Drive Thru

Went out for dinner tonight with some friends from the lab - my first Indian meal since arriving in the UK at the only decent Indian restaurant in Charleston apparently (from the Yellow pages, its the ONLY restaurant, but i am assured there are others). I had my signature dish that i use to judge all Indians (a Biryani) and it was pretty darn good, i have to say. And this comes from a Curry Mile veteran of Manchester. On the way to the restaurant, in need of some cash, I paid a visit to the Bank of America - more specifically to their Drive Thru Cash Machines - something that i have never come across before. This is, i guess, intended to be more efficient - enabling you to make a quick stop before whizzing off to your next destination. The more puzzling thing, for me, as i used this cashpoint (i had to get out of the car i should add, as it was oriented to the driver's window) was the fact that it had Braille on the keypad. Far be it for me to explain how they expected the blind driver to make it IN to the drive thru, let alone to park level with the cash point is beyond me. I guess it explains why they had such wide roads to get to them though.

What struck me even more, was the fact that there are quite a few things that are drive thru here. Aside from the obvious (McDonalds et al), there are drive thru video rental (fair enough), drive thru chemists (a quicker way to get high!) and even drive thru off-licences....sorry, liquor stores. I can't help but wonder (Carrie Bradshaw again!) what this could be extended to. Drive thru weddings? (sure this exists somewhere, Las Vegas probably) Drive thru hairdressers? Drive Thru plastic surgery? (Nip and tuck whilst the engine's running!). Ultimately, this can be boiled down to the same question - is this efficiency or laziness? And can a country where the obesity rate was recently found to have increased in 48 of the 50 states afford to have its citizens virtually living in their cars?