*Someone who is obsessed with getting the best mileage possible from a hybrid car.

Being the superficially environmentally conscious campus that it is, several students at Wesleyan have recently fallen prey to the latest hip green thing to do: buying a hybrid car. 

However, simply buying a hybrid isn’t enough if you really want to be eco-conscious. In order to become a true hypermiler, you must take advantage of certain fuel economizing techniques. With a little help from Saul Carlin '09, hybrid expert, The Cynical Romantic has prepared this handy-dandy glossary:

• Draft-assisted forced stop - Turning off the engine and gliding in neutral while tailgating a larger vehicle, in order to take advantage of the reduced wind resistance in its immediate wake. (Note: This is dangerous.)

• Stealthing – Driving on electric power with the engine off below 42 mph. (This would also be an easy way to kill a blind person, because they wouldn't hear you coming.) 

• Pulse and Glide – Driving under 42 mph where a fuel efficient "pulse" of acceleration is followed by a "glide" where the engine is off. (Just keep telling yourself you’re saving gas as your organic coffee spills all over your pants). 

• Hybrids also include a screen which shows the energy flow going through the car at any one time. But of course this instrument needs a name worthy of hybridspeak: the MFD (multi-function display). Or, as Saul calls it, “the screen thingy."

Now go wow your friends.