RANT

Regarding driving while using the phone: Short version is--I don't judge you by my limitations. Please don't judge me by yours. If you can't talk and drive, don't do it, but leave my freedom to do so alone.

Here's where I'm coming from. My landlord is a fanatic on the subject. He runs a defensive driving course. He won't even talk to me on the phone if he thinks I'm driving. (What a control freak. He's a really nice guy otherwise.) He's never been able explain to me, nor, I suspect, will any of you, how talking on the phone is different from having a conservation with someone in the car with you. If you can't handle the phone you shouldn't be talking to anyone.

I drove a taxi for several years in Atlanta. If you can't multitask, i.e., do three to five things at a time, you shouldn't be doing it. We had to drive, monitor the radio, and interact with customers at a minimum. Cops perform different tasks but it's the same principle. I drove 250,000 miles like that with never a problem, and I was a lightweight.

Some people can barely handle one thing at a time. (We had one driver who missed radio calls because he was smoking a cigarette.) It's way too easy to get a license and way to hard to lose it. But please don't limit me by the lowest common denominator.

/RANT

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."