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Joel Stein’s Roadtrip With Babs

The Time reporter hops in the car with Barbra Streisand

by
Adam Chandler
December 06, 2012

This is just as wonderful as you’d expect it to be.

Barbra packed a Voss water and a cup of berries for our trip. As we headed out to the driveway toward a brand-new Ford C-MAX hybrid I was borrowing, she asked, “Is your car clean?” Then she got inside and—just like my mom—told me it was too warm. Five minutes down the road, as I was shivering, she said, “We have to turn the air down.” When I happily turned the dial up, she said, “No, leave the temperature the same, but turn down the air blowing. For the sound for your recording.” I told her the recording would be fine. “No, there’s too much air.” I began to feel relieved that Barbra hadn’t agreed to stop somewhere to eat, since we would have spent the whole time changing tables.

It only gets better.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.