trinacriabob

FYI It's National Donut Day today ... just what I (don't) need ...

Interesting observations and reading. I always thought of Kia and Hyundai as Toyota-grade in terms of reliability when it came to their long-term ICE models. Right now, I have a KIA with an ICE as a rental. I like putting around in it. I was reading about the brand and its reliability. It gave a list of their last 10 years of car models, and the accompanying engines, that might give you headaches. The list was peppered with way too many models, and the verbiage often mentioned "engine failure." I was shaking my head as to why this would be the case with simple in-line 4 bangers. Toyota 4 bangers, Ford 4.6 V8s, and Olds Rocket V8s rarely fail. I'm at a loss.

I take those free calendars from drugstores and got this one while buying sundries in Montreal and I just flipped forward to see this incredible view of Centre-Ville Montreal taken from the St. Lawrence River. What can I say? One of those places that fits like a glove instead of a mitt, which rhymes with, "If it does not fit, you must acquit."

Let's keep in mind that he doesn't know how things work. Someone who was a reality TV star and golf course and casino developer doesn't have the background. Not even close. It's a cluster of people who are driving this, and him, and unearthing that would provide more answers.

Other than the traffic circles, the big one that comes to mind is how they're moving boulevards over freeways in the Atlanta area. As you approach the intersection, you move to the other side of the roadway (like the UK) and then go back to the right after the overpass. It makes it so lineups of cars that need to make a left onto the freeway ramp are already on that side, without having to make a turn pocket for people to cross oncoming traffic. It was weird the first few times I drove over these. I wonder if there's a (nick)name for the design and how well it has performed.

I didn't know that about the difference. They must have made some engineering modifications. I'm almost sure the Chevy 3500 and 3900 are siblings (bore difference or similar), just like Buick's 3800 and 3300 were definitely closelyrelated. I'm guessing the Chevy 3400 was based on the 3100. To think that the 3500 can make 211 horses, lug around a heavy car, and come in at 6 or 7 mpg less than the 40 benchmark without a CVT was amazing. I'd feel good about owning and driving that, and that it was American iron. I lament the current absence of product I like.

As far as Bond girls go, sure, one has the name that raises the most eyebrows - Pussy Galore - but the one that is probably the most well-known and most parodied had to have been Tiffany Case as played by Jill St. John. And there was Plenty O'Toole in the same movie. And Bambi and Thumper. And the high-rise Las Vegas Hilton doubled as The Whyte House. "DAF" really went out on a limb after a much more true to form 007 flick like "OHMSS" but, man, was it ever funny. Great lines like: "Just shove in a couple of gallons of 'HI-TEST' " and "Hi, I'm Plenty ... Plenty O'Toole" - - - "named after your father, perhaps" and "I didn't know there was a pool down there." The whole Vegas atmosphere sure moved things in a different direction from OHMSS having taken place in the Swiss Alps. Thanks to Wikipedia, we can learn that Jill St. John had an IQ of 162 and was admitted to UCLA 2 years earlier than a normal high school senior. She didn't go to or complete college. Lana Wood who played Plenty O'Toole is the late Natalie Wood's sister and, after she hit the wall and wasn't acting anymore, was living in a motel outside of L.A. with 1 or 2 of her kids for a while. But she appears to be back on her feet. To be fair, one of her kids had extensive medical issues that were costing them a lot of money.

Interesting. Was Clive Owen even on the short list? James Bond would be a better generic name than Archibald Leach (trivia)! How many more Ian Fleming titles remain?

I read that and it's really too bad. Some of them have great goofy personalities that shine through. The only cat we had when I was a kid was a black female and she had a great personality.

Saw this at around noontime. It's not the very last-gen MC, hence 2005 and before. It's not my color, but it's in incredible condition ... This would have the 3400 V6 instead of the final 3500 VVT. I was always sort of "meh" on the Chevy high-value 60 degree V6, but they have been long lasting workhorses for so many. And, on the highway, they'd return 33 or 34 mpg on rented MCs and Impalas. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Do people really go to answer the door naked if they see that it's the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons at the door?

Every now and then, I look at parts of 007 movies on YouTube to LMAO. They hit their peak a while back. I have not seen any of the Daniel Craig ones. I must have burned out in terms of fandom. Even though I haven't seen any of Craig ones, I thought he was an off pick to play 007. It's almost confirmed, if not already confirmed, that the role will go to Henry Cavill. I think they should have kept looking. I'm sure there are a lot of qualified actors to play James Bond and they should have always been at work zeroing in on Ian Fleming's description of the main character. I'm getting sick of the unbridled PC-ness whereby one of the actors on the short list was a Black actor. If he is nothing like the James Bond alluded to in Ian Fleming's novels, he should not have been considered just because we are in the 2020s.

Thanks, @Drew Dowdell I do have the charging brick. I will be using it more. I just surf at airports. I'm off wi-fi if I decide to go onto a financial site or similar.

Not so great news: TSA does NOT recommend powering up your devices via USB at major airports nor connecting to the free airport wi-fi ... at least that's how I read it. That will take some work to plan around that.

Quick 3 minute video ... so majestic to see her in her element, at work, and seeing the inscription "United States ... New York" on her stern. Video - 3 minutes - here I really felt that NYC could have given her a home, as a tourist venue in a berth or park-like extension on the Hudson, somewhere close to Lower Manhattan, where it would have been very easy to walk over there from Battery Park City on by using the subway. They're prepping her in Mobile, Alabama. I wanted to see the ship in Philly, but didn't know about it leaving, so I didn't make it. I will try to get to Mobile, if I'm on the Panhandle or down south, before she leaves again.

Dog person here ... but I've got a weak spot for black cats

There was a flight attendant on the last flight who looked like a regular height version of John Fetterman, so not at all like your average flight attendant.

Has anyone had experience (themselves or others you know) with a torn rotator cuff? If it's not bone, is it cartilage, muscle, something else? What was done for it - PT, surgery? How did it resolve and in how much time?

As for the rear taillamps, yes, more Regal. As for the opera window, the one on GP angles upward slightly as it goes rearward, so maybe a mix of GP and Regal, which has the most rectangular of all these GM intermediates. As for the front, it's something worth tinkering with. It also comes down to space. Cutlass Supreme/Salon returned to more separated grilles in '87 for its swan song. I see where you get Regal. An early '80s Regal coupe's headlights leaned back slightly. Their front one piece Parthenon-like grille also did so, and also sitting a hair forward. They had a chrome front bumper. If they toyed with the geometries on this one, including the cubes, made the grilles narrower, taller, and leaned them back a minute amount, in addition to working on the emblem and/or hood ornament, this could have turned out interesting, and even appealing. These don't have the horizontal chrome bar across like at the top of Regal's "Parthenon," so they come off as cleaner. There is some sloppiness in the way things are put together, including the lack of side lights up front, too. Now, in this year, there was Calais instead of Salon, but thicker bucket seats with more recessed seating and back insets would have been sweet. It goes without saying that the Brougham needed to stay, too. America had a love affair with this car for a long time and my family was smitten twice.

I'm always window shopping for a colonnade and, while I didn't find one, I found this photo and, since I scrutinize the colonnades, some things immediately jumped out. For one, the magenta color is overpowering. Not a good look. Moving along, the front grille is the big difference. The headlamps are canted, hence the same. The shovelnose grille, which did look good and modernized the anemic '78 through '80 coupe models is not shown. Instead, there's a grille that's more related to an 88 or 98, but it's made a little "sportier" by making it more compact and also leaning it back slightly. Without the shovelnose, the bumper is a traditional chromed one. This is meant to be an '82, and the "cubes" remain. Personally, I think it looks great. The second is the opera window. This doesn't show the curve at the bottom rear corner. In this manner, it looks much like the Regal colonnade coupes of the same years. I don't have an opinion. The curved one was specific to the Cutlass Supreme. We can't see the taillamps, but notice that the don't go all the way up, suggesting that this design may have had horizontal ones. But we can't see what they did with it. I don't know what to say. I'm just sharing this. However, I do like this grille treatment!

Southwest announced its bag pricing. It's $35 for the first one, and $45 for a second one, so not horrible. Let's see if they will package up bundles. I like using them for ATL to TPA or JAX, having been cheaper than Delta and including the bag. They also use STL for connecting and do it all within Terminal 2, so it's an easy airport to connect in. They have had good nonstop service between all major West Coast airports, from SAN all the way up to SEA. I'm just waiting to see how this "new" airline unfolds.

If anyone intends to purchase an "old school" ticket on Southwest, meaning with 2 free bags, you can do so up through May 27. On May 28, they will start nickel and diming for seats, bags, etc. The curtain is falling on this airline as we knew it for so long. I will now have less incentive to use them.

@surreal1272 I'm guessing from the photos that the new vehicle is white, which is always a good choice for both heat and visibility. I've seen some in that enamel pale gray (they might have called it dove gray in the past) and they really caught my eye. (That color comes into style and goes, once being popular in Cadillac and Buick ... my dad had a Buick in that color with the tufted buttoned velour seats in the same color and long trips in it were a pleasure.) If I could have that, with a gray cloth interior, along with a 3.5 Pentastar V6, I would enjoy driving one. Not that I enjoy moving - I hate it - but the Chrysler vans can sure carry a lot of stuff with the seats down. On the GM side of things, I sort of miss the now long gone Silhouette minivan by Olds over those of the other GM divisions.

Of this genre, these are among the more attractive. Nice.

Good morning ... 416d037c-a50d-4e5a-8755-ff1afb477d5c.mp4 blame it on recent use of Lufthansa.