Or To A Lesser Extent...
So we bought a car.
We've existed as a one-car family for a good while now--over a year--but with the recent move, not to mention Thing One's sudden possession of a learner's permit, we decided it was time to get a companion for our beloved 2004 Subaru Forester, Kirby. We reasoned that it should be a) an automatic, since learning to drive is hard enough without bringing the whole clutch thing into it; b) no-frills, since the odds of a new driver dinging it up are unfortunately pretty good, and c) cheap, since money doesn't grow on trees (or much of anywhere else, in my experience.)
After scouring the local options, we settled on a 1996 Geo Prizm. I'd never been in a Geo before, but they were apparently just off-brand Toyotas; in fact, the Prizm is the same frame as the Corolla, and they were made in the same factory for several years. It has a solid safety rating and high customer satisfaction, and I must say that the car's interior, exterior, and engine all look great for a twelve-year-old car with 135,000 miles on it.
It's bright red.
I've never owned a red car. They're a bit, um, flashy for my taste, and my general tendency behind the wheel is to want minimal attention so I can get away with more. Still, when you buy used, you take what you can get.
The redness, however, led spuffyduds to a firm belief that this car was in fact male. (The generally phallic shape and mythology of the automobile probably contributed to this belief as well.) That and the Z in the name apparently got her thinking about heavy metal, because she immediately started talking about the old faux-metal one-hit wonders Enuff Z'Nuff (led by bassist Chip Z'Nuff--true fact!) despite the fact that the only thing she knows about the band is that the legendary Strong Bad discusses band names in this cartoon. He notes that the best way to name your band is just to have a cool name: "Like Van Halen... or Dokken... or to a lesser extent, Z'Nuff."
Needless to say, we have dubbed the new car Z'Nuff. But you have to say it like Strong Bad or it doesn't count.
We've existed as a one-car family for a good while now--over a year--but with the recent move, not to mention Thing One's sudden possession of a learner's permit, we decided it was time to get a companion for our beloved 2004 Subaru Forester, Kirby. We reasoned that it should be a) an automatic, since learning to drive is hard enough without bringing the whole clutch thing into it; b) no-frills, since the odds of a new driver dinging it up are unfortunately pretty good, and c) cheap, since money doesn't grow on trees (or much of anywhere else, in my experience.)
After scouring the local options, we settled on a 1996 Geo Prizm. I'd never been in a Geo before, but they were apparently just off-brand Toyotas; in fact, the Prizm is the same frame as the Corolla, and they were made in the same factory for several years. It has a solid safety rating and high customer satisfaction, and I must say that the car's interior, exterior, and engine all look great for a twelve-year-old car with 135,000 miles on it.
It's bright red.
I've never owned a red car. They're a bit, um, flashy for my taste, and my general tendency behind the wheel is to want minimal attention so I can get away with more. Still, when you buy used, you take what you can get.
The redness, however, led spuffyduds to a firm belief that this car was in fact male. (The generally phallic shape and mythology of the automobile probably contributed to this belief as well.) That and the Z in the name apparently got her thinking about heavy metal, because she immediately started talking about the old faux-metal one-hit wonders Enuff Z'Nuff (led by bassist Chip Z'Nuff--true fact!) despite the fact that the only thing she knows about the band is that the legendary Strong Bad discusses band names in this cartoon. He notes that the best way to name your band is just to have a cool name: "Like Van Halen... or Dokken... or to a lesser extent, Z'Nuff."
Needless to say, we have dubbed the new car Z'Nuff. But you have to say it like Strong Bad or it doesn't count.