From: aas7@po.CWRU.Edu (Andrew A. Spencer)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: FLAME! Only a Manual!
Date: 8 Nov 1992 02:39:38 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: aas7@po.CWRU.Edu (Andrew A. Spencer)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc5.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, evan@telly.on.ca sez:

[mucho stuff deleted]

>Naah. I came across my share of machos in high school. They were very
>cool, and attracted the very cool females. Every now and then I run into
>one of them, and sometimes they even recognize me when asking if I want
>fries too.

HAR! at least they are working. do not look down on them. someone has
to cater to you.  I'm getting sick if it too..this education crap had
better pay off!

[mucho more stuff deleted!]

>I tried it for a while, possibly enough that (if presesed) I probably
>could drive one. I deliberately chose not to be proficient because I
>didn't think it was worth the bother. And nothing I have seen in this
>thread, including the challenged manhoods and the insults, has given me
>cause to change my mind.

does it not bother you at all to walk out into a lot, and see cars that
you KNOW you probably couldn't drive?  The reason i ask this is because
this happens to me.  I yearn for a Lotus.  And it bothers me to run up
to a Porsche, Lotus, Lambo, Ferrari, old non-sychro car, and realize
that, despite it's beauty, i couldn't drive it even if the owner walked
out and handed me the keys and told me to take it out on the (road) 
track!..why?? it is not because i can't drive a stick. It's because i
cannot drive THOSE sticks with their tempramental ways.  It urks me to 
not know how to do much on this computer!..it bugs me to know that i 
cannot fly a plane, it bugs me to know that i cannot do many things!
even the ones that i CHOOSE not to learn (ie playing a piano, it bugs
me to not know how!)  but, i think, that if everyone had to take their
initial drives in a manual vehicle, then they would benefit.  The biggest
thing to remember when going from a manual to an auto is not to stomp on
the clutch.  a much easier adjustment than trying to learn a stick after
being taught only to toss it into drive and stomp the gas or brake.
i do not have a problem with people not wanting to drive an auto in 
everyday life.  i do have  a problem with people not being taught to use
a manual.(kinda like i have a problem with not being taught to use this
computer!)  luckily, i have managed to learn the manual, and a little
about this computer too.  i find it hard to believe that a man who
seems to be reasonably intelligent would advocate teaching driving on
the SIMPLEST thing around.  They do not teach word processing right off
the bat, they teach typing first.  Word processing is then an easy 
variation to the learned skill of typing.  Just as if children were taught
to use a manual, the driving of an automatic, if they so choose, would
be but a simple variation, rather than being taught backwards!

[still more stuff deleted]
BTW...on the theory of this threatening masculinty, or femininity
(you know what i mean!..yes, it bugs me that i do not like to use
dictionaries either!) depending on the case, i say that is a crock.
my father tried to convince me that i was a fool for wanting to fix
up my car, as it did not really need nice wheels, better tires,
a hotter motor..and he was right, it did not need them.  but he was
wrong in that he tried to tell me that the only reason i wanted these
was to impress my friends..i wanted them for me.  And i still do.  As
i said, i yearn for a lotus.  Why?..not to be seen.  If i could never
be seen in it, that would be fine.  Just put me in the middle of Montana
on a track with fuel and tools and my lotus. Noone even needs to know
that i own it, i just want the pleasure of driving it!  The same thing
about the stick shift.  I want it for me. I do not want it cause it will
make my car outrun anyone(obviously..it's a VW!), i want it because i
enjoy shifting, even in rush our, i like to rev the motor out, and to 
have that extra control that they offer, i LOVE driving a stick..i find
myself annoyed in autos, as they tend not to shift right, or at annoying
times. I do not expect others to share in this pleasure, and thus i 
do not mind automatics existance, but i think people are being taught
backwards, the wrong one first, and that should be changed!  It is not
a question of masculinity or being feminine(in kind of a ~new~ way..:-),
it is a question of ignorance that could easily be remideed, and what each
person wants for HIM(HER)SELF and the education to make that decision.
thanx
DREW
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