TANGENTS By John Saccenti If you can scrape the ice and snow off of your windshield, why is it still piled on the roof of your car?
I’ve had several thoughts over the past few weeks, all timely which means I need to get them out before they’re no longer fresh and all too boring for a full column.
So here they are, notes from my desk, some random observations about the world and what I think of it.
Several weeks back I wrote about my parents moving, and how I’d be saying goodbye to the childhood home for good.
Well, it’s done. Gone are binders full of paper and toys and shelves full of stuff. I unhooked what seemed like 30 stereo systems and a computer. I made countless trips to and from the new home, up its stairs and back down. I watched as my mother cleaned and I worried that they wouldn’t get everything out in time. They did.
But instead of feeling mopey that the stuff was gone, and that the only thing left would be memories of growing up, I felt relieved.
It seems that nothing eases the transition of leaving a longtime home like having to pack up years of junk, and then cleaning years of accumulated dirt in places like behind the refrigerator, the drier and in the deepest, darkest corners of cabinets and closets that haven’t been visited in years.
Frankly, when all was said and done, I’d grown quite sick of the home during the past few weeks.
I saved this one for here because I didn’t think anyone would want to read a full column, 12 or more column inches, about snow (heck, you’ve already shoveled about 12 inches of snow. Ba-dum-dum. Thank you very much. I’ll be here all week.).
Anyway, can someone out there tell me what is so hard about cleaning snow from the ROOF of your car? Please, tell me why, after doing your windows, and hoods, and trunks, you can’t simply push the snow off the top of your car? What’s wrong with you? Do you know how ridiculous you look when you’re driving with 12 inches of snow on top of your car?
The funny thing is, many of these cars seem to be of the expensive, status-symbol variety, and I suspect washing and waxing regularly throughout the year are priorities for many of their owners.
To these folks I have only one request: Please, don’t get in front of me; I don’t need that snow and ice on my windshield.
However, these folks are only slightly less annoying than drivers who do nothing more than wipe a bit of snow from the front of the windshield, and then peek out of their supremely inadequate hand-size hole as they drive. These cars are usually heaps, or beaters. I’m not sure what the connection is, but there you have it.
And finally:
Anyone voting in the Iraqi elections last weekend (and no, this probably doesn’t mean you) is just about the bravest person I’ve seen. These people could have been shot, blown up, dragged through the streets. The fate of their families could have been the same.
No matter how things turn out, something that is still very much in the air, all I have to say is, Wow. That, and you better get out and vote next time there’s an election in your town.
John Saccenti is news editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

