trinacriabob

Buick is obviously trying to balance risk and reward, so to speak. It is trying to venture toward that zone you speak of (risk) but wants to be loyal to its core market (reward). While I am not the traditional Buick buyer in demographic terms, I am awed by the reliability of their vehicles and will buy another. Yet, I don't want to pony up $ 40K for a car since I don't have it...I'd rather be in the $ 25K range. Maybe the Buick line could handle a little bit of bifurcation with Olds being gone...that is, expanding it to anchor the Buick segment and the upper end Euro-touring sedan/crossover. Also, where do you strategically stop so as to avoid cannibalization between this and the Cadillac brand? That needs to be looked at. Let's not be so harsh on the LaX and the Lucerne. They are very competent vehicles. However, the execution could be better. The LaX has some interior quirks that are old school (the mousefur, yikes) and the Lucerne, in my mind, has poor ergonomics up front which don't involve the driver the way that a touring sedan would. Still, they are leaps from what preceded them, so Buick needs to keep going. More provocative and innovative styling combined with the current levels of reliability would serve them well. By the way, I had a LaCrosse for 1 week and 2200 km (1400 miles, more or less) in the Montreal area about a month ago and it was a very likeable car. Except for a couple of shortcomings (the fabric, the mousefur and that stupid ass grille up front), this is a great value for the money...that's my opinion.

Thanks for the correction. You're right: Guaraldi has a faster pace whereas Benoit is a little more relaxed. And Charlie Brown music has a little bit of that brisker pace he typically showcases.

I'm paying $ 830 on the Regal per year. For as clean as my record is thus far (knock on wood) and how old the car is (14.5 years), I feel that's a little high. However, to save $ 100 and lose the guaranteed renewal feature (been with this company for at least 15 years) just doesn't seem worth it.

"Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n' Fruity" breakfast special

And you didn't "line up" for this? C'mon, it sounds very "no strings attached."

maple syrup

Well, I think you need to move to the West Coast and I need to move to the East Coast.

I have that plan with Cingular. I love it. It's $ 39.95 and I have about 3,500 rollover minutes because I hate talking on cell phones...I much prefer a land line. My land line is on flat rate - $ 55.99 for anywhere in the US, all you want. It's cool.

Pierre (you know, Pierre L'Enfant, the man who master-planned Washington DC)

What, dammit, didn't they feed you? I would have been chanting: BOOOFET...BOOOFET....BOOOFET...Ours is in mid December. We were asked if we wanted to trim down the Christmas party in lieu of bigger bonuses. The answer was: . Therefore, we are having a Christmas luncheon, without the fancy hotel ballroom and without the significant others, which added to the cost. A builder I used to work for in Seattle threw a nice Christmas party, though it was formal and uptight....they were such an uptight company and some of the management didn't particularly like me because I wasn't as uptight as they were. All of the nice people in that company transplanted to Seattle from somewhere else. The raciest thing is that this one girl from Connecticut ... very nice and fairly attractive...plants a big one smack on the lips right as I arrived for the party one year and was hanging up my coat....I was taken off guard. And, yes, I say my Hail Marys and Our Fathers for my Christmas bonus...it's LaCrosse money...that's where all my bonuses have gone....into the savings account for that purpose.

donut hole

Something tells me David Benoit, but I can't be sure...does that sound familiar?

"stage left"

Ditto...like the lyric "put them together...that's a fine looking Jew," among others. He is obnoxious, but that's what makes it funny. "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" - once had 6 business school grads in a rented Bonneville driving to a mutual friends' December wedding singing along to this on the radio since we had been making fun of everyone and everything we saw and were in one of those irreverent moods. Others: Considering I H-A-T-E country, Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas." Beautiful voice. Are her projectiles sagging by now? "Christmas in the Northwest" - regional song, kind of country I guess, but as the refrain says "Christmas in the Northwest...a gift God wrapped in green." Corny but quaint.

locker room

Stars Fell on A-L-A-B-A-M-A !

Yeah, baybay (a la Tom Leykus), then folks: talk about hard-charging women you've worked with that (1) have an edge, (2) might have penis envy, and (3) want to put you in your place, given that you are a man.

Pantho, you have a corporate job now? I remember you posting something about heading off in a new direction...what's up?

tart

expensive

ears (as in "fallen on deaf ears")

I don't want to keep the thread going as a 2 person dialogue. However, you are so EFFIN' right. Whenever I am at work or at school, it's all about THE WORK and I prefer to work for men, given the choice, for this very reason. For most men, it's all business whereas women inject too many other variables in the equation (I've been "around the block" and I've seen it). They will unempower a male either by: (1) being the feminist bitch we've talked about earlier, or (2) mothering you. If you upset the balance in option (2), they will turn because that is the way the retain "power" and you've chosen to undo it. Never let it get there. When I get a woman subordinate or co-worker, I keep it ALL BUSINESS. I can handle women subordinates (and they've never complained about me yet), but I can't stand having a woman boss, though it's never happened since I've been in architecture, but it has happened in the business / corporate setting.

Why? one is the scientific term for the street term My response to thread: mute (the state of being, certainly not our anthony with lower case letters)

I was just at a dealership last weekend during the Thanksgiving holiday somewhere north of Seattle and south of the Canadian border. I explained I was in transit and was just looking. They were very nice and I helped myself to popcorn. The salesmen said new grilles are coming for the LaX for sure. They made no mention of portholes. There was a Lucerne and a LaX parked next to each other in a line-up at the curb. Gawd, we commented that the Lucerne has a FAR nicer grille. The salesman quipped that the front grille of the LaCrosse looks like that of a Ford Contour (what a slam!).

Totally understandable. How's your kid doing, BTW?