>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5489287.ece
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>It would have to be anti-grav with a simple joystick before I'd get one.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>I saw some photos online with the wings folded in the 'car' mode. Huge blindspots!
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>You've never had to reverse a PT Cruiser down a narrow, car-lined street. Blind spots! :-)
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>My sister, who lives in Colorado, drives a PT Cruiser. I don't care for it, but she loves it.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>I love it. Just so chunky and clunky and well built, and nice gadgets, such as self-retracting wing mirrors. Favourite car I've ever owned.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>You and my sister would get along great :o) Whenever I visit her, she insists we spend hours in her car while she brags about this or that... :o) On the days we drove into the mountains, I insisted on not using her car. It gives me the feeling of at any time going over the 1000' drop.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>This is a reach of a segue but it's the topic of the day here so I'll take it anyway. A good friend of Allie's was in a serious car accident last night. Serious enough to make the Tribune, which normally means a fatal accident. Sadly, that was the case. Kristen was in a car -- an Expedition, actually -- with two guys when the car went off the road at 55 mph and ran into a telephone pole. The guy in the back seat, a senior at Round Lake HS, was killed. The driver and Kristen were taken to the hospital in what the Tribune story described as critical condition. I think they goofed that detail because Allie said she talked (texted?) with Kristen and she has already been released from the hospital, albeit with a broken arm and assorted bumps and bruises. Neither Allie nor Emily knew the guy who was killed. It's a pretty good sized high school, around 2000 students.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>What's spooky about it is Allie was supposed to go out to dinner with Kristen last night. They are pretty good friends -- Kristen has been here many times and I dropped Allie off at Kristen's house many times before she got her license. They graduated together last June. Yesterday afternoon they made plans for dinner and were going back and forth about where to eat. The last I knew was they had settled on a Panera on Rollins Road. That would fit with the police report of the vehicle traveling westbound on Rollins at around 9 p.m. I don't know whether Allie was going to be part of the same group and would therefore probably have been in the same car. For whatever reason she had a change of plans and spent the evening hanging out with her friend Carla instead. I'm not trying to make too much of this because it's a lot of speculation. Still, the whole thing is a reminder of how fragile life is and how quickly it can be lost. There's one grieving family in Round Lake, that's for sure.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Sadly Haley has too many friends who died in car accidents. She also has friends who died from drugs, have had a baby, or are in jail.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It really is scarier growing up now than it was when we were kids. We thought there were scary things around then, too, and of course there were, but nothing like now. You mention pregnancy. Emily told me there are something like 30 girls in her class (sophomore) who are either coming to school pregnant -- good for them! -- or dropped out to have a baby.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>She hit me with a new one last week, something I couldn't have imagined in a hundred years in front of a keyboard. She said there is a girl in her gym class who has fangs. Not the plastic Halloween stick-on things but permanent dental "enhancements." Jesus.
>>>>>
>>>>>It sounds like the schools over there are full of freaky, shag-happy speed freaks!
>>>>
>>>>Uhhh, the national birth rate for females in the 15-19 age group was about 42 per 1,000. Isn't that the same as England?
>>>
>>>I don't know. You're the stats wallah. It's pretty bad here - the worst in Europe - but I've never heard the likes of "...Emily told me there are something like 30 girls in her class (sophomore) who are either coming to school pregnant -- good for them! -- or dropped out to have a baby. " or "..Sadly Haley has too many friends who died in car accidents". I've rarely met a teenager who would know of just one.
>>
>>When the last time you asked a teenager in highschool?
>
>I never mentioned highschool. True, I don't rub shoulders with sproggs all that much, but I do know a few, and stats like that would get a mention on the news, esp. when they discuss teenage pregnancy. My 13 YO daughter is in secondary school (2nd year thereof)l; I'll have to ask her how many "sophomores" (what age IS that anyway?) in her school are up the duff. Also, there still aren't the numbers of Brit kids with wheels, at which to die, as their US counterparts.

Your daughter is in our equivalent of middle school. Ask a 15-17 year old... There were one or two in the school total when my daughter was 13-15. When she turned 16 it grew to 3-4, and now that she is 17 it is around 5 or 6 total (that she has know throughout the years. Those are included in the first number and the second number).