That Mustang Dome Thang

So yesterday I was out driving on the main drag, and I saw this Mustang. One of the old ones. A classic! Cherry red...no, not quite cherry...more like, sealing-wax red. By sealing wax, I mean the sort of wax that was used to affix seals to letters and state documents, and then stamped with the Pope's ring (or whoever's, obviously the Grand Duke of Luxembourg isn't going to go with the Pope-stamp). Is that sealing wax? Maybe sealing wax is something else. But you'd think it should be legit to refer to that sort of red wax as sealing wax, since it was wax, and it was used to seal things. "Sealed with the Official Seal of Whoever's Highness and Pomposity."

But wait, maybe it's spelled ceiling-wax. In which case, I don't even know what color that would be. Who even uses that stuff?

Let's cut to the chase already. Everyone has seen that red waxy stamp on ye-olde style documents in big screen historical epics - or failing that, on the odd classy liquor bottle such as your Grand Marnier - so I daresay everyone knows what exact type of red I'm referring to here.

So. Back to the Mustang. The car was that particular red color, but not cherry. A bit less bright, a bit more matte, but with a certain dull, deep, dare-I-say-waxy luster.

Anyway, the thing that struck me most about it was that this Mustang had a DOME! You know - like the new one has a dome. The cockpit or cabin area or whatever you call it - it's topper was rounded. I didn't know they had old ones like that! I thought that the dome was some new something they came up with, specifically for the new ones. And frankly, I hated it. It looks awful! It clutters the sculptural composition with this totally random element that doesn't meld at all with what's going on in the body. The net impression is that somebody tried to turn the top of the car into a UFO. I admit, I like the new Mustang in a convertible, since that ameliorates the dome effect somewhat. With the top up, the ragtop isn't nearly as stupid-looking as the dome is. It cuts a better line. And with the top down, you're left with the simplicity of the rest of the body - which is quite a robust, muscular design with a lot of sex appeal.

I mean that like these car enthusiasts say it. It's kind of a saying. They'll say that a car has "sex appeal"...what do they mean by that...it's a colloquialism or whatever. Euphemism? Idiomatic expression! Because in any event, I'm not actually sexually attracted to machinery in that way.

But the main thing is, after seeing this classic example of the precedent of the domed Mustang, I no longer know how to feel about the dome. When I thought the dome was a novel element out of left field, I was like: "who the hell's idea was that!?" But now that I know it's a throwback, an homage, a nod to the earlier history and configuration of what is surely one of the most deeply-ingrained in the psyche of the car-head nation cars in the history of the

Sorry, I got lost on the way to there. That sentence just wasn't worth saving.

But you see what I'm saying here. About the dome. That thing's UGLY!

What were they thinking?