(“Prius owners act as if for every mile they drive, they prevent a coral reef from turning into a tidal wave that will hit Manhattan,” Joel Stein quipped in Time back in February.)
“I think Tom Friedman had a great column,” Couric touted, on how “we are responsible for creating this problem” in the Gulf of Mexico “and we have to start contemplating our choices in terms of energy,” so “hopefully something like this will really force people to reconsider their choices.”
She then recited for David Letterman a conversation she had with one of her daughters:
My daughter and I – Ellie is here home from college. She's getting ready to go away tomorrow for two months as a camp counselor. We were talking and Ellie was funny because she was saying, “mom, can we get another car”-- because she’s driving now, to have more flexibility for her. And I said “maybe” and then she said to me today, “you know, we shouldn't get another car and, by the way, we should turn in the car we have,” which is a Chrysler mini-van -- am I hip or what? “And get a Prius or a hybrid.” And I said, “you know, Ellie, we should do that.” And we're going to look into it.
But I think everybody, really, I mean they need to look at themselves and their own habits.