Gas prices and New Minds

IMG_0061.JPGWhen gas prices go up, people tend to complain that something needs to be done about the problem. Many demand action from the local or federal government, gas companies, or fellow citizens. Like Jason Sparks, whose letter in the Pal-Item yesterday read, "Why is the government not stepping in?...How are we supposed to pay the bills?...Let's shut down the country, then maybe someone would step in. We cannot afford this." Or Brad Hall, who was quoted in an article today asking, "What's going to be next?...How're people going to survive and get around?"

That's the question, indeed.
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Legal Morbid Buckeyes

I went to the Ohio BMV yesterday to get my Indiana driver's license converted to an Ohio driver's license. It went fine, but the "written" test that I had to take was a little bit different than what I remembered from my first time around. For one, the test is now computerized, which, given that I sit in front of a computer for far too many of my waking hours, meant that I picked up on the "subtleties of the interface" quickly.

But the other thing I noticed was how obsessed the test creators seemed to be with death on the roadways. Example: one question displayed a yellow, diamond-shaped sign with a "T" in it. The multiple choice answers were all fairly reasonable except for (D), which said "this sign means that someone was killed by a car at that spot in the road." Ahhh!! Just a few questions later, they displayed another yellow, diamond-shaped sign with a pedestrian crossing symbol on it. Answer (C): "This sign means that someone was killed by a car while crossing the street here." AHHHH! Scary.

Anyway, I passed with a 93 % and got my license. Phew. It makes me wonder if I would have done better on all of those high school Latin tests if they'd been computerized. (And if at least one of the answers could always be eliminated for ludicrous morbidity.) Sona si Latine loqueris.