I am beginning to wonder whether 25 is quite so young as my friends insist; or whether, perhaps, spending time by yourself in a consistent and internally sane world is very detrimental to your ability to cope with fools and insanity.

Every time I try to drive anywhere of late, I witness or suffer a potentially perilous situation caused solely by someone’s idiocy. Today, I had barely driven out of my apartment complex when it happened. I was waiting for a green light in a left-turn yield lane. The light turned green, and rather than proceeding straight or turning right, the gigantic grey SUV across the way did…nothing. I oonched out and considered whether I should just turn across her and risk tickets or smithereenification. There was no sign of eye contact beyond the smoky windshield, no indication of the well-meaning ‘generosity’ some people like to demonstrate by fouling up the entire traffic system. She just sat. Finally, she began to move forward, and as she passed me and the cars queued behind her began to file on their way, I could not help but give her a curious glance.

Perched in her gigantic autobeast, directing several tons of lethal Detroit steel around the burg, this woman was actually…wait for it…using her laptop. It was sitting in her lap, still absorbing at least half of her attention as she drove across the intersection.

I ask you, world, is there more folly than in previous months? Or have I, insulated in a nest of books, crafts, phone calls and teapots, become more sensitive to it? Must I, at 25, be a Curmudgeon? And does this mean that well before 40 I shall be an Old Bat?