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Jul. 25th, 2003 12:49 amOne of my favorite goofy groups is the Toy Dolls. They're a punk comedy band from England. One of their songs is about a guy who loves to drive his little car as fast as possible, until one day when he wrecks it. What he owns is a "Ford Fiesta XR-2".
Well, I'd never heard of anything like that, so I asked Peter about it. Peter was a programmer I worked with at WOSCA. He was originally from England, and liked cars. He said that they actually sold Fiesta XR-2's in England. It was supposed to be sporty. He called it a "Rice-Boy" car.
That was the first time I'd ever heard the term "Rice-Boy", but I've since been aware that it applies to people who trick out stupid little cars like Ford Fiestas or Honda Accords. More specifically, as I learned on this web page, it applies to people who trick out such cars to make them APPEAR to be fast, without actually making them fast. It's all an image thing, which is why people like to make fun of them -- all image and no substance.
I listened to Phantom of the Opera on cd at work this week. Now I'm starting on The Hobbit. Phantom was good enough, although like many old novels it resorted to "the following chapter is taken directly from so-and-so's journal of the event" which is annoying but was a common literary technique at one time. I think the idea was to make the reader's suspsension of disbelief more likely, to make the story seem more plausible (Wow! Taken directly from the character's own journal!) but really it has the opposite effect for me, because it jars you out of the story. Just tell the d*mn story, that's what I say.
I picked up The Hobbit at Half Price this week. Tom is a little annoyed at me because he's owned the dramatization of the Lord of the Rings for years and considered it one of his very cool prize possessions, and now I not only own the same but also The Hobbit. ^_^
Well, I'd never heard of anything like that, so I asked Peter about it. Peter was a programmer I worked with at WOSCA. He was originally from England, and liked cars. He said that they actually sold Fiesta XR-2's in England. It was supposed to be sporty. He called it a "Rice-Boy" car.
That was the first time I'd ever heard the term "Rice-Boy", but I've since been aware that it applies to people who trick out stupid little cars like Ford Fiestas or Honda Accords. More specifically, as I learned on this web page, it applies to people who trick out such cars to make them APPEAR to be fast, without actually making them fast. It's all an image thing, which is why people like to make fun of them -- all image and no substance.
I listened to Phantom of the Opera on cd at work this week. Now I'm starting on The Hobbit. Phantom was good enough, although like many old novels it resorted to "the following chapter is taken directly from so-and-so's journal of the event" which is annoying but was a common literary technique at one time. I think the idea was to make the reader's suspsension of disbelief more likely, to make the story seem more plausible (Wow! Taken directly from the character's own journal!) but really it has the opposite effect for me, because it jars you out of the story. Just tell the d*mn story, that's what I say.
I picked up The Hobbit at Half Price this week. Tom is a little annoyed at me because he's owned the dramatization of the Lord of the Rings for years and considered it one of his very cool prize possessions, and now I not only own the same but also The Hobbit. ^_^
