and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

has an article that, in that typical sensationalist way that mass media still insists on operating, opens it's first line with:

In these days of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline, a three-ton SUV that practically requires a bank loan to fill 'er up would seem to be a tough sell.

I suppose I'm to understand the jocular nature of the phrase "fill 'er up" to imply sarcasm and a lack of sincerity in claiming one to need a bank loan to put gas in their vehicle. I suppose I should be aware enough to know that the "nearly $4-a-gallon" gas that they speak of doesn't exist. The real national average is about $3.23 a gallon and, despite the fact that it was reported as a new inflation-adjusted record (beating out the early 80's record caused by the 70's oil fiasco) it really wasn't. Or was it.

The reality is that the government, after reporting a record gas price based on yearly inflation numbers, is now using monthly inflation figures for 2007. They quickly retracted the record-breaking news. We aren't there yet.. but we're awfully close.

Regardless, gas is far from $4 a gallon. $3.25 is a mere 81% of $4.. not that we couldn't close that gap damn quick given some sort of crisis.

Yet, after all this news, the article mentioned above goes on to say that SUV sales are heading back up from 2006:

The numbers for large SUVs rose nearly 6 percent in the first quarter of 2007, and the April figures were up 25 percent from April 2006, according to automakers' statistics provided by Edmunds.com, an automotive research Web site..

.. Sales figures for large SUVs:
April 2004: 71,040
April 2005: 59,914
April 2006: 47,363
April 2007: 59,297

Take this with a grain of salt, of course, since comparing the month of April year over year only gives you (hrrmm.. hrmm.. math in my head.. err.. 12 months to a year.. ouch, my head) one twelfth of the real picture.