Where to Start?

The last few days there's been one of those big side-of-the-road programmable construction site warning signs in town, with a message flashing on it in three parts:

You Drink. You Drive. You Lose.

Fine: it's your basic scare tactic and given the state of DUI laws these days, not too far from the truth, if you get caught. I wonder how much good this slogan (and slogans like it) does, though. It's a great "I told you so" line, but if it actually changes people's minds.... Anyway, it's been bugging me, and it wasn't until yesterday that I figured out why.

The words are on a loop, with no apparent pause in between the beginning and end of the loop. So sometimes you hit it right, and it's the traditional narrative of sin and consequences. Sometimes, though, you hit it wrong

You Drive. You Lose. You Drink.

For most NASCAR drivers, that's the way it goes, right? Only a couple of them come in near first, and there's a lot of them on the track just taking up space. Doesn't tell us civilian drivers much, though the idea of going home to a beer doesn't sound all that bad after a "You Lose" sort of day.

My favorite, though, is what happens when you hit

You Lose. You Drink. You Drive.

Sounds like a good weekend in Las Vegas, or bad relationship blues. It's not smart, but how else are you going to get home?

Putting a nice long pause between iterations would have been so simple. But this is more fun.