Monster Garage

My son rented from Blockbuster the discs to a TV show called Monster Garage. He's watching it now. He's into it.

The basic idea of the show is that they take vehicles and customize them in bizarre ways. I watched one episode yesterday where they took a Lincoln Towncar limousine and converted it into a fire... uhm, "truck" isn't the right word, but they installed lights, a water pump, and fire tools, too.

At first I thought it would be an idiotic show, something along the lines of taking someone's car and turning into into a tricked-up, monster truck-like beast. I wasn't thrilled that he wanted to watch it, but I couldn't find a real reason not to, and this is not one of the places where I want to draw a line in the sand and play the authoritarian card. Over a simple matter of taste? I'd best save that for questions of virtue and vice.

How fortunate! Not only did I enjoy the episode I watched, it turned out to be one of the more intelligent shows I've ever seen on TV... from a certain point of view. The show featured a number of steps necessary to solving a problem:

• teamwork,
• several days of hard work,
• overcoming obstacles through imagination and dogged stubbornness,
• trusting each other's skills.

There was even some talk of physics, without the messy details that he wouldn't yet understand.

These are lessons I'd like to think that he will take to heart. On the other hand, I hope he doesn't decide to admire the tattoos and not the problem-solving.