Evidently I've been shopping for tires

Thanks to high-tech Internet technology, I am able to be tracked by Google and their advertising minions. Each time I visit a site touched by Google, which is pretty much every site except china.org.cn, a tiny digital file called a cookie poops out onto my hard drive. This microscopic file provides online breadcrumbs for Google and their massive computers to thoughtfully keep careful track of my activity.

On side-effect of Google's cookies is their ability to customize advertising especially for me. My online experience blossoms into a personalized plethora of products that I didn't know I wanted until they appeared in full-color banner advertisements. All this makes me very happy because it creates jobs and as a taxpaying sentient human I prefer that all of us make our own way.

As I recently shopped online for tires, my cookies instruct Google to inundate me with tire-related advertising. It's all good.

Off-roading inspires special types of tires unavailable at your average K-Mart Automotive Center. We have nothing against K-Mart, but we don't want our F-450 Dually bogged down somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey because we mounted improper rubber. An authentically manly off-road vehicle obligates huge blocky treads that bite deeply into unsuspecting flora. A true truckster needs truckster tires. Dick Cepek knew something about that.

Per Wikipedia, which is rarely wrong about this type of thing, Dick Cepek made his bones as an off-road motorsports hero in California and other states with outdoors. He passed away in 1983 but before that he gave us a thriving tire business named after himself. His name recognition was recognized by off-road manly men across the fruited plain and throughout the once-pristine deserts of California.

Deep in South Bend, Indiana, lies a national treasure of automotive accoutrement. The Tire Rack provides rolling rubber on a national scale to anyone with a credit card and a shipping address.

I actually knew of these fine folks through extensive research in the back pages of Car and Driver. They regularly purchase many full-color pages each month. I wonder if the magazine would be nothing but fawning BMW articles without Tire Rack patronage.

Visit the Tire Rack web site for an interactive experience in tire and wheel shopping. Simply provide your make/model/year (they probably won't tell Google) to learn what aftermarket opportunities exist for you. It's dizzying, especially if you actually need tires.

Internet advertising forces the digital world to go 'round. Without these eponymous banner ads we would be stuck with blindingly boring text and a few public service messages from The Ad Council. I think the banner ads on my articles are more interesting than what you're actually reading now.

A few well-meaning browser manufacturers have taken it upon themselves to ship new versions automagically configured to block advertising. We cannot allow this to happen. If my children are to successfully attend college, Internet advertising must proliferate and pontificate on every available content delivery platform.

Stand up for Google, Chitika, Kontera, and even lowly Yahoo. These folks create jobs and consume valuable real estate on your monitor. They provide engaging content for which they are paid handsomely. Your bandwidth suffers only a little: it's a small price to pay for colorful tire advertising on-demand.

Keep the economy moving forward. We need to eliminate food deserts and food uncertainty. Every tire you order online means that a little kid can have a Snicker's bar for breakfast. Families depend on you and your affinity for traction. When your tires wear our, look online to Dick Cepek and The Tire Rack for reliable replacements. If you order it, it will come.

K-Mart has some really good tires at their Auto Centers, also. Please do not infer from this screed that we are endorsing Wal Mart over K-Mart. Both chains employ hard-working tire technicians with children that want to attend community college someday. When you purchase tires from any of them, you are saying "Study hard, kids."