“When are you going to blog about my invention?” Mindy demanded testily last night. Mindy has an idea for an invention.

“If I blog about it, someone might steal your idea,” I pointed out. She was willing to take the risk. Such is the lure of fame.

So here’s Mindy’s can’t-miss invention, which we commend to all you would-be innovators and garage tinkerers out there. (That was my killer teeth-clenched Rod Serling impression.) The idea is…drum roll!…a Goodyear blimp-style text crawl that goes on a 360-degree strip on the roof of your car.

I think I’ve seen something like this on the roof of some New York cabs, scrolling the day’s sports scores and maybe stock quotes. Am I making this up, or do they actually have these?

But Mindy’s text crawl isn’t for advertising baseball scores. It’s for communication with other drivers. Mindy had this idea after she had the back windows in the station wagon tinted. Now other drivers couldn’t see her thanks-for-letting-me-in wave or sorry-I-cut-you-off shrug! Think how many road rage incidents could be avoided by a simple “OOPS…MY FAULT!” scrolling around the top of your vehicle (or directed, by you, to the side where it can be seen by the guy you just cut off).

The most helpful and frequently needed messages (“SORRY!”… “THANKS!”… “YOUR GAS CAP IS OPEN!”… “EMERGENCY! CALL 911!”) could be accessible by hot keys, so as to minimize the distracting typing done by the driver.

My problem with this can’t-miss invention is that I predict it will nearly always be used for evil, not for good. Sadly, most people are jerks, especially on the road. For every one person saying SORRY! there will be ten saying GET OVER @$$HOLE!!!! For every helpful YOUR TRUNK ISNT LATCHED, a dozen HEY BABY WHATS YOUR NUMBER?s. Road rage incidents might actually increase with all the abusive message flying around. “GET OFF MY TAIL!” “YOU CUT ME OFF!” “THE JEWS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE @#$%ING WARS IN THE WORLD!” (special Mel Gibson edition only).

I don’t care what Dr. Phil says–sometimes more communication isn’t a good thing.