Friday May 9, 2008
Time Machine II: Three years ago, I selected a car to take if I could somehow time-travel back to 1950. I had wanted something to impress the locals. The vehicle I selected was a low-slung sports car.
Now it's 2008, and I've decided what car I'd bring if I could travel back 50 years. This time I'd really impress them. I'd arrive in ... (more >>>)
Things Could Be Worse: Regular gas in the Netherlands is currently $9.39/gallon.
Improved Dining: I spent some time last week creating and installing replacement glazing for the 'Mayfair Diner' on my train layout. The diner formerly had plain translucent white windows. I replaced them with windows having blinds and silhouette figures - a little Photoshop artistry. It looks much better now.
Other diner photos can be seen here. I plan to make several other detail changes to the layout over the summer.
Me, Too! Gerard Van der Leun is fed up with flying commercial: "Don't even get me started on Homeland Security which is just biding its time until you will be required to fly naked after an anal probe by uniformed dwarf. I know I am far from alone when I say that after years of flying many times a year, often on a whim, I am now at the point where only the most powerful forces in life - love and death - can get me on a plane."
Gerard enumerates the many indignities of AirTravel v.2008 including "the endless loop of warnings and instructions as you watch old women in walkers get wanded so that nobody can possibly say "Profiling is afoot!""
"Put them all together along with the ever-present though distant chance that the plane will indeed fall out of the air, and you have a vague replay of kindly SS officers in the 1940s murmuring in dulcet tones, "This way to the showers, ladies and gentlemen.""
Like Gerard, I'd fly much more frequently if I were treated like a paying customer. Or a human being.
Quote Of The Day: Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician. (hat tip: Dustbury)
Wednesday May 7, 2008
Gas Pain: Premium is now $4.119/gallon at the nearest gas station.
If I Don't Nitpick, Who Will? The color scheme on the wheels of Max, the VW talk show host in those commercials, is incorrect. The correct factory wheels colors for a black Volkswagen of that vintage are a gray center with a cream-colored surround. For more on Max, see my April 25th posting.
The Big Picture: When I first put up my '39 Plymouth site, most people were surfing with dial-up. So I posted fairly small images. I've now cleaned up and rescanned some photos so that they are larger and show more detail.
Murse Musings: A good friend of mine just announced, "I bought myself a 'male purse' - a black leather carry device with detachable straps, two large and two small zippered pockets and a cell phone carrier with a snap. I'm tired of carrying my wallet, keys, and cell phone in my pants pockets. And fumbling for them when driving. Now I'll carry a male purse and look cool about it."
"Cool" is, I suppose, in the eye of the beholder. And why isn't it called a 'murse'?
Back in the '90s, there was a Seinfeld episode where Jerry got a small black leather 'men's carryall'. "It's not a purse. It's European!" he proclaimed to his friends. Then someone did a snatch and grab:
Jerry: "Hey! Officer! Someone took my European carryall!"
Cop: "Your what?"
Jerry: "The ... black leather ... thing with a strap."
Cop: "You mean a purse?"
Jerry: "Yes, a purse. I carry a purse!"
I'm told that you can still buy such things, including ones from Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. I don't know if they sell them with more ... ummmm ... manly branding, like WWF, The Rock or Hopalong Cassidy.
I just know that John Wayne carried had a pocketbook.
As for me, I prefer to simplify my life and carry less stuff. About 25 years ago, I got sick of carrying a gigantic ring of keys. They were always wearing out my pockets, so I made changes. I put my car key and house key on a fob. All other keys went in the car's center console. Or my briefcase. I had different fobs for each of our cars. I've continued this basic practice to this day.
My cell phone is kept in the car. I never take it on my person because I do not use it to receive calls - only to make calls. I average one cell phone call every two months. My general 'conversational' cell phone rule: "No need to talk unless the conversation involves a tow truck, ambulance, fire engine or hearse." No Blackberry, no texting either.
I do not carry a checkbook - not even a spare check. I pay by credit card or cash when I'm out and about. The only thing we pay by check are monthly bills which come to the house. My wallet is a compact Taxi wallet. It holds money, ID and two credit cards. No photos.
Life is simple. Just like John Wayne's was, pilgrim.
Dead Tree Update: During the last six months, newspapers had a record drop in sales - down 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday. The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation has fallen a whopping 9.2% over the past half-year. It's still the largest circulation Sunday newspaper, though.
Daily circulation at the Orange County Register plunged 11.9%; the Miami Herald's daily circulation lost more than 11%.
The top daily newspaper is now USA Today, followed by the Wall Street Journal.
As I noted in an earlier posting (2/27/08), we no longer receive a newspaper at this household.
Quote Of The Day is from Thomas Sowell: "When Ronald Reagan said that the government was spending money like a drunken sailor, he apologized to the sailors, who were after all spending their own money."
Monday May 5, 2008
Déjà Vu: NHTSA is investigating "complaints of rust producing "fist-sized holes" in the subframe on Hyundai Sonatas, resulting in suspension failure" and wheels collapsing or separating from the vehicle.
Hmmm ... that brought back an unpleasant memory. In 1961, I was driving my dad's '56 Ford at about 60 mph, when the light ahead changed to red. When I braked, the steering wheel was almost ripped out of my hands as the car pulled violently to the left, jumping across three lanes. Luckily, I didn't wipe out. The cause of the odd behavior was rust-out, resulting in the lower A-frame detaching itself from the car's chassis.
The Ford Mainline - the first new car my dad had ever purchased - was replaced by a new Volkswagen Beetle. It was the first furrin' car in our neighborhood.
My dad never bought another American-made car.
Everything You Need To Know ... about April's auto sales and the effect of gas prices on same: Toyota Prius sales up 53.8%; Hummer sales down 49.8%.
Wine Report: Last week, I took delivery of a full case from Amavi Cellars of Walla Walla - four Cabs and eight bottles of rosé. Amavi's rosé is made with Cabernet Franc grapes and is dry but very flavorful. My wife and I sampled the rosé Friday night. Having quaffed a coupe of bottles of 2006 vintage last year, I am pleased to report that the 2007 vintage met all my expectations. I highly recommend it.
Amavi Cellars Rosé is very popular and sells out quickly as we found out during our Walla Walla trip last Fall - see my trip report posted 10/8/07.
On Saturday evening, I cooked a steak on the grill and opened a bottle of Amavi 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon.
Here are the 'notes' on the wine from Jean-François Pellet, Winemaker: "The Amavi Cellars 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is beautifully structured and complex yet softly layered and appealing throughout. The wine is pleasantly aromatic with the essence of ripe berries and a light earthiness, and the flavors are well integrated. Dark fruit and cassis flavors are followed by hints of dry herbs, chocolate and spice."
 "This year's vintage is a blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, 9% Syrah and 1% Malbec. The Cabernet Sauvignon is the backbone of the blend, adding structure and body, while the Merlot adds flavor and depth. The small amount of Syrah increases the overall softness while the Malbec adds a nice touch of earth."
"The 2005 vintage started off as a big challenge because the previous year has been a freeze year with very little fruit to harvest. I was somewhat anxious and worried about how the vines would come back. We spent extra effort pruning, shoot thinning and crop thinning to make sure the fruit came back evenly."
"We are very grateful that Mother Nature provided us with a fantastic wine-growing season. Bud break started around the third week in April, and very warm, sunny days filled the summer. We had plenty of heat units to fully ripen the grapes. Then the weather cooled off a little earlier than usual, dropping into the 80s around the end of August. This cooling-down period maximized flavor development. The wines from the 2005 vintage have terrific fruit intensity, show great natural acidity and are beautifully balanced."
In any case, it is one damn-fine, flavorful wine and the Cab went perfectly with my filet.
Life is good.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! (It commemorates the defeat of the French army by the Mexicans at the Battle Of Puebla in 1862.) It's not much of a holiday back East but here in the West, Cinco de Mayo is a Big Deal. I will do two things to celebrate:
1. Take my wife to Azteca for lunch.
2. Repeat the same tiresome joke I tell every year ... Q: "What to you call four Mexicans in quicksand?" A: "Cuatro Cinco!"
Definition Of The Day is for 'Adult': A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.
Thursday May 1, 2008
And You Thought GM & Chrysler Were Doing Poorly: According to the latest issue of Model Auto Review, legendary diecast toy car maker Corgi International, whose shares were valued at over $50 in 2003 and $6.63 a year ago, have dropped even more precipitously of late.
The stock was trading at $1.10 yesterday.
You can read more about the troubled history of the model car biz here.
Stormy Weather: Full-size truck and big SUV sales are tanking like barometric pressure during a hurricane, as consumers react viscerally to the will-it-ever-end increases in gas prices. Now that the market for these formerly big-profit beasts is evaporating, the Big 2.8's financial situation is even more precarious. Edmunds reports that new Dodge Ram pickups are selling at a discount of over $8,200. If you wait another month, I'd bet that the deals will get even better. (4/5/08 update: It's already up to $13,000!)
General Motors is slashing production of large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles by 138,000 vehicles at four plants in the U.S. and Canada. About 3,550 workers will be out of jobs. GM has noted that the full-size pickup truck and large SUV segments are down 15 and 26 percent respectively for the first quarter of 2008. The General has 40 percent of the full-size truck market and more than 63 percent of the large SUV segment.
Back in October 2006, I wrote about Detroit's Perfect Storm: "You'd think that the Big 2.5 would have learned after the oil crises of 1973 and 1980. But they didn't. Instead of offering a balanced portfolio of automobiles, they continually reacted to the fad-of-the-moment, developing vehicles which were no longer desirable by the time they were introduced. Unlike their Asian competitors, Detroit never developed true flexible manufacturing facilities, investing instead in a 'truck plant' or a 'Cadillac factory' or a 'Lincoln facility' or a location that could only produce Taurus/Sable sedans."
Batten down the hatches.
Gas Up Your Car; Kill A Third-World Urchin: Mark Steyn has weighed in on the unintended consequences of biofuel production leading to tortilla riots: "Unlike "global warming," food rioting is a planetwide phenomenon, from Indonesia to Pakistan to Ivory Coast to the tortilla rampages in Mexico and even pasta protests in Italy."
"So what happened?"
"Well, Western governments listened to the ecowarriors and introduced some of the "wartime measures" they've been urging. The EU decreed that 5.75 percent of petrol and diesel must come from "biofuels" by 2010, rising to 10 percent by 2020. The United States added to its 51 cent-per-gallon ethanol subsidy by mandating a fivefold increase in "biofuels" production by 2022."
"The result is that big government accomplished at a stroke what the free market could never have done: They turned the food supply into a subsidiary of the energy industry. When you divert 28 percent of U.S. grain into fuel production, and when you artificially make its value as fuel higher than its value as food, why be surprised that you've suddenly got less to eat? Or, to be more precise, it's not "you" who's got less to eat but those starving peasants in distant lands you claim to care so much about."
Steyn adds: "The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death."
The Geezer State: I watched The McLaughlin Group last week and learned that Pennsylvania has the second oldest population of all U.S. states. Florida is first. I was surprised; I don't think of Pennsylvania as a retirement destination. Geezer meccas like South Carolina, Arizona, Oregon, southern California and New Mexico come first to my mind.
I wonder if part of the reason Pennsylvania ranks so high is that people just don't move away - they tend to live their entire lives in the area. There's the old stereotyped tale of the South Philly Italian baby who grows up, gets married and moves down the street into an identical brick row house.
The same week, I received a report from my old high school (a Philadelphia private Catholic institution founded in the 1850s), noting that 52% of its alumni still live in the Philadelphia area. 82% live in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Only 0.55% live in what the school calls "The Northwest" (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY). In fact, more alumni live abroad than in that five-state designated wilderness where I reside.
When I was in high school, most of the school's students lived in Philly and used public transit to commute. Today, only 18% live within the city limits. 58% commute from the Philadelphia suburbs and a surprising 24% travel from New Jersey. The school now provides bus service to outlying areas.
Advice For The Lovelorn: Barack Obama provides relationship recommendations, channeled through Iowahawk. Excerpt: "Dear Barry: I've been married to the same wonderful man - Let's call him "Jeremiah" - for 20 years. ..."
Kudos, Iowahawk.
It's Hard When People Live Up To Stereotypes: On Tuesday, the 'Reverend' Al Sharpton emerged from a meeting in Queens NY with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and found his 2007 Jaguar had been towed away. The car had been tagged for some $900 in unpaid tickets.
As is the case with all of The Rev's 'possessions', it was not clear who 'owns' the Jag.
Somewhere up in Heaven, The Kingfish is grinning.
Cultural Decline: William Katz looks at the rite of 'goin' to the movies'. Excerpt: "We used to have movie palaces. Now the multiplexes are more like mobile homes with screens. You do get a bargain, though. You can usually hear six movies at the same time, and all for the price of one ticket. Imagine - four-letter words from six directions. Is that what they call surround-sound?"
Definition Of The Day is for 'Beauty Parlor': A place where women curl up and dye.
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