No Such Thing as "Idiot Proof"

This is a SmartCar.




The reason for this total piece of crap's existance is that you can do exactly what's shown in this picture: park it anywhere. And trust me, Athenians take the term "anywhere" to it's upper limits. That aside, I just want to stress that the only reason you would take your life into your hands getting behind the wheel of one of these death-traps would be the parking. Otherwise, you're relegated to cruising around in a steel-pancake-waiting-to-happen with room enough for one other sub-5' person and maybe your wallet.

Let's roll back to this past Sunday. Eph and I were walking down our street, and we came upon a man directing the driver of a SmartCar into a parallel parking spot. Parallel! Not perpendicular, not perpendicular! The space was big enough for a full-sized car (we'll pretend a Fiat Punto is full-sized, 'kay?), but somehow, this person had gotten herself into a real pickle and had to have this other guy bail her out with some useless hand gestures and increasingly-irritated barked commands.

Post Script: I just got back from the gym, where one woman was sitting and reading a magazine with her legs crossed on one of the excercise bikes. She was wearing loafers. Do you think she gets home and wonders why she's not getting in shape?