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Oct. 2, 2009 2:03 p.m. Xceler8x Dork

Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-bending, Celebrating America the Way It's Supposed To Be -- With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac ... of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn (Hardcover) by P J O'Rourke

I'm only on the 4th chapter but this book is hilarious. The guy is a right leaning libertarian which, from the political head butting I've been involved in, seems right up Hess, Poop Shovel, and other conservatives alley. Either way you cut it the stories are funny as all hell.

For example: The first chapter is titled "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting your Wing Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink." How could I pass it up ya know?

The next chapter, the first instance of self-rebuttal I've witnessed, is titled "How to Drive Fast When the Drugs are mostly Lipitor, the Wing Wang needs more squeezing than it used to before it gets the idea, and spilling your drink is no problem if you keep the sippy cups from when your kids were toddlers and leave the baby seat in the back seat so that when you get pulled over you look like a perfectly innocent grandparent"

Now, can you pass this book up knowing that's the title for the first two chapters?

It's a riot. Check it out.
Oct. 2, 2009 3:08 p.m. Snowdoggie HalfDork

I remember that O'Rourke had a monthly column and wrote feature stories for Car and Driver back with C&D used to be cool.

You can't really classify this guy politically. He blows a hole through and makes fun of all beliefs. I remember in one of his books he compared a badly run capitalist system (Russia after the fall of the Soviet Empire) to a well run socialist system. (All of the Scandinavian countries) and he pulls no punches.
Oct. 2, 2009 3:13 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

sounds like good reading. I like people who throw punches right and left
Oct. 2, 2009 7:50 p.m. mel_horn Dork

He also used to write for the National Lampoon.

He also had an article in C/D before the fall of the ol' CCCP pointing out that the most efficient enterprize in the whole country was an Italian car factory( the Lada factory at Toggliatigrad (sp?)), asking "we're scared of these guys?"
Oct. 2, 2009 8:45 p.m. Josh HalfDork

I have this on my Amazon wishlist, I should probably just break down and buy it. I love him on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and fondly recall his work in C&D back when that magazine actually meant something (the 10 best issue was an EVENT when I was coming of age as a car buff in the late 80s/early 90s).
Oct. 2, 2009 9:58 p.m. Woody SuperDork

"You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money." -P. J. O'Rourke
Oct. 2, 2009 11:04 p.m. friedgreencorrado Dork

Josh wrote:

I have this on my Amazon wishlist, I should probably just break down and buy it. I love him on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and fondly recall his work in C&D back when that magazine actually meant something (the 10 best issue was an EVENT when I was coming of age as a car buff in the late 80s/early 90s).

When was PJ on "Wait, Don't Tell Me"? I work most weekends, and miss a lot of episodes..

And I'm another guy who remembers his great work at C&D. The one he did about pickup trucks was almost straight out of National Lampoon. One illustration was called "Achieving Equal Weight Distribution in a Pickup Truck", and it showed the thing on the roof with 0% front/rear.

EDIT: ROFL! I just read the critics' descriptions over at the Amazon page in the book. The Washington Post writer says he loves his 1990 Porsche 911. Isn't this the same car he derided in one of his C&D pieces (where he was making a long drive in a Ferrari 308) as an "..ass engined Nazi slot car.."?