Another week has passed and today is Sunday, November 17. There are only 38 days until Christmas. By now you should have your baking plan set to get all the cookies andfruit cakes done on time. More importantly, Thanksgiving is only 11 days away, so you should be staking out places to put your tent so you are ready for shopping on Black Friday.  Today is the natal anniversary of Joost van den Vondel, Louis XVIII and Martin Scorsese. Today in 1800, Congress held its first session in Washington, DC, in 1913the Panama Canal opened and in 1973 President Nixon told AP, “… people have toknow whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”  It isArmy Day in Zaire, Monday begins National Children’s Book Week in the US andWednesday will be Repentance Day in West Germany.

While I realize that I have discussed this type of thing in the past, I want to revisit it for a couple reasons.  One is because it just continues to annoy me and the other is because I have recently noted a connection that I feel is worth mentioning. The subject is drivers.  As I have said in the past, there are some really bad drivers out on the roads.  We recently made our annual trip to Newport with our friends John and Mary Anne. This trip takes us up the parkway, onto 287, onto the Merritt Parkway and then to 95.  It usually takes about three hours to complete the ride.

This jaunt affords us the opportunity to see a variety of anal lacunae behind the wheels of cars.  There are the speeders who get in the left lane and exceed the speed limit by 10 to 15 mph.  These are the ones who just come up behind you, close enough that you can see if they need a shave (one did and I wanted to yell, “Lady lighten up” when she went by, but I did not).  Once you move out of the way, they press onto the next car that blocks their progress. They never stray from that lane and just tailgate you until you move.

The next type is the one who speeds, but is not limited to the left lane.  These people are the ones who fly along switching lanes as needed to avoid having to slow down.  They weave in and out of traffic, changing lanes and sometimes barely missing the car they pass as they jump into the next lane.  I find this type interesting because it is apparent that they do not ever look ahead.  Every once in a while they jump into a lane only to find that the car ahead of them is doing the speed limit.  This causes them to have to get back behind the car they were trying to avoid until a gap opens allowing them to rocket forward.

Then there are the ones who get into the middle lane and go 5 mph below the posted speed limit.  I can never tell if they are not aware of the limit, oblivious in general, or doing it just to be annoying. There is also the group that shoots out of an entrance ramp without yielding because, I assume, they are afraid someone might get ahead of them.  These are the ones who change lanes in traffic jams just to gain a car length.  The final group that gets me is the one thatobviously has no idea where they going. They drive along below the speed limit and then slow even more as they approach an exit, trying to determine if this is the one they want.  With all the different types of systems available to get directions, there is no reason for this type of driving.  If nothing else, get off the road and stop and ask for directions!

The connection I referred to earlier, was noticed in the Shop Rite.  A new store opened near us recently and the lovely Elaine and I went to check it out. As we walked through the store we came across all the different types of drivers that I mentioned earlier.  There are the ones who have specific items in mind and just push their way down the aisle.  If you get in their way they will just bump into you so that you will move. There are the ones who are in a hurry to get the chore done and weave up and down aisles getting their groceries and God help you if you get in the way.  These are the ones who come up behind someone, swerve to go around them and sometimes bump into someone coming the other way.

Then there are the people who just stroll down the middle of the aisle, not caring that they are blocking others trying to go in either direction.  You also have the ones who see you coming out of an aisle and push ahead to get into the next aisle before you, as if to prevent you from getting the last package of prunes or something equally important.  I have mentioned the last group a number of times.  They are the ones who wander around the store as if they have no idea where they are or why.

So there you go.  The question is a chicken or egg thing.  Do they act that way in the store because they drive that way?  Do theydrive that way because they learned the behavior in the store?  Or is the answer simpler – they are that way because they are …holes

This week’s fact tells us that 1 in 8 Americans has worked at a McDonalds restaurant.  I did. The one here in town opened back when I was in high school and I worked there as part of the original crew. To give you a sense of how long ago that was, we used fresh meat burgers, we made our own shakes and we peeled the potatoes and cut our own fries.

Have a goodweek and tune in again next Sunday for another episode of “As the DigressionTurns.”