It was about 1998 in McLean, Va. The humble writer of this blog was at a Safeway grocery store, standing in a cue at the pharmacy counter.
While waiting for a pharmacist to return, said humble blog writer killed some time by glancing at a xerox of a newspaper article taped --presumably by the pharmacists or their staff -- to the counter's trim. The article showed a chart titled something to the effect of: "Poll ranking most trusted Professions."
Who did your humble blog writer see at the top of this list of most trusted professions? If you said Pharmacists, you get a gold star.
Maybe by taping this poll up, Safeway Pharmacists were attempting to raise their self-esteem for some reason. Or maybe they were jabbing at local religious leaders who, during golf-outtings, incessently touted themselves as the professionals considered most trustworthy by the public. Or -- though he hopes not -- maybe these Safeway Pharmacists were just surprised by this poll's results and thought it was a good joke.
Anyway, this humble blog writer scanned the chart downward to see where it ranked other professions. As he recalls, he didn't see any really interesting until he hit about the lower 1/3 of the results. Then he started to see professions like "Lawyer" and "Elected-Representative" ("Elected Representative" doesn't generally come to mind when one thinks "profession," but this writer let it slide)
He figured that he would have spotted "Lawyer" or "Elected Representative" about half-way up the list or higher. Perhaps this opinion poll was influenced by the difficulties President Clinton was having at the time. Perhaps it was inordinately derived from the opinions of people who had just received an exorbitant bill from their defense attorney.
But when he reached the bottom of the list, he then saw the "profession" that apparently sat "dead -last" in people's minds when it came to trustworthiness: "Car Salesman."
Yes, this humble blog writer probably had to agree with the poll on that one (Let's just say he was somehow "familiar" with the retail car business at the time). Whether it was arranging an auto loan at triple the going rate thanks to a customer's ignorance of his own credit statement or selling readily available cars at over sticker price, making decent money in car sales involved some heavy-duty "skating" on the backs of buyers.
But he also knew that this "professional trustworthiness" poll didn't give those good souls it polled specific enough choices. The poll had obviously omitted the ranking of a "professional" who he knew was commonly more "contra-customer" than the Car Salesman: the "Used Car salesman!"
After all, it was a Used Car salesman who would pay a mere $4,000 for an immaculate, low-mileage luxury trade, insisting to its unemployed owner that her car was poorly maintained and virtually impossible to resell. Then he'd have the car washed and waxed and turn around and sell it the next day for $22,000 -- clearing $18,000 that the lady could have potentially kept if she'd studied up and sold the car herself. Yes, that "professional," the 'Used' Car salesman, probably, deservedly spent his theoretical afterlife in a lower "circle-of-hell" than just a mere Car Salesman.
With the pharmacy poll still in mind in 1999, this blog writer bought the URL, Usedcarsalesman.com. He figured he'd do something with the address to make light of the presumably low opinion people probably had of the Usedcarsalesman. Say, make a "character" out of the Usedcarsalesman but in something that did a "180" on the stereotypes a little: "Usedcarsalesman turns over new leaf," "Usedcarsalesman comes clean."
Unfortunately decent "pre-fab," online-publishing software --Blogging software such as Typepad -- didn't really emerge until about 2003 and it was late 2004 before this blogger finally rolled it all together in to Usedcarsalesman.com.
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Anyway, today he asks and answers the question, "Why is Usedcarsalesman.com called Usedcarsalesman.com," because he's actually thinking of changing the name of this blog.
Here's why: When people think "Usedcarsalesman.com," they probably think "Used-Cars," not "Blog-site-with-one-fictional-usedcarsalesman's-straight-forward opinions-on-"Entertainment"-"Media&Web"-"Military Affairs"-"Miscellany-Politics"-and-"Transportation." The blog name, Usedcarsalesman and URL, "Usedcarsalesman.com," might confuse people more than it amuses them.
I don't know. Though it might be less fun for me, maybe I -- your favorite blogger -- should just call "Usedcarsalesman.com," "myname.com" instead. What do you think?
On the other hand, President Obama has worked a great deal to aid stumbling US auto manufacturers and has lately found himself titled,"
Car Salesman-in-Chief " by more than a few op-ed writers in major news publications.
In light of that, perhaps "Usedcarsalesman" may continue to serve, now as a surprisingly contemporary title for this blog.
