trinacriabob

If you get a dog with a great personality and high intelligence, consider yourself blessed. They make a great addition to most households and, for some people, such as the elderly and the disabled, they are God's gift to them. I'm not on board with calling them "children" even though, for some people, they function as children and they are free to call them whatever they want. For me, it was always "my dog."

In 1963, they didn't think that far ahead, either, and the 520 bridge across the lake was built with 2 lanes in each direction. I have not yet driven on the new 520 bridge. I am looking forward to that. As soon as I saw a video with 2 lanes inside the tunnel, I knew that it was a stupid decision. Was there not enough width to go for 3 lanes? That's just a rhetorical question. There are so many things to consider: ROW, soils, thickness of the tunnel walls, etc., etc.

I did just that. I was surprised to see that both the Spark and the Sonic continue. I thought only one would continue because the sizes and price points are so close together. IIRC, these are not built in the U.S. I did a little bit of build and price. If you get the base LS model on both of these cars, you get MANUAL windows. Huzzah! These cars share parts. The IP instrument cluster is virtually identical in both. The Spark comes with a CVT automatic while the Sonic gets a geared automatic transmission. You can't knock manual windows!

That is a '74. Those are easy to tell apart compared to '75 to '77. They had the much improved canted back front end yet lacked the wraparound rear back lite. Yesterday morning: A 1979 to 1983 vintage Cadillac Eldorado - white - white padded landau - burgundy leather interior, on a major bridge, but going about 45 mph when everyone else was doing 60 mph. I could not see the engine badge but, whatever it had under the hood, it should have been able to do 60 mph. It was in good condition. Yesterday afternoon: Those rare but unremarkable jelly bean Ford Thunderbird coupes from around '86 to '88. Again, it was white and may also have had a burgundy interior. A friend of mine in Atlanta had one of these and, while his parents were driving it across Texas, it overheated and warped the head gasket (Ford 3.8 V6 with cast iron block and aluminum heads). It was cruising along nicely at 65 mph. It was in fair condition.

Thank you! This is very interesting! Is the job complete? If not, when will it be completed? This is analogous to what both Boston and San Francisco did at their CBD waterfronts. From the video, it looks like the tunnel has 2 lanes in each direction. I was hoping it would have 3. I believe the viaduct had 3 lanes. Hey, driving on its top deck was o.k. ... haha. The first time I was in Seattle was in the mid-'80s. It wasn't as touted as it was a decade later. You could buy a brick ranch (rambler) in West Seattle for $ 85,000. Go figure. - - - - - Speaking of Seattle also makes it natural to talk about commercial aircraft. The Boeing 747-8, although lackluster in sales, still keeps going, mostly through orders for the freighter. The jumbo first flew on Feb. 9, 1969. However, I believe the double decked A380's days are over. Emirates has already retired several and Air France is planning to retire ALL of their A380s by 2022. This is mind blowing and I found this in this 2 day old article. Come on, Air France, order up some B747-8s, given that you already have a lot of B777s in the fleet. https://leehamnews.com/2019/09/30/a380-service-life-struggles/

I am getting older. Am I asleep? (Some Rip Van Winkle factor in the equation.) I remembered that, by September and October, American manufacturers released their next MY lineup ... all of the vehicles. Out of curiosity, I looked to see the 2020 Chevrolet (pared down) lineup in official form and couldn't find it. When will this information be made available and displayed to the general public? This would also apply to other manufacturers.

@daves87rs When dogs annoy me, which is rare, it's usually large, clumsy dogs or small pampered yappy dogs, especially the kind that get taken to the groomer. I much prefer the medium sized breeds of herding/working dogs. If trained correctly, they really listen to their owners.

What kind/breed are they? I find that always has something to do with it.

Thanks. I very much agree on Southwest. So it sounds like Frontier is o.k. and Spirit is the iffy one. Spirit's website even looks a little "off." But it's hard not to notice their taxi cab yellow aircraft. Those are a LOT of horror experiences. Even with Southwest? Interesting. Of the majors, I have done well with United. (And I think Star Alliance is the best among the worldwide airline alliances.) Of the big domestics, I find American to be the most so-so. Not a big fan. I doubt I will fly across the Pacific anytime soon since I never have up to now. It would be interesting to know if JAL is any good. They were a big name at LAX when I was a kid and I loved seeing their jumbo there. I will say that I've been hit and miss with Lufthansa. They CAN be rude. However, I applaud them and use them because they were the launch customer for the Boeing 747-8i (they operate 19 of them). I'd love to fly with KLM someday. They are operators of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a plane I only recently got to experience and think has an incredible cabin experience in terms of creature comforts (humidification, lighting, bin space, etc.) Wow. Thanks.

I'm all about Southwest Airlines and then Delta or United Airlines (about a tie). I don't fly them much anymore, but Alaska is an excellent airline - probably even better than Delta or United. I have never flown on Spirit or Frontier. They sometimes have that remote nonstop and/or the best fare before add-ons. I have read some horror stories. But then, it's always those who are livid that are sounding off. I'm sure that, most of the time, their flights get off and arrive close to schedule and the bags make it onto the plane and then onto the luggage carousel. Any experiences with and advice about Spirit or Frontier Airlines? Thank you!

The original rendition works better for me. This dude is sort of scary looking. However, WV cloaked in fall colors is anything but scary.

I do not like Lexus. Not my thing. However, this is, at the very least, interesting ... Lexus's equivalent of the Smart Car. Hopefully, there's a nifty low price to match its size. I have driven Smart Cars about 5 or 6 times ... as rentals in Europe. Twice they were a "For Four" (better) and the remainder of the time they were the two-seaters. Let me tell you, if you have one small suitcase and a small backpack or personal item, there is nothing finer for tooling around Sicily or making your way through the small streets of Lisbon, and all the better with a (nevertheless sh!tty) automatic trans. While the Smart's trans is dismal, the ride is surprisingly okay for being so damn small. They feel like slightly bigger cars, until a truck goes whizzing by you in the adjacent lane on the highway! To own one would be a NO.

Chrysler 300, right? I rented one. I liked it. I didn't love it. I expected it to be a much more refined experience than the Charger, to differentiate itself. It wasn't. It was all in the sheet metal, seating, and shape and finishes in the dash. I know I've reviewed one here. I certainly think they are much easier on the eye at the end of their run than what the initial (now a "gang banger") version looks like. Got to be careful with the 300, too. It really needs toned down colors, wheels, options, and such to keep it classy. It can go pimpy real fast. This is my idea of nice as far a 300 goes. Yes, folks, L.A. does have an ugly side ... or two ... or three. That would be in the revitalized arts district right next to the concrete culvert that is the L.A. River.

I read that the Italian government "officially" collapsed. I don't exactly know what it means. But is it any surprise, given that they've changed presidents and prime ministers as frequently as normal people change their underwear? Sad. You put the synergistic force of a bunch of pompous Italian bureaucrats who like to hear themselves talk in one big room and you expect something to get done?

I cannot. I think that, right now, a CT6 with a 3.6 would be the closest thing to a GM heirloom. I know that it would be wonderful for about 7 years and then give me fits with all the expensive gadgetry that will go sideways every other month after that.

Cadillac will need to overhaul its design vocabulary sooner than later. It did a formidable job of this, having come from trunks and deck lids that were too long, fins, and engines with over 400 cubic inches.* However, Cadillac's current styling is etched in consumers' heads as "oh, it's a Cadillac," which is not necessarily a bad thing (thinking of the CT6 et. al.) It will still need to reinvent its own wheel. * I think I told you all about a black woman named Velma I worked with as a teen who had this beautiful Cadillac Coupe de Ville. It was a '78. Of the '77/'78/'79 grouping, the '78 was the best looking. Hers was the extra cost Cerise Firemist Metallic with a burgundy landau and a burgundy interior. Too bad it had wire wheels instead of some more toned down Cadillac alloys. I told her she had a 425 under the hood and showed her some features on her car. I also helped this other lady in the office buy a smaller Cutlass Supreme coupe instead of a Monte Carlo coupe and she was real happy with it. These ladies liked me, for some reason. We had one of those hippiesh office to office lunch vendors working out of some wicker basket who came around daily and she was from Germany. They howled at my German accent impersonation. Everybody was given carte blanche to be a little crazy in SoCal. Those were the days, baby. Whereas I couldn't tie break between which GM car I wanted in the past, I am now hard pressed to find a GM car I want to own. I am not a happy camper in this regard.

It was supposed to be released in 2020. Now, the release date is 2021. This means it should be in the showrooms in late 2020, just a little over a year from now. It (probably) is going to be built at the Brampton, Ontario, Canada plant. That's a good thing! Canadians built my current and last car! Mum is the word. Complete silence. Any ideas as to when we will see what the next-gen Charger is going to look like inside and out? By the end of this year? As a Christmas present? I'm frustrated. When a Malibu LT with a 1.5 L (90 c.i.) start-stop turbo assisted L4 would sticker for $26K and a Charger SRT with a 292 hp very familiar Pentastar 3.5 L V6, along with loads more room and substance, stickers for around $29.9K, my loyalty to GM wanes and the Charger it is. I just hope I like the next one because my current car doesn't even have 100,000 miles on it and is just "broken in" ... well, not quite.

Circular vents really depend on the overall dash design. On the venerable '76 Cutlass Supreme, they looked great. On the '04 to '07 Pontiac Grand Prix, they really looked great. Loved that dash board, except for the orange back lighting and the low build quality of the materials. I think it has to do with the shape of the dash AND how the circular vents are distributed and placed across the dash.

Spot on. It said Olds 88 all the way. I'm guessing those were 350 powered. Most of them. I don't think that hood design lasted very long on the LeSabres and Parks of that era. We had a family friend who had a triple burgundy Park Avenue coupe, one of the first and with an oversized rear quarter window, that he cursed up and down. Mechanically okay, but it nickel and dimed him with so many ancillary things going so wrong so early. I believe he kept it until he passed away. 'This (whatever) went out on the Buick. I took it to the dealer. You know how much they wanted for this stupid piece? Can you believe that?' Yes, he was Italian. I saw a bunch of good reviews for these and then a couple of unflattering ones. I know someone who has one - low $ 30K --- 4 cyl. and no AWD. I sat in it. Sits too low for my taste and visibility out the back is challenging. I also don't like the three circular vents in the middle of the dash. Are these based on already familiar architecture? Any ties to the Optima and/or Kia engines? If so, it makes it less of a "first year" wild card.

The Boeing 737-Max situation is so dire. It's as if we've forgotten. This makes the teething problems of other commercial aircraft seem like child's play. Thinking back, I've actually flown on one. It was on a Southwest leg from Denver to L.A. It even had to be deiced. Once it got going, it majestically climbed up over the Front Range with negligible turbulence and continued on for a smooth flight to L.A. I thought this was a joke, but it's true. Southwest Airlines will soon cease flights to EWR (Newark). They will consolidate their New York flights into LGA (LaGuardia). I didn't read whether or not Islip (Long Island) would be affected but their dropping out of Newark does not make me happy. It's easier to use than are LGA or JFK if you are only flying domestically. I see part first-gen Riviera and part early 70s Olds 88. I don't see any Pontiac in the mix and I certainly don't see any Chevrolet.

Economic downturn? I like to look at real estate sites. There are already residential properties (not the mansions Robin Leach would tour) in California, Washington state, et. al. that are showing "reduced" in their prices. We've only seen this recently. We certainly haven't seen this in a long time. I would agree that there is a downturn coming.

Here's my trivia on this. The '75s and 76s came standard with the 4.1 liter 250 ci L6. I've seen a couple. Mostly in the '75s. Advertised for $3,999 and with no air. I'd have taken one off their hands. Just for '77, the 3.8 liter 231 ci V6 was standard. It was odd firing and I wish they had never put them in there. Just say I came across the big Cutty like these with the inline 6, I'd gladly have kept it. How can you destroy a Chevy inline 6? It's not easy. On the other hand, Regal/Century used the odd firing 3.8 liter 231 V6 in '75, '76, and '77. And it was unfortunate to see a rare and beautiful Regal S/R coupe with the trestle shifter between the buckets sometimes powered by one. I didn't have a problem with 3.8s from 1978 on, when the crankshaft revision made for smooth idling and an inherently more durable engine. I also feel that the Regal/Century should have always had the 260 V8 option if the LeMans/Grand LeMans always had it in those same years. That made no sense. Pontiac had something like 5 engine choices for the slower selling vehicle among GM's opera windowed coupes.

On a better note, these were the days! Oh yes they were! One of Detroit's finest moments ... and so perfectly timed for our bicentennial year. Haha ... from the UK? I think NOT.

No one saying anything about the Jeffrey Epstein thing? What a thing to wake up to upon turning on the computer. But it doesn't surprise me. He was living beyond large for too long a time and it caught up with him. Now, of course, they have to do an inquest as to what happened to him and the protocols around that. It looks fairly obvious to me. At any rate, this circus will continue as many will now come forward, perhaps with more ease and it will get a lot of air and media time, which I will not be watching or following. Within the last 20 years, Trump, in his glad handing and glib style, said Epstein was a 'great guy' and that they had similar tastes in women, and he even mentioned that he tended to like them on the young side. This would all still be bad. I just wonder how much "less bad" it would be if this dude hadn't dipped below the age of majority. In a couple of photos of him I saw, he looked suitable to be cast for the role of a turtle neck wearing, wife swapping husband from some bad 70's movie filmed in, you guessed it, the Hollywood Hills. What a horrendous week - El Paso, Dayton, Epstein, and God knows what else. How am I supposed to even think about cars?

Why the hell not? The era of the Cutlass Supreme, Greg Brady and Marcia Brady hair, and this! "Satisfaction ... ... came in a chain reaction"