A month ago I was driving down a South Carolina back road when
the car in front of me lost the tread off one of its back tires
and the driver quickly veered off onto the shoulder. The tread
actually came off the rest of the tire and I could see the metal
threads exposed where the tire had split in two. As I pulled in
front of them to see if everything was OK, two women got out of
the car dressed in their Sunday best and stared at the lack of
tire on the rim.  I grabbed the jack out of the back of my car
and began loosening the lug nuts on her wheel. One of the women
proceeded to give me step-by-step instructions, which I didn't
need, while the other observed, "Man, I'm glad you're here to do
this, I don't know anything about changing a tire." To which the
other woman replied, "Honey, I could change that tire for you
but this man's here to do it instead."  Getting stranded on the
side of the road with car problems can be a major bummer, but
being stuck on the side of the road with a very fixable problem
like a