Daily conversation: What is the worst possible answer?

[vdeane]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When someone ahead of you is driving slower than you'd like, so you approach them at full speed and then slam on your brakes right before you'd hit them.

[Mapmikey]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When you've provided the winning answer to that day's question.

You may then proceed to tell anyone and everyone about how great you did, thus honking your own horn.

[kphoger]

Tryouts for the Automotive Symphony Orchestra are looking for hazard switch operators, key fob pressors, window motor flickers, antique antennae strummers, belt clickers, door buzzer handlers, and yes...even steering wheel pad pushers. So come on down to the town square and make music where your motor is!

The A.S.O. hopes to complete performances of:

Ein Kleine Locktmusik
Firebird Suite
Fifth Wheel Symphony
Symphonie Fantastick Shift
The Well-Tempered Cavalier

Hope to see you there with klaxon!

It may not truly be the worst possible answer, but you get 30 bonus points for creativity. 

[kphoger]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When you see a sexy woman nearby.  Honk to get her attention, give a wolf whistle, and shout something dirty to her.  This is especially appropriate if her husband is with her, doubly appropriate if your wife is in the car.

[wanderer2575]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

Tryouts for the Automotive Symphony Orchestra are looking for hazard switch operators, key fob pressors, window motor flickers, antique antennae strummers, belt clickers, door buzzer handlers, and yes...even steering wheel pad pushers. So come on down to the town square and make music where your motor is!

The A.S.O. hopes to complete performances of:

Ein Kleine Locktmusik
Firebird Suite
Fifth Wheel Symphony
Symphonie Fantastick Shift
The Well-Tempered Cavalier

Hope to see you there with klaxon!

I thought maybe P.D.Q. Bach had written a piece for this but I don't see one in the catalog.

[formulanone]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

Tryouts for the Automotive Symphony Orchestra are looking for hazard switch operators, key fob pressors, window motor flickers, antique antennae strummers, belt clickers, door buzzer handlers, and yes...even steering wheel pad pushers. So come on down to the town square and make music where your motor is!

The A.S.O. hopes to complete performances of:

Ein Kleine Locktmusik
Firebird Suite
Fifth Wheel Symphony
Symphonie Fantastick Shift
The Well-Tempered Cavalier

Hope to see you there with klaxon!

I thought maybe P.D.Q. Bach had written a piece for this but I don't see one in the catalog.

Oooh, have to give that hooligan a listen.

Might have been Concerto for Rotors and Calipers or This Packard Bell Needs to be Shot With a Cannon?

[kphoger]

One time, when I was part of the percussion section in a university wind symphony, we were learning Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.  The movement In taberna quando sumus calls for a pair of beer steins to be clanked together.  But actual beer steins didn't end up making the sound that we needed, so the conductor and the section leader set out on a quest to find something that would sound even better.  What ended up being the best was to hit the rim from an old truck wheel with a hammer.  So that's what we used during that movement, including on tour.  Alas, I was not the percussionist who got to play that part.

Also, honorable mention should go to George Gershwin, who, for the 1928 debut of An American in Paris, brought back genuine Parisian taxi cab horns for the percussionist to play.  He labeled them as A, B, C, and D in the score.  Since then, musicians have interpreted those as actual pitches, but that doesn't match up to the earliest recordings of the piece.  They were probably just identifying the four different horns, indicating to the percussionist which one to play—not what pitch it was.

[Sapphuby]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

There's a clown blocking the street... wait who honks their horn?

[elsmere241]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When you enter a small town that has a sign prohibiting it.  (Italy has lots of them.)

[1995hoo]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When you enter a small town that has a sign prohibiting it.  (Italy has lots of them.)

New York City used to have "Don't Honk" signs. They worked about as well as you'd probably expect.

[kphoger]

New York City used to have "Don't Honk" signs. They worked about as well as you'd probably expect.

Honk if you love "Don't Honk" signs.

[pderocco]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When two other horns are honking a major third or minor third apart and your horn would create the fifth.

Since most cars have two or three different pitched horns, that could end up sounding like a Don Ellis composition.

[pderocco]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When the brake lights on the car in front of you are on concurrently with the green light.

[The_Ginger]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When your marching band is playing the 2nd song in a show about pizza that is about delivering said pizza(s).

Yes, my school marching band is doing a show about pizza this year, and the 2nd song about delivering the pizzas incorporates bicycle horns. If you'd like to see it, use some common sense when finding the name, and I'm sure that in a few months YouTube will have a recording available.

[xonhulu]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

If your horn plays the Brown Note.

[Scott5114]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When you want to alert any of those in the general area about the presence of an Entenmann's truck.

[TheCatalyst31]

28 JUL 2026

Name a situation in which it's appropriate to honk your horn.

When you want to tell everyone in your apartment building about the cool train horn you bought.

[kphoger]

When you want to alert any of those in the general area about the presence of an Entenmann's truck.

Isn't that, like, all the time?

[Scott5114]

When you want to alert any of those in the general area about the presence of an Entenmann's truck.

Isn't that, like, all the time?

It's admirable the restraint most people possess, isn't it?

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

7/29/26
If there was a road related award show, who or what would win it, what award, and why?

[NE2]

7/29/26
If there was a road related award show, who or what would win it, what award, and why?

Most relaxing poster is a tie between Beltway and I-57/Route 66 Fan.

[Sapphuby]

7/29/26
If there was a road related award show, who or what would win it, what award, and why?

Fritz Blitz! Name as many freeways as you can (including duplicates of course) within 1 minute to win your very own stretch of Owlian freeway! Plenty of road for everyone.

[Big John]

7/29/26
If there was a road related award show, who or what would win it, what award, and why?

Most free riding freeway segment - Borman expressway.

[GaryV]

7/29/26
If there was a road related award show, who or what would win it, what award, and why?

"Least offensive poster" - the judges go mad trying to decide between P13, Lord Carhorn, MMM ...

[1995hoo]

7/29/26
If there was a road related award show, who or what would win it, what award, and why?

vdeane would clearly win for "most freestyle traveler," that is, the person who just gets in the car and aimlessly heads out for a drive, making it up en route.