Monday, February 06, 2006

Good News!

Last week, J got a call from his mechanic at the Mazda dealership. "Good news!" the guy said, "Your brakes are shot and various fluids need flushing. It'll be only a thousand dollars, on top of the $300+ for your 30K service."

No kidding, he started this with "Good news!"

Apparently, everything can be good. It just needs the right spin. So:

"Good news! People are dying and threatening death over a few stupid cartoons they haven't even seen."

"Good news! We're in an unwinnable war in the wrong country, while leaving our main enemy free to wreck further destruction for years."

"Good news! Our president has spawned a whole cottage industry of tee shirts and refrigerator magnets with cute phases along the lines of "Like a rock...only dumber."

Yeah, it didn't work with the car either. J took the car over to our regular mechanic, who did a great job for a lot less. He'd only taken it to the dealership in the first place because he thought the brake problem might be warranty work. If only the other problems were so easy to resolve when spinning doesn't work.

I'd originally intended to write something lighthearted about comics, or maybe agree with Marie that the correct response to an offensive cartoon is to return fire with your own cartoon. But I made the mistake of reading the news before writing.

 

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