I've neglected to mention in this space that about a week ago I took my first ride in a hybrid gas/electric automobile.

It was actually a cab, a small SUV, and the cabbie, a nice fellow, was eager to explain the benefits. Quiet, ample acceleration, cheap to fill up ($10 vs. $30-40 for a normal SUV) and Ford actually provided the cab company with a whole fleet of the trucks for free--the company keeps them for a year or so and then Ford takes them back to do diagnostic testing. The ludicrous hills of San Francisco must be stress-test heaven for car companies' new designs.

Unless gas prices go down dramatically, I think it's only a matter of time (a decade?) before most new cars are hybrids or some derivation thereof.