In my seemingly endless quest to learn to drive, one tendency has really stuck out at me. Everyone who has instructed me thus far has been obsessed with speed. Granted, it does makes sense not to go ten miles an hour on the freeway, or conversely go sixty miles an hour on a residential street. However, people seem to care far more about going as fast as legally possible, rather than at what might be considered a reasonable speed.

A fantastic example : during my woefully unproductive Driver's Education course, the driving instructor kept a close watch on my speedometer. Had I gone one or two miles an hour under the set speed limit, the instructor would chastise me saying it was, "unsafe to be going at that speed." But if I was going one or two miles over the speed limit they would not think twice.

So why is America obsessed with going as fast as legally possible ? It may save time, but the amount of time saved is quite negligible. Say there was a fifteen mile trip to be taken. Then, suppose the average speed limit on the trip was thirty miles an hour. Going at the speed limit for the entire trip it would take about thirty minutes to get there, supposing things were mostly clear.

If the same trip was driven two miles under or over the speed limit, twenty eight and thirty two miles an hour, respectively, you would stand to gain or lose a whopping two and a half minutes. That is a negligible eight per cent difference from the baseline thirty minutes.

It is things like this, coupled with blatantly bad drivers, who make the roadways more dangerous for everyone, killing about forty thousand people every year. I really do not see why two and a half minutes is worth risking someone's life.

On a slightly more cheerful note, the latest installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is darker, but nonetheless excellent. There are a good deal of plot twists and very unexpected events. Of course my favorite part of the Harry Potter books are the quirky, imaginative words and names dreamed up by Joanne Rowling, the author of the series. I would name some of my favorites from this latest installment, but that might give things away.