Anthropomorphism

As we were driving home from lunch on this rainy Saturday, Noel told me about something that had happened on Friday when he and Cady Gray were in the car together.

They were stopped at an intersection near the university, and on the cross street a car was backing out of a parking lot into the road. There were three cars already sitting on the cross street being blocked from proceeding on their green light by the car backing out. Yet the driver backed partway out and just sat there, as if waiting for the three cars behind him to retreat further and let him all the way into the road.

Noel wasn't involved in the situation at all, since he was on the other street with a red light. But his keen sense of automotive injustice -- and the fact that none of the affected cars seemed to have any idea what to do -- led him to lay on the horn to try to get the problem driver's attention. After his blast, the car coming from the parking lot put it in drive and moved into traffic, freeing up the jam.

Which led to this exchange:

Cady Gray: Why'd you do that?

Noel: Because that car was acting crazy.

Cady Gray: (decisively) That car was crazy, and our car was mad at it!