Last September our family flew to Chicago to meet my sister-in-law and her family, then drove down to Indianapolis for the US Grand Prix; we're big Ferrari fans. You'll recall that although David Coulthard jumped the start, Michael Schumacher overtook him on the track and went on to win, Rubens Barrichello finished second, and Mika Hakkinen pretty much lost his title hopes with a blown engine.

When we returned to LAX we got on the shuttle bus to go to the parking garage. At the next stop four people got on; I judged them to be dad, mom, daughter, and daughter's boyfriend. The daughter was wearing a McLaren t-shirt, and the boyfriend tossed a Penske-Mercedes bag into the luggage rack. Evidently my wife didn't notice the shirt or the bag.

As we started to roll she looks up from her magazine and says to me, "That Ron Dennis is such a whiner!"

This set off the dad who began a tirade about how unfairly McLaren had been treated at the German Grand Prix--the marshals hadn't prevented a former Mercedes employee from walking onto the track and disrupting the race, bringing out the safety car. I pointed out that when the safety car left the track the McLarens were still one-two, and that Barrichello won the race not because of the safety car but because he was better in the wet at the end of the race than both Hakkinen and Coulthard: Barrichello finished the race on dry tires while the McLarens both went in for wets.

This brought another outburst from the dad, and I conceded that the marshals should have done a much better job. I was trying to avoid a brawl: the dat was quite worked-up. My wife could not believe that I was apparently defending McLaren.

At the garage our neighbors got out first. Once they left, my wife asked why I was being so nice toward Ron Dennis and McLaren. "Didn't you see her shirt? Didn't you see his bag?"

"No."

She apologized all the way home.

Do be careful who your neighbors are.