Classical Gas

I was watching the space race episode last night of the CNN series “The Sixties” when I heard astronaut Mike Massimino mention something that embarrassed me just a bit. (Fortunately, I was alone.) You see, as a writer I try to avoid clichés whenever possible, yet there’s one I use a lot that Massimino confirmed was something that has indeed become an American cliché. In my own defense, it’s actually a maxim as opposed to a word or phrase, and it does make a lot of sense. In fact, it's almost classic in how much sense it makes, and yet, because so many people use it, it must be considered a cliché. I should try to find something new to replace it with. I’m talking, of course, about the maxim that people use when they complain about a lack of progress the doesn’t befit the age in which we live. They use some variation of the following: “We put a man on the moon in 1969! Don’t you’d think we could…” and then they fill in the rest with whatever it is they’re complaining about.

As I said, I use it a lot. It came to mind just this morning. First, a little background. I have to drive about an hour to get to Union Station in New Haven, where I catch a train to take me to Stamford (another hour away) so that I’m behind my desk performing my duties on time at the company for which I am a corporate writer on contract. And then it’s an hour back. So it seems as if I’m always putting gas in my car. I was doing that this morning, and when I returned the nozzle to the pump, three or four drops of gas fell to the ground. They always do, no matter how much I shake the nozzle when it’s still in the tank, no matter how slowly I take it out, no matter how careful I am. There just doesn’t seem to be a way to avoid it. Now, if one were to add up all the drops of gas that fall to the ground at all the gas stations all around the country during a 24-hour period, don’t you think that would add up to a few thousand gallons of wasted gas, which in turn would add up to a fortune in wasted money? It's obscene.

Come on! We put a man on the moon 45 years ago! Don’t you think I could find a job closer to home?