is just a big goof on his part, there is usually some truth in comedy. I do believe Vahid probably almost killed someone while behind the wheel of a borrowed automobile and I also believe his first impulse was to tweet about it jokingly on a public forum. Which is absolutely hilarious, by the way.
His defense was that the rental didn’t have have the same autonomous features his own car has. We already know that relying on driving aids eventually make you a shittier driver. However, the smugness that comes along with it is a new development. That’s easily the most obnoxious portion of this tweet. Kazemi makes a not-so-subtle case for mandating autonomous vehicles using his own ineptitude as an argument.
I can’t breakdance and I would probably hurt myself pretty badly if I tried. In fact, there’s an video from 2008 of that exact thing happening. But I’m not going to make a blanket statement that indicts breakdancing as evil just because it isn’t a skill I possess. Of course, I don’t work for a company that will make more money once nobody is allowed to breakdance anymore.
Alright, this breakdancing analogy is flying off the rails. The point is that Kazemi said something dumb and contentious without even realizing it. I think that’s what makes this autonomous revolution kind of scary. There’s this sense that it isn’t being controlled by people who love cars. I’m sure the Waymo engineer in question is a fine person, but he said something that outed himself as non-enthusiast bent on ending driving, and that’s rather troubling. It confirms what we’ve all suspected and gives us a face to vent our frustrations upon.
As a result, Vahid ended up being teased over his statement and the zingers kept on coming — even after he deleted the original tweet and posted a backpedaling response (which he also deleted).
[Images via Twitter]
however there just might be a group that will love it when every car is autonomous. A motor cycle nut I know recently quipped: “It will be hell of a lot safer for motorcyclists when all the crazy people in cars don’t drive anymore.” There is some truth to that…
Are motorcyclists delusional enough to think that driver controlled motorcycles will be spared if cages are autonomous?
@ TwoBelugas – a common thread among motorcyclist are that they are preternaturally endowed with superior operator skills (despite much anecdotal evidence to the contrary) ergo autonomous vehicles will entirely alleviate motorcycle accidents and fatalities since motorcyclists are incapable of succumbing to human error.
On a more serious note, I imagine operating a motorcycle requires more situational awareness but I’ve seen plenty of cyclist make piss poor judgements going down the road – mostly when it comes to passing it seems. The most egregious is the pass between two cars with barely enough room for the bike off the rear bumper in one lane and the front bumper in the other with no margin for error followed by high speed passing in a tunnel designated as a no passing zone (since I live in the land of under water crossings).
I guess one of these days I’ll have to look into the real accident rate for motorcyclist since you have plenty of squeaky wheels on the interwebz who may or may not be distorting the picture.
Lol. Motorcycles will be banned from public roads.
I weep.
:-(
PS Is there a TTAC for motorcycles?
If you want to read about old motorcycles – try Curbside Classic. There is a section for motorcycles, even for old lawn equipment.
Call El Padrino on him
He should add a second “Note to self”.
(2) Learn to drive. My skills have deteriorated to the point where I am a menace on the road.
One word – Hubris
I would actually agree with Mr. Kazemi. I recently switched from driving a car with braking/lane change warnings (not even intervention features), to one that doesn’t, and the difference is unreal. The last few months of driving have been more stressful than even when I first started driving, now that the only “warning” system is my own eyes and ears, which are now taxed with significantly more tasks than before. I am more amazed than ever that the average American can drive at all, and I am actively pushing all my family members to only consider an autonomous vehicle, or at least one with all possibly safety intervention features, for their next car. Once autonomous vehicles are widespread and affordable, non-AVs will be like horses: obsolete, but enjoyable for a small, wealthy enthusiast community.
Sarcasm? A/V troll?
Lets hope it was sarcasm.
Appreciate you taking the risk to post that viewpoint on ttac.
The lane watch warning system on my car switches off on gravel roads because there are no lane lines. I CANNOT stay on the road after it turns off.
Please stay calm everyone. I was JOKING.
There are many times I’d rather have the car drive me. However, as an ex fighter/trainer jock, I always remember the heavy driver’s remark on Airbus: The plane where the pilot is a voting member. And we know the things that have occurred on that…er…plane the times when the pilot’s vote is not counted.
And an autonomous car will most probably not give the passenger the ability to override.
Sorry, but not buying it now. Or perhaps for a long time in the future.
Well, it helps if the right seater doesn’t input nose up until you pancake into the Atlantic for no reason.
“now that the only “warning” system is my own eyes and ears”
I hate it when I have to actually DO something.
“which are now taxed with significantly more tasks than before.”
Put the phucking phone down and drive.
Duuude, get a car with out power steering and ABS, and with roll-up windows. Better yet ride a bicycle, you lazy ph..ck
Poor little snowflake would probably have a heart attack if he were confronted with a manual transmission.
Are you saying that you never possessed that skill set or that you let it atrophy to the point of uselessness?
I can certainly accept that people are imperfect and are prone to missing things that a system designed specifically for and to constantly detect such things but I can’t see how that prevents the “average” American from driving at all?
I’d consider myself a driver of average ability.
But how hard is it? You go down the road and take note of as many vehicles as you can as you approach them, as you pass them, and where they are once you’ve passed them and you apply the same principle you would normally apply looking ahead (look as far down the road as you can) as you would looking to the rear taking note of the vehicles in line behind you identifying vehicles that are indicating a lane change to the rear and side or moving faster than the surrounding traffic then extrapolating their probable position and confirming it as best you can by using side mirrors or looking back when space and time permits as well as taking into account your blind spots.
It might sound complicated but I’d say no more than driving a manual transmission car as it becomes second nature.
Taxing certainly but for most people I cant imagine even at a commute a few hours long that it would completely impair one’s ability to operate in a relatively safe fashion.
Your reply reminds me of engineers who are amazed that actual humans could have designed complex mechanical systems prior to the advent of computers, simulations or even the electronic calculator.
Things designed prior to computers are a lot more primitive vs today’s stuff. I think that’s obvious. Your point is lacking basic logic
People who’ve lost the ability to do things for themselves are sitting ducks.
We tend to think of our ancestors as being a bunch of primitive idiots who couldn’t accomplish what we can with our modern tools, but we forget they accomplished a lot of things that we can’t without our modern tools.
I can’t wait for self-driving cars, just because of all the other drivers who don’t care about their driving skills. I will certainly miss driving on public roads when it is outlawed, but I also realize that driving is an arbitrary skill that is only required because our modern transportation system hasn’t yet become autonomous. (Do you really miss having to memorize your friends’ phone numbers?)
I have a cousin whose hobby is training horses for riding. His way of life may be anachronistic now, but it doesn’t diminish his enjoyment of it.
1. Please do not drive any vehicle. Ever.
2. Please do not reproduce.
3. Please stop using my oxygen.
Hey, I get it. I love my backup camera and the radar beeping that lets me know that I’m about to back into something that I can’t see in my mirrors or over my shoulder…something about the size of my 6 year old kid, for example. Or her bike. But it does very quickly become a crutch that you depend on. I drove my in-laws car the other weekend and found myself cursing the inability to see what was behind me. So maybe it’s less about skill atrophy and more about loss of extra abilities in my case…
To be fair, Twitter doesn’t allow for a ton of nuance, and the idea of nearly running over 5 people could be anywhere from the driver being a menace, to the pedestrians being a menace, to the driver focusing on oncoming traffic to make a right hand turn, and the pedestrians assuming their right of way will keep them safe.
At the same time, there are legitimately some people who just shouldn’t drive – obviously children and some elderly people, people who refuse to acknowledge they’re bad drivers (they’re sensible and slow, so of course they’re safe!), or people who will just never be capable of driving well. We don’t have a great way of accommodating those people. Most of our cities are built under the assumption that you have access to a car, public transit is treated as a socialist conspiracy for the poor, cyclists are thought of as a nuisance who probably deserve to be run over, and walking can only get you so far. Unpopular as they are, autonomous vehicles at least allow for greater accommodation for those groups while still being relatively free (in terms of going where you want, when you want), and without massive restructuring of our urban areas.
Autonomous car operation will allow greater traffic density with far fewer crashes. Which should make getting around easier for everyone. Time to let go of driving as an end to itself for most everyone. Cars will continue to be interesting.
I agree. I’ve had this dream since I was a kid.. Cars weaving through each other at high speed at intersections, perfectly timed. No need for red lights. And cars on the highway traveling bumper to bumper at 100 mph. The end of the traffic jam as we know it. I always figured THAT was the point of self driving cars, which of course would require that all cars, 100%, be self driving. Thus how the transition would take place befuddled me.
“Cars weaving through each other at high speed at intersections, perfectly timed. No need for red lights. And cars on the highway traveling bumper to bumper at 100 mph. The end of the traffic jam as we know it. I always figured THAT was the point of self driving cars, which of course would require that all cars, 100%, be self driving.”
Let’s see what else would be drastically reduced or eliminated.
Professional drivers, of course. But also many ambulance crews, traffic police, car insurance agents and bodyshops. Fewer hospital beds and staff needed. Most tow truck drivers. Even people who make and install traffic signs and lights and guardrails.
Reducing the costs for things directly such as insurance, and indirectly via taxes for government services means personal savings.
Lowered stress not dealing with incompetent or sociopathic drivers. Lowered travel times.
If right of ways for roads could be reduced, this would affect real estate costs.
Cars themselves could be far cheaper, lighter and efficient without crash provisions, from bumpers to airbags. Seatbelts, crush zones. Would lights and horns be needed?
All this without even getting into the subject of shared cars.
Let’s enact more regulations, so that we can have more jobs!
Autonomous vehicles have some legitimate applications, especially in densely mapped urban areas. They will not be “go anywhere” replacements for conventional cars any time in the foreseeable future.
People live outside of urban areas? What?!?!?!?
Autonomous cars would be an even bigger boon outside of urban areas. Folks could live outside of dense urban areas without having to own a car through autonomous enabled pay per ride services. They’d become a privatized, decentralized, unbounded public transportation system.
And magic will allow for more magical density! Or desital magic! Or dentists!
Sorry, what part of being sensible (which I’m taking to mean some thought and common-sense leaning toward lower risk maneuvers as a driver) makes a person a bad driver?
Would you rather be on the roads with thoughtless, aggressive, fast, risk takers?
Please clarify.
No, I mean oblivious, timid drivers, the type who’ll slam on the breaks mid-highway merge. The ones that aren’t actually safe, just think that they are because they’re slow. I want to share the road with courteous, expedient drivers who are cognizant of how they fit into the bigger picture on the road.
And with drivers who break laws. For example by crossing onto the onramp shoulder and making an “illegal” pass if the robot in front of them blue screened. Instead of mindlessly sitting there waiting for the sun to go supernova, just to avoid violating a normally perfectly sensible rule.
And who very gently nudge a cow, or deer, or moose, with the bumper, after determining honking and flashing high beams is not sufficient inducement to cause the dumb beast to vacate the roadway.
And who stop and offer a tow if I’ve slid off and are stuck in the ditch somewhere on a remote road and look obviously helpless. But does not stop in the same situation, if I look like Rutger Hauer and carry an axe in one hand and a pistol in the other.
And otherwise do a whole hosts of other simple and obvious little things, which Mr. Kazemi hasn’t even begun to remotely attempt coding for. Despite him working at what is, realistically, the most advanced of all the outfits currently hyping the idea that “thiiis tiiiime is diiiiifferent!” than all the other times AI has been similarly promoted as the next big thing. Only to, time and time again, fall way short of its backers claims.
Don’t make the same mistake I did and Google Michelle Firestone.
Thanks for the warning – absolutely right.
Oh god.
“My eyes, the goggles do nothing!”
Yikes.
I agree. Bing is better for these kind of searches.
I hate you so much for the fact that I feel compelled to do things that I’m told not to do.
It’s amazing that my contrarian streak hasn’t created more issues in life.
Great, now I have to clear my browsing history.
Cortana proved no better then just to be sure I googled Michelle Firestone twitter and yep one in the same…
But look at the bright side it could have been “young tracilords @ twitter” which has the possibility of rendering you a felon like most people with a copious porn collection in the early 80’s
Learn to drive properly and stop relying on all those electronic nannies
Crazy talk!
JohnTaurus, were you not told to get a car without power steering and brakes? You lazy ph..k
Bring back elevator operators!
Humans are just more intelligent monkeys. The only things we are “designed” to do are eat, sleep and reproduce. Civilization is unnatural as are the art and science that create it. Nevertheless, we have done fairly well despite our inherent handicaps. What has happened over the last hundred years is that do gooders have made it harder for Darwin to weed out the worst fuckups.
He’s just driving his book.
But seriously, he is tweeting his book, and the autonomous driver boosters (and investors) are going to try to engineer the world around us to make their products actually (maybe, kinda) work. I am guessing they will expect us to pay for it.
Also, car features that actually make a human better at driving ≠ autonomous driving.
The underlying problem is, the world is no longer being engineered by engineers engineering for a free population. But rather by half literate politicians, investors, regulators, “analysts,” banksters and ambulance chasers, doing so for their own petty vanity.
Left to engineers, and engineers only, said engineers would keep plugging away at autonomous cars in their garages, farms, parking lots, remote roadways and later the occasional city street, until they slowly but surely built up enough learnings to promote their discovery by riding around in the passenger seats of their own cars.
While left to the latter groups of self promoting less-than-nothings; the inability of their beloved “inveeeestments,” and “assseeets,” to coexist with the chaos that is free people freely interacting in a free, unencumbered environment; will instead be used as an excuse to increasingly curtail the latter. To cover up for the fact that none of them will ever amount to anything more than abject failures at anything genuinely difficult and/or useful.
And it’s ace drivers like this Kazemi guy who are applying their whole intellect to programming the operation of autonomous vehicle. I bet he’s never heard the term “understeer’, and black ice is a nebulous term from a video game rather than a physical reality.
These newborn snobs also airily dismiss history, it’s the Elon Musk syndrome. Why, anyone with zero experience, who doesn’t have a clue how cars developed from 1910 on, where designers were faced apparently with an impossible task of providing controls for the human to operate these motorized dog carts, can pop up out of nowhere and decide everything that has gone on before was actually a total and complete waste of everyone’s time – because the modern technocrat knows best. Musk boasts that traditional car companies have zero ideas on how to manufacture a vehicle, and he will reinvent the wheel/production. nay life itself. So far he’s full of sh!te, but don’t tell HIM that.
I see little difference between the outlook of an entrenched government bureaucrat and that of these new technical snoots – both know what’s best for YOU, and your ideas don’t count, sorry, born as they are from the distinctly lower educational plane of a serf.
“Humans aren’t designed to drive cars.” They weren’t designed to ride horses either! And coming up with a way to transport me in the equivalent of a giant plastic grocery bag, being driven by sensors/electrons/logic gates programmed by utter driving-challenged nitwits strikes me as being even more completely ridiculous.
Unfortunately these “new technical snots” possess the hubris that comes with early adulthood (where every generation thinks they are more intelligent, wiser and more sophisticated than the last) and that hubris has been reinforced by being in the incredibly lucky position of being in the right place at the right time.
Put a burgeoning Mark Zuckerberg a decade ahead or behind and I doubt he would be nearly as successful as he is today.
Compound that with the sheer number of like minded “new technical snots” and unfortunately they can and will write the future as they want.
If only they could write some decent music along the way they might be slightly more tolerable.
I would love to post a comment Bad mouthing this turd. However, about an hour ago one of his counterparts in driving ability decided to turn right from the left lane in a roundabout and took out the left front of my Miata. I do wish she had some autonomous features to make up for her crappy driving.
“Humans aren’t designed to drive cars!”
Whatever you think of the rest of his tweet, this part is absolutely spot on, and is the most compelling argument for autonomous vehicles.
What is needed to maneuver a vehicle safely through urban traffic?
– The ability to see in lots of directions at once. Which humans don’t have.
– The ability to pay attention without the slightest lapse. Which humans don’t have.
– The ability to react near-instantly. Which humans don’t have.
– The ability to see dark objects in dark conditions. Which humans don’t have.
– The ability to modulate inputs precisely. Which only a few humans have.
Computers have all of these things and more.
And the reason we should care is that driving cars is by far the most dangerous human activity, both for those inside the cars, and those outside them. Even in a crime-prone city you are much more likely to be killed by a human-driven car than a gun. Human drivers are the leading non-disease cause of death in the country. They kill about the equivalent of one 9/11 worth of people every single month, overwhelmingly through inattention or stupidity. With AVs, all but a tiny fraction of those people would live.
“Human drivers are the leading non-disease cause of death in the country.”
Are you putting drug overdoses in the ‘disease’ category because those have been beating vehicle deaths for awhile now.
Drug overdoses are caused by at least one disease.
Meh, the Earth is over-populated anyway. Driving is the most dangerous thing we do in an incredibly safe environment.
I’m really of two minds about the whole thing. On the one hand, human drivers generally suck. On the other hand, I am in IT, and I know how much programmers suck, and how often, “huh, we didn’t think of THAT” is the answer to the bug du jour. Like a Tesla being blind to a semi truck across the road. Somebody didn’t think of that… And nobody can think of everything, and we are a long, long way from the level of AI that can match a human brain.
So for the moment, as I have said before, I just want a car that can fully drive itself in the easiest possible environment, a limited access Interstate highway in good weather – which is driving I find incredibly boring. I will handle the tough stuff myself. The rest will come along eventually, but it seems we should walk for a decade or two before we run.
Sure, there will be lots of things that have to be discovered by error. But even with that in mind the rate of error will be much lower than the human rate of error. The computer will screw up when it encounters unprecedented conditions, which really aren’t that common. The vast majority of human screwups come under totally routine conditions. Humans as a whole really, really suck at driving.
I doubt that companies will try to market full AVs until the computer’s rate of error is less than 1% of the humans’ under all normal conditions. Given that under easy conditions AVs are already doing much better than that, I don’t think it will take too much longer. And with that sort of error rate, the insurance companies will climb into the driver’s seat and force the transition.
We will certainly see. I am less optimistic about it. Plus the reality is that the vast majority of people in the country can’t afford any new car, never mind an autonomous one, so it is going to take a loooooong time for autonomous cars to be a majority. And if you think the average non-urban dwelling person is going to give up their car, you are flat out insane, no matter what the insurance companies may want.
Already are, in at least one case. Just read where one company is offering 5% discount on rates if you use autonomous features.
“The computer will screw up when it encounters unprecedented conditions, which really aren’t that common.”
I feel like it’s all too often. Every smart phone I’ve ever owned has screwed up regularly and it doesn’t hold my life in it’s control. Every electronic convenience in my new car such as the rear back up sensors, or syncing with my phone, have on occasion not done what it’s supposed to do. My Adaptive Radar Cruise Control that they’re regularly putting in cars these days often overreacts. A car crosses the road and my brain knows that by the time I get there he will have already crossed but my car slams on the breaks. I’m on the HOT lanes divided from the main lanes by those flexible plastic poles and on a curve my ACC sort of reads the poles and will sometimes slow me down for no reason. So sorry, it’ll be a long time before I put my faith in autonomous driving.
First-generation ACC is to the fully autonomous cars under development as a 1980s pocket calculator is to your iPhone. The robot car will have far more complex and sophisticated rules driven by lots of experience and fed data from sensors and cameras looking in every direction. It will still have things to learn — and there will be robot car accidents — but humans set such a low bar that even primitive robot cars will do much better than humans.
Ummm, overdose of prescription drugs is the number one killer of adults in America now.
And is caused by disease.
Pardon my ignorance, what disease is that?
Typically there’s some kind of chronic injury or illness that causes opioid addicts to be prescribed these drugs in the first place.
But in the end, addiction is a disease in and of itself.
dal, spot on
Humans are designed to adapt, and I never found adapting to the physical challenges of driving to be anywhere near as difficult as those of competitive sports. Driving on public roads occurs in slow motion compared to those. It’s so physically easy to drive in a legal manner that people forgot how serious the consequences can be, and the primary difficulty encountered when driving is to treat it with enough respect to remain calm, courteous, and attentive.
Many of us simply aren’t trained or raised to fully consider consequences in certain areas and accept responsibility for them, nor are we expected to. Driving with negligent habits that cause collisions is accepted and normalized from the moment we get our learner’s licenses.
This guy is a true ass-clown.
So, a dude working on self-driving cars who can’t themselves drive in normal conditions. Why yes, I definitely trust your ability to program an ethical system for a self-driving vehicle that will take all possible scenarios into consideration.
So, then, airplanes are designed by pilots and ships are build by sailors? Jesus Christ…
Knowing a number of aeronautical engineers and nautical engineers, they indeed are pilots and sailors or whatever you call motor-boaters. I can’t imagine reality making an impact on your world view at this point.
There are enough drivers like that on the road who never had any level of autonomy in their cars. All he’s doing is proving we need autonomous cars just to protect these fools from themselves.
My first reaction to reading this yesterday is; oh my god, this is the clown we all get stiluck behind that just isn’t capable of piloting a vehicle in traffic. He must be one of those horrible driver. Or two; it’s really tough to drive distracted, must be one of those people who play on their phone and do everything but focus on the road.
Or then there is three, probably just a shameless, exaggerated plug for Waymo.
What’s really scary is these people are teaching cars to drive!
One of these tools would have helped in four way stop accident I had with my Jeep Grand Cherokee last week, at entrance to my subdivision. I let a guy facing me go. Then I thought it was my turn. Except a nice elementary school teacher lady behind him wasn’t paying attention and assumed I was in stealth mode. As I was turning left I noticed she was not stopping. Her head was turned looking completely different angle. She hit my right front corner. Her Jag x-type with only 30k miles was totaled. She only had it for 3 weeks. Had a bent hood, grill, smashed bumper headlight and leaking coolant.
The Grand has 3200 worth of damage with torn bumper and headlight and fog light. Ambient sensor not working and check engine light is on which now collision place certified by State Farm says may have existed before my accident (fighting them in that). Otherwise Grand was drivable and being fixed. Overall State Farm is ok but they said I may get non OEM recyclable parts.
Point being for that lady these tools may have helped. Personally I hate the blind spot monitor in my rental Altima. At least not driving the Mustang GT and Stingray as Jeep is being repaired. Overall very impressed by how Jeep came through.
There are no OEM parts for many Mopar products because of the way they treated their suppliers during their bankruptcy. Never buy another.
State farm is the absolute worst insurance company to deal with for auto claims.
Incompetent, and proud of it.
This is the most succinct way to summarize Vahid and his driving IMO.
Cara (self driving car computer), drive to McDonald’s so I can get my usual bacon egg and cheese. Use the lane to the left as Missy is working and she always takes care of me. Also, go to the car wash across the street so I can give baby a quick wash and wax. From there, take me to work using the I-3.
Ding* confirmed message and route is displayed.
Halfway through while stuffing your face with above mentioned biscuit with your hands all greased up-
Computer has reverted to manual mode due to a recovery reboot for resource allocation problems. Human interaction required NOW!
Oh fup! how do I.. oh wait.. screeeech boom!
That won’t happen though.. right? Computers are perfect..
Yep, computers are perfect. Consumer-grade software made to a price never has any bugs, either.
Yep, computers are perfect. Consumer-grade software made to a price never has any bugs, either. Abort, Retry, Fail?
Well, if you want to be exact about it, humans are really only designed to:
Hunt small animals (nothing dangerous or particularly fast or agile)
Scavenge meat off larger animals killed by other predators like lions, etc.
Graze opportunistically on nuts, seeds, berries, grubs, and large insects
And make more little humans.
You know, it’s interesting how many people in our culture now feel it’s OK to boast about being incompetent in relatively straightforward areas of endeavor.
“Oh, I have no idea how to even change the oil in my car”
“Oh, I don’t know a thing about managing my own money”
“I have no idea how to make my children behave”
“That mechanical device is SOOO COMPLICAAATED I have to hire a professional”
“Oh, I could never kill and butcher an animal for food”
and so on.
My grandparents would have been absolutely mortified to hear something like that come out of their mouths. There were things they were unable to do, but for god’s sake they didn’t go around bragging about it.
How the heck did he pass the driver’s test?
“There’s this sense that it isn’t being controlled by people who love cars.”
I think this goes straight to the 2017 understatement contest.
“Do I actually feel any better when I tell friends in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that I’m currently “enjoying a New York slice?”
I prefer Detroit square myself.