lawsuit madness

[Pottree@xxxxxxx]

  <<I recall reading in some magazine a year or so ago about an automaker who
had something like 16 cup holders in one of it's mini-van's.  I've only been
into Alfa's for about a year, but none of the 3 I've owned so far had even 1
cup holder.  Maybe the McDonalds lady was driving an Alfa.......?  Maybe we
could all file a class action lawsuit against Alfa.........?
Bryan Carter>>

Stop and think - there is a REASON Alfas don't have cup holders and those
other vehicles do... it is because Alfas are sold to people who want to drive,
who like to drive, who ENJOY and APPRECIATE driving, and the others to people
who really would rather be in a train or something and don't enjoy cars and
driving but endure motoring as a transportation necessity and can't understand
how to make something practical into a joyous part of life because they are
uncreative, boring, and gloomy individuals who would benefit from  a trip to
Italy!.  

Anyone who is foolish enough to eat slop and drink foul coffee from McDonald's
deserves whatever they get, IMHO, unless the hardening of the arteries caused
by the salt and fat laden menu gets them first.  Their fare, IMHO and not in
the opinion of the manager or provider of this list nor the provider of the
electricty it takes to view it,  is to food as cupholders are to cars:
irrelevant and distracting intrusions made of plastic.

No matter what the particular facts of the coffee-scalding case as presented
top the court and jury, you have to wonder about someone who is licensed to
drive but also doesn't know a fresh cup of coffee is HOT and is supposed to be
hot.  How hot?  In my family, anything less than 210F is considered cold and
sent back - it is supposed to have JUST stopped boiling.  I wonder if the
burned woman sticks her hand under the steam spout of an espresso machine to
see is the steam is hot enough or unscrews the radiator cap to plunge in a
finger to ascertain whether her coolant level is low.  Legal culpability
aside, how is it someone so plainly deficient in brains, as well as common
sense, can earn a license to drive on the same highways and byways where my
own family may be taking their life in their hands?

And what kind of parent would hand a cup of hot coffee to a little kid to
hold?  The whole thing is specious - hot coffee (if you can even FIND it hot,
and if it is anything remotely like coffee) doesn't belong in a CAR,
particularly if you are the driver.  If you need to put your coffee down,
that's what something like a table is for!  Not a child!  Not a car!  What is
this world coming to, he ranted aloud?

(Of course, the plastic rectangle above the plenum on the hood of a GTV6 is
meant as a handy place to keep a pizza hot while you fumble for your house
keys, but that's another issue.)

Cars don't have sewing machines or lawnmowers in them either - and they belong
as much as cupholders.  The idea of taking meals in a car is revolting from
both a food POV and a driving POV.  And unless someone has mentioned it
already, if you're the driver someone will probably sue YOU (and maybe should)
if you cause an accident because you are concentrating on eating and drinking
while you are supposed to be concentrating on driving.  It is a dangerous and
foolish thing to do, like talking on the phone and gesturing madly as you
drive 75 mph on the freeway, brushing your teeth, shaving, putting on eye
makeup, or reading the newspaper (all of which I have personally witnessed on
the LA freeways).   Whatever faults or omissons they may have at the Alfa
factory, they certainly know what a car is and what it's for - and at the most
basic level that it is not a bathroom or a dining room or a surgical operating
room or a beauty salon.  We all know that even the most conventional bits of
an Alfa that don't directly have to do with driving and moving the machine
(sometimes with stopping) have every appearance of being WAY WAY down the
priority list at Alfa Engineering, the creature comforts, little devices such
as window winders and doorhandles, etc. being of a different order of
magnitude (cheezy and often awkward) from the engine castings, etc.
(magnificent, elegant, and worthy of the Uffizi Palace).  

One of the most wonderful things about Alfas is that they don't have
cupholders!  Of course, they don't have feathers, either.

Charlie
LA, CA, USA
84 GTV6 his
87 75 hers
98 Cuisinart coffee maker (theirs)

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End of alfa-digest V7 #94
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