Tag: fossil fuel

Working From Home

The gift-giving season has come and gone. Some folks ended up with sweaters that were two sizes too large; some folks got sparkly baubles; and lots of people were the beneficiaries of gifts promising to simplify their lives – including their work lives. With millions of Americans working out of their homes, Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Julia King thinks home-office life after the holidays is going to be smooth sailing! Or is it?

Transcript

The gift-giving season has come and gone. Some folks ended up with sweaters that were two
sizes too large; some folks got sparkly baubles; and lots of people were the beneficiaries of gifts
promising to simplify their lives – including their work lives. With millions of Americans
working out of their homes, Great Lakes Radio Consortium
commentator Julia King thinks home-office life after the holidays is going to be smooth sailing!
Or is it?


Testing, testing, one, two, three.


This is great. I’m standing in my living room right now because my generous, genius husband got
me recording equipment for Christmas. I’m his very favorite NPR commentator. I think.


So, I used to have to go to an actual studio for this kind of thing. (“Look at my picture,
Mommy!”) Not now, honey. I had to get in my car (and burn fossil fuel), drive miles away
(sometimes in snow or pouring rain) and then (VIOLIN PLAYS IN BACKGROUND) I’d hope
that the engineer would show up.


Hey, Sweetheart. Mommy’s working here. Can I get a little cooperation? Thanks.


Anyway, one of the studios had this weird hum. We never could figure out exactly what it was…
(MAN YELLS QUESTION IN BACKGROUND) I think I saw it in the upstairs bathroom.


I remember once I brought a big wool blanket into the studio and we hung it over some buzzing
generator but it…


(PHONE RINGS)


Hello. Oh, hi. What’ cha doing? Oh yeah. That’s too funny. Hey, can I call you back? I’m
actually recording right now. Uh huh. No. It’s serious, high-quality stuff. Stuart got it for me
for Christmas. Yeah. Isn’t that great? Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.


So the wool blanket didn’t work. And the other studio was, well, let’s just say we had a
minor disagreement about my importance. You know how that is.


Generally speaking, the only downside to this whole commentary thing has been the recording
aspect. Now it’s like all my problems (DOG BARKS) are solved. Can somebody let the dog out?
Now I’m going to be working all the time. Wow. I recommend this set up to anybody who’s
considering working for radio.


This is fabulous. I wonder what great idea my husband will come up with next year for
Christmas. I hope he gets me a snow-cone maker.

Julia King lives, writes – and records from her living room – in Goshen, Indiana. She comes to
us by way of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.

Car Enthusiast Struggles to Change

With another Mideastern conflict looming, many Americans are worried about the possibility of rising gas prices. But as Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Tom Springer points out, using less gas may be difficult for a generation that grew up admiring gas-guzzlers:

Transcript

With another Mideastern conflict looming, many Americans are worried about the
possibility of rising gas prices. But as Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Tom
Springer points out, using less gas may be difficult for a generation that grew up admiring
gas-guzzlers:


It’s been 20 years since I rumbled through town in a fast car with wide tires and a big
hood scoop. But there, parked in front of me, was the mag-wheeled embodiment of a
teenage fantasy. Its electric blue paint job was flashing in the sun. It was more temptation
then a recovering car freak could resist.


The object of my affection was a 1970 Plymouth GTX. For two years, my brother-in-law
had worked nights and weekends to restore the old muscle car. Under the hood was a
gleaming V-8 engine, with enough horsepower to pull out tree stumps. And now, on a flat stretch
of country road, he casually asked the question: “Do you want to see what it can do?”


Did I want to see what it could do? It was an act of hypocrisy that no self-respecting
environmentalist should ever commit. Since my drag racing days, I’ve learned the truth
about the evils of fossil fuel. I know that America’s car culture is the driving force behind
urban sprawl, acid rain and the ongoing rift with a certain mustachioed Mideastern
dictator.


But after about three seconds behind the wheel, my environmentalist notions flew out the
window. I stomped the accelerator, and the tires squealed. The engine roared. The
carburetors gulped down an ocean of high-octane racing fuel. Then, for a glorious
moment, the long-forgotten thrill of intense acceleration. The hormone rush was almost
enough to bring my adolescent acne out of remission.


We later drove the GTX to a car show. The hot rods on display were mainly pre-1971
gas-guzzlers. They get about 12 miles per gallon in city driving. Oddly enough, that’s
about the same mileage as a monster sports utility vehicle. The difference is, most
collector cars are driven only on sunny weekends.


And 35 years from now, we may be doing the same thing with SUVs. I can picture the
scene on a fall day in 2037. I’m with my grandchildren at an SUV collectors meet. The
kids are staring in disbelief at these mammoth, 8-passenger vehicles, which rarely carried
more than two or three passengers. And the only thing they can think to say is… “Why?”
The world’s not making any more oil, so our day of reckoning is coming. Some
Americans may think that dollar-fifty per gallon gasoline is their birthright. Yet it won’t
last forever. Fuel cells, electric cars and hybrids are the future of human mobility.
Americans like me, who neither car pool nor take the train, will have to change.


But change may be difficult. Because for my generation, the rich exhaust of an untamed
V-8 will always be like a rare perfume. And our memories of cheap gasoline, and the
freedom of an open road, will only grow fonder with age.


Tom Springer is a freelance writer from Three Rivers, Michigan.