A Thought about "Going Out for a Drive"

Stephen Bayley is a bit of a nob and has written an article in the Guardian about why we no longer "go out for a drive". He talks about how roads are too full and all that, which out in the sticks just isn't true.

But it got me thinking about how we did it as kids, and how I would even take girlfriends out for a drive somewhere. And I got to thinking about when I stopped and I think the reason that it stopped is to do with how we improved Sundays. To anyone who doesn't remember before the 90s, we had 3 TV channels, mostly showing rubbish, the shops were shut and cinemas and pubs had restricted hours. You could do some gardening or DIY, as long as you didn't forget something you needed as the shops were closed.

Which meant that if you just wanted to get out of the house, "going for a drive" was about all you could do.

Questions that don't need an Answer

From the Telegraph

It fell to Dieter Zetsche, the chief executive of Mercedes-Benz, to summarise the debate during the Detroit show.

"The car that will take you home after you have had too much to drink is a long way off," he said. "But is that what we really want?" 

Michael Schumacher

Back when it started if you'd driven in F1 for 19 seasons, you'd consider yourself lucky to come out the other side (average of 1.5 deaths per annum in the 1950s and 1960s). But Schumacher got away with nothing but a broken leg.

Then he gets on a ski slope and ends up in a coma.

(it's also the case that pros rarely get killed playing rugby, it's the amateur club players)

Attractive Adult Woman accuses Dead Adult Man of Trying it On, Breaking No Law

From the Daily Mail:

Amanda Holden has revealed how Jimmy Savile made lewd comments suggesting he wanted to 'give her one' when she was a teenager being treated in hospital.

The TV personality, 42, was just 19 when she met Savile at Leeds General Infirmary while she was being treated for a cut finger.

She told how the shamed Top Of The Pops presenter made a string of 'lame' jokes before offering to give her a gynaecological problem.

Ian B on Tim Worstall's blog comments is convinced that there's a campaign to raise the age of consent to 18, and it's journalists saying "just 19" that's part of that. You push the idea that 19 is a vulnerable age, and well, of course 17 is ridiculous.

But I have to wonder... when did we start infantilising young adults, and why?

When I was a lad, I had a shop job at 15. You now have to have staff CRB checked if you have such a staff member. I was learning to drive at 17, which various groups seem to want to change. We're going to have even more kids at school until they're 18, even though it's a waste of time. No-one took the drinking age too seriously - we certainly didn't have ID card schemes in pubs, which meant that 16 year olds got served.