From: evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: FLAME! Only a Manual!
Date: 9 Nov 92 00:47:51 GMT
Organization: Somewhere just far enough out of Toronto

In article <1992Nov8.011811.14458@sol.UVic.CA>
	atovorni@engr.UVic.CA writes:

>[Lots of shit deleted]

Oh, dear. I think we've touched a raw nerve.

>To Evan Leibovitch,

Ever learn how to use e-mail for personal correspondance? Or have you
taken all of this (incorrectly as a personal) attack on the very essence
of your being, one that you must attack in public in order to defend
your honour? How quaint.

Please feel welcome to take any further righteous indignation to e-mail.

>Sir, It appears that just because I like to enjoy driving my
>fast & powerful car, you equate that with my being a boring
>MACHO ASSHOLE!

The term asshole used to describe you is one of your own invention,
not mine. I never referred to you personally as being boring or having
any other personality traits, good, bad or otherwise. I'd be very
interested in any evidence you have to the contrary.

>You seem to think that because I have an 
>appreciation for fine machinery and a knowledge of how to 
>use it, I can't enjoy life and have to continually bolster 
>a fragile ego by showing off and passing everything on the street.

I never said such a thing. I know of people who fit this mold, but
please demonstrate where I ever attributed such qualities to you.

>I resent that.

The only part of the description that fits (that I know of) is that your
ego is indeed quite fragile. There is no other explanation of how you
could take my comments, which were not directed at you, so personally.

>First of all, you don't know me or my personality.

See above.

>All that you
>really know for sure about me is that I have a crusty sense of humor

No, I don't know that.

>and enjoy making fun of people's automotive attitudes.

Obviously, you can dish it out but you can't take it. How does it feel
to be have *your* automotive attitude made fun of?

>To top it off,
>you seem to get the impression that I am a dangerous driver.

If you can offer any such evidence based on something I've written,
offer it up and I will apologize. My statement was that drivers of
sticks don't have a monopoly on good driving habits, Neither do
drivers of automatics.

>I resent that.

If you're resenting something that was neither stated nor implied,
resent all you want. Sounds like something that wasn't aimed at you is
nevertheless hitting a little too close to home. That's your problem.

>Were you to see me on the road, you wouldn't see the 'Torque Monger'
>persona that I use on the net. I do not drag race from red light to 
>red light, and I do not spin my wheels at every opportunity and run
>over cyclists and pedestrians.

How nice for you. How nice for all of us.

>For me, a car is not a car if it resembles a toaster
>in looks and function.

Re-read what I said.

My opinion is that, for me, a car is a tool like a toaster. I do not
drive for the thrill of driving, I drive to transport myself,
passengers and goods from point A to point B in a swift, safe,
convenient and reliable manner. This does not require my car to look
ugly or lack performance.

We obviously have a difference in our opinions of what qualities in a
car are desirable. I do not require a feel of the car so specific that
I need to shift gears myself. Apparently, you and others feel this way,
and there's nothing wrong with having different tastes. That's what
makes the world go round.

However...

I'd like to know why my opinion provokes you and others in this thread
to reply that because of this difference of opinion, that I have no
business being on the road? I think it was you who used the term
"shiftless slobs". Tell me, exactly what is it about that entire
category of people who don't like stick shifts that makes them slobs?

Or was it merely your intent to sacrifice saying what you really meant
in order to write something which sounded clever? "Crusty sense of
humour"? You flatter yourself.

Then again, weren't you and others applauding the poster who told me
that I ought to watch out for my wife, lest she be swept off her feet by
someone with a four-on-the-floor? Now you tell me, what qualities are
inherantly those of clutch-lovers, that would make them attractive
to intelligent women?

Considering what I've been subject to, just for suggesting that some
people like cars for utilitarian reasons alone, from people who don't
know anything about me, your indignant puffery is almost amusing. Unlike
the general comments I made which you took personally, the nasty little
replies posted here have been quite direct.

-- 
 Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software Ltd., located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
         evan@telly.on.ca / uunet!utzoo!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
         "IBM's three letters are probably EBCDIC for CYA" - Nik H.
Newsgroups: rec.autos