tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post5646787252023915919..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: Coastal elitesPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-56499618973919758302011-09-01T16:19:12.136-04:002011-09-01T16:19:12.136-04:00Flavia,
Advice much appreciated. And the story of...Flavia,<br /><br />Advice much appreciated. And the story of your friend learning at 28 is inspiring!<br /><br />I did have an instructor in NY, but his specialty was teaching recent immigrants from China who could already drive, just enough to pass a test in the States. Maybe a Princeton instructor used to nervous teens would be better? I'm at any rate more desperate to drive than I was in NY, where the impetus was basically that my permit was going to expire and I figured I should make something of it.<br /><br />Jim,<br /><br />Thanks on Jo's behalf! As for Princeton and a car, it seems plausible that one partner might not ever drive, but it does seem, for things like buying more than one roll of paper towels at a time, that someone in each household would need to do so. <br /><br />MSI,<br /><br />Biking it is, for now, or so my first walk into town suggests - not too many cars, polite drivers, and the lack of sidewalks plus the distance made walking not so fabulous. I still have the bike I used in Chicago, but in NY I wasn't cool enough to be blasé about the traffic, and stuck with walking/the subway. I'll just need to get air in those tires...Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-72406639918508707232011-08-30T23:14:52.340-04:002011-08-30T23:14:52.340-04:00A Vespa seems really easy to steal, and more desir...A Vespa seems really easy to steal, and more desirable to steal than a bike. Is this true? On the other hand, have you considered biking? Obvi not a depths-of-winter option, but it has served me very well up here in Euphemistic Boston, where I also do not drive.Miss Self-Importanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477849823290773026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-49386566451925121612011-08-30T04:08:16.516-04:002011-08-30T04:08:16.516-04:00Man the First World has a lot of problems. The Thi...Man the First World has a lot of problems. The Third World is looking better and better. I will be 41 soon and still don't know how to drive. But, in the Third World you can get a car with a driver from your employer as one of your benefits.J. Otto Pohlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07457089758142264049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-18186829575950559252011-08-29T21:07:29.390-04:002011-08-29T21:07:29.390-04:00First: congratulations to Jo. A postdoc at the In...First: congratulations to Jo. A postdoc at the Institute is <i>something</i>.<br /><br />Second: Princeton isn't totally car-mandatory. A contemporary of my wife at graduate school partnered with a physicist who went from Columbia to the Plasma Physics Lab. She never learned to drive. They've since married and are now in Pittsburgh and as far as I know she still doesn't drive.<br /><br />Third: there's something to be said for a Vespa. With just a permit, you can ride it. You can't do so at night or on an Interstate or the Garden State or Turnpike (but none of these are within miles of Princeton) or carry passengers. Passing a test is sort of optional if you can live with these restrictions.jimnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-48721054369686688472011-08-29T20:40:32.529-04:002011-08-29T20:40:32.529-04:00Okay, now some for-real advice about learning to d...Okay, now some for-real advice about learning to drive: if you have the chance, go to an actual driving school rather than just having a friend teach you. The best ones are genuinely good, and they're geared toward teaching clueless, emotionally unstable teenagers how to drive, so they've really thought through how to teach stuff like how to feel the dimensions of the car as an extension of yourself, and how to focus on the road, fellow cars, random shit happening on the side of the road, etc., all at the same time. The rest of us have done those things by instinct for so long that we may not realize they need teaching (or know how to do it).<br /><br />Also, if you can, learn to drive on the same car you'll actually be driving. I've been driving regularly for five years now (after a decade of not driving at all), and though my own car's dimensions and capabilities feel like second nature, I'm still really uneasy driving someone else's car or a rental.<br /><br />But it's totally doable. I have a friend who only learned to drive at age 28, after getting a TT job upstate, and you'd never know that her skills were so recently acquired.Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-11130464889633966512011-08-29T09:36:01.338-04:002011-08-29T09:36:01.338-04:00Flavia,
Like Withywindle, I'm a bit of a klut...Flavia,<br /><br />Like Withywindle, I'm a bit of a klutz.<br /><br />Withywindle,<br /><br />Surely you remembered more than you think. If you've really never been exposed to cars, and have to be told things like which is the gas, which is the break, and that you use the same foot for both, it's tough going.<br /><br />PG,<br /><br />Luckily I'm moving to Princeton, NJ, which ought to be an easier place to learn to drive. Whatever the case, I think the fact that I need to will make it happen.Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-65192016519767430432011-08-29T06:49:21.840-04:002011-08-29T06:49:21.840-04:00I still vote for your learning somewhere easier th...I still vote for your learning somewhere easier than NYC, i.e. pretty much anywhere else in the country except perhaps the Boston metro area (which is damnably full of one-way streets that aren't even as organized as Manhattan's). I just renewed my license before it expired, going back from a NY to a TX one. I have now been driving for 14 years, and I still have trouble parallel parking, which is fine, because outside NYC <i>they have real parking</i>.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-64345713093901926122011-08-29T01:26:03.541-04:002011-08-29T01:26:03.541-04:00I think it was a ten-lesson course. Yes, re-learni...I think it was a ten-lesson course. Yes, re-learning made it a bit easier. But I don't think immensely so. And we get back to me being a klutz ...Withywindlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11465319711207992232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-86550004665470017412011-08-29T01:18:28.202-04:002011-08-29T01:18:28.202-04:00Surely they make sidecars? Pooch in sidecar seems ...Surely they make sidecars? Pooch in sidecar seems very screwball comedy.Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-88561234022652954662011-08-28T22:11:07.997-04:002011-08-28T22:11:07.997-04:00JTL,
It gets the point across.
Jeff,
The issue...JTL,<br /><br />It gets the point across. <br /><br />Jeff,<br /><br />The issue is that I haven't yet mastered the basic sense of how to maneuver a car. I have only the vaguest recollection of how one can and can't turn in NYC. I failed twice, but not recently.<br /><br />Nicholas,<br /><br />That could work. But then he isn't going to be at the university, so the only way to explain what it is, if I do want to explain what it is, is to mention that Einstein was there, which is something that seems like I'm describing one of Liz Lemon's imaginary boyfriends. Of course, most of the time I'm describing what it is <i>I</i> do, which has its own set of issues (no, it's not "Felicity"/"Gossip Girl," no, I don't study how to conjugate "-er" verbs, and no, I've never seen an Olsen twin or, more upsettingly, James Franco).<br /><br />Withywindle,<br /><br />How many lessons did this take? And, I think there's something to be said for learning something young, even if it's (or if it seems) promptly forgotten. I 'learned Hebrew' as a child, had no recollection of this, then started Elementary as a senior in college, and while I didn't have the edge of the kids who'd taken years of it at Jewish day school, it seemed to be easier going for me than for those taking the class because of a Jewish significant other.<br /><br />Flavia,<br /><br />That sounds so fabulous, and a friend of mine has and seems to enjoy one in Paris. The problem is that I'm not sure it's compatible with what the car will be for, namely monthly stocking-up trips to a supermarket and, once we have a dog, taking it to the vet.Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-52741584772410748792011-08-28T21:56:27.858-04:002011-08-28T21:56:27.858-04:00Two words: Vespa scooter.
(And yes, I realize tha...Two words: Vespa scooter.<br /><br />(And yes, I realize that that still requires a license. But if it's the huge dimensions, etc., of a car that are the problem, seems like a nice compromise. Also, I wanted one desperately in grad school so you should get one purely to fulfill my unrealized dreams.)Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-53380493850898490212011-08-28T21:26:32.268-04:002011-08-28T21:26:32.268-04:00I got my license as a teenager (in NYC!), but I ef...I got my license as a teenager (in NYC!), but I effectively learned to drive a decade later with a refresher course. (Which involved driving in NYC and from NYC to the Tappan Zee bridge and back; city driving <i>and</i> suburban driving.) I'm minimally competent; if I can do it, you certainly can.Withywindlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-3353106506090582011-08-28T21:24:52.776-04:002011-08-28T21:24:52.776-04:00Re: Euphemistic New Jersey, I found that "cen...Re: Euphemistic New Jersey, I found that "central New Jersey" corresponds to no known location for anyone who is not from NJ or PA; I told my from-Camden movers in North Carolina that I had spent the year "just outside Trenton," which is technically correct. May either or both be of use to you.Nicholashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05693481720368030657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-613074794748816362011-08-28T20:20:24.846-04:002011-08-28T20:20:24.846-04:00Oh my goodness, I didn't realize you still don...Oh my goodness, I didn't realize you <i>still</i> don't have driver's license.<br /><br />I hate to scare you, but any driving training you got in NYC will be useless, because once you leave the city an exotic maneuver is allowed where a driver is allowed to make a right turn after stopping at a red light. In fact in even more exotic locations, like the great state of Washington, a <i>left</i> turn is permitted while confronted with a red light.<br /><br />Good luck.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13097613583141006228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-18460705664117852722011-08-28T18:45:36.638-04:002011-08-28T18:45:36.638-04:00The google tells me that this is not your first us...The google tells me that this is not your first use of "euphemistic Boston" and its analogues, but I hadn't picked up on it before. Love it.Jacob T. Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02575549001627195334noreply@blogger.com