 |
Look at that face and tell me it could willing hurt anyone.
Image from the MG Car Club UK. Check them out here http://www.mgcc.co.uk/ (No their’s was not the article I was
referring to in this post.)
|
The other day I was reading an article about the MG Midget;
I was bored and I always liked the little cars and… hey, I don’t have to defend
what I was doing, stop judging me! Sorry, I just wanted to see what it was like
to be hair-trigger offended.
Offense, either hair-triggered or not, (no offense intended
to gun owners with hair) is the subject of this missive.
While reading the article on Abington’s mini-sportster a
nagging voice in the back of my mind was saying, wait for it… Soon after, boom,
there is was, the awkward apology for MG naming their car the Midget. The
author felt some need to apologize for a name applied to a series of cars
produced since the 1930’s. I find it very strange that people think they must atone
for something they didn’t do and something that was not done to offend someone
in the first place. It is not like a group of guys was sitting around one sunny
afternoon figuring out a way to offend dwarfs and little people. “I know,” one
suddenly blurts out, “let’s start a car company, find investors, and establish
a manufacturing center solely for offending people under four foot tall!” “Brilliant!”
the others retorted, Morris Garages was born and soon sports cars and insults
were pouring out of Abington.
I know the argument, even though MG didn’t seek to offend,
naming a car after a physical abnormality is not cool; would you drive a Chevy
Gimp? But when MG built the Midget it named it because of its diminutive size; do
you think midgets are ignorant of their stature? I would think a week of
staring people in the crotch would awaken some awareness in you. Also, MG was
proud of their sports car for the masses, they didn’t associate the name with
shame but rather to denote small but capable.
As a side note, I drove a Chevy Gimp for a while, it had a
constant alignment problem; incessantly pulling to the left.
Today real midgets eschew the term midget and prefer little
people. This change in nomenclature further cements why no one should apologize
for MG. I think if little people aren’t using the word midget then it’s up for
grabs (if it’s not up too high). It’s a great word anyway, a hard and soft consonant
in the middle, two short syllables, and a definite “T” at the end. It is a
shame to see such a word go to waste. It is also the perfect name for a small
but mighty sports car as it sounds fun and playful and seems like it belongs
behind MG.
 |
After the war the MG T Series was supposed to carry on the
Midget name, but didn’t
|
There is another reason for this short missive; I’m relatively
tall. At six feet, two inches an MG Midget would seem out of reach for me,
figuratively speaking. I really love the Midget and Sprite; however. These
British twins are minimalist sports cars to the extreme and can be the most
enjoyable thing stored in the garden shed. I tried one on for size once, I had
to contort myself through the seven basic ballet movements to get in, but once
inside, I found I could drive the thing for short stretches.
I don’t think I would want to deal with the day-to-day
challenges of being a real midget but I could suffer the temporary discomfort
of driving one.
Marve Harwell 2017
Comments