Yesterday I met a friend at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. It was kinda cool pulling up to the valet with my veg Mercedes that looks like a beater. The guy who took my car didn't give me the evil eye, which I was kinda expecting. Then I thought they might have quickly whisked the car away to preserve their image, keeping the more impressive cars visible in front.

Later that evening when I was leaving, I waited for valet to bring my car, and a guy drove up in what looked like a brand new Lotus. Several of the people from valet were checking it out and chatting with the owner. Then my veg car pulled up. The valet guy got out and said, "Check this out, it runs on vegetable oil!" The valet guys all abandoned the Lotus and came over to look at my 1980 Mercedes and asked a lot of questions about the conversion. The final comment, "This car would look great with a fresh coat of paint."

Yes it would. But even without a new paint job, I upstaged a Lotus!