What's so unusual about a mother shopping for a car for her sixteen-year-old daughter? Nothing, really... except that Janet wants to buy her darling pumpkin pie a BMW Z-3. As in, $40,000... and 189 horsepower -- way too fast.

A good idea as a safe first car for a sixteen year old? We think not. And we told her that... maybe a little harshly, but diplomacy isn't one of our strong points, as you may have noticed. Plus, she uncovered a nerve that was just waiting to erupt.

It turns out that we weren't the only ones who were questioning Janet's judgement on this issue. (Note to Janet: we're sure you're a great parent in all other respects.) In fact, we were swamped with letters... many of which we opted *not* to print here. (We're trying to be considerate to you, Janet, okay? Trust us, some of the stuff we got was pretty ugly.)

So, by popular demand, we'd like to welcome you to... The Janet Zone.

• Read some of the e-mail we received on this topic.
• Scroll through some classic quotes we extracted from visitor mail.

But, whatever you do, please don't go out and buy your kid a BMW Z-3. And don't buy one for yourself, either-- tempting as it may be. Thank you very much. [an error occurred while processing this directive]