Professor Of Speed

Professor Of Speed: Too Little, Too Late

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I’m not a very good friend. It’s too easy for me to get all wrapped up in the details of everyday life and work; my schedule usually sits front-and-center ahead of most else in my mind. That’s probably why I totally ignored the bulletins reporting the death of Wanda Lund-Early this past January. As I said previously, I’m not a very good friend.

If I was a better friend, I would have been all over the news that Wanda died on January 5th of this year. If I was a better friend, I would have been stunned by the tragic news. If I was a better friend, I would have been even more stunned by the idea that her death was self-inflicted. If I was a better friend, I would have known that she was hurting on the inside while trying to make things right on the outside.

It’s Not What I Say, It’s What I Mean

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While listening to MRN’s post-race coverage from Talladega last Sunday, I was somewhat stunned to hear Greg Biffle describe the last lap of the Good Sam Auto Assistance 500 as being “like “Days of Thunder” once the 25-car accident began. It’s no surprise when racing turns into wrecking at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, but comparing NASCAR’s “fact” to Hollywood’s “fiction” seemed to take the nature of the accident out of context. There was more to the white flag carnage than what came out during post-race interviews.

Context is essential when considering why and how people communicate, yet the concept can be tricky when it comes to interpretation. Because context is always shifting and evolving, depending on conditions and connections, it can be difficult to determine the intention of a speaker. The concept is at the center of both literary analysis and writing, and being adept at managing and understanding context is at the heart of communicating effectively.

This Is (Not) Only a Test…

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It’s that exciting time of year again, and no, I don’t mean the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship…. It’s that time when the NASCAR administration announces its revised procedures for the upcoming season. Even with seven events remaining in 2012, there’s no time like the present to begin talking about the new-and-improved future.

And the changes for 2013 go far beyond simply rolling out stylish new versions of existing popular models. NASCAR sees next year as an appropriate time to loosen up its current constraints on testing, qualifying, and practice so as to provide teams more track time and fans more access. Given the “mutual gains” philosophy of NASCAR, we should probably consider these upcoming changes a “win-win” proposition.