This Is What the Piggy Bank Was For

Toys "R" Us is selling a real-life Mario Kart for about $150, officially marketed at children, which is the most transparent piece of misdirection in retail history. Nobody who grew up with Super Mario Kart is reading that product listing for their kid. They’re reading it for themselves, already mentally clearing the living room.

The vision I can’t shake is a whole city of these things in motion—adults in low-slung plastic karts threading between taxis at 2am, no grand infrastructure, no app, just the honest chaos of people doing exactly what they wanted. Probably not safer than current traffic. Definitely more honest about our intentions.

The money I’ve been setting aside for something responsible could go a lot of worse places.