Saturday, August 15, 2009

Looks like carelessness

Paging Oscar Wilde

I was out for a morning stroll when I could not help but observe the bright red car parked in my neighborhood. It was a shiny new Toyota Prius, glittering in the sun. I've been tempted to get a car like that, so I walked over to see it at closer quarters. It was a sharp looking automobile, but then I noticed something.

Oops! Someone made a little boo-boo. I wondered briefly how the accident had occurred, but it was just idle curiosity.

I began to move past the car to continue my walk when I noticed something else.

Double oops! Now I was really intrigued. How does one get a bumper decorated with matching smash-ins on both sides? Did the driver try to wedge the car into a space where it could not go? (Perhaps he used to drive a motorcycle and forget how wide his new car is.) I simply do not know. Is it possible that the car is the victim of two entirely separate incidents? The mind boggles.

As I walked away, I was reminded of a line from Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being Earnest:
Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
If Mr. Worthing lives in my neighborhood, I think I would be better off Bunburying on the days when he's driving about.

2 comments:

RBH said...

A symmetry-preserving transformation?

Jens Knudsen (Sili) said...

My guess is OCD.

I like symmetry, too, but not quite that much.