|
|
 |
|
A Blog About Cars ... And Much, Much More |
|
Thursday April 30, 2015 AutoSketch: 1955 Oldsmobile - An Engineer's Delight
As of this writing, Oldsmobile has been dead for over 10 years. The last Oldsmobile, an Alero sedan, rolled off the Lansing, Michigan assembly line on April 29, 2004. Lansing is the same city where the brand was born. Ransom E. Olds offered his first automobile to the public in 1897 and, at the time of its demise, Oldsmobile was the oldest surviving car brand in the U.S. How does one explain the Oldsmobile brand and its meaning to someone never knew Olds in its glory days? One might begin by pointing out that the marque was celebrated in music. In 1905, a popular ditty was 'My Merry Oldsmobile' - "Come away with me, Lucille, in my merry Oldsmobile ..." Some credit Jackie Brentson's 'Rocket 88' recording from 1951 as the first rock and roll song. It certainly had the correct elements; it was about a car - a 1950 Oldsmobile 88 with a high-compression, overhead-valve Rocket V-8 engine. The song is also notable because it featured Ike Turner on keyboards. I would also point out ... (more >>>)
Afterwards, I took a back roads drive under skies which were halfway between partly cloudy and mostly cloudy. The temperature was 55 degrees at 11:00 am but, now that I have a working heater (thanks to a new heater core), I had a comfy ride. The Truth About Millennials: According to conventional wisdom, the generation born from about 1980 to 2004 would prefer "public transportation or Uber. They get jazzed about the latest iPhone, not the new Ford Focus. Cue dire predictions for the auto industry." Despite such predictions to the contrary, Millennials want to own and drive cars about as much as their parents' did – it was just the poor economy holding them back. Of course, they'd rather drive "cool" cars such as Teslas or Priuses - but right now they're driving what they can afford - even if it's an old beater. Baltimore Used To Be A Nice Place: I'm still puzzled about how a "rough ride" in a police van can almost sever a man's spine. Obviously, there's a lot more investigation needed. Although it has been reported that the man in question did have "a pre-existing spinal and neck injury (from a car accident) and had severe damage and scar tissue from an accident that Allstate insurance was paying via a large structured settlement. Freddie had several unsuccessful spinal fusion surgeries, and his most recent spinal/cervical operation was a week and a half before he was arrested." Whatever the cause of Freddie Gray's death, there is no excuse for the rioting, looting and burning by thugs disguised as 'protesters'.
Jim Geraghty wrote that all the nonsense about rioting being "an expression of anger from oppressed communities, a cry for justice from those who feel every other avenue of regress has been unfairly blocked" is hogwash. "It's all nonsense. The last "riot" that achieved anything useful was the Boston Tea Party. If everyone in the United States swore a pledge declaring, "I will never riot," there would be less injustice in this world, not more." Baltimore's idiot mayor gave people "permission to destroy." And they did ... (more >>>) Geezer Joke: Hospital regulations require a wheel chair for patients being discharged. A nurse found one elderly gentleman already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet, who insisted he didn't need help to leave the hospital. After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let her wheel him to the elevator. On the way down the nurse asked if his wife was meeting him. "I don't know," he said. "She's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown." Question Of The Day: If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing? Wednesday April 29, 2015
Monday was sunny with a temperature of 62 degrees at 9:30 am, so I took my '39 Plymouth coupe for a ride on Battle Ground's back roads. Mt. St. Helens was clearly visible and still full of snow. The sky was a light blue with a few white contrails. Overall, I had a most enjoyable drive. Temperatures eventually hit 81 degrees in the afternoon but that wouldn't have been a problem for me - the Plymouth's air conditioning is now working again and that new radiator keeps the temperatures down - in ranges I've never seen before. When I bought this car in 1994, I was told that it "ran hot." Obviously, it had a marginal radiator even 21 years ago. I can only speculate that all the years of filling it with untreated water - no one used distilled water in radiators before the 1970s; most of the people I know filled theirs with a garden hose - probably left the tubes full of scale. The temperature gauge indicates that the car's Chevy V8 engine now runs 40-60 degrees cooler than before. Second Place Elsewhere; Not A Contender Here: Based on first quarter results, Volkswagen is the second largest maker of automobiles worldwide, just behind Toyota. VW sold 2.49 million vehicles in three months. You'd never know it based on U.S. sales. Total sales of all VW models in the U.S. for the first quarter were 79,239, putting it in 18th place. As a comparison, in the first three months of 2015, 177,312 Ford F-150s - a single Ford model - found buyers in America. Total U.S. Ford brand sales for the period were 570,442 units. Goodbye Brain: Recently, Scott Johnson wrote, "Madam Hillary wiped her homebrew e-mail server's hard drive to dispose of unwanted messages deriving from her tenure as Secretary of State. It is a perfect metaphor for the return of the Clinton era. Everybody must get his hard drive wiped. We must have our religious hard drives wiped to clear space for the sacrament of abortion according to the apostle Hillary. We must have our ethical hard drives wiped to indulge the Clintons' epic corruption. We must have our humor hard drives wiped to keep from laughing at the higher motives in which the Clinton corruption comes packaged." My brain is already half-paralyzed from overexposure to all the Hillary Non-News reporting by a worshipful, entranced and co-opted media - television, print and online. There was a brief respite from the Clintons last week when Bruce Jenner took the spotlight. It didn't help my brain any, though. Nevertheless, what's left of my brain can still understand that the Clinton Foundation is just a massive slush fund for Bill and Hill's lavish lifestyle. Charity Navigator, which rates nonprofits, refused to rate the Clinton Foundation because its "atypical business model ... doesn't meet our criteria." Instead, it placed the Foundation on its "watch list," which warns potential donors about investing in problematic charities. In 2013, the Clinton Foundation took in "$144 million in direct contributions and grants; $149 million in total revenue; of that $8.9 million went to grants paid." In other words, less than 6% of the funds that were received actually went to charitable causes. Now you know why Haiti's still a mess. David Burge tweeted, "Starting to think the only reason Hillary's running is to avoid indictment." Me too. Book Review: Zero To One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future' by Peter Thiel In 1981, the Deaver Brown penned 'The Entrepreneur's Guide'. It is an excellent book; Deaver was president and co-founder of Cross River Co. which developed and manufactured The Umbroller, the first umbrella-style folding child stroller. His book gave specific advice backed up by personal anecdotes. 'Zero To One' reminded me of Brown's Book except that it is very 21st Century and directed at the tech/internet industry - not surprising since Peter Thiel is co-founder of PayPal. Thiel posits the contrarian premise that we live in an age of ... (more >>>) Does Barry O. Have A 666 Tattoo? Former Republican congresswoman Michelle Bachmann believes that President Barack Obama's handling of the Iranian nuclear deal is a symbol of the coming of the End of Times and the "imminent" return of Jesus Christ. Quote Of The Day is from Jeremy Clarkson: "I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?" Monday April 27, 2015 Milestone: In 1941, the five-millionth Dodge was built - a four-door sedan. It was a production milestone that took the company 27 years to achieve. 1941 was the first year that Fluid Drive transmissions were available on Dodges as a $25 option. A basic '41 Dodge De Luxe business coupe could be had for as little as ... (more >>>)
So sang Elvis Presley through the speakers of my '39 Plymouth coupe as I took a ride along country roads on Saturday. 'Ready Teddy' was just one of several oldies pouring through the speakers - not just a singular speaker, now that I've had that audio item repaired - as I drove along. The sounds of rock and do wop music offered competition to the burble of Glasspacks on my old car. While there were lots of clouds in the sky, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the temperature at noon was a moderate 55 degrees. All in all, I had a very pleasant drive. How Do You Say 'Big Shakeup' In German? The very aggressive and authoritative (but aren't most Germans authoritative?) Ferdinand Piëch, 78-year-old grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, has been forced out of his Chairman position at Volkswagen AG. Piëch's current wife, Ursula, also resigned her positions within the company. Piëch recently sought to oust Martin Winterkorn, a onetime protégé, as Volkswagen's chief executive. But the move backfired after Mr. Winterkorn refused to go and other members of the supervisory board rallied behind him. Never short on hubris... (more >>>) Belated Announcement: National Philly Soft Pretzel Day was yesterday, April 26th. Soft pretzels are a Philadelphia institution and pretzel carts were a familiar sight when I was growing up. In Philly, an estimated 300,000 soft pretzels are consumed ... (more >>>)
In the past, I've written a detailed explanation of why most small businesses cannot grow without access to capital. Most 'ordinary' manufacturing businesses have 30-35% gross profit and net 10% or less before taxes. A 30% growth in sales means that you have to buy 30% more raw material inventory, you'll be carrying 30% more work-in-process and finished goods inventory and your accounts payable will jump by 30% as will your receivables. Your increase in profit dollars (at 10% NPBT) won't be nearly enough cover these increased expenses. Therefore, if you can't secure working capital, you can't grow and your business will stagnate. Others - your competitors - will step up and meet customer needs. In recent years, business loans for young companies were extremely hard-to-get because the locally-owned bank has become a rarity. No longer is there a hometown bank executive who keeps his nose to the ground, has significant personal lending authority, makes loans based partly on the character of his clients, is guided by a loan committee of other knowledgeable locals and knows his market because he attends local business events and networks. He has been replaced by ... (more >>>)
He wrote more than 2,500 stories for what was once America's preeminent news magazine. 'Time' called his taste in film "populist but eclectic," adding: "He was a fan of Chinese kung-fu movies and Disney animation (he put Finding Nemo on his list of the 100 greatest films of all time, along with Jackie Chan's Drunken Master II), but also the more demanding works of filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder." In its online tribute to Mr. Corliss, 'Time' highlighted his continuing love of cinema. He once wrote: "To transport picturegoers to a unique place in the glare of the earth, in the darkness of the heart – this you realize with a gasp of joy, is what movies can do." Corliss and I were classmates at St. Joseph's Prep and he was oudoubtedly the most famous of the 1961 graduating class. In high school, Dick produced a hand-drawn parody newspaper (I think it was called 'The Daily Blah'), lampooning various teachers, school events and nonsensical school policies. Even then, he was a gifted and witty writer. The Prep featured a mandatory four-year Latin program. Referring to an elderly, enfeebled Jesuit teacher, he once wrote, "All of our Latin teachers were familiar with Cicero and Vergil but only Father Lanigan knew them both personally." Even as a teenager, Richard Corliss was quite a passionate movie buff, indicating a career direction that eventually came to fruition. Success followed, proving once again that 'Do what you love; love what you do' really works. Requiescat in Pace. (permalink) Question Of The Day: Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural? Thursday April 23, 2015
I picked up my '39 Plymouth coupe from the repair shop yesterday afternoon after almost four weeks. All of the little mechanical and electrical annoyances which have built up over the last several years are now fixed. The biggest problem was the original 76 year-old radiator which had sprung (another) leak. It had been patched so many times that it was unrepairable. Rather than having a duplicate of the original fabricated, I had a custom radiator made, with a thicker core and more tank capacity. This improved the cooling substantially. I also had the leaky gas tank - a problem with the sending unit's gasket - fixed. The original heater core also was also leaking and I had a new one installed. I also had a myriad of other mechanical and electrical nuisances attended to. The repair bill was high but much less than, say, the first year's depreciation on a new Corvette. The Plymouth now runs great; I'm glad I picked it up when I did because rain is forecast for the remainder of the week. My old coupe is now resting comfortably in the garage.
Sticky Situation: Charles G. Hill passed along a news story about a 27 year-old would-be kidnapper who "grabbed a woman at gunpoint, put her in the trunk of her car, but then could not drive because he didn't know how to shift a manual transmission." Up until 1988, my plastics manufacturing company had only one forklift truck, a 1955 Hyster, which had a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. Several of our younger employees could not drive it because they didn't know how to work the clutch and shift levers. We referred to them as Automatic Babies. Shoe Melt: Speaking of sticky situations, yesterday I discovered that the soles of my expensive Ecco shoes, purchased for our 2001 trip to France and Great Britain are melting. They have stained the cedar shoe rack in our closet. The soles are wet and sticky to the touch, even after being given a chance to dry out outdoors in the fresh air. The Eccos are now in the trash. Our walk-in closet is temperature controlled and the temperature never rises above 73 degrees. I threw them out. I have other shoes, some over 30 years old, which are holding up just fine. My wife's Eccos, purchased for the same trip, fell apart years ago. I'll never buy anything from Ecco ever again. (permalink) Too Smart For Their Own Good: The probability of entering and remaining in an intellectually elite profession such as physician, judge, professor, scientist, corporate executive, etc. increases with IQ to about 133. "It then falls about 1/3 by 140. By 150 IQ the probability has fallen by 97%! In other words, a significant percentage of people with IQs over 140 are being systematically and, most likely inappropriately, excluded from the population that addresses the biggest problems of our time or who are responsible for assuring the efficient operation of social, scientific, political and economic institutions. This benefits neither the excluded group nor society in general. For society, it is a horrendous waste of a very valuable resource. For the high IQ person it is a personal tragedy commonly resulting in unrealized social, educational and productive potential." While our society is very good at measuring IQ, it has never developed methods for measuring common sense or street smarts. My observation is that both seem to decline as Genius Level Intelligence Quotient is attained and surpassed. 75 Years Ago ... the three-hole punch debuted in April, 1940. Book Review: 'What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions' by Randall Munroe After all the serious nonfiction I've been reading, it was nice to take a break and read this palate-cleansing book. Munroe's tongue-in-cheek science along with his stick-figure drawings makes for a delightful read. But more than that, the book's fun and knowledge value far exceeded expectations. Inside you'll find answers to questions such as 'What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?', 'What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% of the speed of light?', 'How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?', 'If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?' and ... (more >>>)
Quote Of The Day is from Ann Coulter: "There are no Japanese internment camps today. (Although the no-limit blackjack section at Caesar's Palace on a Saturday night comes pretty close.)" Tuesday April 21, 2015
"Its share of the small luxury SUV category is lower than it was during the launch period in the third-quarter of last year. After claiming 9.3% market share last summer, the MKC accelerated to 10.9% in the final three months of 2014. But with five established rivals selling (RDX, Q5, X3, XC60, GLK) more often and Lexus' NX also generating greater interest, the MKC's share in the segment was down to 8.6% in Q1 2015." In March, Lincoln sold only 2,070 MKCs, while Acura sold 3,963 examples of its RDX model. 3,934 Audi Q5s found buyers in last month. Ch-ch-changes: Yesterday, both 'Autoblog' and 'The Truth About Cars' got new Editors-in-Chief. That's an odd coincidence; I have no idea what effect these changes will have on either website. Both are daily reads for me. 'Yahoo Autos', which I don't read, also changed editors yesterday. There are no editorial changes at 'The View Through The Windshield'. I've been running it for almost 11 years, as writer, editor, proprietor and janitor. Tomorrow Is Earth Day: It's also known by its nickname 'Kwanzaa for White Liberals'. Remember what the late George Carlin said about this Bullshit Made-Up Holiday, "The planet will be here for a long, long, long time after we're gone, and it will heal itself; it will cleanse itself, because that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover; the earth will be renewed and, if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the Earth plus plastic! The Earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question, "Why are we here?" "Plastic!"" Never Mind: On Earth Day, I am always reminded of Gilda Radner's Emily Latella character (on SNL) - who might have said: "What's all this I hear about 'greenhouse gas'? Can't people just hold it in until they go back outside?" Conversion & Redemption: An ISIS Jihadist has recently converted to Christianity after being left for dead near the Eastern border of Syria where he was finally rescued by Christian missionaries from the region. "The man miraculously came back to life as he was believed to have died from his wounds. As the man came back to his senses, he reported to priest Hermann Groschlin of the visions he had whilst in the afterlife, an event that profoundly changed the 32 year-old Jihadist and eventually led to his conversion to Christianity days later." "He told me that he was always taught that to die as a martyr would ... (more >>>) Happy Tune: Whenever I get the blues, I just play 'Flatfoot Floogie' by Slim and Slam, a 1938 cheery little ditty with a vibraphone solo. You can't be sad when someone's playing the happiest musical instrument ever made. That's why they never have vibraphones or xylophones at funerals. (Well, maybe they had one at Lionel Hampton's service in 2002. His funeral procession began at The Cotton Club in Harlem.) Organ: yes, cello: certainly, harp: OK for the right somber musical selection. But, you just can't mourn when someone's bangin' merrily on a row 'o bones. Which is ironic because, whenever there's a cartoon featuring dancing skeletons, there's always vibraphone music in the audio track. Quote Of The Day is from Thomas Sowell: "The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights'." Friday April 17, 2015
VW "is expanding its growing Chattanooga, TN, factory by even more than the original plans after winning the local government's approval. The German automaker announced its intention last year to invest $900 million to add 538,000 square feet of floor space to the plant, which would add 2,000 new jobs. The company just went back to the city for permission to increase the expansion by a further 130,153 square feet for an even larger body shop." Go figure.
The book is 308 pages and contains more than 900 photos and illustrations. You can order it here. Hillary's Van: They may call it 'Scooby' after the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine but that big black thing looks more like a bloated French hearse to me. "Ruh Roh!" It wouldn't surprise me if Bill Clinton thought 'Bloated French Hearse' was some kind of sexual position.
Gaetano and Ines Shinco opened Gaetano's in 1970 at 725 Walnut Street. It was the city's first four-star Italian restaurant and specialized in Northern Italian cuisine. Gaetano's was a big success and attracted such a stellar list of diners that it became a status symbol to have the restaurant's unlisted phone number. Among the more prominent guests were ... (more >>>) Kennedy Vs. Nixon: Last week, Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times, "When my brother Michael was a Senate page, he delivered mail to John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, who had offices across the hall from each other. He recalled that Kennedy never looked up or acknowledged his presence, but Nixon would greet him with a huge smile. 'Hi, Mike,' he'd say. 'How are you doing? How's the family?' It seemed a bit counterintuitive ... (but) after puzzling over it, I finally decided that J.F.K. had the sort of magnetism that could ensorcell big crowds, so he did not need to squander it on mail boys. Nixon, on the other hand, lacked large-scale magnetism, so he needed to work hard to charm people one by one, even mail boys." With each passing year, more cracks appear in the Kennedy legend, like an old piece of poorly-molded polystyrene. Quote Of The Day is from Terry Pratchett: "Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it." Wednesday April 15, 2015
Anyone remember two-speed Powerglide from the 1950s? Or those two-speed Ford-O-Matics used from 1959 to '64? Auction Madness: Auctions America held an event in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida recently. Some of the prices were amazing: a 1953 Cadillac Eldorado, which sold for $242,000 and a 1961 Jaguar E-Type Series I 3.8, which sold for $215,000. On the other hand, a rare 1958 Dual-Ghia fetched only $225,500. During Monterey Week 2013, Gooding & Co. sold a 1957 Dual-Ghia for $495,000. During the Dual-Ghia's brief production run from 1957-1958, just 117 examples were constructed - including 115 convertibles and two coupes. Book Review: 'Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars' by Neil Young Rocker Neil Young dropped out after 10th grade; you can easily tell by his writing which blends stream-of-consciousness with grammatical errors and pointless car stories which have neither arc nor substance. Young recently published his memoirs, so this book is supposed to be about his memories triggered by cars he's encountered. It's not. Young wanders all over the place from amplifiers, to guitars, to gigs and to his sanctimonious musings on how badly his dad's 1951 Monarch sedan hurt the environment shedding about 1,296 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every time they made a round trip from Canada to Florida. Although he enjoyed the trip, he has now turned his family's 1950s-era vacation into a guilt trip, choosing to play the role of a skunk at a Sunday school picnic. It is entirely possible that his dad's Canadian Mercury-clone drove past our neighborhood on the way back to Canada. If so, I give thanks for the carbon dioxide that helped the little evergreen bushes in our front yard grow big and strong. Neil Young doesn't seem to care much about his cars ... (more >>>)
In 2005, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gay Hypocrisy: Tim Cook, Steve Jobs's successor as CEO of Apple is gay - not that there's anything wrong with that. Recently, he made snarky comments about the pizzeria in Indiana that wouldn't hypothetically cater a gay wedding, although they've never catered any wedding - gay or otherwise - and you have to wonder what kind of uncreative gay dullards would want pizza served at their wedding. John Hawkins of 'Right Wing News' and Gay Patriot Bruce Carroll penned an open letter ... (more >>>) Quote Of The Day is from the late Barry Goldwater, "I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?" Monday April 13, 2015 Little Nash: George W. Mason was a talented and successful executive in the kitchen appliance field. He soon became head of Nash Motors, recruited by Charles Nash himself. High value per dollar was the key to success in the appliance field and Mason brought his philosophy and skill to Nash, bringing unibody construction, lower-weight and better features to the company's automotive offerings. Nash was always a mid-priced car but, in the postwar era, Mason realized that he needed to break into the low-priced field. But the firm needed to offer something more than just another "me-too" car. The result was the Nash Rambler, introduced in mid-April 1950. The car was smaller than any of the low-priced three offerings but was ... (more >>>) More Tax Dollars Wasted: Randall O'Toole, the Antiplanner, wrote, "$1.2 million will buy you a bus that can go 170 miles on a single charge of batteries. The bus has 60 seats, which is just what is needed in Spokane, where the average bus carries just 9 people."
American musician, composer and arranger Milton DeLugg has died at age 96. He co-wrote 'Orange Colored Sky', which was best remembered as a 1950 hit for Nat King Cole. In 1958, DeLugg produced Buddy Holly's single, 'Rave On!'. In 1966, DeLugg was musical director for the 'Tonight Show'. He also wrote music for numerous television programs and was musical director of 'The Gong Show'. Mr. DeLugg remained active as musical director of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade through 2013. Coffee Memories: I remember, as a five year-old, going to the A&P Supermarket at Frankford and Cottman Avenues in Philadelphia with my mom and strolling down the coffee aisle, inhaling the sweet fumes wafting forth from the grinder. Recently, I found an image of the A&P's big in-store coffee grinder on Lileks.com. I have always liked the smell of freshly-ground coffee - even though I don't particularly care for the taste of it. When I drink coffee (infrequently), I always add lots of milk and a little sugar. Quote Of The Day is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe." Thursday April 9, 2015 Trunk Girl: I've written about the 1940 Pontiac Ghost Car before. I saw the car in person at Pebble Beach in 1996. Recently, I came across another photo of this remarkable vehicle ... (more >>>) More From The New York Auto Show: The Aston Martin Vulcan has 800 horsepower, a top speed of 200+ mph, can do 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and costs $2.8 million. Only 34 carbon fiber bodied examples will be produced. Book Review: 'Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General' by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard 'Killing Lincoln', 'Killing Jesus' and 'Killing Kennedy' were books about famous people being put to death by others. This book begins with the stated premise that General George S. Patton, Jr. died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. Here's the spoiler, folks: By the time you finish this book, you'll find the circumstances not-so-mysterious. Evidence of a murder plot is virtually nonexistent. The book is a collection of tales and gossip about the final six months of World War II in the European Theater. While the book is a fairly easy read and mildly entertaining, it is neither a book about World War II nor a biography of Patton. I'm not sure what the book is, other than a line-extension of O'Reilly's mega-hyped 'Killing' series. Much of the book seems lifted from ... (more >>>)
During his voice-over career, Freberg was heard in many Warner Brothers cartoons. His 'Dragnet' parody record, "St. George and the Dragonet," was a #1 hit for four weeks in October 1953. I still have the 45 rpm record somewhere. Freberg's Dragnet parodies are generally credited with popularizing the catch phrase "Just the facts, ma'am". Stan made many memorable commercials for products such as Prince Spaghetti, Jeno's Pizza Rolls, Sunsweet Prunes and Contadina Tomato Paste ("Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?"). Freberg won 21 Clio awards for his commercials. RIP. Quote Of The Day is from Henry Ford on the success of the Model T: "We took what was a luxury and made it into a necessity. Our only advantage was lack of precedent." Tuesday April 7, 2015 March Auto Sales: Light vehicle sales were at a 17.05 million SAAR (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in March - up 3.8% from March 2014 and up 5.5% from the 16.2 million annual sales rate last month.
General Motors posted total March sales of 249,875 vehicles, a drop of 2% compared with March 2014. The reduced total reflects weaker Cadillac and Chevrolet sales, with modest gains in GMC and Buick sales. GM's best-selling vehicle in the month was the Silverado pickup, which saw a sales gain of 7% to 45,193 units. At GM, low-margin fleet sales accounted for nearly 27% of overall sales. Ford Motor Co. posted a U.S. sales decline of 3% in March, to 235,929 vehicles, compared with March 2014 sales of 244,167 in the year-ago period. Sales of most of the company's best-selling vehicles fell in the month, with the exceptions of the full-size Explorer sport utility vehicle and the Mustang, which saw sales increases of 17% and 36%, respectively. Chrysler Group's sales increased a modest 2% to 197,261 units. Jeep sales rose 24%, while Dodge sales fell 24% to 46,049 vehicles. Ram truck sales were up just over 1%. Toyota's sales increased 5% to 225,959 vehicles, while American Honda's sales slipped 5% to 126,294 units. Nissan sales fell to 145,085 vehicles, a drop of 3%. Hyundai-Kia's sales increased 10% to 133,790 vehicles. Mazda sales fell 8% to 32,123 zoom-zoomers. Subaru sales increased 10% to 49,111 vehicles. Cadillac and Lincoln, posted year-over-year March sales drops of 7% and 3%, respectively. Cadillac's Escalade SUV sales rose by 125% in March. Cadillac sold a total of 13,756 vehicles last month, while Lincoln sold 8,695 vehicles. Only the brand's Navigator SUV sold more units in March than it did last March - 1,097 compared with 746, an increase of 47%. BMW sales were up by 7% in March to 34,310 units, while 32,300 Mercedes-Benzes found buyers, an increase of 10%. Infiniti sales were flat at 12,525 units, while Acura sales dropped 6% to 14,670 vehicles. Lexus sales increased 8% to 31,054 units. Only 676 examples of the flagship LS 460 sedan found buyers in March - a drop of 9% from last year. Audi sold 17,102 vehicles - an increase of 20% over last March. Alfa sold 73 examples of its 4C sports car in March, while Bentley sold 220 automobiles. 4,291 Porsches found buyers, an increase of 13%, while Maserati sales increased by 3% to 996 automobiles. Healthy Lesson: Malcolm Berko is a believer in the continued rise of the health care stock segment. So am I. He relates this story: "Several years after Medicare was established in 1965, a young orthopedic surgeon I knew was told by his father, who was a big shot at Merck, to triple his office size, take on two partners and purchase a large home on the water. He told his son that he and his partners would be working 14-hour days and would barely be able to handle the patient flow that would occupy his Tampa, Florida, waiting room. I also remember the father's comment that Congress had become Santa Claus - when it designed a boondoggle of tax dollars for the medical profession - and that most medical specialists such as his son would become multimillionaires after a few years. That was about 45 years ago ... (more >>>)
Rudy Perz was a copywriter for Pillsbury's longtime advertising agency, Leo Burnett. Perz was sitting in his kitchen in the spring of 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign for Pillsbury's refrigerated dough product line and imagined a living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury Crescent Rolls can. To distinguish the dough boy from the rolls, he gave it a scarf, a chef's hat, two big blue eyes, a blush and a soft, hee-hee when poked in the stomach. Quote Of The Day is from Thomas Sowell, "The radical feminist movement, so ready to go ballistic at any little remark that can be twisted to mean something offensive to women, has been strangely silent while ISIS has been raping women and even little girls wholesale, and selling them as sex slaves. Is the silence of the radical feminists just political expediency or moral bankruptcy? Or both?" Friday April 3, 2015 New York Auto Show: The online auto news sites have been busy covering new vehicles to be displayed at this year's show. Here are observations on selected 2016 models:
Exclusive NY Auto Show Pix: Here's an exclusive for ya - forty-nine years ago, I attended the show at the New York Coliseum and posted some pictures and program advertisements here. Name Game: Whatever you think of the recently revealed Lincoln Continental Concept, exhibited at the 2015 New York Auto Show and allegedly a thinly-disguised preview of the 2016 production version, give props to Lincoln for daring to replace its confusing MK Alphabet Soup model designations with a familiar model name adding some heritage to its new flagship. Dare greatly, Lincoln. I like the overall shape of the concept car, although ... (more >>>)
Howie Carr wrote, "This white elephant on Columbia Point was supposed to be paid for exclusively with private donations. Liberals are, after all, so generous - they'll always give you the shirt off somebody else's back. But the reality is that the Beautiful People throw around quarters like manhole covers, and once Teddy was dead, what good could he do them? So the federal taxpayers (that's you and me) are on the hook for $38 million, and the state (ditto) got clipped for another $5 million." Barack Obama recently said that Ted Kennedy made the Senate "come alive." Mary Jo Kopechne would have begged to differ.
Book Review: 'How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World' by Steven Johnson The author has written a wonderful and interesting book exploring the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life to early inventions and their development over centuries. Johnson examined unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how air-conditioning made the largest migration in human history possible - to desert cities such as Dubai or Phoenix. And how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution. And how the birth of railroads ultimately caused time zones to be invented. Johnson focused on six area of innovation ... (more >>>) Quote Of The Day is from Terry Pratchett: "A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores." Wednesday April 1, 2015
| last month | |
Fill 'Er Up: On Wednesday, I drove my '39 Plymouth coupe to town in order to fill the gas tank. During the recent visit to the repair shop, I had the gasket at the top of the tank - where the sending unit is located - replaced. The result is no more leaks and gas odor after each fill up and, apparently, a more-accurate gas gauge as well.
Sunny Outing: It is always a pleasant surprise when a patch of nice, sunny weather appears in the midst of the typical rain-laden Spring.
"Goin' Down To The Corner ... pick up my sweetie pie, she's my rock 'n roll baby, she's the apple of my eye."
A Good Change: Recently, Scott Grannis 
Fixer-Upper: You may have noticed that I haven't written much about my old car lately.
Large Luxury Sedans - The S-Class Owns It: In the first quarter of 2015, Mercedes-Benz sold 5,044 S-Class models in the U.S., handily beating out the BMW 7-Series (1,941), Lexus LS (1,848), Porsche Panamera (1,312), Jaguar XJ (1,209) and Audi A8 (1,067).
Even Matthew McConaughey Can't Save It: Sales of the Lincoln MKC, the Ford Escape-related small crossover, 
Odd Move: Volkswagen is selling fewer cars in the U.S. every year. So what are they doing about it? 
A Book Worth Having: Michael Lamm has reissued 'A Century of Automotive Style'. I purchased this book about 18 years ago and recommend it highly. It's probably the best tome on car design and covers everything from the coachbuilders of the 1920s and '30s to the in-house design stories at automobile manufacturers.
Restaurant Reminiscence: Recently, we had pasta accompanied by a fine Bardolino red wine from Italy. It made me think of the late, great Ristorante da Gaetano in Philadelphia where I first sampled Bardolino on the recommendation of co-owner and affable hostess Ines Shinco. She described it as "the pasta wine" because it went so well with noodle-based dishes, such as Gaetano's incomparable lasagna.
How Many Gears Do You Need Anyway? Ford has 
RIP: R&B singer Percy Sledge, best known for the 1966 boomer anthem, 'When a Man Loves a Woman', has died at age 73 following a lengthy battle with cancer.
Teddy's Still Screwing Taxpayers From The Grave: The new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate just opened in Boston.
The Sad Tale Of The Chuffley-Waite: I first wrote this fictitious story as a contribution to a car club's April newsletter in 1989. It begins thusly:
|