it’s pronounced “bouquet”

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People in snoburbia feel it is their right – and in fact, their duty – to point out transgressions in socially-acceptable behavior. Last week, I was singing along happily to my Dixie Chicks CD in my car, waiting for my child to come out of school in two or three minutes.

A man walked up to my window and said, “Excuse me – I’m just curious… Why do you keep your car running while you are waiting?” He then told me that in his native Sweden, people are more environmentally-conscious than are Americans. I took away from this that he was not “just curious.”

•••

And yesterday, my husband and son rode their bikes to the grocery store (environmentally-conscious, no?) At the stoplight, a man leaned out his window and said, “What? No helmets?”

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Comments

[Wu Ming]

I'm just curious-- why do you keep your car running while you are waiting?

[Jane Weaver]

Omigosh, you just can't win - even with the comments! BTW, is it politically correct to like the Dixie Chicks must less to sing along publicly? LOL

[Anne]

jane weaver of course it is "politically correct" to like the dixie chicks. what does liking them have to do with politics? (;

[please wear helmets]

not wearing helmets is pretty fucking stupid.
i was hit by a car while riding my bike on the sidewalk along connecticut ave - just a few blocks from your house.
my helmet probably saved me.
the kensington bitch who hit me (with her huge suv) drove off once she saw i was ok, but my bike was bent.

[Doris]

Please Wear Helmets, I appreciate your sentiments but not your language. Not wearing a helmet when he was riding a motorcycle and crashed caused Ben Roethlisberger a lot of pain and I'm sure lost some games for the Steelers that year. Possibly there was brain damage, which would explain some of his later behavior. . .