Big Banana Car
bigbananacar.com
bigbananacar.com
One time while I was waiting for a light, an officer knocked on my window (which is somewhat startling)... I rolled it down and he excitedly asked "What kind of car is this?!"
https://www.drive.com.au/news/microlino-battery-electric-bub...
The next morning I was able to hire one out to travel to the venue. At a pitstop on the way, another driver followed me into the carpark and excitedly asked me where I found the car so that he could go get one too.
To be honest, it wasn't a comfortable or easy drive. The speed topped out at 90kph and the steering felt gravelly. But it was fun getting in and out of the front of the car.
And, no offense intended, that car is not that interesting. I guess policing must be boring.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNI1TfAxyIZ/?utm_source=ig_we...
It's always for some made up traffic offense ("your lights weren't working, try them now; oh they are fixed; can me and my partner get a photo with your car?").
But even beyond that, lightweight, mid front engine, rwd, turbo variants, this is the stuff of proper race cars. Anything Colin Chapman would approve of is automatically interesting.
But you're right!
100% that! When did everything get serious and look-alike? Anyway, I am taking off, shopping cart racing in the mall...
In the meantime, be the change you want to see! You don't have to be darker&grittier yourself just because the media ecosystem has decided that's where the current fashion is.
And some even in the 1980s or 1970s. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DarkerAndEdgier/Batma...
I don't think the 2000s were especially darker and grittier?
I think many of us that can see the trend are very very tired of it. Hell I keep watching 4K77 because that movie gives me hope in a way that no other media does. I am certainly a product of my generation :)
It's sometimes charming, sometimes annoying. (But it makes for some cheap joke material that tends to make Poms think they are especially funny.)
Same with the "pulled over to give you an ice cream" feel-good ops they do. https://abc7ny.com/post/video-police-hand-out-ice-cream-inst...
An illegal detention is still an illegal detention if it's being done nicely.
No? You could also pull the public tax dollars spent card, or other crimes not being pursued while you're at it but it won't help sour the mood!
This is not a nice story about cops.
> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"
> For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.
> "He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"
> The banana jokes, he said, are "never-ending."
> Fortunately, so are the laughs.
..Are we discussing the same article?
> Braithwaite recently drove the banana into Mexico, where he was pulled over five times in three days.
> Every encounter was friendly, he says.
This is a great international story about cops!
> Now he's thinking much bigger.
> His goal is to drive the Big Banana Car through Central America; somehow get it shipped across oceans and eventually circle the globe.
> "I just want to keep going," he said.
> He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour."
> A sign mounted to the back of the vehicle carries the slogan.
> "The world is dangerously low on whimsy," says the man hoping to make a difference.
That last paragraph hits it out of the park.
This is not a good story about cops. This is a good story about a guy, that includes cops as part of its plot.
It's like those "kid sells his toys to fund parents' cancer treatment" stories local news does as a feel-good segment. Great kid! Shitty system!
I'm still inclined to think that an /s is coming up in later replies. A bad story about cops and a banana motorist is that the motorist is dead, incarcerated or has a bounty on his head and is traveling around the world to ..evade.. his notoriety.
Cops on the road, who drive alone in their car, are entitled to a bit of fun.. or as Braithwaite put it, "more whimsy"!
Don't they? Help me understand..
No, cops are not entitled to Fourth Amendment violations as fun. Turn on the radio or something.
I am entitled to fun, too. That doesn't mean I get to pick kicking you in the shin as my fun.
You and that other op dude need better arguments.
Exactly the right word.
It certainly isn’t, the police have no right to pull him over, they’re violating his 4th amendment rights. Unless he has committed a moving violation or they suspect him of committing a crime, there’s no cause to stop a motorist.
It’s a good story about a man who hasn’t let police acting illegally prevent him from driving his banana car.
You and that other op dude need better arguments.
Banana cars getting pulled over for selfies is a massive improvement.
And the “I pulled you over because you peeled out” - I mean it’s fun. Anyway, if it’s harmless I don’t really see the problem.
Police have plenty of ways to have fun that aren't Fourth Amendment violations.
If you wanna give out free ice cream cones, station a cruiser with a sign saying so. People can come to you just fine, without the "what the fuck, why am I getting pulled over?!" worries. The banana guy at least has an inkling of why there are flashing police lights in his rearview, but that doesn't make it OK.
(And, yes, I realise that this is exactly the same shape of argument that turns into victim blaming when it's about cat calling or worse. No, I don't have a principled way to distinguish the two cases.)
For example, your average cop in the UK, traffic or otherwise, doesn't carry a gun. Bobbies can get guns, but it's enough of a bureaucratic hassle that they seldom bother. The absence of guns makes a lot of the tension disappear that I read about in American encounters with low enforcement.
In Germany, police routinely carry guns, but also approximately no one is afraid they might get shot as a result of making the wrong move at a routine traffic stop. (Partially that's because every shot fired comes with lots and lots of red tape. Even warning shots. If the police officer actually hits a person, they get the police equivalent of a court martial. And that's mandatory, even when it's obvious they were doing the Right Thing. Just like a captain in the Royal Navy got a court martial, when their ship sank for any reason.
I say 'partially', because I suspect culture has a lot to do with it.)
If you mop floors and you have fun by twirling your broom and humming a tune, you're not affecting anyone.
If we give you a gun and the right to shoot people in the head and go home to sleep in your own bed, then we can ask you to lock in a little more than that and not pull over people because it's funny.
You want police to have a positive presence in the community. Innocent engagement with a banana car helps with that, doesn't hurt.
Over here in reality, when a man with a badge and a gun pulls people over for a bit of fun: Refusing to play along with whatever game it is that they have in mind is a criminal offense.
Can they not pull up alongside and wave? Give a thumbs-up? Roll down the window?
And if that sounds hackneyed and like a ridiculous standard, you're damn right it is: we let them have outsized influence in our existence as otherwise free people. Their standard has to be a double standard.
Are you under the impression all cops are known for is harassing banana cars?
I appreciate your anger, but it’s misplaced here.
The cop comfortable with pulling over the funny looking car (that looks like a banana) is the same cop with unreasonable understanding of the responsibility they're given.
It wouldn't matter if the banana car man has a sign that says "I love cops free donuts in the back"
What's really crazy to me is that someone is working over time to try to police (literally) other people's negative feelings about cop misconduct.
What inadequacy leads someone to see others upset at an obvious misuse of power and think "I need to stand up for the guys misuing it!"
It’s crazy to me that you view it as “policing” your opinions rather than simply seeing my viewpoint as just that, and opposing viewpoint.
I’m not policing you. Just offering a different perspective.
I apologize for speaking up. So much for free speech :)
But I’ll say it once more: it’s a freaking banana car. Lighten up bro! Very confused why you’re more upset than the driver of the banana is (who seems to want the attention and is getting it, the desired effect)!
> "I appreciate your anger, but it’s misplaced here."
Weird mix of narcissism to think anyone cares if you appreciate their anger, and arrogance to think you know where it belongs.
You're definitely confused. We can leave it at that.
Two times pissed me off: one time a cop had just pulled me over on the highway for a pic, okay cool, I pull back onto the highway and went maybe a mile before I was pulled over a second time by his buddy.
Other time I was just rolling into LA for a comic con, it was 3am and I'd been driving for about 14 hours. I was minutes from my hotel and of course here come the cops. I had to make a big detour to find somewhere safe to stop. The next day someone said "Oh, I think my buddy stopped you last night!" so I had him call his cop friend and was able to safely cuss him out from a distance :)
On the other hand I had one awesome experience with the cops in Oxnard when we put my car on the train tracks and accidentally set off the barriers and caused an enormous tailback in each direction at the railroad crossing. I thought the cops would be mad, but they were hilarious and promised to figure out the traffic snafu for us.
https://imgur.com/a/pBcLKqz (we didn't realize the barriers automatically detect stuff on the tracks)
Then an hour later when I was driving the car down the tracks again another cop walked up on me all mad and told me he was writing me a ticket for driving on the tracks, but when I read the ticket he'd written it out to Marty McFly and had a great laugh about it. Here's a pic of him booking Marty haha
In the world as it is, with laws interpreted by humans along notions of what society generally finds acceptable: if you drive a funny car or where an especially funny hat, expect to get a lot of attention from all kinds of people, including cops.
If you are a parent of a small child, you will be amazed by the depth and fun of this book. I am always surprised it is not more commonly read.
> you will be amazed by the depth and fun of this book
+100. These are so fun to read and look at. There are stories in stories. These books are a treasure.
I have an overdeveloped anti-authority streak, and I did not like to read that he was pulled over so often, but... I mean... that surely isn't a surprise, right? It's almost like reverse entrapment of the officers :)
Merry Pranksters Bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Pranksters#Eastward_bus_...
In general, I’m fairly waterproof.
-30C was pretty cold, especially moving, but rare enough I could dress for it and keep my body parts.
Snowstorms are always fun. Free physics lessons included. How much traction can you get? Whoops, I’m laying on the ground.
Thunderstorms and hail you might want to avoid.
I've biked as low as about -15C, though it's much more comfortable keeping it above -10 -- -5 or so.
Boots were just my regular winter boots. I think they all say "comfortable" down to -40C at this point. Comfortable is probably overselling it, but I still have all of my toes.
I don't remember my glasses ever really fogging up until I'd get inside. I don't like things on my face, so usually just a hat with ear flaps. Add a scarf for neck and lower face. Perhaps a beard helped too. It and my mustache have certainly frosted up.
When I was doing it regularly, those days just weren't common enough to justify doing anything special. I could generally keep the rides short which really helped out.
None of my cycling / running gloves cut it. I didn't get to buying heavier winter gloves last season. Layering gloves, using hardware-store work and waterproof gloves has also come up. Key is to combine insulation, a wind/vapour barrier, and possibly something rugged on the outside against wear/falls. I can't find the reference I had in mind, though this one is similar: <https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/hiking-and-b...>.
Feet aren't as much an issue for me, but insulated booties would be good. I have a pair, but they didn't fit over my most recent cycling shoes. I did find a lower-profile older pair recently, might get lucky with those.
I wear a Spandex balaclava, which tends to direct breath toward my specs. That's also a problem walking in cold weather (which I also do a lot of, particularly when my glasses fog too much to ride ;-), and I'm leaning toward over-the-specs ski goggles or something along those lines.
Power to you though!
I would honestly be surprised if it turns out it was written by an LLM.
(I've also seen this style on an LLM-written site.)
Besides, his family would surely win the resulting case… on a peel.
...until the bananas go brown, of course.
Pigs are abusing their authority! Oh whatever shall we do?
Cops shouldn't be putting law-abiding citizens at risk for a selfie.
But this country's courts said this shit is cool. And so is highway robbery by pig. And they don't need to come for help if you call 911.
Oh and qualified immunity means they can what the fuck ever they want.
If RICO act was serious, they'd shut down all pig stys (police stations).
Person who wants to get noticed indeed gets noticed
On the other hand it probably has an increased likelihood to have technical problems that make it reasonable to pull it over though.
Cops shouldn't be pulling over anybody without either direct evidence of a potential crime or a warrant.