3 June 2002

Alex and I went out and bought a ‘76 Fiat 124 Spider over the weekend. This is the model carsurvey.org calls “a unique money vampire.” Most people seem to consider this a negative. “You morons,” they might say, “you’re stone broke and you’ve impulse-purchased a decades-old high-maintenance European roadster?” People actually say this sort of thing. People can be so cruel.

“This car is a total dude magnet!” — Jacob Berkman

The guy we bought it from is some sort of major Fee-yacht enthusiast, delivering unprompted an exhaustive list of all the models he and his father have owned over the years. So the car has been well cared-for, and it drives like a dream. Actually, I think it’s aged a lot better than I have. And I was born in ‘77.

I’m looking forward to wiring the iPod to the stereo.

Unfortunately we’ve only gotten to drive it for a couple of hours: the time it took us to realize that criss-crossing the busiest parts of Boston in a car without insurance, registration, plates or a valid city inspection sticker might be a bad idea. Also bad was when Alex couldn’t tell the speedometer from the tachometer, and when, 24 hours later, the Cambridge police called the previous owner to ask why he’d left his car plateless overnight in a Cambridge parking garage.

“That’s not my car,” he helpfully replied.

Costa Rica.

A couple of my friends have asked me how I can be anti-oil and still spend money to keep a high-emissions vehicle on the road. To deftly dodge the question (and to cull shamelessly from my email), I once read somewhere that it’s a sign of enlightenment to be able to hold two contradicting ideas in your head at the same time.

Or maybe it’s a symptom of the Orwellian double-think promulgated by the global petroleum juggernauts who’ve convinced us all that true freedom is the wind in your hair and an open road. And how can you be happy if you’re not truly free?

(You are in control. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. You are in control.)

Or maybe I just want to be loved.

Penn. Station.

Anyway, we’d like our car to be as beautiful on the outside as we are on the inside, so if you’re in the Boston area, like to paint, and want to leave your mark on one of the body panels, drop me a line.

Madrid at night.

Oh, and if you’re a GNOME Foundation member, you should consider coming to the Boston GNOME Summit that we’ve been putting together. It’s sure to be a rocking good time.