It's Square to be Hip

Smart cars spare the wallet, save the environment... and therefore subject owners to 'do-gooder' mockery

Then, a few months ago, we bought a hybrid. This car has a name -- Prius -- so unracy that it sounds vaguely like a pill for erectile dysfunction. But it not only has two cup holders and optional seat warmers, it has a gas engine, an electric motor and a dashboard screen that tells me exactly how many miles per gallon I am getting every single obsessive second that I have my eyes on the screen instead of the road.

It also has this nifty, if unsettling, way of going absolutely dead silent at the stoplight as if I just stalled out. And, of course, it gets close to 60 miles to the gallon.

Now, for the first time, a car of ours has been accused of being “hip.†And I do mean accused.