HYBRID2.CBS 04/21/04 8:59 PM-DLR   1:44
The Osgood File.  Sponsored by ________.  This is Dave Ross.  On the CBS Radio Network.
Your friends laughed when they saw your quiet gas-sipping hybrid.  They ridiculed the vanity license plate displaying your average mileage.  But they're not laughing now, are they?  Because indeed, they're driving one themselves.
Oh, for the good old days.  More after this from Charlie:
(SPOT)
First I should disclose my personal stake in this story.
I have driven a hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, since May of 2001, long before it became the official car of the Actors Studio.  And I admit it made me a mileage Nazi.   In fact, I'm up to 48.2 MPG now.   Take that, Prince Bandar. 
Now, I have mellowed considerably since then.  In fact, I haven't saved a gas receipt in over a year now, thanks to my support group.
And look at what's happened.  Last year, U.S. registrations for hybrid vehicles were up 25% from the year before, to more than 43,000.
Of course that's only a small fraction of the 16.7 million cars sold each year in the US, but the trend is unmistakable.
Hybrids are catching on, which means it won't be long before I'm driving just another car.  
"Come on Dave," you say, "you should be happy.  You should feel vindicated."
And yeah, it's nice to feel vindicated.  But it's better to feel special.   We used to have a secret wave, we hybrid owners.  It was like being in Skull and Bones.  We were the enlightened few - embattled gas savers swimming in a sea of reactionary SUVs... we could drive a left-wing car with all the sanctimony of a right wing Conservative.
We were mocked by hundreds of e-mails offering Prius enlargement - or something like that - we were part of the fringe.  A little wild.  Friends would look under the hood at the electric engine and wonder if we were AC or DC.
But soon, these cars will be everywhere... my 48.2 miles a gallon will impress no one, people will forget the secret wave... eventually, a few states will even allow us to marry.
And once again, we will be ordinary.
The Osgood File.  Dave Ross.  On the CBS Radio Network.  ~C:\works\files\HYBRID2.CBS