Well, well.

Right after bemoaning the difficulty of renting a car with a stick shift, I find this article in the WSJ about how they're becoming more popular again. (Link only available for subscribers)

It also has a lot of horror stories about what happens to people who don't know how to drive them:

A woman learning to drive a stick in the parking lot of the Alexandria, Va., church last August popped the clutch, jumped a curb -- and slid 85 feet into a brick pillar. The car was totaled and the church sustained $15,000 in damage -- and had to cancel its Sunday services. (The woman, whom Fairfax County Police say was not cited, could not be reached for comment.)

"We have signs up now that say 'No Practice Driving,'" says church administrator Betty Ware. "But we were thinking of adding another that says 'Especially If You're Learning on a Standard.'"

I have never been able to learn to drive a stick. I'm impaired that way. I consider myself a pretty good driver otherwise; but at this stage, I'm just too old to deal with manual. Sure, you get better gas mileage, and get a cheaper car, and you have "control," but I live in Florida, where it is mostly flat (there are a few "hills" in Central and North Florida, but nothing major), so I don't need to. I wish I had learned, though.

I've found that when I have to drive an automatic, my left foot keeps pushing the floorboards and I keep reaching for empty air in front of the center panel when I come to a traffic light.

I learned to drive a manual by the sink-or-swim method-- I decided I wanted a four-wheel drive back in the days when there weren't any automatics. I had to get the thing off the lot. And I wish I knew what I did back then that would make it bounce like a lowrider.

I don't rent cars very much. And about the only
time I rent ones with stick shifts is in the UK --
it's harder in some places to get an automatic
there than it is to get a stick here.

I can drive with a stick, though. Although I'm
almost always out of practice.

One time I rented a stick in the heart of Edinburgh.
Hadn't touched one for years. I managed to stall
the car several times leaving town. Well outside
of downtown I passed the "Scottish Home for the
Spastic" (yes, there is such a place.) I wondered
if I should check myself in. :-)