“So, how many miles does it get?” It was a Sunday morning, and we were looking at my car, and so I mentioned that I had started to change the way I drove. As a result (driven by a little monitor display) I was now getting about 10 – 20% better mileage than the estimate I was given when I bought the car. “Yup,” said the pickup driver I was talking with, “I’ve started doing the same sort of thing. Slow down a bit, don’t accelerate as hard, the little things. And you know what?” He went on, “ a lot of other folk have started driving that way too. Of course you’ve still got the hot rods, but in general . . . .” Of course it helps that we live in a relatively small town, in more of a rural setting.

[ED by PG:] Engineer-Poet graces us with a new "Short Takes" segment--a few interesting takes all thrown together, whether it's educating us on differential equations, cracking on the MSM for being innumerate or dropping snarky limericks on us--there's nothing quite like the E.P.-ster, and it's under the fold.