Milestone

Brighid turned 50 today. 50k, that is. It happened out on I-40 while I was on my way home from downtown. It was a big thing for me. Not so much for Brighid, though. Confused? Brighid is a car.

To be more precise, Brighid is a 2000 Evolution Orange Mazda Miata. Yeah, we name our cars. We name our cats, too, and the cars are just as likely to come running when we call them. Some people think it’s silly to name cars (and have told me so in no uncertain terms). Not that I really care. I have a long history of naming cars, starting with The Behemoth (Mom’s old Mercury Marquis). Actually, it may have started before that. I can’t remember if Dad got The Slug (a Ford Zephyr) before Mom got The Behemoth. No matter.

Regardless of history and tradition, it makes a bit of sense that MG and I named Brighid. At the time, Brighid was not our only Miata. I also had a 1992 Miata named Mjolnir. It was easier to say “I’m going to go put gas in Brighid” than to say “I’m going to go put gas in the Miata. No, not the white one; the other one.”

So naturally you can’t name just two cars if you have more than that. We currently still have Brighid, of course (I sold Mjolnir a few years ago). We also have Traineau Noir and the truck, which I recently named Jene (short for Genome – don’t ask).

All this might naturally beg the question, “Hey Big Guy, what about the bikes?” Yep. They have names as well. There’s Silver, Trigger, Clyde, Spock, PopMonster, the Beast, Jessica and Daisy. There are reasons for their names, of course, which I will be happy to tell you over an adult beverage sometime, provided you come here and buy me one.

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Trivia Quiz-thing

Please refer to the Rules as necessary, and please send your answers to this email address.

1. What is the mythological significance of ‘Mjolnir’?

2. What does ‘Testarossa’ mean (hint: it’s Italian)?

3. Mars has two moons. Tell me the name of either one.

4. In the 1998 movie “Shakespeare In Love”, who played the part of the Queen of England?

5. Most of us using computers these days are familiar with USB ports, but what does USB stand for?