The last time I dated a guy who was really into his car, (washing and waxing it once a week) he also turned out to be exceptionally boring. So I think your instincts are right.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the commercials touting cures for:
Restless Leg Syndrome
depression
problems with intimacy (re: performance)
excess body fat caused by stress

Everything's got a fancy medical name now! I'm just waiting for the ad claiming to cure misanthropy!

Well, I'd take a cure for Restless Leg Syndrome anyday. I know it sounds goofy, but if you have it...it's a pain in the butt.

But you CAN'T TAKE MY MISANTHROPY FROM ME. It DEFINES me....I will resist treatment until the day I die!

So the free oil sample didn't work? Dang.

Sadly, no. And the recent X-rays and MRIs of my knee came out...blurry. The MRI tech said "I don't know what's going on, I keep losing the signal."

Maybe it's just a gremlin infestation. Or some kind of weird electrical thing -- after all, I do cause electrical things to fail with alarming rapidity -- computers, stereos, speakers. Twice I have been the person behind the wheel when something went wrong with the car's electrical system and it caught on fire....

(Note, I'm not really serious, but maintain a healthy agnosticism about the fact that maybe, like many of the electrical outlets in my house, I'm wired wrong...)

Wired wrong? Maybe... I'd rather say differently. Some people do have issues with electrical stuff. I've met more than one person who couldn't wear a digital watch because they wouldn't last more than a day or two, or it would go all wonky with the time keeping and this was regardless of the quality of the watch or the freshness of the battery. Heck, I have one friend who can't wear any watches at all, not even mechanical ones- they simply fail. Myself, I can make a computer crash by looking at it, especially if my sister is the one running the computer- it happened over and over again when she was doing lay-out for our album covers so finally I simply stopped going into the room... and no more problems. I even met a guy who said he'd been fine with electrical stuff before he got struck by lightning. He survived the lightning strike just fine with only minor damage, but now he can't wear any watches at all or use computers or much of anything electrical. He even drives a really old car because newer ones just simply break electrically if he drives them for very long.

Hm. How about a visit to a good shaman or energy worker? Or maybe you don't mind being wired differently. It's not really that big a deal as long as you don't care about it. That does put your RLS in a different light, though. Fascinating...

I was reading somewhere (in an urban fantasy novel, natch) that people who defeat electrical and/or electronic things like that do so because somewhere back in their in their bloodline they have fairy blood. FWIW, YMMV...

I've heard variations of that from a number of sources, not all of them fantasy stories. It would be fun to think that some of us have fairy or dryad or other non-human blood, wouldn't it?

See, now, that's the mistake that people always make -- that it would be fun stuff like fairy or dryad...or sexy vampires or alluring werewolves...when really, it's just as likely to be troll or, in my case....orc.

It would explain the snoring... :) Not that YOU snore- I wouldn't know- but I have had some friends whose snoring is now legendary amongst me and my friends. Orc or troll would be a nice explanation. Werewolf would explain my hairy legs much better than fairy or some other cute thing.

I think it's a rather fun idea too. :-) I've had more than one friend tell me I must be part hobbit because I have an unnatural amount of hair on my toes (only me... only me...), well, and then there's that whole loving to eat and being extremely short thing, but I really think it's the toes.

btw, the author I was reading when I came across the fairy tidbit is Charles de Lint. I don't know if you've read him yet, but if what I've picked up from your posts is any indication, I think you'd really like him. I adore the man and read him as often as possible.

I once made a friend snort half a bottle of IPA through her nose (which is painful, 'cause all those hops are not meant to go that way) when we were sitting on the dock and the lake and I looked down at my barefeet and said "Shit. Time to pluck the Hobbit hair."

Leave it to me to make an insensitive comment to someone who actually has RLS! *takes a bow* I couldn't help it, though... it does sound goofy to me.

It IS goofy. Look, okay, better RLS than say, pancreatic cancer...but really, does it have to be so embarrassing and hard to explain. A lot of people think it's that leg jiggling thing that some people do...but no, it's freaking maddening and excruciatingly humiliating when you have to stand up during a meal or meeting and your only excuse is "I just can't sit down anymore." And everyone looks at you as if you may be a neurotic freak. And you know that if you explain WHY, you will only confirm their opinion.

The only comfort is...for years I thought I was the ONLY neurotic freak. Then I found out that 2 other family members are neurotic freaks. And then that there were more of us. And really, I'm not a neurotic freak kind of person...

And ED is real too, but the commercials are totally out of control and...goofy. Especially when they start rattling off the side effects...