goodbye ugwy car, hello... ?
Mike Jankulak
My car is being harvested for parts.
I'm experiencing a sadness that is almost pleasurable, and I'm
inclined to linger in it. It's not so terrible as losing a pet or
acquaintance, but there's a surprisingly strong hit on sentimental
terms. Lots of associations, lots of memories. And I'm not even
particularly fond of cars -- I don't remember car brand names very
well, or spend hours dreaming about the bmw or lexus I want to own
someday. I always (thought that I) thought of my car as something
merely useful. And, well, uniquely mine.
I didn't get a driver's license until I'd made the decision to move
to the US. So I didn't own any kind of car before I moved to Florida
in 1996. At that point, I was scrambling to find transportation,
since this urban area is not at all friendly to non-personal-car
transportation. I was also scrambling to establish some kind of
credit history in this country, but that's another whole story. It
will suffice to say that it made financing a car... rather
challenging.
Well, I ended up with my green 1996 Saturn SL1. When I got my plate
a few weeks later, it read UWG 84Y. Sim took one look at the plate
and exclaimed "it's an UGWY car!" (yes, transposing two letters).
Annoyed and charmed in equal measures (well, you can pretty-much add
that qualification to anything I write about Sim -- "annoyed and
charmed in equal measures, I took Sim to the supermarket" -- but I
digress), I accepted my new car's moniker, and eventually grew
grateful for license-plate mnemonic. [I can't remember my current
tag number, which is a "manatee" plate. They make you replace your
plate every five years in FL. But I still have my "ugwy" plate in
the filing cabinet.]
What I should maybe have said right at the beginning is this: *I'm*
fine. For a few days, my neck felt like I slept on it wrong, and I
had a headache Monday night, but otherwise I count myself fortunate.
I got rear-ended on the way home from work Monday night.
Okay, so here's the thing -- I didn't stop. It wasn't my fault,
obviously -- traffic had slowed for an accident and I slowed and
stopped safely, but the person behind me didn't. Crunch. I saw them
pull over to the shoulder, but I was too scared to pull over as well.
We were in the fast lane of I-95, it was dark, the streetlights were
out, there was a car sideways in the shoulder with its ass poking out
into traffic, and (obviously) people weren't driving safely. oh, and
very heavy rain falling -- not top to bottom as you'd expect, but --
sideways, in a strong wind. Did I mention it was dark?
Possibly I'd pull over if I had to make that decision again. But I'm
not sure -- people are *not* careful drivers around here, and more
than once I've read about someone being killed while in the shoulder
with their hazards on. I didn't *think*, exactly -- more like
decision-by-adrenaline -- but now that I *have* thought, I balance
taking the hit on my own insurance against fear for my person, and
I'm still not... sure. I have a feeling that this is something most
people won't agree with, and to get them to even *understand* seems
to take a lot of explanation of context.
But the deciding factor, to my mind, was that I didn't think it was
*that* bad. I'd never been in an "accident" accident before, but I'd
been rear-ended once at a stoplight. One tiny dent to my bumper and
I got a cheque for a few hundred dollars. I didn't even go through
my insurance co, I did it directly through the other guy's company.
So the fact that I *could* drive away, really, made me think I was
talking about another fender-bender. For a couple hundred of dollars
one way or another, who's going to risk significant bodily harm?
I got home and Sim helped me get my brain jump-started again.
Objectively evaluated my car ("it's bad"). I opened the trunk for a
better look and my heart sank when I realized it wouldn't close
again. Sim made me call my insurance company and I got an
appointment with an adjuster for Tuesday afternoon. Sim tried to
prepare me for the possibility that they might 'total' it. No way, I
thought -- a 'totaled' car means all smushed to bits, cut into two
pieces, burned to a crisp, that sort of thing. Certainly not the car
that I drove 10 miles after being hit.
But GEICO said $3156.76 to repair. Their policy is to declare the
vehicle a total loss if repairs exceed 70% of its value. There were
probably ways I could have insisted on repair, and bought back the
car with their payment cheque, but it's pretty complicated and there
was a possibility that the state would flag the title somehow as "no
longer registerable." So I took the money and abandoned my car to
its fate.
Now I have to get a new car. I always said my next car was going to
be a hybrid; I'd always planned to learn to drive a manual before
buying my next car. Of course, I'd planned my next new car to be at
least another five years off in my sunny future, and look how that
turned out.
Trouble is, there's this whole new-car-buying process. I'd rather
suck blood out of a dead rat than try to have a conversation at most
car dealerships. If I stick to my dream of buying a hybrid, my
choices are (mercifully) few -- the honda civic hybrid, or the toyota
prius. [Rumour has it that the prius is hard to come by, so -- given
about a week to buy another car -- my choices may be fewer still.]
The sticker prices are not pleasant, compared to my '96 Saturn. Then
there's my generally-poorer employment situation and overall economic
prospects and I wonder, should I compromise? I've given myself about
a week to decide.
Meanwhile, in a few minutes, I'm going to make Sim take me to some
empty parking lot and show me how difficult it is to drive a manual
transmission (his). He's always said (some fraction joking, some
fraction deadly serious) that he'd never again teach a lover to drive
standard, not after the experience of teaching his last lover.
Yesterday I decided to ask him to consider it, and today we're going
to suit ourselves up in protective gear and see how much we like
yelling at each other. Hey, maybe it'll be funny.
Look at it this way, maybe: it's bound to be more enjoyable than
buying a new car will be. In fact, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance
that the *accident* was more enjoyable than buying a new car will be.
--
"Your Uncle Albert and I had a whirlpool romance,"
Aunt Ruthie tells me. Then she pauses. "Is that
the word I mean?" -- Patricia Volk
Dennis Lewis
wrote:
>
>... What I should maybe have said right at the beginning is this: *I'm*
Glad to hear you weren't more seriously hurt.
>... [I can't remember my current
>tag number, which is a "manatee" plate. They make you replace your
>plate every five years in FL. ...
Yes, but you don't have to get one of those expensive specialty
plates. (Expensive in a relative sense, I suppose -- the manatee plate
is an extra $20 a year, which I thought was a bit high when tacked on
to the regular license fee.)
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/specialtytags/Manatee.html
The extra money from the U.S. Olympic commemorative plate --
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/specialtytags/USOlympics.html --
and a portion of the proceeds from the professional sports team plates
go to the Florida Sports Foundation. That group must have cash coming
out the wazoo with all the NFL plates on the highway!
I'm thinking about getting the Marine Corps plate when I have to
replace mine. It's only $15 extra, and it's got a nice design. (And
there's nothing in the fine print about having to actually have been a
Marine to get one.)
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/specialtytags/USMarineCorps.html
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/specialtytags/specialindex.html
>... GEICO said $3156.76 to repair. Their policy is to declare the
>vehicle a total loss if repairs exceed 70% of its value. ...
I know you don't want to hear about my beloved 1988 Cadillac Cimarron,
which the insurance company never totaled regardless of the amount of
damage it sustained in its collisions. And NO, I wasn't at fault in
any of them; no one was even in the car for most of them. That thing
was like a magnetic force, pulling other cars into it. (Oddly enough,
the car I'm driving now is quite the opposite -- it's had some close
calls, but the other car managed to veer away or come to a stop just
at the nick of time.)
By the fourth time the trunk of the Cimarron got smashed in, my
romance with my "affordable Cadillac" had cooled somewhat. When the
insurance adjuster called me with the usual, "Good news! It can be
fixed!," I almost responded with: "Are you out of your mind!? There's
no trunk there! You mean the repair bill isn't going to equal 70% of
the trade-in value for a five-year-old Cadillac Cimarron???"
> There were
>probably ways I could have insisted on repair, and bought back the
>car with their payment cheque, but it's pretty complicated and there
>was a possibility that the state would flag the title somehow as "no
>longer registerable." So I took the money and abandoned my car to
>its fate.
If it makes you feel any better, not having the car totaled can be a
bigger nightmare. If they don't total it, you know you're not going to
be able to get a new car, so you have to rely on a rental car
(especially if you live in Florida, where public transportation
sucks). I don't know about your policy, but even if you have the
rental car coverage, check the fine print -- it usually doesn't cover
*100%* of the cost of the rental, but only offers x dollars per day.
And yes, Enterprise will give you a special "accident rate," but it
won't match the insurer's reimbursement rate.
And how long will you be a customer of Enterprise? Well, heaven only
knows. You certainly don't want the body shop to do an inferior job.
On the other hand, as you realize how much the rental car is costing
you...
Believe me, when I was driving that Cimarron, I got on a first-name
basis with the crew of the body shop at the local Cadillac dealer. And
I don't think they ever got that car put back together in less than
two months -- maybe a month and a half. First, they'd have to
determine what parts they needed. Then they'd have to order them from
GM. ("Insist on genuine GM parts!") There'd be a four-week wait for
the parts alone. Then they'd start rebuilding the thing -- and the
body shop is closed on Saturday and Sunday, so the crew could only
work on it during the week. And they'd have to wait for one section to
set before they could proceed to the next section -- etc., etc., etc.
And evidently there's something that, once an insurance company
commits to having a car repaired, it can't back out of the deal (i.e.,
reverse its original assessment). Invariably, the body shop would
determine something needed to be done, or a part was needed, that
wasn't included on the original estimate, and the final repair bill to
the insurance company did end up higher than 70% of the trade-in value
-- or at least within .9999999 of 70%.
Kevin Michael Vail
jank...@panix.com (Mike Jankulak) wrote:
[]
I'm glad you're OK!
> Meanwhile, in a few minutes, I'm going to make Sim take me to some
> empty parking lot and show me how difficult it is to drive a manual
> transmission (his). He's always said (some fraction joking, some
> fraction deadly serious) that he'd never again teach a lover to drive
> standard, not after the experience of teaching his last lover.
> Yesterday I decided to ask him to consider it, and today we're going
> to suit ourselves up in protective gear and see how much we like
> yelling at each other. Hey, maybe it'll be funny.
In about 50 years. I tried to teach *my* ex- how to drive a standard,
and was "successful" by the definition that he was able to drive it
without me in the car from time to time and hardly ever stalled it in
the middle of an intersection in downtown DC during rush hour (though I
do recall one frantic left turn across three lanes of oncoming traffic
that took several years off my life--it was the same day we'd spent
picking out tile for the bathroom in this apartment, so we were both
already pretty frayed around the edges). But he did it entirely by rote
("let's see, I'm going 22 mph so it's time to shift into third") and
with little or no adjustment to the circumstances. (He learned computer
things the same way. I wanted to give him the principles, he just
wanted recipes. I guess there's a reason he's an ex. (Of course it
didn't help that any car trip we took had us arguing before we got out
of the driveway and randomly sniping at each other for the duration of
the trip, unless one of us was asleep. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe
on wheels. (David and I travel much more harmoniously, but of course
part of *that* is that one of us is usually asleep if the trip is longer
than 40 minutes. (Most of the time it's not the driver.))))
A friend of mine, of infinite patience (he taught both of his kids to
drive, and I think his wife, too, back when they were dating in high
school--of course they didn't have kids then, and if they did they
wouldn't have been old enough to drive) tried to teach my sister to
drive a standard once. His family had a 1942 Plymouth named Petunia
that was his father's first car (and no, he didn't keep all of his cars,
just this first one and whichever one was current) and had been on the
road year-round until 1970 or so, when they started driving it only in
the summer (registering it every year in the spring and de-registering
it in the fall, to save half the registration fee--I always thought that
was excessively frugal, but they paid cash for their house and I have a
mortgage, so there might be something to it). He explained to her about
letting the clutch out slowly while pressing the accelerator. All of
the pedals in this car were baby-foot sized things. (There was almost
nothing under the hood, just the engine with a great deal of empty space
around it (the battery was under the driver's seat).)
This was in the field behind his house. So the car is running, she lets
out the clutch without doing anything else, and the engine dies. "Now
what?" she says. Well, "now what" turned out to be all of us trying to
push this thing to get it started again, because apparently the battery
didn't have enough juice to do that. Have you ever tried pushing a car
over a field of grass to get it started? You can save yourself the
experiment: it doesn't work. Good thing the car was relatively light,
since we ended up pushing it all the way into the garage.
> Look at it this way, maybe: it's bound to be more enjoyable than
> buying a new car will be. In fact, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance
> that the *accident* was more enjoyable than buying a new car will be.
Now this I would agree with. When David leased the Vailstar van (of the
whizzing-around-Georgetown-with-Frank-cowering-in-fear variety), he
called a company and said "I want such-and-such" and they drove a couple
over for him to look at. He liked the color of one of them better, said
"I'll take that one," signed some papers, and that was that (except for
the matter of having the Vailstar logo decaled onto the sides). I would
like to be able to call someone and say "I want a little red car that
gets good gas mileage, has a CD player *and* an aux input for the iPod,
has four doors, and upholstery that won't show dog hair" and have it
delivered.
What usually happens when we buy a car is that David goes and picks out
what he thinks would be good, using my name. Then I go back with him
after work, we talk to the salesdroid and start by explaining that I'm
me and David is not. That usually throws them off-kilter enough (I
recall one salesman with a look on his face that plainly said "I have a
bottle of whiskey in that drawer that I really wish I were drinking from
right now") that we don't have to deal with all of the salesdroidish
things they normally try to throw at you (and if they try, we could
always say "Just kidding!" and let David be me again for a while, which
should have them whimpering and offering to *give* us the car if we just
go away--it's never gotten that far yet, though there's hope for the
future).
But I like my current system even better, which is not to have a car at
all, just to use the Vailstar van for wild rides through populated areas
with selected visiting motssers aboard.
--
Kevin Michael Vail | Dogbert: That's circular reasoning.
ke...@vaildc.net | Dilbert: I prefer to think of it as no loose ends.
http://www.vaildc.net/kevin/
Robert Hansen
news:b5itb4$r5g$1...@panix5.panix.com...
>
> My car is being harvested for parts.
The Saturn? Oh NO!!!
For the rest of the audience - when I stayed at the Aberlaks' a few years
ago, Mikey made great effort at pointing out that my (then-)car, a Mazda929,
was "huge" compared to his little Saturn. I didn't think it was that much
larger in size - maybe in weight, but since *I* outweighed Mike by a
significant amount, it was only fair my car outweighed his as well. He
remained convinced that Melanie Mazda was much larger than his Saturn.
>
> Well, I ended up with my green 1996 Saturn SL1. When I got my plate
> a few weeks later, it read UWG 84Y. Sim took one look at the plate
> and exclaimed "it's an UGWY car!" (yes, transposing two letters).
> Annoyed and charmed in equal measures (well, you can pretty-much add
> that qualification to anything I write about Sim -- "annoyed and
> charmed in equal measures, I took Sim to the supermarket" -- but I
> digress), I accepted my new car's moniker, and eventually grew
> grateful for license-plate mnemonic. [I can't remember my current
> tag number, which is a "manatee" plate. They make you replace your
> plate every five years in FL. But I still have my "ugwy" plate in
> the filing cabinet.]
Are "manatee" plates considered "specialty" plates in FL? Do they cost
more?
Me-me-me section: When I bought my new vehicle a year and a half ago (a '99
Nissan Frontier - my first pickup), I had to give up its Farm Truck plates.
In Texas, residents of certain counties can have their vehicles designated
Farm Trucks and get a discount on their tags. As I lived in a metropolitan
area, Farm Truck plates weren't available to me. I decided to get a
specialty plate as TX's regular plates are rather ugly. Upon research, I
stumbled upon a specialty plate which just screamed at me:
http://www.dot.state.tx.us/vtr/spplates/specialplate.htm?nbr=95
I ordered them with my initials as personalization, and got them a few weeks
later. The day after I mounted them on the truck, I drove to work - and by
the end of the workday, my truck had outed me to every person in the
building who for whatever reason had no clue that I was gay. (You'd be
amazed how many people have no idea what the rainbow sticker represents!)
My then-boss, who was a total nutcase, came back from lunch that day and
said "I saw your new plates, and I have just one question for you. You can't
just take the title 'State Fruit of Texas', can you? Doesn't there have to
be some kind of competition?" One of my co-workers still calls me "S.F.",
for "State Fruit".
In the last 18 months, I've seen just two other vehicles with the fruit
plates, and both were gay-owned (if the stickers on the vehicles were any
indication).
> What I should maybe have said right at the beginning is this: *I'm*
> fine. For a few days, my neck felt like I slept on it wrong, and I
> had a headache Monday night, but otherwise I count myself fortunate.
> I got rear-ended on the way home from work Monday night.
I can still remember all the I-95 stories you told me when I was down there.
I'm saddened you are now one of the statistics as well. I hope you are
feeling better.
> Meanwhile, in a few minutes, I'm going to make Sim take me to some
> empty parking lot and show me how difficult it is to drive a manual
> transmission (his). He's always said (some fraction joking, some
> fraction deadly serious) that he'd never again teach a lover to drive
> standard, not after the experience of teaching his last lover.
> Yesterday I decided to ask him to consider it, and today we're going
> to suit ourselves up in protective gear and see how much we like
> yelling at each other. Hey, maybe it'll be funny.
Back around 1985, while on a week-long vacation trip through Washington
state, my ex tried to teach me to drive his manual Toyota Celica. I almost
drove the car (with us in it) off a cliff near the picturesque town of
Humptulips. I'll never forget Humptulips! Steve's summation of the
experience - "Robert, if the good lord stops making automatics - TAKE THE
BUS."
> Look at it this way, maybe: it's bound to be more enjoyable than
> buying a new car will be. In fact, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance
> that the *accident* was more enjoyable than buying a new car will be.
I always get physically ill when I buy a vehicle. But then again, I
sometimes get physically ill on blind dates. Maybe there's a connection.
Anyway, I hope everything goes well for you.
-rah
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert A. Hansen - Austin TX - adam...@prodigy.net
"It is futile to fight against, if one does not know
what one is fighting for.” -- Ayn Rand
Kevin Michael Vail
"Robert Hansen" <adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> Back around 1985, while on a week-long vacation trip through Washington
> state, my ex tried to teach me to drive his manual Toyota Celica. I almost
> drove the car (with us in it) off a cliff near the picturesque town of
> Humptulips. I'll never forget Humptulips! Steve's summation of the
> experience - "Robert, if the good lord stops making automatics - TAKE THE
> BUS."
How could you forget a place named (and why, for god's sake)
"Humptulips"? Even if you hadn't almost driven a car off of a cliff.
When my ex and I were in Greece in 1982, we rented a car one day. It
was a manual, which meant I drove (this was prior to me giving my ex
transmission lessons). We were parked at the the edge of a cliff
halfway up the Acrocorinth. This car had a peculiarity in that it was
hard to distinguish reverse from fourth gear, or rather that it would
sometimes go into fourth when you thought it was in reverse. Well, it's
pretty lucky I wasn't parked right at the edge of the cliff, and also
that cars don't go very quickly when you go from a dead stop into fourth
gear.
Robert Hansen
news:kevin-2537E7....@vienna7.his.com...
> In article <iY8fa.626$zf4...@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com>,
> "Robert Hansen" <adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> > Back around 1985, while on a week-long vacation trip through Washington
> > state, my ex tried to teach me to drive his manual Toyota Celica. I
almost
> > drove the car (with us in it) off a cliff near the picturesque town of
> > Humptulips. I'll never forget Humptulips! Steve's summation of the
> > experience - "Robert, if the good lord stops making automatics - TAKE
THE
> > BUS."
>
> How could you forget a place named (and why, for god's sake)
> "Humptulips"? Even if you hadn't almost driven a car off of a cliff.
It was named after a local Indian tribe. This is from "The Indian Tribes of
North America":
Humptulips. Said to signify "chilly region." (Robert's note: VERY
appropriate for that part of Washington.)
Connections.—The Humptulips belonged to the coastal division of the
Salishan linguistic stock, being connected most closely with the Chehalis.
Location.—On the Humptulips River, and part of Grays Harbor, including
also Hoquiam Creek and Whiskam River.
Villages:
Hli'mumi (Curtis, 1907-9), near North Cove.
Hoquiam, on Hoquiam Greek.
Hooshkal (Gibbs), on the north shore of Grays Harbor.
Kishkallen (Gibbs), on the north shore of Grays Harbor.
Klimmim (Gibbs), 1877).
Kplelch (Curtis), at the mouth of North River.
Kwapks (Curtis, 1907-9), at the mouth of North River.
Mo'nilumsh (Curtis), at Georgetown.
Nooachhummik (Gibbs), on the coast north of Grays Harbor.
Nookalthu (Gibbs), north of Grays Harbor.
Nu'moihanhl (Curtis), at Tokeland.
Whishkah, on Whishkah River.
These are placed under the Humptulips only on account of their locations
as described.
Population.—See Chehalis. In 1888 according to Olsen 18 Humptulips were
reported. In 1904 there were 21.
Connection in which they have become noted.—Humptulips River and a village
in Grays Harbor County preserve the name of the Humptulips Indians.
xym...@spam.nicht.rochester.rr.com
<adam...@prodigy.net> wrote great stuff I've cut:
I laughed, I cried, great website, etc., etc., thanks for sharing all
that!
Katie, who has no idea what the state fruit of New York is
Edward Ricketts
>
> My car is being harvested for parts.
Condolences on the loss of the car. Felicitations that it was only a
minor pain event.
[ snipping to the chase ... ]
> Meanwhile, in a few minutes, I'm going to make Sim take me to some
> empty parking lot and show me how difficult it is to drive a manual
> transmission (his).
(An empty parking lot in Florida, in snow-bird season ? {Hi, Season!))
> He's always said (some fraction joking, some
> fraction deadly serious) that he'd never again teach a lover to drive
> standard, not after the experience of teaching his last lover.
> Yesterday I decided to ask him to consider it, and today we're going
> to suit ourselves up in protective gear and see how much we like
> yelling at each other. Hey, maybe it'll be funny.
Does the protective gear include ear-plugs ?
For thread tie points: (though I may have told this story some time ago)
One of my *family stories* is about my fathers brothere teaching his
mother how to drive, at a time when there was essentially nothing but
stick (aka standard) shifts - at least in our economic class.
Uncle took grandmother to country lane - not all that far to go in
that area in the 1920's. Grandmother successfully drove vehicle
for some distance, probably made a turn or two. Uncle then had
grandmother come to a stop near an access into a farm field, and
back into the field to make a sort of U-turn. Grandmother apparently
applied a little too much gas and backed over a farm implement of some
sort, putting dent in the gas tank. Uncle reclaimed the drivers seat
and drove home.
When grandpa came home, uncle first made sure that dad would not be angry
with mom about the dent, and that dad would not shout at mom.
Grandfather did not shout at grandmother, however he did shout at uncle:
WELL, WHY IN HELL DIDN'T YOU HAVE HER DRIVE BACK OVER IT
AND STRAIGHTEN IT OUT !
sh...@radix.net Ed Ricketts
PS: Grandmother gave up idea of learning to drive.
JTEM
"Mike Jankulak" <jank...@panix.com> wrote
> Trouble is, there's this whole new-car-buying process.
> I'd rather suck blood out of a dead rat than try to have
> a conversation at most car dealerships.
A friend made the mistake of giving his name & number at
the local Toyota dealership. They keep calling him with
what the say are offers. They won't give him a price, they
won't even give him an interest rate, but they'll quote a
monthly payment any time he asks. All they need is a down
payment amount...
I don't consider myself a financial wizard but, how can
they figure out the monthly payment when they don't know
the interest rate and price of the car?
Beats me.
David Kaye
> My car is being harvested for parts.
> I'm experiencing a sadness that is almost pleasurable, and I'm
> inclined to linger in it. It's not so terrible as losing a pet or
> acquaintance, but there's a surprisingly strong hit on sentimental
> terms. Lots of associations, lots of memories.
I once had a 1966 Mustang. We had been through a lot together. I
cried when I had to have it towed. It seemed so undignified that the
car had to be towed from the rear because of the peculiar transmission
hook-up. It was the kind of emotion, say, from seeing your mom hauled
off to jail in her nightgown, or something.
And, like you, I'm not particularly fond of cars and have not other
attachment to them. But my Mustang, well...
JTEM
P.S.
"Mike Jankulak" <jank...@panix.com> wrote
> I always said my next car was going to be a hybrid; I'd
> always planned to learn to drive a manual before
> buying my next car.
The Toyota hybrid comes with a continuous-shift. You'd
drive it like an automatic. That is to say, you pop it into
drive and forget about it.
I'd still recommend you learn to drive a stick. It's not
difficult, it can save you as much as $1000 off the price
of a new car and it can be a lot of fun. Under the right
conditions you can play "Ferrari on the Autobahn"
even in a beat up Chevette or an under-powered Beatle.
I speak from experience here.
Best advice: It's all about 1st & reverse and they're all in
the feet. That stick between the seats, the driver
occassionally moving it, seems pretty obvious to you
automatic-only drivers. What you don't see (or ignore) is the
feet.
Car in first... left foot on clutch... slowly lifting... feeling,
with the foot, just when the gear starts in... depressing the
gas at that very moment... not too much now, it'll stall or
spin the wheels... not too little, it'll stall or buck on you...
Try it. You'll get it.
Asmodeus
Hash: SHA1
jank...@panix.com (Mike Jankulak) wrote in
news:b5itb4$r5g$1...@panix5.panix.com:
> Meanwhile, in a few minutes, I'm going to make Sim take me to some
> empty parking lot and show me how difficult it is to drive a
> manual transmission (his). He's always said (some fraction
> joking, some fraction deadly serious) that he'd never again teach
> a lover to drive standard, not after the experience of teaching
> his last lover. Yesterday I decided to ask him to consider it,
> and today we're going to suit ourselves up in protective gear and
> see how much we like yelling at each other. Hey, maybe it'll be
> funny.
Lo, these many decades ago when I took drivers' ed, we
drove an automatic and a manual. It irks me that nobody
does anymore, apparently, since people pull right up
on your rear (hello back there, we're on a hill and I'm
driving a stick). After you learn how to drive a real
transmission, you won't do that (-:
Rupert, our Volvo, died last year, and we had been
relying on Hansel, our Saab. Then, Hansel decided to
go on an extended vacation--five weeks.
That was the length of time I could deal with no car
without going postal, and I bought an Explorer. Hansel
is now happy, so we now have Hansel und Gretel (imagine
a navy blue Ford Explorer with blond braided pigtails.
It works for me.)
- --
"Dobermans are often called the original Velcro Dog -- having one
means you will never go to the bathroom alone again."
-- The Doberman FAQ
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Asmodeus
Hash: SHA1
d...@sprynet.com (Dennis Lewis) wrote in
news:3e7d0227...@nntp.sprynet.com:
> Yes, but you don't have to get one of those expensive specialty
> plates
Gretel has truck plates--it's her statement against
undue government intrusion (in Indiana, trucks are
exempt from seatbelt laws). Addendum: yes, I wear
my seatbelt, but I strongly oppose laws, and even
more strongly oppose cops setting up roadblocks to
stop people and see if they're wearing them.
They do that here when they need some money.
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Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
> Just so's ya know: spammers routinely look for and remove
> strings like "nospam", "spammenot", etc. from target addresses,
> so such strings are no longer very useful obfuscations.
You'd think so, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case,
according to people in the anti-spam community I've spoken to. The
spammers have (until now, at least) been amazingly lazy.
But just to test out that theory, this message has the address
"la...@nospamgnus.org". If I get mail to that address without the
spammy bits, then spammers have, indeed, grown brains.
Mmmm. Brains.
--
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
la...@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
Mike Jankulak
>It irks me that nobody
>does anymore, apparently, since people pull right up
>on your rear (hello back there, we're on a hill and I'm
>driving a stick). After you learn how to drive a real
>transmission, you won't do that (-:
We had a rental with a standard transmission when we were in
Nice several years ago. Sim did all the driving, since I
didn't know how to drive it. At one point, climbing up out of
Monte Carlo on a steep, twisty road, we came upon a three-way
intersection.
Well, the signs were clearly saying that *we* didn't have to
stop (and, presumably, everyone else did). But someone was
barreling in fast enough from the left that it seemed doubtful
that they'd stop. So Sim stopped, as a kind of defensive move
(as it turned out, the car on the left stopped too).
Getting underway was... interesting. We were on a very steep
incline, and rolled back a bit while trying to get the car in
first. Eventually, with much bucking and me a sobbing mess
(well, no not quite that bad) in the passenger seat, we got
in gear and proceeded up the hill. Big belches of black smoke
came through the A/C vents. My reaction to the smoke was...
er, is it *supposed* to do that?
So yeah, I'm ahead of the game since I already knew the bit
about rolling backward on an incline when you're trying to
get into first. Not that there are a lot of "inclines" in
South Florida to experiment with. Although, I guess, I could
think of a few parking garages where the payment booth is
right at the top of an incline, with cars lined up bumper to
bumper (people are assholes, especially people in cars) while
waiting.
Ken Rudolph
>>From: Asmodeus <bo...@nospaminsightbb.com>
>
> Just so's ya know: spammers routinely look for and remove
> strings like "nospam", "spammenot", etc. from target addresses,
> so such strings are no longer very useful obfuscations.
I wonder how much spam is generated from Usnet postings. I get
25-30 spams per day on my yahoo.com account which has never been
used in any post. And I only get an average of 2-5 spams daily in
my attbi.com e-mail account which has never been spam guarded
through hundreds of postings. And almost all of that spam is from
African money launderers or female porn hustlers, which proves they
aren't very smart if they're getting their addresses from soc.motss.
In fact I've *never* received a specifically gay oriented spam.
--
--Ken Rudolph
film oriented web site at: http://home.attbi.com/~kenru
Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
> I average 150 emails a day, about a third of them spam.
I did a count a couple of weeks ago. More than 99% of the mail I get
is spam and/or viruses.
I win! Whee!
Peter Hartikka
ve and forget about it.
>
> I'd still recommend you learn to drive a stick. It's not
> difficult, it can save you as much as $1000 off the price
> of a new car
Unfortunately, cars with manual transmissions do not hold their resale
value very well. The market for them simply isn't there. Or so I was
told the last 2 times I sold one.
-Peter in Brussels
DRS
[...]
> Getting underway was... interesting. We were on a very steep
> incline, and rolled back a bit while trying to get the car in
> first. Eventually, with much bucking and me a sobbing mess
> (well, no not quite that bad) in the passenger seat, we got
> in gear and proceeded up the hill. Big belches of black smoke
> came through the A/C vents. My reaction to the smoke was...
> er, is it *supposed* to do that?
Here if you can't do a hand-brake start don't bother showing up for your
test. They're not hard but clearly aren't taught where you are.
--
"Too much information is almost always a turnoff. (Note how "Foie Gras"
sounds delightful, yet "Spreadable Ruptured Liver" does not)."
Carina Chocano
DRS
news:Xns9347508F2553Ab...@216.148.227.77...
[...]
> Gretel has truck plates--it's her statement against
> undue government intrusion (in Indiana, trucks are
> exempt from seatbelt laws). Addendum: yes, I wear
> my seatbelt, but I strongly oppose laws, and even
> more strongly oppose cops setting up roadblocks to
> stop people and see if they're wearing them.
Seatbelt laws are excellent laws. My state was the first in the world to
make seatbelt use compulsory and it was one of the best things the
government ever did. They don't just save lives, they also massively cut
down on severe injuries. Before we introduced our laws we had four
paraplegics or quadraplegics from car accidents for every death and those
people lived on for years at great cost to the community. In the first year
of compulsory seatbelt use that injury rate dropped 75%. When you don't
wear a seatbelt you're not just putting yourself at risk, you're also
exposing anybody else in the vehicle to risk and if you have an accident and
survive you're imposing on the rest of society as well, so I say let's have
more cops pulling people over if they aren't wearing their seatbelts and
have them impose ever greater penalties until people get the message.
Sim Aberson
>I wonder how much spam is generated from Usnet postings. I get
>25-30 spams per day on my yahoo.com account which has never been
>used in any post. And I only get an average of 2-5 spams daily in
>my attbi.com e-mail account which has never been spam guarded
>through hundreds of postings. And almost all of that spam is from
>African money launderers or female porn hustlers, which proves they
>aren't very smart if they're getting their addresses from soc.motss.
> In fact I've *never* received a specifically gay oriented spam.
Someone in one of the panix newsgroups published a study on spam. The
findings were very interesting. First, the nospam (et al.) additions to
e-mail addresses worked. None of the addresses with this addition ever
got spam. Usenet postings only led to 4 or 5 spam messages daily. The
vast majority of spam came from having an e-mail address on a website.
I'll see if I can find the url of the study.
--
Guns were not for girls. They were for boys. They were invented by
boys. They were invented by boys who had never gotten over their
disappointment that accompanying their own orgasm wasn't a big BOOM
sound. Lorrie Moore
David Horne
> Here if you can't do a hand-brake start don't bother showing up for your
> test. They're not hard but clearly aren't taught where you are.
My driving test in Pennsylvania consisted of driving slowly around some
traffic cones, and parking within a foot of the kerb. I'm not kidding.
My brother, in Norway, went on a three day residential course when he
took his driving test. Though my US license is still valid in the UK for
renting a car, I'd have to take the harder UK test to get a license
here. However, I've come to the decision that too many people drive
already, so I'm inclined to maintain my non-driver status here.
David
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
Robert Hansen
news:m365qao...@quimbies.gnus.org...
> ande...@wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) writes:
>
> > I average 150 emails a day, about a third of them spam.
>
> I did a count a couple of weeks ago. More than 99% of the mail I get
> is spam and/or viruses.
>
> I win! Whee!
Speaking of, next Saturday is the 25th annual SPAMARAMA in Austin. Live
music and a SPAM cook-off... what more could one ask for?
-rah, muttering the web site's legal disclaimer "SPAM® is a registered
trademark of the Hormel Foods Corp. for luncheon meat. SPAMARAMAT is a
trademark of the Hormel Foods Corp. for an annual festival in Austin, TX."
Brian Kane
>Someone in one of the panix newsgroups published a study on spam. The
>findings were very interesting. First, the nospam (et al.) additions
>to e-mail addresses worked. None of the addresses with this addition
>ever got spam. Usenet postings only led to 4 or 5 spam messages
>daily. The vast majority of spam came from having an e-mail address
>on a website.
That's been my understanding, too. So far my astroplace dot com
website is the source of most of my spam. I get 30 to 100
spams per day, but my spam filter is good enough to zap most
of them.
However, once you let your guard down, you're haunted by it
for quite a while.
Case in point: five years ago, when I used my bdkane account
at erols dot com to post to Usenet (and only to post), I
started getting a few spams per day. By the time I separated
my account at erols.com from Tim Numero Uno's, I was getting
about 30 per day. So, as bdkane1, I did spam masking, and
wasn't bothered by the hazards of Usenet posting for another
four years or so.
Fast-forward to fall 2002. I moved, and got Starpower's
cable modem service. I asked for the bdkane username, and
got it. Well, Starpower and Erols are both owned by RCN,
so my bdkane account at starpower dot net gets emails for
the same user at erols dot com.
I'm getting spam again from spam lists which were made
almost *five* *years* *ago*.
Yes, spammers are that lazy.
--
Brian Kane
Washington, DC
http://astroplace.com/brian.asp
bri...@SPAMastroplace.com <-- remove NO SPAM
Brian Kane
>JTEM
>>I'd still recommend you learn to drive a stick. It's not
>>difficult, it can save you as much as $1000 off the price
>>of a new car
>Unfortunately, cars with manual transmissions do not hold their resale
>value very well. The market for them simply isn't there. Or so I was
>told the last 2 times I sold one.
I've also found that there have been far fewer transmission
repairs necessary in cars with automatic transmissions.
Perhaps that is a reason they tend to depreciate in value
less quickly than those with sticks, dunno...
But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
E-COOT
Hash: SHA1
ande...@wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) wrote in
news:b5kndh$8lh$1...@news.doit.wisc.edu:
> I average 150 emails a day, about a third of them spam. Of the
> spam, about half is in Korean, Chinese, Japanese or Portuguese
> (from Brazil). Most of the porn is straight, but there's plenty
> of gay porn too, plus a sprinkling of Nigerian scams and
> variants thereof.
Larger breasts today! Viagra! Valium!
Get your free PDA!
- --
Where's that shillelagh?
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Brian Kane
>We had a rental with a standard transmission when we were in
>Nice several years ago. Sim did all the driving, since I
>didn't know how to drive it. At one point, climbing up out of
>Monte Carlo on a steep, twisty road, we came upon a three-way
>intersection.
We had similar experiences in Sicily. The only difference
being that drivers there never, *never* yielded the way. I
swear, sometimes I felt I was in a scene from a Fellini movie.
E-COOT
Hash: SHA1
"DRS" <d...@removethis.ihug.com.au> wrote in
news:b5kq8h$494$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz:
> They don't just save lives
If they saved a half million lives a year, it
would make no difference. The government has
no business protecting people from their own
idiocy.
--
Where's that shillelagh?
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DRS
news:Xns9347891EF3E87b...@204.127.199.17...
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> "DRS" <d...@removethis.ihug.com.au> wrote in
> news:b5kq8h$494$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz:
>
> > They don't just save lives
>
> If they saved a half million lives a year, it
> would make no difference. The government has
> no business protecting people from their own
> idiocy.
You obviously weren't paying attention. Seatbelts also save the rest of us
from people's idiocy and enforcing that is entirely and properly within the
government's domain.
E-COOT
Hash: SHA1
jank...@panix.com (Mike Jankulak) wrote in
news:b5kf2e$n7b$1...@panix5.panix.com:
> Getting underway was... interesting. We were on a very steep
> incline, and rolled back a bit while trying to get the car in
> first. Eventually, with much bucking and me a sobbing mess
> (well, no not quite that bad) in the passenger seat, we got
> in gear and proceeded up the hill. Big belches of black smoke
> came through the A/C vents. My reaction to the smoke was...
> er, is it *supposed* to do that?
That's what front-wheel drive is for (when
we lived way out in the boonies, there was
a stop sign at an intersection like that.
Hansel, who has front-wheel drive, never
had any trouble.)
--
Where's that shillelagh?
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Kevin Michael Vail
Asmodeus <bo...@nospaminsightbb.com> wrote:
> Lo, these many decades ago when I took drivers' ed, we
> drove an automatic and a manual. It irks me that nobody
> does anymore, apparently, since people pull right up
> on your rear (hello back there, we're on a hill and I'm
> driving a stick). After you learn how to drive a real
> transmission, you won't do that (-:
We park in a garage where the exit ramp feels like a 45-degree slope,
and you have to come to a complete stop at the top of it to slide a card
through a reader in order to open the door. The first clutch on my '84
Honda Civic 4-door Sedan that I bought in Texas (I loved that car)
lasted over 60,000 miles; moved to DC in 1988, started parking in that
garage sometime in 1989. Had the clutch replaced in 1991. And again in
1992. When it wore out *again* in 1993, we decided it was time to get
an automatic.
Tying this in with Mike's post, I like to point out that the clutch
lasted just fine until my ex, and later David, started driving it.
David protests this vehemently, of course.
> Rupert, our Volvo, died last year, and we had been
> relying on Hansel, our Saab. Then, Hansel decided to
> go on an extended vacation--five weeks.
You name your cars? My mother names hers, too, but all of them since a
Ford Fairlane that she bought back while I was in high school have been
named Sam.
> That was the length of time I could deal with no car
> without going postal, and I bought an Explorer. Hansel
> is now happy, so we now have Hansel und Gretel (imagine
> a navy blue Ford Explorer with blond braided pigtails.
> It works for me.)
Do you park them in a gingerbread garage?
--
Kevin Michael Vail | Dogbert: That's circular reasoning.
ke...@vaildc.net | Dilbert: I prefer to think of it as no loose ends.
http://www.vaildc.net/kevin/
Brian Kane
>Here if you can't do a hand-brake start don't
>bother showing up for your test. They're not
>hard but clearly aren't taught where you are.
I'm so much happier now that I'm driving cars
with automatic transmissions. Frankly, I can't
see the charm of the chore of having to always
remember to shift at the right time to keep
the car running smoothly--even if it does become
second nature. For me it was a mounting psychic
toll, one that my easily stressed persona was better
doing without in the long run.
Driving a stick and having the need either to be
"in control" or to know how "drive a real car"
seem tightly linked with road rage phenomena.
I remember wondering a couple years ago whether
preference for stick had any gender connection
(you know, a "macho" thing), but it's clearly
not the case. It's probably just a personal
preference thaaang, or a preference of personality
type.
Kevin Michael Vail
> Jess Anderson wrote:
>
> >>From: Asmodeus <bo...@nospaminsightbb.com>
> >
> > Just so's ya know: spammers routinely look for and remove
> > strings like "nospam", "spammenot", etc. from target addresses,
> > so such strings are no longer very useful obfuscations.
>
> I wonder how much spam is generated from Usnet postings. I get
> 25-30 spams per day on my yahoo.com account which has never been
> used in any post. And I only get an average of 2-5 spams daily in
> my attbi.com e-mail account which has never been spam guarded
> through hundreds of postings. And almost all of that spam is from
> African money launderers or female porn hustlers, which proves they
> aren't very smart if they're getting their addresses from soc.motss.
I get a fair amount of all kinds of spam, but I don't think it's from
Usenet postings...I think it's mostly because the "webmaster" account at
three different domains ends up in my mailbox. (And my ISP has an
excellent spam filtering service, so little of that actually ends up in
my inbox.) The reason I think this is that Toby gets spam from the few
postings that he made over a year ago, but only one or two a month.
> In fact I've *never* received a specifically gay oriented spam.
I could forward you some of mine if you like. ;-)
Kevin Michael Vail
"Robert Hansen" <adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> Speaking of, next Saturday is the 25th annual SPAMARAMA in Austin. Live
> music and a SPAM cook-off... what more could one ask for?
Peeps for dessert?
Michael Thomas
> Peter Hartikka:
> >Unfortunately, cars with manual transmissions do not hold their resale
> >value very well. The market for them simply isn't there. Or so I was
> >told the last 2 times I sold one.
>
> I've also found that there have been far fewer transmission
> repairs necessary in cars with automatic transmissions.
> Perhaps that is a reason they tend to depreciate in value
> less quickly than those with sticks, dunno...
>
> But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
> like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
Huh. I drive a stick here in SF and it doesn't bother me
in the least.
--
Michael Thomas (mi...@mtcc.com http://www.mtcc.com/~mike/)
Oh, the Bible is full of dribbling sperm-like fluids. All that
begetting and begotting! A race of genetic inbreds, that's us!
*X*
Ellen Evans
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
[]
>But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
>like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
Or any place where there is likely to be heavy stop and go traffic. After
a while it can feel like you are rowing down the road rather than driving.
Because I use my car primarily for commuting on a very busy road, I got an
automatic. From time to time I regret the decision - a stick would be
much livelier - but then I get caught in ridiculous traffic and I go "oh,
yeah."
--
Ellen Evans 17 Across: The "her" of "Leave Her to Heaven"
je...@panix.com New York Times, 7/14/96
DRS
news:Xns93478A8757B02b...@199.184.165.240...
> DRS to Jank+:
> >Here if you can't do a hand-brake start don't
> >bother showing up for your test. They're not
> >hard but clearly aren't taught where you are.
>
> I'm so much happier now that I'm driving cars
> with automatic transmissions. Frankly, I can't
> see the charm of the chore of having to always
> remember to shift at the right time to keep
> the car running smoothly--even if it does become
> second nature. For me it was a mounting psychic
> toll, one that my easily stressed persona was better
> doing without in the long run.
When it's second nature you don't have to remember anything. You change
when it feels right to change.
> Driving a stick and having the need either to be
> "in control" or to know how "drive a real car"
> seem tightly linked with road rage phenomena.
> I remember wondering a couple years ago whether
> preference for stick had any gender connection
> (you know, a "macho" thing), but it's clearly
> not the case. It's probably just a personal
> preference thaaang, or a preference of personality
> type.
Manual transmissions are very popular in Europe but I don't know that they
have higher incidences of road rage than America does. Whilst automatics
are somewhat more popular here virtually everybody still learns and gets
their test done on a manual, to the point where taking the test on an
automatic (which leads to a limited licence) is viewed with something akin
to incredulity.
Christian Hansen
Which is interesting, since I've never used my yahoo account for anything
substantive (except collecting e-mail from my other accounts while I'm in the
U.S.) and I've never gotten any spam to speak of on it (maybe three?)
OTOH, I get about 30 a day on my demon.co.uk account; it's made it almost
impossible to use that account for anything.
Recently I've started getting 5-10 a day on my btinternet.com account. There
is a spam filter on that account (courtesy of BT) but it's not very good. All
the e-mails from lastminute.com are put in spam when they're not, and I get
3-4 a day put into the inbox rather than the spambox. I've also started
getting a few in my commex.org account, which is weird since I almost never
use it.
I think most of these are from webcrawling.
Chris "I am not interested in lengthening my penis or buying Viagra, since I
get Viagra for free from the NHS and think that my equipment is just fine as
it is, thenkyewvurrymush." Hansen
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com
http://www.hansenhome.demon.co.uk
"You try moving a truck full of shit with a scared pussy in your lap and
see how social you feel." Frank McQuarry
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
>>like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
>
>Huh. I drive a stick here in SF and it doesn't bother me
>in the least.
Well, you do like living on the edge, and all...
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
>>like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
>
>traffic jam that it really gets tiresome.
That's almost every single weekday in Washington.
Brian Kane
>Because I use my car primarily for commuting on a very
>busy road, I got an automatic. From time to time I regret the
>decision - a stick would be much livelier - but then I get caught in
>ridiculous traffic and I go "oh, yeah."
I think I'm so good with automatics now because I take out
my control issues verbally now--when no one can hear my vitriol
behind rolled-up windows.
Yeah, sweet li'l Astroboy is a real *bitch* on wheels.
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>I'm so much happier now that I'm driving cars
>>with automatic transmissions. Frankly, I can't
>>see the charm of the chore of having to always
>>remember to shift at the right time to keep
>>the car running smoothly--even if it does become
>>second nature. For me it was a mounting psychic
>>toll, one that my easily stressed persona was better
>>doing without in the long run.
>
>When it's second nature you don't have to remember anything.
>You change when it feels right to change.
Well, that's what I'd always thought, but there's
this little thing about repetitive behavior and most
human brains. You cross a threshold--frequency
or number of repetitions--and you can get these "psychic"
shadows (don't know how else to describe them), similar
to when get a mindworm from playing too many video
games, or an earworm from listening ot the
same song over and over again.
There were times when I sould imagine shifting
and shifting each night when I tried to fall asleep.
But I'm just *that* *way*.
>Manual transmissions are very popular in Europe but I don't know that
>they have higher incidences of road rage than America does. Whilst
>automatics are somewhat more popular here virtually everybody still
>learns and gets their test done on a manual, to the point where taking
>the test on an automatic (which leads to a limited licence) is viewed
>with something akin to incredulity.
That's understandable if your license to drive is limited.
I'm not aware of any such distinction imposed in the
United States--at least for passenger cars.
Brian Kane
>wow, stickshift trauma ;) I've been doing it for so long it's entirely
>autonomic/automatic.
You don't get shiftworms?
>Brian Kane:
>>Driving a stick and having the need either to be
>>"in control" or to know how "drive a real car"
>>seem tightly linked with road rage phenomena.
>
>that's a bit of a stretch. for me it's not so much being in control as
>just being more involved with the process.
No, I meant the occasions when stick-shifters have
those needs. I didn't imply that stick-shifters
always have those needs.
xym...@spam.nicht.rochester.rr.com
wrote:
>Driving a stick and having the need either to be
>"in control" or to know how "drive a real car"
>seem tightly linked with road rage phenomena.
>I remember wondering a couple years ago whether
>preference for stick had any gender connection
>(you know, a "macho" thing), but it's clearly
>not the case. It's probably just a personal
>preference thaaang, or a preference of personality
>type.
For me, driving a stick is just so much more fun and interesting, and
it keeps me alert and connected to the road and the car. One time I
got really lucky when I rented a U-Haul truck that had a 4-speed
column shift. Aside from the fact that it had no first gear to speak
of, I really enjoyed barreling around town in that thing. Haven't
been so fortunate since in subsequent truck rentals.
Katie, who would LOVE to try driving one of those 18-wheeler rigs
DRS
> DRS:
[...]
> >When it's second nature you don't have to remember anything.
> >You change when it feels right to change.
>
> Well, that's what I'd always thought, but there's
> this little thing about repetitive behavior and most
> human brains. You cross a threshold--frequency
> or number of repetitions--and you can get these "psychic"
> shadows (don't know how else to describe them), similar
> to when get a mindworm from playing too many video
> games, or an earworm from listening ot the
> same song over and over again.
>
> There were times when I sould imagine shifting
> and shifting each night when I tried to fall asleep.
> But I'm just *that* *way*.
That does sound odd to me. I hate to be the one to have to break it to
you... but you have no future as a taxi driver in Amsterdam.
> >Manual transmissions are very popular in Europe but I don't know that
> >they have higher incidences of road rage than America does. Whilst
> >automatics are somewhat more popular here virtually everybody still
> >learns and gets their test done on a manual, to the point where taking
> >the test on an automatic (which leads to a limited licence) is viewed
> >with something akin to incredulity.
>
> That's understandable if your license to drive is limited.
> I'm not aware of any such distinction imposed in the
> United States--at least for passenger cars.
Here iIf you pass your test on an automatic you are limited to automatics.
If you pass your test on a manual you can drive both.
DRS
news:2h4s7vo001a4uidnf...@4ax.com...
[...]
> Katie, who would LOVE to try driving one of those 18-wheeler rigs
I have an ex in Holland who had a heavy vehicle licence. Unfortunately it
got him drafted.
Kevin Michael Vail
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
> Joon:
> >Brian Kane:
> >>But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
> >>like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
> >
> >eh. I manage. in-city isn't bad, it's when you get stuck in a big-ass
> >traffic jam that it really gets tiresome.
>
> That's almost every single weekday in Washington.
And some weekends, too, if there's like a protest or something in town.
Kevin Michael Vail
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
> Joon:
> >wow, stickshift trauma ;) I've been doing it for so long it's entirely
> >autonomic/automatic.
>
> You don't get shiftworms?
>
> >Brian Kane:
> >>Driving a stick and having the need either to be
> >>"in control" or to know how "drive a real car"
> >>seem tightly linked with road rage phenomena.
> >
> >that's a bit of a stretch. for me it's not so much being in control as
> >just being more involved with the process.
>
> No, I meant the occasions when stick-shifters have
> those needs. I didn't imply that stick-shifters
> always have those needs.
I've heard that one should never let a programmer who prefers a stick
shift design a user interface. :-)
Brian Kane
>I've heard that one should never let a programmer who prefers a stick
>shift design a user interface. :-)
Nor try to pat Toby. Since I've become an automaton,
my first instinct upon meeting the lovable little
mop was "do not touch."
Frank McQuarry
Kevin Michael Vail wrote:
> But I like my current system even better, which is not to have a car at
> all, just to use the Vailstar van for wild rides through populated areas
> with selected visiting motssers aboard.
You'll love Ithaca in July. It's hilly and has many winding roads, and
you will have your *pick* of motssers that time of year.
David W. Fenton
>Trouble is, there's this whole new-car-buying process. I'd rather
>suck blood out of a dead rat than try to have a conversation at
>most car dealerships. If I stick to my dream of buying a hybrid,
>my choices are (mercifully) few -- the honda civic hybrid, or the
>toyota prius. [Rumour has it that the prius is hard to come by,
>so -- given about a week to buy another car -- my choices may be
>fewer still.] The sticker prices are not pleasant, compared to my
>'96 Saturn. Then there's my generally-poorer employment situation
>and overall economic prospects and I wonder, should I compromise?
>I've given myself about a week to decide.
Well, you could rationalize it this way:
Buy a non-hybrid car.
Replace it with a hybrid 5 years from now.
There are honestly good reasons why you wouldn't necessarily want
to commit to the hybrid right now, especially just because you'd
made yourself a promise to do so. Your options don't look too great
right now, so rigid adherence to a principle seems a bad reason to
make a really serious decision like that.
[]
>Look at it this way, maybe: it's bound to be more enjoyable than
>buying a new car will be. In fact, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance
>that the *accident* was more enjoyable than buying a new car will
>be.
Why is it that buying these kinds of things is so horridly
difficult? There are too many choices and too little way to
actually compare different models and come up with any meaningful
choices. It always ends up as apples and oranges, once you've
whittled down the massive number of choices.
I'm glad I don't need to buy a car.
I can't even buy a cell phone.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
Frank McQuarry
Brian Kane wrote:
>
> Joon:
> >Brian Kane:
> >>But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
> >>like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
> >
> >eh. I manage. in-city isn't bad, it's when you get stuck in a big-ass
> >traffic jam that it really gets tiresome.
>
> That's almost every single weekday in Washington.
And weekend! The traffic does dye down a bit around AM.
Robert Hansen
news:b5kq8h$494$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> Seatbelt laws are excellent laws. My state was the first in the world to
> make seatbelt use compulsory and it was one of the best things the
> government ever did. They don't just save lives, they also massively cut
> down on severe injuries. Before we introduced our laws we had four
> paraplegics or quadraplegics from car accidents for every death and those
> people lived on for years at great cost to the community. In the first
year
> of compulsory seatbelt use that injury rate dropped 75%. When you don't
> wear a seatbelt you're not just putting yourself at risk, you're also
> exposing anybody else in the vehicle to risk and if you have an accident
and
> survive you're imposing on the rest of society as well, so I say let's
have
> more cops pulling people over if they aren't wearing their seatbelts and
> have them impose ever greater penalties until people get the message.
I say let people decide what they want to do with their lives and get the
government out of it.
I'd place the responsibility where it should properly reside - on the driver
and his/her insurance company. Insurers should be able to say "OK, you
don't want to wear a seatbelt - that's fine. You're just going to have to
pay through the nose for the privilege". That person's insurance premiums
(and policy coverages) would then be considerably higher than a policyholder
who commits to wearing a seatbelt. The higher the risk - the higher the
premium. This scenario would take the issue out of the hands of the
government and into the marketplace where it belongs.
-rah
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert A. Hansen - Austin TX - adam...@prodigy.net
"It is futile to fight against, if one does not know
what one is fighting for.” -- Ayn Rand
David W. Fenton
<3e7d0227...@nntp.sprynet.com>:
>If it makes you feel any better, not having the car totaled can be
>a bigger nightmare. If they don't total it, you know you're not
>going to be able to get a new car, so you have to rely on a rental
>car (especially if you live in Florida, where public
>transportation sucks). I don't know about your policy, but even if
>you have the rental car coverage, check the fine print -- it
>usually doesn't cover *100%* of the cost of the rental, but only
>offers x dollars per day. And yes, Enterprise will give you a
>special "accident rate," but it won't match the insurer's
>reimbursement rate.
I went through this when my Buick Skyhawk was stolen in 1987. It
was already 10 years old and I had no collision on it, only, uh,
comprehensive (is that what it's called?). It was something like
$110/year.
Well, who would have thought that such a junk car with pieces
hanging off would have been stolen?
Or that I'd get so much money for it?
Anyway, I did have a rental entirely paid for by the insurance
policy until I bought the replacement car, a 3-year-old Dodge, oh,
hell, what was the name of that little thing made by Mitsubishi? In
any case, it was a much better car, so I was grateful to whoever
had stolen the old one.
Strangely enough, I still have dreams that I'm driving the old car
and the brakes are not working very well. This is kind of
interesting, given that the brakes actually *did* go out on me
once, about 2 blocks before I got on I-90, thank heavens. I simply
steered the thing to the curb and bumped up against it to stop. I
actually ended up driving it quite a distance to have the brakes
fixed, all without brakes, but it was a manual transmission, so I
was able to brake with shifting downard.
In any event, my rental experience was fabu (though the car wasn't
very good; it was some 4-door Chrysler product), and didn't cost me
an extra nickel.
Of course, I'm sure insurance has changed since then and you
probably can't buy that kind of coverage for any price any longer.
Anther reason why I'm happy to live where I don't need a car.
David W. Fenton
<230320031348554935%sp...@spacemoose.com.invalid>:
>my yahoo account gets about 100 a week, but they manage to
>redirect about 90% of that into a "bulk email" bin that's easy to
>dump. I've never used either address in a usenet post, but somehow
>the spammers have at least gotten hold of the yahoo one.
Have you checked your Yahoo marketing preferences? Yahoo switched
things over sometime in the last year, adding a bunch of new
"preferences", and set most of them to receive unsolicited email.
If you didn't go in and turn it off, you could end up with lots of
spam.
I think web pages are what are used most to harvest spam.
I've been intending for ages to change my web pages to use a script
for the email address, but can never seem to get around to it.
A client of mine never uses their email address publicly anywhere
except on their web page and they get quite a bit of spam. Their
next website revision is going to convert to a script.
Of course, it's too late now.
DRS
news:dspfa.335$kP3...@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com...
> "DRS" <d...@removethis.ihug.com.au> wrote in message
> news:b5kq8h$494$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz...
>
> > Seatbelt laws are excellent laws. My state was the first in the world
to
> > make seatbelt use compulsory and it was one of the best things the
> > government ever did. They don't just save lives, they also massively
cut
> > down on severe injuries. Before we introduced our laws we had four
> > paraplegics or quadraplegics from car accidents for every death and
those
> > people lived on for years at great cost to the community. In the first
> year
> > of compulsory seatbelt use that injury rate dropped 75%. When you don't
> > wear a seatbelt you're not just putting yourself at risk, you're also
> > exposing anybody else in the vehicle to risk and if you have an accident
> and
> > survive you're imposing on the rest of society as well, so I say let's
> have
> > more cops pulling people over if they aren't wearing their seatbelts and
> > have them impose ever greater penalties until people get the message.
>
> I say let people decide what they want to do with their lives and get the
> government out of it.
Life in a democracy is never that simple or simpleminded.
> I'd place the responsibility where it should properly reside - on the
driver
> and his/her insurance company. Insurers should be able to say "OK, you
> don't want to wear a seatbelt - that's fine. You're just going to have to
> pay through the nose for the privilege". That person's insurance premiums
> (and policy coverages) would then be considerably higher than a
policyholder
> who commits to wearing a seatbelt. The higher the risk - the higher the
> premium. This scenario would take the issue out of the hands of the
> government and into the marketplace where it belongs.
No it doesn't. Insurance companies work on actuarial statistics. The
unnecessary risks taken by people who don't wear seatbelts still impacts on
society at large, immediately through things like generally higher premiums
and then by things like there having to be specialist nursing care and all
the rest of it. The idea that you can not wear a seatbelt, suffer a
permanent incapacitating injury and not have that impact on society is
ridiculous.
David W. Fenton
<b5kueb$75k$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz>:
>"E-COOT" <bo...@entfernensiemichinsightbb.com> wrote in message
>news:Xns9347891EF3E87b...@204.127.199.17...
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> "DRS" <d...@removethis.ihug.com.au> wrote in
>> news:b5kq8h$494$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz:
>>
>> > They don't just save lives
>>
>> If they saved a half million lives a year, it
>> would make no difference. The government has
>> no business protecting people from their own
>> idiocy.
>
>You obviously weren't paying attention. Seatbelts also save the
>rest of us from people's idiocy and enforcing that is entirely and
>properly within the government's domain.
So, what's next on your list? Mandatory condom usage?
DRS
news:9347A351Fdf...@24.168.128.78...
> d...@removethis.ihug.com.au (DRS) wrote in
> <b5kueb$75k$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz>:
>
> >"E-COOT" <bo...@entfernensiemichinsightbb.com> wrote in message
> >news:Xns9347891EF3E87b...@204.127.199.17...
> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >> Hash: SHA1
> >>
> >> "DRS" <d...@removethis.ihug.com.au> wrote in
> >> news:b5kq8h$494$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz:
> >>
> >> > They don't just save lives
> >>
> >> If they saved a half million lives a year, it
> >> would make no difference. The government has
> >> no business protecting people from their own
> >> idiocy.
> >
> >You obviously weren't paying attention. Seatbelts also save the
> >rest of us from people's idiocy and enforcing that is entirely and
> >properly within the government's domain.
>
> So, what's next on your list? Mandatory condom usage?
How would you enforce it? Wearing seatbelts is part of the price you pay
for using the roads. The situations are not identical.
Kevin Michael Vail
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
> Kevin Vail:
> >I've heard that one should never let a programmer who prefers a stick
> >shift design a user interface. :-)
>
> Nor try to pat Toby. Since I've become an automaton,
> my first instinct upon meeting the lovable little
> mop was "do not touch."
Yes, but this has nothing to do with your shifting preferences and
everything to do with self-preservation.
Although, if you and your bf came over for dinner and we went through
the Ceremony of Introduction, he would be your friend for life. (Or you
could follow Gwendolyn's method and bribe him with a biscuit almost as
big as he is. Toby almost went home with her.)
DRS
news:kevin-CF0789....@vienna7.his.com...
> In article <Xns93479BEE6FF81b...@199.184.165.240>,
> Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
>
> > Kevin Vail:
> > >I've heard that one should never let a programmer who prefers a stick
> > >shift design a user interface. :-)
> >
> > Nor try to pat Toby. Since I've become an automaton,
> > my first instinct upon meeting the lovable little
> > mop was "do not touch."
>
> Yes, but this has nothing to do with your shifting preferences and
soc.bi is over there ===============>
Kevin Michael Vail
"Robert Hansen" <adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> I'd place the responsibility where it should properly reside - on the driver
> and his/her insurance company. Insurers should be able to say "OK, you
> don't want to wear a seatbelt - that's fine. You're just going to have to
> pay through the nose for the privilege". That person's insurance premiums
> (and policy coverages) would then be considerably higher than a policyholder
> who commits to wearing a seatbelt. The higher the risk - the higher the
> premium. This scenario would take the issue out of the hands of the
> government and into the marketplace where it belongs.
That's fine, but how do you determine who's not wearing their seatbelt?
Given the much larger premiums for non-seatbelt-wearers in your
scenario, who in their right mind would admit to not wearing them?
David W. Fenton
<Xns9347886F58A35b...@199.184.165.240>:
>Mike Jankulak:
>>We had a rental with a standard transmission when we were in
>>Nice several years ago. Sim did all the driving, since I
>>didn't know how to drive it. At one point, climbing up out of
>>Monte Carlo on a steep, twisty road, we came upon a three-way
>>intersection.
>>[...]
>
>We had similar experiences in Sicily. The only difference
>being that drivers there never, *never* yielded the way. I
>swear, sometimes I felt I was in a scene from a Fellini movie.
Shouldn't Mike McKinley say something at this point?
Tony P
sp...@spacemoose.com.invalid says...
> > But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
> > like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
>
> eh. I manage. in-city isn't bad, it's when you get stuck in a big-ass
> replacing the Osterizer will be a stickshift. the only way I'd buy an
> automatic again is if I absolutely *had* to have the car and it wasn't
> made with a manual, or if I were somehow injured and unable to drive a
> manual.
It's funny, up until about 26 or 27 I'd given up on manual transmissions
as something not worth my time. I forget how the subject came up but I
was with a friend whose truck had a manual transmission. I bounced that
thing up and down the street but finally figured out what the clutch was
for.
At this point I pretty much prefer a manual - new automatics hunt like
crazy and it drives me nuts.
And driving a stick in traffic is more physically involving than an
automatic. A few hundred hours of time wasted on the lower deck of I-93
prove that.
Tony
xym...@spam.nicht.rochester.rr.com
For driving, I recommend a stick shift. I'll offer mine if I don't
ride the motorcycle down.
Katie, considering a rice cooker soon as a nod toward the automatic
machinery fans
xym...@spam.nicht.rochester.rr.com
Fenton) wrote:
>Anyway, I did have a rental entirely paid for by the insurance
>policy until I bought the replacement car, a 3-year-old Dodge, oh,
>hell, what was the name of that little thing made by Mitsubishi? In
>any case, it was a much better car, so I was grateful to whoever
>had stolen the old one.
Would that have been the Dodge Colt?
Katie, who loved her 1989 one and drove it for 8.5 years and 81k miles
until she sold it to a friend of hers (stick shift, of course)
Robert Hansen
> In article <dspfa.335$kP3...@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com>,
> "Robert Hansen" <adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> > I'd place the responsibility where it should properly reside - on the
driver
> > and his/her insurance company. Insurers should be able to say "OK, you
> > don't want to wear a seatbelt - that's fine. You're just going to have
to
> > pay through the nose for the privilege". That person's insurance
premiums
> > (and policy coverages) would then be considerably higher than a
policyholder
> > who commits to wearing a seatbelt. The higher the risk - the higher the
> > premium. This scenario would take the issue out of the hands of the
> > government and into the marketplace where it belongs.
>
> That's fine, but how do you determine who's not wearing their seatbelt?
> Given the much larger premiums for non-seatbelt-wearers in your
> scenario, who in their right mind would admit to not wearing them?
I would see no problem with auto manufacturers installing a device that
won't allow you to start your car if your seatbelt isn't plugged in. If you
choose to pay higher premiums for non-seatbelt usage, you can show proof to
your mechanic and have it disabled.
I have a key-lock device in my truck which allows me to disable the
passenger airbag. Normally, I don't carry passengers in my truck, so I have
the airbag turned off.
xym...@spam.nicht.rochester.rr.com
Fenton) wrote:
>Have you checked your Yahoo marketing preferences? Yahoo switched
>things over sometime in the last year, adding a bunch of new
>"preferences", and set most of them to receive unsolicited email.
>If you didn't go in and turn it off, you could end up with lots of
>spam.
Would this apply to the Yahoogroups, too?
Katie, afraid so
Robert Hansen
That's exactly why people who don't want to wear seatbelts should pay *much*
higher premiums. That would allow those who do wear seatbelts to pay
reduced premiums.
I won't get into the arguments about "society" because I don't subscribe to
the concept. We are a nation of individuals, not a collective.
Asmodeus
Hash: SHA1
"DRS" <d...@removethis.ihug.com.au> wrote in
news:b5l8t2$evq$1...@lust.ihug.co.nz:
> Wearing seatbelts is part of the price you pay
> for using the roads
Wearing condoms is part of the price you pay
for being in a high-risk group and having sex.
- --
DWARF: Develop Weed-infested Areas Reactionary Front
HITOP: Humans against the Immoral Treatment of Plants
CUSPV: Carnivores United to Save Plants from Vegans
The Meatatarian Homepage:
http://www.i-mockery.com/meatatarian/
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Kevin Michael Vail
"Robert Hansen" <adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> I have a key-lock device in my truck which allows me to disable the
> passenger airbag. Normally, I don't carry passengers in my truck, so I have
> the airbag turned off.
I read this as "trunk" in both places and boggled for a moment until I
figured it out.
JTEM
"Peter Hartikka" <pch9...@home.com> wrote
> Unfortunately, cars with manual transmissions do not hold
> their resale value very well. The market for them simply
> isn't there. Or so I was told the last 2 times I sold one.
If you're worried about "value," the last thing you should
be doing is selling a perfectly good car. You're increasing
your transportation costs, not "taking advantage" of any
value.
If the car is a piece of shit on it's last leg, "value" isn't an
issue.
Frank McQuarry
Jess Anderson wrote:
>
> Frank McQuarry:
>
> >You'll love Ithaca in July. It's hilly and has many winding
> >roads, and you will have your *pick* of motssers that time of
> >year.
>
> Having a pick is not a factor, retroactive virgin that I am,
> but driving mountain roads in New York State *is* fun.
Hey, Kevin, we've got a taker here!
JTEM
"Ellen Evans" <je...@panix.com> wrote
> From time to time I regret the decision - a stick would be
> much livelier - but then I get caught in ridiculous traffic
> and I go "oh, yeah."
Yes, but the evil automatic-only folks don't know what they're
missing. The only reason you can appreciate what you've got
is because you know how to drive a stick.
Frank McQuarry
xym...@SPAM.NICHT.rochester.rr.com wrote:
>
> On Sun, 23 Mar 2003 21:07:09 GMT, Frank McQuarry
> <fmcq...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >Kevin Michael Vail wrote:
> >> But I like my current system even better, which is not to have a car at
> >> all, just to use the Vailstar van for wild rides through populated areas
> >> with selected visiting motssers aboard.
> >
> >You'll love Ithaca in July. It's hilly and has many winding roads, and
> >you will have your *pick* of motssers that time of year.
>
> For driving, I recommend a stick shift. I'll offer mine if I don't
> ride the motorcycle down.
Hey, Kevin, we've got another taker here!
xym...@spam.nicht.rochester.rr.com
<adam...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
>I would see no problem with auto manufacturers installing a device that
>won't allow you to start your car if your seatbelt isn't plugged in. If you
>choose to pay higher premiums for non-seatbelt usage, you can show proof to
>your mechanic and have it disabled.
Great idea, and we could extend this to motorcyclists and the helmet
laws by letting those who prefer to ride without helmets to do so upon
similar proof of additional insurance.
Katie, all for freedom of choice, but within certain economic limits
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
It may "dye" down in later in the morning, but at its root
is a problem that mere touch-ups can not fix.
--
Brian Kane
Washington, DC
http://astroplace.com/brian.asp
bri...@SPAMastroplace.com <-- remove NO SPAM
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>Since I've become an automaton, my first instinct upon
>
>[...]if you and your bf came over for dinner and we went through
Maybe, but JL would be traumatized, no doubt.
>(Or you could follow Gwendolyn's method and bribe him with
>a biscuit almost as big as he is. Toby almost went home
>with her.)
Who wouldn't? (Anywho, if I were a dog, I guess I'd be a size
queen, too.)
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>being that drivers there never, *never* yielded the way. I
>>swear, sometimes I felt I was in a scene from a Fellini movie.
>
>Shouldn't Mike McKinley say something at this point?
Never, never on a Sunday.
Brian Kane
>At this point I pretty much prefer a manual - new automatics hunt like
>crazy and it drives me nuts.
>
>And driving a stick in traffic is more physically involving than an
>automatic. A few hundred hours of time wasted on the lower deck of I-93
>prove that.
Stop it! You tease, you're trying to get me to
move back to Boston, aren'tcha?
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>Mike Thomas:
>>>Huh. I drive a stick here in SF and it doesn't bother me in the
>>>least.
>>Well, you do like living on the edge, and all...
>Well, that edge does afford a spectacular view, eh?
Especially given the penchant of certain [mumble-mumble-
mumble] who just *loved* to appear scantily clad on
le balcon...
Brian Kane
>Yes, but the evil automatic-only folks don't know what they're
>missing. The only reason you can appreciate what you've got
>is because you know how to drive a stick.
"Oh, honey, all you need is a good stick-shift and
you'll be done with your automatic *phase*."
Sim Aberson
Kevin Michael Vail <ke...@vaildc.net> wrote:
>In article <Xns934796BCADBC7b...@199.184.165.240>,
> Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
>> That's almost every single weekday in Washington.
>
...or a guy with a tractor in the Reflecting Pool.
--
Guns were not for girls. They were for boys. They were invented by
boys. They were invented by boys who had never gotten over their
disappointment that accompanying their own orgasm wasn't a big BOOM
sound. Lorrie Moore
Sim Aberson
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
>Mike Jankulak:
>>We had a rental with a standard transmission when we were in
>>Nice several years ago. Sim did all the driving, since I
>>didn't know how to drive it. At one point, climbing up out of
>>Monte Carlo on a steep, twisty road, we came upon a three-way
>>intersection.
>>[...]
>
>being that drivers there never, *never* yielded the way. I
>swear, sometimes I felt I was in a scene from a Fellini movie.
You really felt like you were in a River Phoenix movie. Tell the truth.
Frank McQuarry
Brian Kane wrote:
>
> Frank McQuarry:
> >Brian Kane:
> >>Joon:
> >>>Brian Kane:
> >>>>But I can tell you this, the charm of driving a stick is,
> >>>>like, *totally* lost when you live in a big city.
> >>>eh. I manage. in-city isn't bad, it's when you get stuck in a big-ass
> >>>traffic jam that it really gets tiresome.
> >>That's almost every single weekday in Washington.
> >And weekend! The traffic does dye down a bit around AM.
>
> It may "dye" down in later in the morning, but at its root
> is a problem that mere touch-ups can not fix.
Would you care to "highlight" those problems?
Tony P
bri...@SPAMastroplace.com says...
> Tony P:
> >At this point I pretty much prefer a manual - new automatics hunt like
> >crazy and it drives me nuts.
> >
> >And driving a stick in traffic is more physically involving than an
> >automatic. A few hundred hours of time wasted on the lower deck of I-93
> >prove that.
>
> Stop it! You tease, you're trying to get me to
> move back to Boston, aren'tcha?
>
Hey, the Big Dig is almost completed - which means that now you'll be
stuck underground for an extended period of time as opposed to being on
a deck that's 40' off the ground.
Luckily I don't do that commute any more. I might be doing the MBTA
commuter line soon though. I just don't look forward to an hour plus
commute every day.
Tony
Robert Hansen
news:b5li5o$4a$1...@panix2.panix.com...
> In article <kevin-32B1C7....@vienna7.his.com>,
> Kevin Michael Vail <ke...@vaildc.net> wrote:
> >In article <Xns934796BCADBC7b...@199.184.165.240>,
> > Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
> >> That's almost every single weekday in Washington.
> >
> >And some weekends, too, if there's like a protest or something in town.
>
> ...or a guy with a tractor in the Reflecting Pool.
Gotta love him. He provided material for comics for an entire week.
E-COOT
Hash: SHA1
abe...@panix.com (Sim Aberson) wrote in
news:b5lihe$1d8$1...@panix2.panix.com:
>>swear, sometimes I felt I was in a scene from a Fellini movie.
^^^^^^^
> You really felt like you were in a River Phoenix movie. Tell the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ooooo ... very bizarre, and somewhat unsettling.
I can feel Howard Faye getting ready to rant
from wherever he is right now. This would have
had his teeth gnashing.
- --
Where's that shillelagh?
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Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>We had similar experiences in Sicily. The only difference
>>being that drivers there never, *never* yielded the way. I
>>swear, sometimes I felt I was in a scene from a Fellini movie.
>
>You really felt like you were in a River Phoenix movie.
>Tell the truth.
"It's when you start doing things for free, that you start to grow
wings. Isn't that right, Mike."
"What?"
"Wings, Michael. You grow wings, and become a fairy."
Brian Kane
>Brian Kane:
>>Frank McQuarry:
>>>The traffic does dye down a bit around AM.
>>It may "dye" down in later in the morning, but at its root
>>is a problem that mere touch-ups can not fix.
>
>Would you care to "highlight" those problems?
Permanent gridlock.
Brian Kane
>commuter line soon though. I just don't look forward to an hour plus
>commute every day.
So, you're in Little Rhody still?
Kevin Michael Vail
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
> Kevin Vail:
> >Brian Kane:
> >>Since I've become an automaton, my first instinct upon
> >>meeting [Toby] was "do not touch."
> >
> >[...]if you and your bf came over for dinner and we went through
> >the Ceremony of Introduction, he would be your friend for life.
>
> Maybe, but JL would be traumatized, no doubt.
How can one be traumatized watching a 10lb. ball of white fluff turn
from ferocity into friendliness? Tell him, Frank!
> >(Or you could follow Gwendolyn's method and bribe him with
> >a biscuit almost as big as he is. Toby almost went home
> >with her.)
>
> Who wouldn't? (Anywho, if I were a dog, I guess I'd be a size
> queen, too.)
I don't know. It seems to me that if a, er, biscuit is too big to fit
in one's mouth, its usefulness is diminished significantly.
Kevin Michael Vail
ande...@wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) wrote:
> Frank McQuarry:
> >Jess Anderson:
> Uh-oh. Should I be a-skeered now?
Hmmph. Ignore Frank, he just doesn't recognize good driving when he
sees it, or that a minivan can have the same cornering capabilities as a
sports car if you lean properly while turning. :-)
Hypodeemic Nerdle
wrote this:
>Rupert, our Volvo
I shouldn't be laughing out loud at this, but I did. Sorry.
--
Bess.
Frank McQuarry
Kevin Michael Vail wrote:
>
> In article <b5lmf9$orj$1...@news.doit.wisc.edu>,
> ande...@wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) wrote:
>
> > Frank McQuarry:
> > >Jess Anderson:
> > >>Frank McQuarry:
> >
> > >>>You'll love Ithaca in July. It's hilly and has many winding
> > >>>roads, and you will have your *pick* of motssers that time of
> > >>>year.
> >
> > >>Having a pick is not a factor, retroactive virgin that I am,
> > >>but driving mountain roads in New York State *is* fun.
> >
> > >Hey, Kevin, we've got a taker here!
> >
> > Uh-oh. Should I be a-skeered now?
>
> Hmmph. Ignore Frank, he just doesn't recognize good driving when he
> sees it, or that a minivan can have the same cornering capabilities as a
> sports car if you lean properly while turning. :-)
How much are you going to charge for tickets?
Frank McQuarry
Kevin Michael Vail wrote:
>
> In article <Xns9347C0F06A5C4b...@199.184.165.240>,
> Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
>
> > Kevin Vail:
> > >Brian Kane:
> > >>Since I've become an automaton, my first instinct upon
> > >>meeting [Toby] was "do not touch."
> > >
> > >[...]if you and your bf came over for dinner and we went through
> > >the Ceremony of Introduction, he would be your friend for life.
> >
> > Maybe, but JL would be traumatized, no doubt.
>
> How can one be traumatized watching a 10lb. ball of white fluff turn
> from ferocity into friendliness? Tell him, Frank!
It's true! He just wants to be loved. Just don't make any sudden
moves.
Frank McQuarry
Brian Kane wrote:
>
> Frank McQuarry:
> >Brian Kane:
> >>Frank McQuarry:
> >>>The traffic does dye down a bit around AM.
> >>It may "dye" down in later in the morning, but at its root
> >>is a problem that mere touch-ups can not fix.
> >
> >Would you care to "highlight" those problems?
>
> Permanent gridlock.
I guess the traffic is pretty tangled then.
Robert Feiertag
news:kevin-2B9B89....@vienna7.his.com...
> In article <Xns9347C0F06A5C4b...@199.184.165.240>,
> Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
>
> > Kevin Vail:
> > >Brian Kane:
> > >>Since I've become an automaton, my first instinct upon
> > >>meeting [Toby] was "do not touch."
> > >
> > >[...]if you and your bf came over for dinner and we went through
> > >the Ceremony of Introduction, he would be your friend for life.
> >
> > Maybe, but JL would be traumatized, no doubt.
>
> How can one be traumatized watching a 10lb. ball of white fluff turn
> from ferocity into friendliness? Tell him, Frank!
>
> > >(Or you could follow Gwendolyn's method and bribe him with
> > >a biscuit almost as big as he is. Toby almost went home
> > >with her.)
> >
> > Who wouldn't? (Anywho, if I were a dog, I guess I'd be a size
> > queen, too.)
>
> I don't know. It seems to me that if a, er, biscuit is too big to fit
> in one's mouth, its usefulness is diminished significantly.
Dogs don't think that way, especially if food is involved. BTW, how is
Toby? Feeling much better, I hope.
Bob
Kevin Michael Vail
"Robert Feiertag" <rfei...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> > I don't know. It seems to me that if a, er, biscuit is too big to fit
> > in one's mouth, its usefulness is diminished significantly.
>
> Dogs don't think that way, especially if food is involved. BTW, how is
> Toby? Feeling much better, I hope.
Well, we weren't sure earlier today, he spent most of it just lying
around, and he didn't finish his dinner. But David browned some
hamburger for him and Fidget, and he ate that with gusto. He enjoyed it
when we went outside for the last pee of the night, even managing to
make someone scream, which he doesn't usually do (they were getting out
of a car as we came out of the building, and Toby let out one of his
patented BigDog (tm) barks--they were thirty feet away from us, and
apparently somewhat high-strung).
He's been real perky the last hour or two, even chasing Fidget around to
play with him. He's still coughing from time to time, but it sounds
better than it did.
We won't stop worrying until we get the results of the biopsy back,
though.
Kevin Michael Vail
Brian Kane <bri...@SPAMastroplace.com> wrote:
> Kevin Vail:
> >Brian Kane:
> >>Since I've become an automaton, my first instinct upon
> >>meeting [Toby] was "do not touch."
> >
> >[...]if you and your bf came over for dinner and we went through
> >the Ceremony of Introduction, he would be your friend for life.
>
> Maybe, but JL would be traumatized, no doubt.
Actually, what I should have done is to point out that I wouldn't be
cooking. ;-)
Sim Aberson
Kevin Michael Vail <ke...@vaildc.net> wrote:
>Well, we weren't sure earlier today, he spent most of it just lying
>around, and he didn't finish his dinner. But David browned some
>hamburger for him and Fidget, and he ate that with gusto. He enjoyed it
Anyone sane would eat what David has made with gusto.
Sim, but hold the ketchup