L.A.'s own 89.3 KPCC public radio station recently had the pleasure of interviewing P.J. O'Rourke about his new book called Driving Like Crazy. Just the subtitle "Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-Bending, Celebrating America the Way It's Supposed to Be -- With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Mowing Our Lawn" should give you an idea of the satirist's intentions in his latest piece.
The book combines his past pieces on cars with new material to make an auto anthology that unfortunately says goodbye to the idea of having an emotional connection with the gorgeous hunk of steel plopped in the driveway. O'Rourke points out that the "Fun Suckers" have parasitically latched onto the automobile, turning it into a "public enemy, an outlaw they could persecute without compunction."
The interview is a discussion of the many ideas in his book -- and you can have a listen here.
Some of his more quotable quotes are after the jump for your reading pleasure.
"The feminists grabbed our women,
The liberals banned our guns,
The health cops snuffed our cigarettes,
The bailout has our funds,
The laws of Breathalyzing
Put an end to our roadside bars,
Circle the Fords and Chevy, boys,
THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE OUR CARS."
"The motorcycle is a device created by the team of God and Darwin to rid the world of useless young males."
"There's a lot of debate about what kind of car handles best. Some say a front-engined car; some say a rear-engined car. I say a rented car. Nothing handles better than a rented car. You can go faster, turn corners sharper, and put the transmission into reverse while going forward at a higher rate of speed in a rented car than in any other kind."
"Families do slow you down. I'll be power-sliding through some mountain pass with a bottomless ravine yawning inches from my tire treads and suddenly images of my children--Muffin, Poppet, and Buster--will flash before my eyes. Even so, I don't press the accelerator, yank the wheel, and plunge to eternal rest. This must be some parental instinct or maybe a drug that the life insurance companies slip us."
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