[Sca-cooks] OT, OOP--'Full Serve' in Oregon

[El Hermoso Dormido]

On Monday 01 July 2002 02:08 pm, Laura C. Minnick wrote:
> But we all know it's illegal to speed- however, knowing that the fine is
> DOUBLE is a bit more of a deterrent...

Well, that was my point - the signs didn't say "you will be fined for
passing on the double yellow line", but was instead worded as a "friendly
reminder", which gives the appearance that the sign-maker expected that
people wouldn't KNOW what the double-yellow-line means...

> There are two states that forbid self service- I think the other one is
> Vermont. And I don't think we can prove or disprove any intent of the state
> to infer that we are not competent. The law came from the State Fire
> Marshal- take it up with them.

Just in case anyone was getting the wrong idea from my previous posts on the
subject, I wasn't actually implying that Oregonians were incapable (or, for
that matter, even that the Government literally meant they didn't think
Oregon citizens could handle the task safely) but just that the law FORBIDDING
self-service (rather than "mandating availability of full service") was easily
misconstruable...

Oh, according to the other post, the other state is apparently New Jersey (I
hadn't realized that there was more than one state like this).  Though
it's apparently illegal to make left turns in New Jersey, so this is no
surpise.* :-)

And now, to finish beating the proverbial horse to death with a soapbox:

> However, I do not mind at all having someone else pump the gas. Heck, I
> know how to milk a goat, too- doesn't mean I want to do it myself.

Ah, and here we reach WHY this law amuses (and, to a certain extent, disturbs
me).  Should the threat that, say, an "untrained" person might spread some
agricultural disease necessitate OUTLAWING milking one's own goat?...

Now, as to the fire marshal, that makes more sense, though it still conjures,
in my cynical mind, the image of a cranky fire marshal having to pump gas
in the rain one day and/or hearing of a fire started at a gas station once,
and blowing the issue grossly out of proportion to get the law passed and get
himself some political exposure...

(prod, prod) Yup, it's dead.  I think I can stop beating it now. :-)

> What I
> do resent is that most of the stations now require you to get out of the
> car and go inside to pay, frequently waiting in line behind some guy with a
> bladder-buster drink, two hot dogs, and a carton of cigarettes. So do I
> leave the kids in the car? What about pets? And when it's raining? I much
> prefer the stations where you hand the money or plastic to the same kids
> who pumps your gas. (Leaves me time to scribble out my mileage without some
> yahoo honking at me too.)

Hey!  Kids could hurt themselves while unsupervised in the car!  Quick!  Call
the Legislature!... :-)
(This bugs the heck out of me, too, which is one of the reasons I've gotten
fond of self-serve gas stations with "pay with a credit/debit card at the
pump" stations.  Faster than Full Service any day.  'course, that doesn't help
me when I want to go in and buy a map or something...)

> 'Lainie
> -how did we get onto the subject anyway?

It was the "static electricity can ignite gas fumes" warning post, as I
recall, so oddly enough, there IS a contiguous thread here.

Signed,
El Hermoso Dormido, amused cynic

* - no, no, not literally, but I do recall that in New Jersey (at least,
around Princeton) even where the "highways" were actually just big city
streets that there were NO left turns off of them anywhere.  If you were
driving along and spotted where you needed to make a left turn off of the
highway to get somewhere, you had to find somewhere to turn around...