SHIFTY CHARACTER

What’s so funny about this? This is the last of the Tom Swifty series that I found in a New York Times crossword puzzle, earlier this week. I think these are the kinds of puns people seem to love or hate. I guess you know where I am in this debate. I really enjoy the adverbial nature of the puns because they always provide a surprise. So today, Tom appears to be admiring a fancy race car. There’s a bum across the street who doesn’t seem to think much about Tom’s ability to drive a big powerful car like this. He yells across to Tom asking if he thought he could handle such a car. Keep in mind that race cars have finely tuned engines which require a high degree of gearing to maximize efficiency. The driver must be able to shift effortlessly at the exact right second to get top speed. But our Tom is undaunted; he’s not fazed or intimidated by the car or the bum. He just says that since he’s lazy, he’d rather drive a car with an automatic transmission. This means he wouldn’t have to shift