Humbling

Looks like Tyre Extinguishers have made it to the States.  Car+Driver report here about a group of SUV-Haters who have started to let down tyres of offending vehicles in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

They object to gas-guzzlers but will also target electric SUVs - it seems to do more with the size than anything else.

I'm pretty sure that my saloon car does a lot more gas guzzling and particle emitting than a Ford Puma although the Puma is a lot more offensive to my eyesight.

I wouldn't normally comment on a story like this but I ended up going down one of my Internet rabbit-holes when I spotted the phrase "Hummer Salute" in the article.  I correctly guessed that a Hummer Salute is the same salute that Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns gave to a group of people who had annoyed her this week:

I also found a very prescient article from GQ Magazine of all places from 2010.

It is entitled:

The Last Hummer: A 21-gun salute for America's most cynical brand

but doesn't actually mention a 21-Gun Salute.  It does instead strongly criticise GM for their acquisition and handling of the Hummer brand at the time it was being shelved by them.  It also strongly criticises the vehicle itself.  

It blames "Zarella" for  this embarrassing GM situation.  Not a YouTube Influencer, but Ron Zarrella, part of a management team drafted in from outside the motor industry.

The prescient bit is when it says, "Under different circumstances, GM might have resurrected the brand. And another firm with very deep pockets still might—arriving at the last moment (as Spyker did for Saab, but only with more money) as a green maker of electric 4x4s, for instance."

So look at Hummer today.

Then look at Saab.

We have a humdinger and a humbled.