[MRM]

I remember that article. I love some of Sports Illustrated's essays and offbeat stories. They remind me of old Brock Yates-era Car & Driver articles. They have the same innocent irreverence and sarcastic wit.

Along the same line of the “Black Widow” articles was an essay I read years ago. The Black Widow story kind of reminds me of it. One of their columnists, the one who lived in Madison, Wisconsin, wrote one of my favorite essays of all time, called "Triumphs and Other Small Disasters." It was about his years at UW-Madison in the late 60s just as he met his wife. He had saved just enough money for a Triumph motorcycle and was planning to buy one and roam the country one summer vacation. BUT just as he was about to pull the trigger on the perfect Triumph motorcycle, a Triumph car caught his eye and he bought it for the same money. He couldn’t believe his luck that he could buy a whole Triumph car for the same price as a Triumph motorcycle.

The car was beautiful and sexy and the envy of all his friends. But from the first drive (driving to his girlfriend's rural Wisconsin home to meet her parents for the first time) to taking his wife-to-be on dates, the car did nothing but break down - usually stranding him with his girlfriend turning the key while he tried one more repair under the hood, hoping he could jury rig something to get them home.

It must have gone on for three full pages about how he loved the car and every time it broke down he was sure he had fixed the final issue and that it would run like new from then on. Eventually, he realized that it did run like it was new, and he dropped it on the next unsuspecting buyer, who had also been in the market for a Triumph motorcycle and was pleasantly surprised to learn that for the price of a motorcycle, he could buy a real live sports car from the same manufacturer.

The author did use the money from selling his car to buy a Triumph motorcycle. He did tour the country on it with almost no mechanical failures. He did marry his wife, her appreciation for cars and tolerance for both her husband's and the mechanical creatures' foibles having been firmly established.

It was a funny, poignant look back to an era and youth that passed sooner than it seemed it should have. I wish I could find a copy of that article again.