Re: Hairy green frogs... (WAS: Quattro Wagons)

[Alex Kowalski <akowalsk@shrike.depaul.edu>]

Hey Dave Cohen,

What's wrong with Hairy Green Toads from Mars?

I like them.  They are part of my fantasy life here on the Q-List!

They are funny and a nice introduction to often serious subjects.  

No harm done,

Best Wishes, 

Alex Kowalski


P.S. 

<<<Speaking of this, I have to comment.  I have seen something of a 
rebellion among some contributors to the list against anything added to 
messages that could be construed as fictitious, spiritual, mystical, 
creative or humorous.  Especially the Audi Gods, but also the beginnings 
to messages like "Hairy Green Toads", etc.  This List is not a corporate 
publication. Mostly, it disappears into an archive for other Audi owners 
to search from by keywords or phrases.  It is not our responsibility 
(yet) to be totally straightlaced when we post messages here.  A little 
humor and mysticism helps when dealing with these cars, even if it is 
nothing more than a joke to ourselves that buoys us through the tougher 
problems.  There is plenty of serious, technical stuff posted to this 
list to satisfy anyone who is a die-hard gearhead who has no tolerance 
for that kind of junk.  Most people on the list are somewhere in between, 
and I don't think that the humor, upon reading the List regularly, has 
detracted from the quality of the answers spontaneously and freely given 
by the subscribers at all.  

Most of us seem to know this, but please, unless you are truly offended, 
give me a break from the censorship, because that's all you have to do to 
make it look silly is to say it looks silly.  These are expensive cars, 
after all, and when you boil it down, nobody wants to think of themselves 
as being a joker with an investment.  So it is a fragile thing, this 
sense of humor about these cars that we transport ourselves and our loved 
ones around in.

I scrape my knuckles against the hard reality of my Audi's ball joints, 
shock mounts, differential covers, plug holes, and unibody on a 
regular basis.  It's a little bit of a break to make an enchanted joke 
about it now and then.  Certainly, nobody here gives advice that they 
aren't reasonably sure works within the constraints of the laws of 
physics and the lessons of experience, as they understand them. A little 
humor helps you to cope when your car, that you really would like to 
continue driving, almost toasts you to a cinder, as happened to me.  If 
Hairy Green Toads thought it was appropriate for it to do so, I would 
like to soothe myself that that's the reason, after I've spent 10 hours 
under the dashboard with a digital multimeter and a flashlight piecing 
together the remnants of the wiring harness.  That's not being deceptive 
or stupid.  It's simply a reaction that enables you to still be enamored 
of this reality-driven device, that you must ultimately fix, pay to have 
fixed, or get rid of, and can sometimes confound and frighten the living 
daylights out of you.>>>