John Walter

"You don't want a lot of fancy mechanics (in your cup holder) anyway," said John Walter, engineering group manager at General Motors. Walter likes divots.He also is a fan of American-made cup holders.He believes American car companies are better at cup holders than Asian or European competitors because, well, Americans are more interested in nonstop guzzling. He says this from experience. Walter got into cup holders in the early 1990s, when GM, like many other car makers, was enduring a brief stay in cup-holder hell.A 1991 GM model had been outfitted with a mechanical holder that held cups only until the cup was, according to Walter, "close to empty." At that point, the holder's spring-loaded stirrups would shoot the cup, "and whatever was still in it," into the air. "All I know is I inherited a lot of complaints," Walter said. That, he added, is why he's a divot man.
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Blame the eaters, not the holders, said GM's Walter."There was a lot of fast food before cup holders." True, but it's hard to avoid a new phrase about to hit our language - "cup-holder cuisine."This year, Frito Lay starting selling "Go Snacks," food packaged in cup-holder-friendly tubes.Others have followed.You can now consume chips, jerky, candy - even hot soup - from the holders once reserved for coffee and soda. "We don't condone eating and driving or drinking and driving," said Walter.

"You don't want a lot of fancy mechanics (in your cup holder) anyway," said John Walter, engineering group manager at General Motors.

Walter likes divots.He also is a fan of American-made cup holders.He believes American car companies are better at cup holders than Asian or European competitors because, well, Americans are more interested in nonstop guzzling.

He says this from experience.

Walter got into cup holders in the early 1990s, when GM, like many other car makers, was enduring a brief stay in cup-holder hell.A 1991 GM model had been outfitted with a mechanical holder that held cups only until the cup was, according to Walter, "close to empty."

At that point, the holder's spring-loaded stirrups would shoot the cup, "and whatever was still in it," into the air.

"All I know is I inherited a lot of complaints," Walter said.

That, he added, is why he's a divot man.

...
Blame the eaters, not the holders, said GM's Walter."There was a lot of fast food before cup holders."

True, but it's hard to avoid a new phrase about to hit our language -- "cup-holder cuisine."This year, Frito Lay starting selling "Go Snacks," food packaged in cup-holder-friendly tubes.Others have followed.You can now consume chips, jerky, candy -- even hot soup -- from the holders once reserved for coffee and soda.
...
"We don't condone eating and driving or drinking and driving," said Walter."But if you're going to do it -- and people are -- then it should be safer.Hopefully, that's what we're seeing."

The notion that bigger and more are better and best has always been part of the cup-holder evolution.

That's not going to stop.

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"You don't want a lot of fancy mechanics (in your cup holder) anyway," said John Walter, engineering group manager at General Motors.

Walter likes divots.He also is a fan of American-made cup holders.He believes American car companies are better at cup holders than Asian or European competitors because, well, Americans are more interested in nonstop guzzling.

In recent years, cup holders have popped up on shopping carts, lawn mowers and baby strollers.Cup holders have infiltrated our language (as in the "cup holder" part of a computer) and TV ("Hey! Cup holders!") advertising.They've been seen in movies and mentioned in literature.

Cup holders are bragged about, joked about and wondered upon, at least in this regard:

Does America's cup holder lust reflect the American trait of consuming at every possible second, or has the rise of cup holders somehow turbocharged our appetite and, not coincidentally, turned our cars and trucks and lawn mowers into yet more places where we should and must multitask?

Blame the eaters, not the holders, said John Walter, engineering group manager at General Motors."There was a lot of fast food before cup holders."

True, but it's hard to avoid a new phrase about to hit our language - "cup-holder cuisine."This year, Frito Lay starting selling "Go Snacks," food packaged in cup-holder-friendly tubes.

"We don't condone eating and driving or drinking and driving," Walter said.