David Tracy Lives In A Bubble + Join Our Discord: Tales From The Slack

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As I’ve made clear before, David had a weird, quasi-Amish upbringing and therefore can not be trusted to fairly judge pop cultural references. This is known. This is established. This is frankly canon at this point. It’s a constant battle to make sure that David is fully aware of this as, sometimes, he thinks we’re the weird ones. Here’s a recent example.

Mercedes wrote a post about a cool GMC Toy Hauler she found. In fact, the headline included the word “Toy Hauler.” David, ahem, did not like the word. [Editor’s Note: But to be clear, I knew what it meant. I just want to make sure our headlines use words that laypeople understand! -DT]. 

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Oh boy, you can see what’s coming.

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I could not let this stand:

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As previously established here, David has no idea who Steve Martin is. This is a travesty and one, honestly, I should correct soon. [Editor’s Note: I’ve seen planes, trains, and automobiles and Father of the Bride, and others! I just think that, if you asked the layperson, they may not know him. He’s been out of the game a while! -DT].  

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To clarify, the “fiasco” is that David did not know what “Quantum Leap” was and had the nerve to suggest this was an obscure reference. You can see us fight it out on the podcast here:

 

Also, here’s the Twitter poll:

[Editor’s Note: Please watch 51:20 in the video above, and you’ll see: I was right! -DT]

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Here’s that btw

So, yeah, we do not always see eye-to-eye on what “normal” people are supposed to know or not know because his zeitgeist is not my zeitgeist, and vice versa.

In fact, does David even know the TALES FROM THE SLACK thing is, itself, a reference?

[Editor’s Note: Uh. Tales from the…I got nothing. By the way, I blame my upbringing in Germany and on U.S. Army bases. And also studying too much in high school and college. -DT]

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50 thoughts on “David Tracy Lives In A Bubble + Join Our Discord: Tales From The Slack”

  1. Anyone with even a passing interest in RVs has heard of toy haulers. Anyone without a passing interest in RVs is probably not clicking on an article about an RV conversion no matter what you put in the title.

    Well, maybe if the title were “One weird trick to transport your Smart car”. 😉

    1. FWIW, while my English professor Mom hadn’t heard the term, she guessed it immediately-because it was me asking. I should have given her the headline and see if she understood the reference. This is how polls can include unintended bias.

  3. I love that David is worried about the term “toy hauler” being a little too “inside-baseball” here, but the very next article on the site is an aerospace engineer teaching us about car aerodynamics, thermodynamics and the Bernoulli Principle.
    As a layperson I appreciate the juxtaposition.

  5. I am aware of toy haulers and I kinda wish I weren’t because they just make me irrationally grumpy about how people spend their money and time.

    1. Ha! I have a friend trying to sell his. He did a whole Everyone Racers podcast on camping at the track, and went into all the ways it just ended up being more of a pain than it was worth.

      I’m more of a “toss a tent in the towpig” kinda person myself. The dream rig is a Cayenne with a roof tent, but alas, I still gotta wait for that. :'(

      1. Roof tents are terrible if you’re over the age of say.. 40. They make me giggle though.
        I picture them as a hammock tied 7’ above the ground unnecessarily.

  6. So I can’t rightly say that I was or was not aware of the specific term “toy hauler” prior to reading this, however the concept is pretty straight forward and not at all confusing–it is pretty much what it says it is. What is confusing is David’s notions about Quantum Leap, Steve Martin, and that the target audience is “lay people” and what he seems to think they would or would not understand–especially given this site’s propensity for going into extremely technical deep dives (often from David, come to think of it) that would induce catatonia in the average “lay person”. For what it’s worth I tend to find those deep dives interesting and informative, but not particularly engaging, and just wee bit over my head having zero engineering in my background.
    I hate to break it to you David, but you are kind of hopelessly out of touch. It’s endearing–don’t change, but you may want to defer to your colleagues when it comes to the zeitgeist.

    Also, Ms. Streeter: damn that clip was dope!

  8. Answer to poll:
    C: I did not know Quantum Leap existed until Scott Bakula went back in time to alter history to allow it to happen.

  9. WTF? Did David somehow miss all the hype around Only Murders?

    Steve Martin is not out of the game. And yeah, Toy Hauler is a now so well known as to have become a generic term. Like, you couldn’t trademark it.

      3. Me neither but i think i know every episode of the old Quantum Leap. Not a fan of the new version. I cant believe they refer to their Black Admiral as Magic. I get the salute to the early version but really black magic?

  10. Frankly i think you guys are even better inter squabbling. Need to post that all the time.
    But remember if you are in NYC you have the accent not them.

  11. I think we can clear this up.
    Things that David gets an opinion about:

    • Jeeps
    • cooling systems
    • rust

    Things David never should never be consulted about

    • Pop culture from any point in history

      1. I love the color and look of rust. Gives the vehicle a sort of quality worthy of a post-apocalyptic aesthetic. I plan to paint my microcar that color, even though the body is non-metallic.

  13. How has an automotive journalist not heard the term ‘toy hauler?’

    And how does anyone not know who Steve Martin is? Or not think he, the guy with a current hit show, is not relevant?

      2. My mom knows what it is.
        Like almost everyone knows and it is easy to figure out based on context if you do not.
        And with a good lead picture finding out will drive people who might not otherwise to read it…

  14. Even my mother knows what a toy hauler is, and she is the most sheltered person I have ever known. I think she is also aware of Quantum Leap, but that might be a result of her weird kid.

    A few common things she has not known include:
    “Edibles” means weed, not just anything edible (She was asked, when WA legalized, whether it was now legal to mail edibles within the state. She answered something along the lines of being able to mail certain edibles, like cookies, but not others, like fish. The little old lady asking the question had to educate her.)
    Anything about how police operate, so she believed the local cops when they complained that probable cause was too much to ask before use of force.
    Rocky Horror Picture Show (just no idea what it was)
    The Postal Service (band…she became aware of them at a USPS onboarding when someone younger than her snickered when they called the USPS the Postal Service)
    What See You Next Tuesday meant (she asked me after my sister made a Facebook post and would not explain)
    Almost anything about alcoholic drinks (and when she started drinking wine, she wanted guidance over the phone)
    Basically anything about computers (she once called me to ask how to send an email she composed…I directed her to the send button, clearly visible)

    And somehow David seems to be even more sheltered.

    1. A: He’s a bubble boy.
      B: A bubble boy?
      A: Yes, a bubble boy.
      C: What’s a bubble boy?
      A: He lives in a bubble.
      B: Boy.

  16. Weird Al’s live shows are fantastic!

    <popular_culture_reference>

    Also the “toy hauler” was clearly a modified EM-50.

    </popular_culture_reference>

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