Some things just go together

Jenny Joanning

Some combinations are just meant to be together. No matter how hard you try, when you think of one, you inevitably think of the other.

Peanut butter and jelly. Spaghetti and meatballs. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Maybe that last one is just a combo because females prefer to think of them as a package deal. In any case, those things are just supposed to come together.

Some things, however, should not even be in the same sentence, let alone come as a pair. Pickles and ice cream. Small children and weapons. Tommy Lee and Pamela. With these pairs, it is obvious that no one in his or her right mind would put these two things together on purpose.

One recent pair that has recently been put on the “these two things do not mix” list has been cars and cell phones. Now, we all know the benefits of cell phones in cars. They can be quite useful in “emergency” situations.

Calling one of your friends to tell her that the cute guy in the SUV next to you kind of almost looked in your general direction is NOT one of these “emergency” situations.

Your situation becomes classified as an emergency when either your life is in jeopardy, your car’s life is in jeopardy, your mom is going to be on Jeopardy or you might miss the first five minutes of Jeopardy, and you need to call your roommate and tell him or her to tape it.

Using a cell phone while in situations other than the ones listed above can lead to very dangerous circumstances. Nothing is more annoying then nearly being run off the road by a person concentrating a little too hard on telling the person on the other end of the phone a neat little anecdote from the night before.

Some people might think that driving is at its most dangerous with all these road-raging, cell-phone-talking people on the road. But wait! Driving just got a little more dangerous.

On television the other night, I saw this thing about cars someday coming equipped with a computer and a wireless keyboard.

As if it isn’t bad enough that people cannot do two things at a time and simply TALK on a phone while driving. Now the car manufacturers want people to master driving, reading and typing (while keeping all fingers on the home row, mind you) at the same time.

First of all, let’s just pretend that the idea of most people trying to do this isn’t the scariest thing you have ever heard of. Now, let’s try to figure out what is the point for needing a computer in your car.

The crazy man on television who thought this sounded like a good idea gave a couple of examples of what you could do with a computer mounted on your dashboard.

Some of the examples were global navigation systems, playing high-quality music through the computer and watching DVD movies. The global navigation system is not necessarily a bad idea.

However, do you really need the entire computer in your car? Haven’t they already come up with something like this that doesn’t involve endangering the lives of everyone around you?

Listening to music in your car in not a new phenomenon. You already have radios, tape players and CD players, not to mention the sound of your own beautiful voice as you sing along to your favorite song.

I think it is a proven fact that when you are alone in your car, the acoustics make the sound of your own voice the most perfect instrument in the world.

This is only true, however, when you are alone. Do not attempt to prove this to your friends when they get in the car with you. Something happens to the acoustics, and it just doesn’t sound the same as when you are alone.

As for watching the DVD movies, I think most sane people would agree that if your biggest worry while you are driving is being able to watch your favorite DVD instead of, say, the road and not hitting people, you really should not be behind the wheel. You have other issues you need to work out.

I’m not sure how much we will have to worry about this in the near future. Right now, to get the total package in your car it costs about $5,000. I don’t know many college students with a spare five grand lying around thinking, “Gee, I could really use some sort of elaborate computer system attached to my dashboard.”

You never know, though. This kind of technology could be a feature in every car in the next few years.

If it does become a new standard feature in a car, however, please use it responsibly. Only use it to surf the Web in emergency situations.

For example, getting online to get a tow truck when your car breaks down, getting online directions when you are lost or checking the Jeopardy Web site for the exact air date of the episode your mom is going to be on. You wouldn’t want to miss that.


Jenny Joanning is a junior in journalism and mass communications from Norwalk.