Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
Cidu Bill on Jun 26th 2008
I’d go for “regular” myself since the last time I bought gasoline that wasn’t unleaded, it was something like 59 cents a gallon
Was Tina even alive the last time “regular or unleaded” made any sense as a question?
Filed in Bill Bickel, Tina's Groove, comic strips, comics, gasoline, humor | 18 responses so far
Sari Everna Jun 26th 2008 at 03:23 pm 1
I can’t help but read this one as him needing two tablespoons of gasoline for whatever dish that is in his hand. And I know that can’t be right, since it violates every rule of cooking, ever.
If I could easily identify those as car keys in the last panel, which I know they must be, then maybe I wouldn’t feel the need to report him to the health inspector types.
Its Justme Jun 26th 2008 at 04:01 pm 2
Cognitive dysonance? Writer meant regular or super, but reverted to “long ago and far away.”
BF Jun 26th 2008 at 04:02 pm 3
He clearly needed a question to make the joke by jumping from the assumed recipe to gasoline (i.e. all he could afford at these prices), so he chose the old obvious. It could have said regular or premium, but if money’s tight, you’re definitely not wasting it on premium. So I guess the outdated joke is as good as any if you don’t over-analyze it. Oops… too late.
Lihtox Jun 26th 2008 at 04:39 pm 4
According to http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/ethylwar/overview.html :
“Leaded gasoline was phased out in the US from 1975 - 1986 and in Europe in the 1990s.”
I was born in 1975, so by the time I was filling the tank, “regular” was history…yet “regular or unleaded” is a well-established cliché in my head, at least. Tina isn’t European, is she? (I don’t know the comic.)
I don’t know how old Tina is…probably a little younger than me. The line doesn’t work if she’s asking seriously, but it could have been meant ironically, like asking “Any particular flavor of gas?”
Rupert Jun 26th 2008 at 06:35 pm 5
Sari, I am also having trouble identifying what is being handed over in the last panel. It looks like one of those child-proof locks you see on kitchen cabinets.
CIDU Bill Jun 26th 2008 at 06:39 pm 6
Keychain, and the keys have those little plastic covers on them that help people tell them apart. It was probably very clear as originally drawn, but kind of muddied once shrunken down.
John DiFool Jun 26th 2008 at 08:20 pm 7
Should I be ashamed to be madly attracted to a cartoon character? If she was real Tina would so be my type.
pepperjackcandy Jun 26th 2008 at 09:37 pm 8
the keys have those little plastic covers on them that help people tell them apart.
My plastic-headed car key has a chip in it to deter theft, so that’s what I thought it was.
Ladybird Jun 26th 2008 at 10:40 pm 9
Actually, given the restaurant setting of this strip, I didn’t even catch the problem with this joke at first. Maybe it’s changed by now, but back when I used to waitress we referred to regular coffee and decaf as “regular” and “unleaded” - so Tina’s question seemed perfectly normal to me (even though I haven’t seen leaded gasoline for retail sale since 1991 - in California).
Charles Jun 26th 2008 at 11:19 pm 10
Tina has offered to go put gas in Carlos’ car, which is a hybrid and runs on coffee.
Patrick Jun 26th 2008 at 11:59 pm 11
Bill,
How old is your car? Every new car key I’ve seen for the last ten years has had a fat black plastic coating on the handle part:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&&q=car+keys
That’s what’s being depicted in this cartoon - not those plastic things my dad used to put on the keys to the Century and the Skylark.
March Hare Jun 27th 2008 at 08:27 am 12
Patrick,
My daughter has a 2008 Cavalier, and it not only does not have one of those plastic doohickeys, but it is actually so small that whenever I am looking through the spare keys for something, it takes me about five minutes to even realize what I’m looking at is a car key and not some cabinet key.
Nicole Jun 27th 2008 at 08:40 am 13
So … wouldn’t this joke have made a lot more sense and been a lot less anachronistic if Tina had asked “Regular or High Test ?”
And I hope the chef does not drive a hummer — a teaspoon of case wouldn’t even turn over the engine
Allen Jun 27th 2008 at 08:55 am 14
You’ve all got it wrong. He’s not asking Tina to put gasoline in his car, he’s asking her to add some salsa to the dish he’s prepared. The “regular or unleaded” refers to the heat in the salsa. The keys are to the cabinet where the really hot salsa is kept in the kitchen.
Morris Keesan Jun 27th 2008 at 09:23 am 15
Now that the objects being handed over in the last panel have been identified as keys, this seems clear to me as a request to get two tablespoons of gas for his car, with an attempted joke about how expensive gasoline is, and an anachronistic question about unleaded to identify what he’s asking for.
Before that was made clear, I was with Ladybird on this one: I still hear “regular or unleaded?” asked referring to full-caffeine or decaf coffee, and I was trying to figure out what kind of food he was holding, and what he was handing her, to decipher what other kind of food-related question he might be encoding.
Side note: I kind of regret the loss of regional coffee-related terminology. Twenty years ago and more, “regular coffee”, in Massachusetts, always meant coffee with the standard amount of cream and sugar in it. This usage seems to have died out with the increasing availability of decaf, with “regular” now meaning “non-decaf”. This goes along with a decline in the amount of service one gets in coffeeshops, with many places requiring the customer to add their own sweetener and lightener. Maybe most places do this — I’m not sure, because I never put anything in my coffee, unless I’m forced to drink Starbucks, in which case I dose it with sugar to kill the flavor.
Scott Jun 27th 2008 at 11:52 am 16
In San Diego, not that many years ago, a lot of the stations still pumped leaded gas, since the cars from Mexico still used it. I haven’t noticed any leaded pumps the last few times I’ve been there.
Ladybird Jun 27th 2008 at 10:12 pm 17
Morris, you’d be delighted in the New York city area, including Long Island and North Jersey (at least). People order their coffee there by just size and either “black”, “light”, “sweet”, or “regular” (which is both light and sweet). And you simply add the word “decaf” to that description if that’s what you need. It’s pretty easy once you learn it, but I never trust that the specific place will know what I mean - and a black coffee is a real shock when you wanted cream and sugar.
Charles Jun 27th 2008 at 10:47 pm 18
… and cream and sugar is a real shock when you wanted black coffee, as I discovered when I ordered regular in NYC. But I switched to “red eye” (black with a shot of espresso) when I discovered the bodegas can’t make decent black coffee.