Another Pink World

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January 21, 2006

another new one

woke up unnaturally early today, went out and got jesus chicken for breakfast. headed over to whole foods to do a little shopping, and had to wait in my car for a little while for the store to open.

a sleek silver minivan pulled up and parked next to me. the woman inside was talking animatedly on a cellphone.

the doors to the store opened, so i started gathering my things. out of the corner of my eye, i could see the woman get out of her van, and pause as the writing on the spacepod caught her interest. i could tell that as soon as i got out of the car, we were going to have The Conversation. i resigned myself to it.

The Conversation went as usual, until the very end. she asked, as most people do, "Where do you get it?" "An Exxon station on Duke Street."

Her face fell. "Oh." and then she said, "Well, I mean, it's just a bummer to support Exxon." Seeing that this wasn't going over well with me, she added, apologetically, "For me." I grimaced a little smile, and walked away.

Coming back out of the store, I looked at that minivan. Most of you will not be surprised to learn that I have some idea of the fuel mileage rating of this particular vehicle.

I wish I'd said to her, "It must be a bummer, for you, to get 17mpg."

Seriously, is there a petroleum company that is worth supporting? I don't want to buy any more product from oil companies than I have to. That's one of the many reasons I drive a car that gets more than twice the fuel mileage of her minivan.

I realize there may be reasons to drive a minivan that can't be covered by, say, a Prius, a Highlander or an Escape hybrid SUV, or a Passat TDI wagon, but that doesn't give her room to be smug.

I really do think it may be time to remove the lettering from my car.

Posted by lisa at January 21, 2006 12:25 PM

Comments

No, don't remove the lettering! Just remember the exchange and have an answer ready if it ever comes up again, like "All oil companies engage in despicable practices of one sort or another, and none are worthy of actual support. Short of not driving at all, my solution is to support the half as much as someone who drives, say, a minivan ..."

Or just say "I borrowed the car from my friend, I'm not sure what it all means" if you don't feel like going into it.

What is Jesus chicken? Chik-fil-A, maybe?

Posted by: Lisa B on January 21, 2006 02:13 PM

What a nice birthday present. Happy birthday! ;)

Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on January 21, 2006 03:32 PM

but being ignorant and smug about it is the American way!

If you're tired of constant advocacy then maybe you should take the biodeisel info off the car for awhile. Maybe you could think about it in terms of the cost -- frequent annoying conversations -- versus the gain -- getting people interested in something really important. Are twenty stupid conversations worth one person who sounds like they might actually pursue biodeisel, or even just talk to other people about it in a positive way?

Speaking of which, have you seen an old school bus painted with info about biodeisel? I've seen it twice now in the 9th street area. I think it's a delivery truck for a fair trade coffee business or something, but it was in motion both times I saw it so I didn't get to read but a little bit of the text.

Posted by: Sarah on January 23, 2006 08:51 AM

I wanna know what Jesus chicken is, too. Also, think of all the people who've been enlightened by asking about the lettering -- people who never would have known. Sooner or later, the mini-van lady will figure out the gas mileage issue, and the light bulb will go on in her head.

Posted by: Steph Mineart on January 23, 2006 09:47 AM

Yes, Jesus chicken = Chick-Fil-A. For the record, I don't mean that in a snarky way; it's probably my favorite fast-food chain. From what I can tell, they treat their workers better (and that's due to the religious beliefs of the chain owner), and my taste buds tell me that the food is yummier.

Anyway, one dumb person (or ten dumb people) aren't my primary reason for wanting to remove the lettering. As Sarah said, I am tired of constant advocacy, and just want a break. Biodiesel has momentum now that was sorely lacking when I first put the lettering on. In fact, the lettering is somewhat inaccurate now because it says, "Ask for biodiesel in your area!" A few years ago, this would have made more sense than now, when biodiesel is available in most areas, just kind of hard to find (as compared to petro fuels).

What I'd probably do is put the spacepod.org url on the back window where the Allpods url used to be, take off the biodiesel lettering, and put a bunch of biodiesel information up on spacepod.org, as well as my blog posts on improving your fuel mileage and on fuel efficient vehicles.

Sarah: no, i don't think i've seen that bus.

Posted by: lisa on January 23, 2006 10:48 AM

maybe you could just change the lettering to say "don't ask me about biodiesel."

heh. :-)

Posted by: xta on January 23, 2006 03:01 PM

or, "This car runs on biodiesel. Curious? RTFM."

of course, the number of people who would understand what i mean by RTFM is only slightly larger than the number of people who already know what biodiesel is.

Posted by: lisa on January 23, 2006 04:26 PM

So many people ask me how much I'd want for my car that I'm tempted to put a sign on it that says "For Sale: $50,000.00." If anyone actually offered me that, I'd probably take it.

Jesus Chicken Chic-Fil-A; makes sense. Eat Mor X Chikin -- it's Gud. I lik it. I guess Hog Heaven would be Jesus Pig.

Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on January 23, 2006 07:06 PM

oh, i meant to tell you -- luc is selling his "powered by vegetable oil" mercedes, if you're interested....

Posted by: xta on January 28, 2006 11:08 PM

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