Date:         Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:32:50 -0700
Reply-To:     John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: NVC, really - was RE: Vanagon mentioned on Car Talk today
In-Reply-To:  <6da5793405082209084f950e05@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

>...if they said how
> hard MIT was and is both to get into and to get through as an undergrad?
> Of course they knock the place, it's part of their shtick!

Well yeah, they were being humorous about it, but FWIW the "knocking"
I read was in their web bios, and they're pretty dismissive about
their college educations. I mean, not just joke cracking, but serious
handwaving dismissal.

> The kids who major in humanities
> are those who realized too late that they didn't want to be engineers, but
> had friends at MIT by then so they didn't want to transfer.  They are really
> smart.

Oh indeed. I by no means meant to imply that they were dumb. Heck, Tom
had his choice between MIT and Harvard! I guess my main point is that
a degree from MIT is not necessarily proof that one is (in this case)
a mechanical engineering authority. In their case, Ray a degree in
general science, and Tom has one in chem engineering. Tom later got an
MBA, and a PhD in management from Boston U. Strangely, their bio pages
don't ever actually mention how it is that they acquired their auto
mechanic skills, and the one shop they opened was some bizarre "fix
your own car" place Tom schemed up, which they lost money at for a few
years before essentially falling into the Car Talk gig. They're a
smart guys, to be sure, and they often give good advice; but they're
really just a  couple regular joes-- a science teacher and a business
administrator-- with many years of amateur auto repair, not degreed
automotive/mechanical engineers with professional experience. Take
their show for what it is: two entertaining guys dispensing common
sense advice about cars.


-- 
John Bange
'90 Vanagon
"Keine Bange, wir holen die Zange!"