Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Baby You Can’t Drive Your Car

I’m home from a drive to Boston. Massachusetts is contemplating a law that would ban drivers from using hand-held devices. Texting is already banned. Today was typical of what I see on the road, with many drivers holding and glancing at their smartphones. Based on my observations, made not only while driving but when running, I would say that 75% of the offenders are women.

The lady in the late-model Cadillac Escalade I saw a few minutes ago had one hand on the wheel, her phone in the other hand. She was paying attention to her phone as much as she was keeping her eyes on the road. Her car undoubtedly has Bluetooth integration with voice command. Heck, my late father’s base model 2014 Kia Soul had that feature, and I used it.

That woman apparently hasn’t gone to the trouble to figure out how to use Bluetooth. If a strong law is passed — and enforced — people like her in MA will get ticketed and have an incentive to learn how to take full technical advantage of their phones. For those who insist on texting and browsing the Internet, they should give up driving and use Uber, or wait until self-driving cars are a practical reality.

Print Editions

Gatehouse Media is buying Gannett, although at the moment there appears to be a potential snag in the deal. Not coincidentally, 7-day home delivery of my Gatehouse paper is suddenly increasing by almost 50%, from $53.20 to $78.21 per month. The safe assumption is the extra money will go towards financing the purchase, assuming it goes through. The question is, how many subscribers will cancel home delivery?

For now, the paper is still showing up on the driveway, and I’d like to share a scan from last Sunday’s comics, as modest as the single two-sided sheet is. This is one of the more celebrated of Sparky’s Peanuts installments.

Peanuts, originally published August 6, 1972

Over in the Boston Globe’s comics section last week, The Family Circus was filled with wonderful visual details. Say what you will about this feature, I admire the professionalism of the art, which is something completely lacking in, say, Dilbert.

This 300-dpi scan can’t compensate for the too-small printing size. Compare it to this beach scene I scanned and posted — yikes! — nine years ago, and compare the building in the lower right corner to the one drawn by Jimmy Johnson that I pointed out last week.

Finally, the Boston Globe recently had this tribute to MAD Magazine by A.J.B. Lane, done in the manner of an Al Jaffee fold-in. I couldn’t find it online, and as I was already hot on the scanner…