Honkies

"Are you kidding?"
This is a question I get a lot. Sometimes it's face to face, since my general tone tends to skew to the sarcastic. This failing causes me to have to explain that I probably don't mean a large percentage of the things that fall out of my mouth, but when I am being sincere, you can generally tell by my tone of voice. It is one of the chief problems I have with electronic communication, since I don't always remember to put things in "quotes" or attach an emoticon ;) to let readers know that what I really meant. It's all in the delivery.
This is my struggle, but it made me reflect on the challenges of another less than verbal form of communication: honking your horn. It could be a friendly acknowledgement. It could be an angry response to some perceived slight. It could be the excited plea for help. All of those toots and beeps that form the symphony of the streets are a mass of sound that could signify fury or nothing.
Sure, sometimes the meaning is obvious, helped along with a little gesture or additional verbal utterance. For the most part, however, the cheerful tone of most horns currently in production don't tend to carry the harsh tone that many might intend. They actually sound a little cute or endearing compared to the brash blare of a Dodge station wagon from the seventies. Maybe this was a social engineer's plan: to limit the insult of having someone honk their horn at you. Many people have made up for this lack of harshness by simply leaning on the button that sends the message, creating one long nasal-inflected beep.
Still, it's hard to get the precise meaning when everyone's window is rolled up. That's why I tend to skip the horn when I'm driving. If I really want someone to get my point of view, I'll send them an e-mail.