trinacriabob

bad

Damn, you're right. The 1978-1980 Grand Prix coupe was beautiful! And back then, there wasn't much of a ride penalty for going from a Buick into a Pontiac. The other thing is that you could get really comfortable and nicely upholstered bucket seats in the SJ, for sure, and maybe in the LJ, and that dashboard was awesome... if you got the gauge package and NOT the idiot lights which ruined the purpose of having all the circular ports...vintage Pontiac! Not only that, the same powertrains were available as on a Regal (though Olds used their own V8s), though the small Turbo 200 transmission had a history of premature failure...it was easy to know when you had the 200 because the word "Metric" was embossed on the pan. The only other problem was that if you got a padded vinyl roof of any kind, it meant RUST at the edges. They looked just fine without a vinyl roof. I will disagree with you on the 81-87 Regal. In that stretch of years, the Cutlass Supreme with its raked back grille and thinner 98-ish taillamps was THE car to rubberneck for.

That was a good looking car! I remember it. I liked the 78-80 Regal more than the 78-80 Cutlass Supreme, of which they sold more, because the Regal in those 3 years had the thinner horizontal taillamps instead of those chunky doubled-up ones on the Cutlass. However, prior to AND after that 3-year MY stretch, the Cutlass Supreme clearly won the beauty contest between those two. Right away, you know that's NOT the original engine. There was no 350 V8 because they had just downsized the car. They only came with the 3.8 V6 (with a two barrel carb and the first year in which they offset the crank to get the "even firing" vibration-free design) and a 4.9 Federal/5.0 Calif. V8 engine. I think that the 4.3 (265) V8 showed up in a year or two as an uptick from the base V6 engine, though it was a different set-up (using a Pontiac type block) instead of using the ultra-reliable Olds 4.3 (260) Rocket V8. The '78 Regal Limited coupe in the light metallic blue with the blue cloth interior and the faux turbine wheel covers in 3.8 form was a nice sled. You still see some on the road...running.

Where is Talladega relative to Montgomery, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa? I think the funniest name for a town in Alabama is Valley, AL because it seemed as flat as a pancake from I-85 as I was transiting from Pensacola to Atlanta.

Ambien, baby!

She sounds "on edge." You think maybe she hadn't had a Miami fix in a while? Just kidding. Seriously, when I was 14, I got home from summer school with a friend I took the bus with and there was a sample packet in the mailbox that was kind of mysterious. Turns out it was 2 tampons with the tubular applicator. We then went around the neighborhood and rounded up about 50 of these. We then climbed up onto the backyard fence of another friend of ours (who happened to be on vacation) and we proceeded to douse them in red food coloring and throw them into his pool. His mom, who was kind of trashy to begin with, didn't figure out who did it but found it FUNNY.

He was a TALENTED actor ... something which is sorely missing today. In the actress category, someone like Meryl Streep has that same kind of versatility, though she is kind of bland in the looks department. Interestingly enough, John Travolta actually matured and became a good actor. I think that most people would have never envisioned that with a past like "Saturday Night Fever." I can't stand Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. The first one of these two "dudes" plays himself quite well and the second one looks like he hasn't completed puberty, so I have a hard time thinking of him as a "high-falutin' " doctor or lawyer. Am I being opinionated?

Easiest costume: Raincoat + swim trunks (underneath, for legality) + tennis shoes + dark socks + baseball cap + sunglasses = FLASHER (when you dont' have enough time and don't want to spend money on a costume)

sleep

Get out! (of Dodge)

Plymouth

I can't believe that Oakland Hills fire got out of control. I knew that it was a construction worker and that it was accidental, but didn't understand why it couldn't be put out in time with so many fire departments and resources nearby. Obviously, that person was identified. Do you know what became of him? As for the quake, the Big One is supposedly more likely to occur in a part of the San Andreas system that has been "locked" for a long time. I once read an article that the San Andreas has not seen any action around Tejon Pass / the Grapevine since 1843 and that the pressure build-up is being monitored.

Route 128

What???? Don't get it. Sheez, you're weird sometimes....

The PNW is not equipped to deal with snow and the (black) ice that precedes/follows it seems to be an even bigger problem. Since the weather rarely goes below 38 in the winter up there, there's a false sense of security.

Salem

We are subject to some bad cycles in the economy but, for some reason, this one is a little scarier...possibly because 9/11 occurred within the last decade and the war is a war on an "unknown." There is no way to know how Bush would have done without 9/11 and without waging a reactionary (to 9/11 in my mind) war in Iraq to flex muscle. I'm not a fan of his, but it's way more complicated than that. I'm trying to look at the present as "the glass is half full" and get through this.

Wee Herman Wasn't that scandal a freaky one?

Yes, all the more disgusting in that this debacle was engineered by greedy prick$ who have helped enlarge the "have - have not" canyon we experience in this country. If these a-holes were to be lined up with guillotines aimed at their testicles and they needed a volunteer to let the cord go, I might just volunteer. (Where did 16 years of Catholic school go? Gosh).

Yes, right now, I am praying and "crossing" myself.

It's not only the West that is seismically active. The Midwest has a serious fault zone in Southeastern Missouri (look up New Madrid - 1819, I believe). The Northeast has a swath of faults in what is called the Boston-Ottawa trend, though there hasn't been much going on there in several hundred years.

Absolutely.

urine

I saw that Hurricane Kyle is headed for Nova Scotia. It's hard to fathom that a hurricane is heading for Eastern Canada when they all seem to take aim at the Gulf States. I have never been in a hurricane but know that people can move inland from one. I have been in a tornado warning. When I was in Champaign IL in grad school, one day the sky went real dark and it was an eerieness I've not seen before. We were told that a tornado was near an adjacent town and that we needed to take refuge. It did not come through. Earthquakes are the most frightening. There is no warning and the heaving/pitching/rolling can be up and down, side to side, or some combination thereof. I've been in earthquakes in Southern California and a 5-ish in Portland. Also, an 8 on the Richter scale, as compared to a 7, is not 8/7 of the strength of the smaller quake. It is 10 times the strength of the 7 quake. The Richter scale works exponentially. Which natural disaster(s) have you experienced? Which rattles your cage the most?

fertilizer