Cole: Automotive Turkeys, Diesels, Alfas, B&B and You - Merry Thanksgiving

The fourth estate has a rich history of drinking their turkey on our annual day of giving thanks. As a newspaper editor and reporter for more than 10 years, I know why: journalists are miserable human beings and gratitude feels awkwardly close to Catholic guilt that some of us have deep, deep inside. Numbing our feelings are always better than actually feeling them.

But once a year, some of us trot out our humanity for readers poke fun at, and to help keep sane because sometimes this business will drive us crazy. I am thankful for much in my life: health, work, humor and family.

I’m also thankful for much, much more.

• I’m thankful for Volkswagen engineers who thought they were smarter than the rest of us, and who provided busy days in September and October when those days would otherwise be filled with dissecting how a car’s infotainment system could be hacked by that teenager down the street.

• I’m thankful for Bark M. giving us food for thought, and for being completely unapologetic about the way I think it tastes sometimes.

• I’m thankful for Jack Baruth for taking it easy on me, even when he thinks I’m clearly dumb.

• I’m thankful for Fridays and the ability to find weirdos to share with you.

• I’m thankful for readers who send notes about cars that they’re passionate about and have been sitting at ports for months.

• I’m thankful for EPA and Audi spokespeople giving me the runaround when those cars are sitting at ports for very good reasons that they won’t tell me about.*

• I’m thankful for automotive industry professionals who answer their phones and manage to not tell me to go to hell on the tough stuff.

• I’m thankful for editors who give me the freedom to write stories about strapping 150 pounds of junkyard metal to my back.

• I’m thankful for colleagues who encourage me to strap 150 pounds of junkyard metal to my back.

• I’m thankful for Nissan discounting the hell out of an electric car that I can’t buy.

• I’m thankful that my girlfriend prefers 1988 BMWs over electric cars that I can’t buy.

• I’m thankful for readers who tell us about the electric cars they bought — you know, the ones that I still can’t buy.

• I’m thankful that Alfa Romeo Milanos still haven’t become too expensive for me to buy.

• I’m thankful for being called a “ damn dirty hippie,” click baiter and worse. And just being called newsbot.

• I’m thankful for co-workers who teach me something new every day: Bozi, Mark, Chris, Cameron, Doug, Ronnie — all of them.

• I’m thankful all of the B&B who make my job possible. You mean the world to me and I wish you all a very, very Happy Thanksgiving — however, wherever, whenever you celebrate.

* I’m not actually thankful for Audi and the EPA giving me the runaround.