![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Before he retired, my father was a frequent practical joker at his office. One story (I won't swear to the specifics) began when he found a sign advertising a maid service lying in the road. It was a magnetic sign that had clearly fallen off of a car door. So he took it back to the office and attached it to the passenger door of a co-worker's car (where the victim might not notice it for a while). For the next week or so, Ted drove around the city proudly declaring himself one of the "Mighty Maids". The beauty of it was that no permanent damage was done, and it was trivial for the victim to reverse the prank once he noticed it.
That story came to mind recently when I saw that one of our neighbors had gotten a new truck:
In my book, a truck that unreasonably big (and that rudely parked) is just begging for mockery. Although I'm not generally comfortable with pranking individuals you don't know, that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. So it strikes me that there could be substantial demand for harmless but embarrassing magnetic signs for this sort of situation.
The question is, what should they say? It's tempting to go with the obvious:
BIG TRUCK
SMALL PENIS
But there must be better options. Suggestions?
There's also one more annoying thing about that truck's parking job. If you look behind the truck into the parking stalls, you'll see that there's an instruction there:
Yes, in addition to having a truck so large that it doesn't fit in his parking spot, this guy also can't read. Now, to be fair, the truck wouldn't have fit at all going in forward, but it's not as if backing in solved that problem.
Incidentally, what's the incentive for people to back into parking spots to begin with? Is it the James Bond "I may need to escape in a hurry" thing? Because the way I see it, backing up is always a bit trickier than driving forward, and squeezing into a tight space is always harder than pulling out of one. So why put the two hard tasks together? Plenty of people do this, so someone out there must know.
That story came to mind recently when I saw that one of our neighbors had gotten a new truck:
In my book, a truck that unreasonably big (and that rudely parked) is just begging for mockery. Although I'm not generally comfortable with pranking individuals you don't know, that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. So it strikes me that there could be substantial demand for harmless but embarrassing magnetic signs for this sort of situation.
The question is, what should they say? It's tempting to go with the obvious:
SMALL PENIS
But there must be better options. Suggestions?
There's also one more annoying thing about that truck's parking job. If you look behind the truck into the parking stalls, you'll see that there's an instruction there:
Yes, in addition to having a truck so large that it doesn't fit in his parking spot, this guy also can't read. Now, to be fair, the truck wouldn't have fit at all going in forward, but it's not as if backing in solved that problem.
Incidentally, what's the incentive for people to back into parking spots to begin with? Is it the James Bond "I may need to escape in a hurry" thing? Because the way I see it, backing up is always a bit trickier than driving forward, and squeezing into a tight space is always harder than pulling out of one. So why put the two hard tasks together? Plenty of people do this, so someone out there must know.
Re: question
The picture is a bit small, so it may be tricky to make out the details. This isn't just a big work truck, it appears to have been modified to be especially tall (note how high the wheel wells are above the wheels themselves, for example). I have no idea whether trucks that have been "lifted" like this are still safe for heavy work at all, but it's certainly not a necessary work feature. Lifted trucks are almost always a statement of style rather than practicality. The number of people who "have need for" a lifted truck is exceedingly small. I have very little patience for people whose style-driven choices cause inconvenience for others.
Part of the issue is probably that I'm not a car person: all I look for in a car is something that will get me from Point A to Point B as safely and efficiently as possible. So looking at a lifted truck like this, my first thought tends not to be "That would be fun to drive," but rather "What would that do to my car in a crash?" or "How much gas would we save if drivers were less obsessed with size for its own sake?" You may be right that there's some level of hostility implicit in such thoughts, but if so it's based less on blind prejudice and more on a legitimately different set of values (where I honestly feel that mine are to some limited degree "better" in a global sense).
As far as backing into a parking space goes, thanks for the insight into a case where it could be useful. That doesn't give me a lot of insight into why people park that way at grocery stores or private parking lots, but at least it's something.
Re: question
In grocery store lots I see a lot of people pull forward through a parking spot into the next row -- presumably so they get the best of both worlds -- easy in and easy out. But that makes it look like they backed in.
grocery lots
Re: question
Re: question
Re: question
Of course, I will admit some hostility to my neighbors who drive a similarly sized vehicle. The parking spaces in my complex are narrow, and we have to park further to the right (thankfully, there is space and no more parking spots) in order to get out of our car. I would be even more annoyed with them if their other vehicle were not a motorcycle. Sometimes, they park the huge annoying truck in the middle of their two assigned spots because they can.