Eric points to something I'll never need to know: how to do a heel and toe downshift in a manual gear-shift car. Eric reports that he “went from 5th to 3rd, blipped it up to 2500rpm in between and got a slick, jerk free downshift.” It just reminded me of the second-funniest part of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the very funniest being the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God), when Ford was mistaken that Arthur had never met Zaphod Beeblebrox:
Ford was not going to be outcooled.
"Zaphod," he drawled, "great to see you, you're looking well, the extra arm suits you. Nice ship you've stolen."
Arthur goggled at him.
"You mean you know this guy?" he said, waving a wild finger at Zaphod.
"Know him!" exclaimed Ford, "he's ..." he paused, and decided to do the introductions the other way round.
"Oh, Zaphod, this is a friend of mine, Arthur Dent," he said, "I saved him when his planet blew up."
"Oh sure," said Zaphod, "hi Arthur, glad you could make it." His right-hand head looked round casually, said "hi" and went back to having his teeth picked.
Ford carried on. "And Arthur," he said, "this is my semi-cousin Zaphod Beeb ..."
"We've met," said Arthur sharply.
When you're cruising down the road in the fast lane and you lazily sail past a few hard driving cars and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself and then accidentally change down from fourth to first instead of third thus making your engine leap out of your bonnet in a rather ugly mess, it tends to throw you off your stride in much the same way that this remark threw Ford Prefect off his.
It turned out that Arthur had met Zaphod at a party while the latter was on a visit to Earth and stole the girl Arthur was talking to, Tricia Macmillan, better known in the series as Trillian.
Nothing profound. That's just what Eric's entry reminded me of.
