My husband, the motorhead

MKG welcoming visitors to Tonawanda.

I was so proud today to see Howard weighing in on the Buffalo News blog site about the drag racing -- or street racing, more accurately -- incident. He is right in saying that being from Tonawanda he has knowledge of motorhead matters. Amen, I say.

Once when I had been going out with Howard about two months, I had car trouble. My car just started making this noise. I immediately detoured to Howard's Tonawanda childhood home, where his mother was still living. I pulled the car into his driveway.

The original Goldman Motor's Tonawanda location.

Immediately the lights to the garage went on. Suddenly this quiet Tonawanda street looked like Transit Road. Then Howard came out of the garage, dragging things, all kinds of coils and hoses and chains and whatnot. These people from Tonawanda know this stuff. They are a different breed from the rest of us. It is a miracle now to think how in the world we can balance each other, Howard with his knowledge of radiators and air filters and me going around all day thinking of nothing but Leonard Pennario and William Kapell. But I guess that is one of the mysteries of life.

This is a secret: Howard and I went street racing once.

Bolts Dancing photo by HG

A few months ago we had that tragic incident when someone died after text-messaging on a cell phone while driving. The point was made: It's illegal to talk on a cell phone, but why isn't illegal to text-message?

I want to scream when I see these knee-jerk law proposals.

It's horrible when you lose someone in an accident. I know what that's like. But accidents are always going to happen. You can go only so far to protect people against themselves. About these driving laws: While you're driving, is it illegal to eat a three-course meal from Oliver's? Is it illegal to look someone up in the phone book? Is it illegal to take out your Latin missal and work on memorizing the Credo? I have the urge to do that, sometimes, in heavy traffic.

Long story short: Is it illegal to be dumb? If we continue on the road we're on, that's where we're headed.

Let's step on the gas, and see if we can get there first.