The Joys of Going Electric. 06/16/23

What could be more satisfying than owning and driving an electric vehicle? You can feel proud that you are not contributing to global warming every time you drive to the grocery store. You can marvel at the absolute quiet that envelops you, even as you turn on the “engine.” You can put the pedal to the metal and literally get thrown back into your seat by the acceleration, because the car doesn’t have to switch gears to speed up. There aren’t any freakin’ gears. When you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you switch to “regenerative braking” and your car’s range actually increases! For sake of full disclosure, I recently bought an electric vehicle and it has indeed been a life-changing experience, but not for any of the above positive reasons.

I am now in full possession not only of a new car but of a new fear called “range anxiety.” The car can supposedly go 270 miles without a recharge. More like 240. And when that range figure dips below 100 you start worrying. Where the hell is the closest charging station? And is it a level 3, that delivers a full charge in under 2 hours, a level 2 that does the same in 12 hours or a level 1 (like what you plug your bedside lamp into (which can complete the task of a full recharge in 100 hours,) which if you’re not a math wizard, is 4 full days plus an additional 4 hours. I took the occasion to drive to John’s house so we could work out the comics and wording for our upcoming Comic Book anthology. It is about 100 miles in each direction, and whaddya know, I had range anxiety. I didn’t feel confident I could go to John’s house and back on a full charge, so John had to pick me up at his local public library, where there happens to be two chargers. Rather than wait there 6 hours for the partial recharging, we went to his house, worked and came back 6 hours later with the car fully recharged. A pain in the butt? Undeniably. As we have stated in the past, our collective misfortunes may be unfortunate, but they are often the grist of the mill for our comics, including both of this week’s efforts.

Back to electric vehicles. The point is, you tend to plan your activities around recharging. One night, my wife and I drove to a mall in another county (about 15 miles away) because they had level 3 charging, PF Chang’s and a movie theater showing the Oscar nominated “Everything, everywhere, all at once.” That made the 2 1/2 hour recharge a non-factor. A win-win-win if ever there was one. I was so happy with that decision, I didn't even contemplate the fact that I drove 30 miles round trip to recharge my car, which only gets 240 miles to begin with. Incidentally, if you find yourself at PF Chang’s, try the chicken lettuce wrap, damn good. As for the movie, not so much. I fell asleep during it (due to a combination of boredom, confusion and a cocktail from the aforementioned PF Chang’s).

One last thought about the comics: we had fun with the level 1 charger that takes over 4 days to fully charge your car. As Marv (and we) imagined, that would mean your invited company would have to stay for 4 days (and 4 hours). We leave you with this quote John remembered from Benjamin Franklin that John remembered: “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after 3 days.” Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again next week with two new ones hot off the press.

Andy and John

Baby You Can Drive My Car. 05/26/23

The more cars become sophisticated electronically, the harder they become to operate. Take the radio. I like the push button days, when pressing #1 gave me my favorite music station, #2 was my favorite news station, #3 was sports talk radio, etc. Now, every time I turn on my all-electric car, I get a randomly selected radio station. I cannot save my “favorites” unless I properly enroll in “My BMW,” which I cannot figure out how to do. So I first have to push the “media” button on the console, and then select “FM” or “Sirius” and then have to turn a dial also on the console, to my selected channel. All while trying to keep the car in the same lane on the highway, mind you. Not easy. And what the hell happened to “AM radio?” They don’t even offer it!!!!

And then let’s talk about keys, which are the subject of both this week’s cartoons. John calls them key fobs, I call them keys, but you can see from the comic who won that battle. At any rate, with an old-fashioned key, you had to stick it in the ignition. Then came the key fobs, and the car makers still had a slot for you to insert the key fob (there, are you happy now John?) into the ignition, so you always ended your drive the same way. Step 1, turn off the engine. Step 2, pull the key out of the ignition. Step 3, put the key in your pocket, purse, backpack, etc. So what went wrong? Turns out with the modern key fob, you don’t have to do anything with it, except have it with you. There is no place to put the key (fob) into the dashboard. The key slot has gone the way of the car cigarette lighter. No more. So what do you do? You put the damn key FOB in the cup holder. And promptly forget it. The good (and bad news) is the car doesn’t lock when the key is still inside, which I like, because I used to routinely lock my keys in the car after a round of golf, when I forgot that I put the keys in my golf bag and my golf bag was in the trunk, and…

See something like that was bad enough, but what Marv did was worse. Because he just left his key or as some would have it, key fob, in the cup holder. And since the car can no longer be locked with the keys or key fob inside, it makes it very easy for a car thief to prowl the neighborhood and look for cars parked in driveways where many people routinely make the same mistake Marv did, and poof, his car was gone. One last question about keys. Why are a single set of keys referred to in the plural (Honey, have you seen the car keys?) but a key fob is singular? (Honey where did you put the key fob). Questions like this are part of what make the comic business so rewarding.

Finally, John and I are putting the finishing touches on our new compilation of the New 60’s Greatest Hits. A comic book, if you will. Hundreds of our favorite comics, with some wry (whatever that means) commentary by us. Should be on sale before the end of the year. That’s it for now. Until we meet again next week, have a great Memorial Day Weekend,

Andy and John