The Horror

Leave it to AMC to cleverly base their advertising campaign on a longer and wider car as if they were selling wide-track V-8 Bonnevilles back in the late sixties before the oil embargo. These pieces of junk were the result when Detroit began to wake up and notice that Americans were buying imports instead of the Big 3’s gas hogs. Still no mention of gas mileage even in 1979.

I think I was still driving my first car back then, a VW Dasher which is probably my favorite car ever.

Oh, give it to me Spirit, that’s right, oh yeah, oh, oh, oh—

Transmission fluid squirts onto Chevette’s roof.

Ahhhhhhh.

@nojo: And on the second take, Spirit threw a rod.

@nojo: An ex-girlfriend of mine had a Chevette. I cannot tell you how deeply awful that car was. I’d have gone w/ the Spirit with a V8 and a 4 speed if forced to choose. At least you could put some Konis and a fat antisway on it to keep it from yawing like a catamaran.

TJ
Today’s NY Times has an article about Wall Street’s newest bright idea: bundling “life settlements,” aka old people’s life insurance policies (especially those of sick people), bought for a song, and securitizing them, a la their brilliant work with subprime mortages, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and on and on. Investors will profit when people die earlier than expected and the insurance companies have to pay out more than it cost the bundlers to buy the policies. So far there have been over 550 comments on this scheme. I have not read all of them, but I have not yet seen a comment in favor of this unspeakable idea.

@blogenfreude: I liked my mid-80s Chevette just fine until it finally disintegrated. But then, you get used to needing a clutch adjustment every three months.

My Spirit-era car was a used sunroof Beetle. Which leaked. In Oregon.

More properly: Water would store inside the roof if it was parked uphill during a storm. Then, the moment you leveled the car — whoosh! — a few gallons of Oregon sunshine in your lap.

But I loved that car, too. I’m very forgiving.

@lynnlightfoot:
Guess who got out of that business years ago?

Warren Buffett. Just sayin’.

And I am going to have to grab my camera and head for a few of these hot spots. I love to take pictures of ruins.

@blogenfreude: At least you could put some Konis and a fat antisway on it to keep it from yawing like a catamaran.

The Yawing Catamarans, AntiFatSway and the Awesome Konis are all excellent band names. Otherwise, you’re talking surfspeak as far as I can tell.

The Spirit is longer and that’s important for a smooth ride.

Heh heh heh.

He said it. I didn’t.

Cars. Musicals for str8 men.

@lynnlightfoot: That article was terrible, but I found the article on schools grappling with homeless children completely heartbreaking. The slideshow made me cry.

@The Nabisco Quiver: Dude, what happened to your gravatar?

Fixed

@SanFranLefty: I was afraid to watch the slideshow. Meanwhile, Republicans are worried, not about homeless children, but about whether the President might “indoctrinate” schoolchildren. The purveyors and promoters of this nonsense deserve the very worst fate that FlyingChainSaw can imagine for them.

fuckin’ celebs:
SHAWNE MERRIMAN AND TILA TEQUILA: NFL Player Arrested, Accused Of Choking Reality Star

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/06/shawne-merriman-and-tila-_n_278494.html

@redmanlaw: I’m with Justin’s Dad on this one:

“Who in the fuck is tila tequila? Is she a stripper?…That’s her? Yeah, that’s a stripper, son, I don’t give a shit what you say.”

@lynnlightfoot: Are you kidding? As far as the RNC is concerned, the only solution to this problem is 1) elimination of taxes on the rich, 2) jesus and 3) repeal of all state and federal taxes and regulation on business. “Had Charity the opportunity to trade in derivatives of life insurance, catastrophe bonds and reverse mortgages without the burdens of taxes, she may have had the chance to build and staff her own school. Unfortunately, the marxist insurgency known as the Democrat Party, led by the stalinist afrosupremist Obama, are determined to destroy any hope for Chastity to prosper. Although the RNC has great respect for the Office of the Presidency, we know in our hearts that if Jesus were alive today, he would liberate America from the scourge of this Islamofascist with a sniper rifle. He told us himself through His prophet, Sarah. “

@Jamie Sommers: Drive a Smart ForTwo for an hour, then see if you’re laughing.

@redmanlaw: She’s a “reality star”? WTF is that?

@Dodgerblue: She starred in a reality show. The premise of her show was that she is bisexual and so both men and women were competing to date her.

I do not know how I know this. I never saw her show, but she’s unfortunately featured in gossip rags all the time. Much like my random knowledge of the “Speidi” couple – all this is taking up precious brains cells I could be destroying through pharmaceuticals and/or using to learn about entertainment unions’ labor laws.

@SanFranLefty: For Labor Day, here’s a link to a case decided by the New Mexico Court of Appeals regarding whether the exclusivity provisions of the Workers Compensation Act barred a stripper’s claims arising from battery by the club manager.

http://www.supremecourt.nm.org/pastopinion/VIEW/98ca-179.html

I am also looking for the workers comp case in which a stripper slipped and was injured because another dancer left lotion on the pole. At issue was whether said stipper was an employee or independent contractor for purposes of determining coverage.

@SanFranLefty: @redmanlaw: Wow. There are a lot of things I just don’t know.

@redmanlaw: I sure hope it was lotion…