trinacriabob

I needed to get around to putting this up ... it appears to be the house blend at the Confeitaria Nacional is Lisbon, PT, a 100+ year old coffee and tea house with tasty and sensibly priced cakes and pastries. Happy Sunday ...

A person can walk from Beaverton to PDX airport in 7 hours. But, yes, the build quality of that car could have been better, hence my purchase of another W-body. Not to mention my dislike of the orange lighting in the GP. Maybe that's why it was nicely priced at $21K or $22K in base form ... economies of scale.

In December, no less. That's a little early for a big storm in Portland, OR. They are not equipped to deal with snow and ice, so they just shut down the town. As does the Seattle-Tacoma area. The hills don't help, either. That top photo really threw me for a Cadillac. That sort of curvature was not common for them. In the following DTS that came along, the car became more rectilinear. They did a nice job with it. I remember checking out the car dealerships (after they closed in the evening) on Pensacola Blvd. around '07 and saw some DTSs. I remembered thinking that it wasn't any bigger than a mid-'70s Cutlass Supreme (because the space was more sensibly used) and thought it was a really nice car, given that I don't much like Cadillacs. I also remember thinking how I wouldn't have wanted to pay for the repair bills for all those bells and whistles and that the Northstar V8 under its hood was too sophisticated for my understanding of car mechanics ... and possibly a little thirsty after driving several V6s. Sloped back grille, no hood ornament, slab sides, balance in its 3 volumes, engaged rather than finned taillamps ... less is WAY more, in this case. Kudos for some gauges in the instrument cluster (Cadillacs often had temp. idiot lights, which I've learned are scary). Kudos for having a console standard in the DTS. The passenger side of the dash seems a little too tall, but, overall, I thought this was really nice for a Cadillac.

What was really surprising is that, with short longevities during the Renaissance era, Michelangelo lived to be 89 years old.

The resemblance between that of Intrigue and Alero interior and dash, in hindsight, is incredible. As if the Alero is a "baby Intrigue." They share a lot of styling cues. At this point, I'm seeing more Aleros still on the road than Intrigues. I had never taken a good look at the 1st gen Aurora's dash. Really nice! I like the insets in the cowl like they've done over the instrument cluster. It has been done in other decades. The first Seville had them, too, albeit on a much more dated interior and dashboard that was really nice in its day. I probably like the exterior styling of the 2nd gen Aurora more, but prefer the interior of the 1st gen.

After I picked up my cousin flying in from Europe and we were in the car about 20 miles from the airport, she saw things she'd only seen in movies, like a real life Mustang ... pronounced "MOOSE TUNG" with their phonetics. Then, I saw a loud and raised truck driven by an obnoxious dude next to us and had to explain what white trash meant. We were watching the movie "Erin Brockovich" and I told her to be on the lookout for the soap opera addict / Oreo slam dunking type babysitter lady who watched Erin's kids and told her that that would be an example of what Americans consider to be white trash. She then remarked, "But isn't Erin Brockovich (maybe as played by Julia Roberts) white trash, too?" She learned quickly. As for this photo, one can only wonder if they have their own style of white trash in rich Middle Eastern countries. (Look closely, this car has Montana license plates even though it's in Dubai.) Most of us are wise enough to know that money doesn't buy class. Here's an example of classless conspicuous consumption: I read that these critters are more tractable than one might think and that they do well when there is also a big dog in the household. Now that's weird.

I think they got this very last Bonne right, compared to the 2 FWD versions before this one. The upside down boat that was the previous one was one big "NO." I think this dash was a bit much, though. Those 2 center stack A/C vents at the far right are probably what takes it over the top. I was sent an invite to test drive this car at a horse racing track or some such place when it was released. For its size, it was agile. I also prefer the basic LE/SE version because it's a "less is more" design to me. Once all the spoilers, air dams, honeycombed this and that, and ribbing goes on, it gets too pimpy for my taste.

Random thought ... and photo: one of my favorite dashboards of all time ... and in a car within most people's budgets ...

I almost forgot. Today is Nowruz ... the Persian celebration of new year. Happy Nowruz. I'm all over this (food)!

Is this a real T-Bird model, a kit, or something else? Weird, but very cool. Here's something truly random. I'm reading up on Valencia, Spain and its tourist attractions. Here is a photo from a day trip to some canyon nearby that has hot springs ... and maybe hydroelectric power. One tourist decided to have fun with this. It's definitely safer than lighting a fart.

This can only be Palm Springs. Look at the backdrop. I'm not surprised Starbucks is on this ... partnering to recharge EVs for customers who are patronizing their coffeehouses. The word "partner" and "partnering" are very New Millennium, though I doubt the EV charging station's graphics will greet you with something along the lines of, "Howdy, partner." "Bako to Bend" ... that could be a novel. I really like this gauge grouping found on current GM vehicles that are wide enough to accommodate it in their dashboards. But, yes, this level of MPG is good.

There is an article that includes Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul, the current governor of N.Y., on my homepage. And today is Saint Patrick's Day. I thought I'd share. This woman is like a poster child for the classic, almost stereotypical Irish countenance. You can almost visualize her speaking to you in a brogue.

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day, which is hours away. I don't have a drop of Irish blood, but I like my ethnic festivals. Wear something green. Eat well from among their traditional offerings. Maybe it'll be your lucky day, be it sudden wealth, better health, or, yes, even getting lucky, if that is what you are fancying at this juncture. Haha. I will be heading to a lunch buffet that will feature some traditional Irish dishes in the line up. And I'm good with that. Cheers to all.

Happi Pi Day, folks. I guess we have this (3.14) because we can't have E-Day (2.78). But my main question here is whether any restaurant chains* are giving out any free pie today? *Village Inn locations typically have Free Pie Wednesday year round and, in Florida, one might just happen onto key lime pie as a choice!

Very sad and weird that William Hurt died in the last few days. He was only 71. I have not seen too many of his movies, but he was perfectly cast as Ned Racine, the small coastal town Florida lawyer, in "Body Heat." What a movie. Highly recommended.

"Sprrreeng ahead ... I tell you" "und guten morgen"

My last airport to home ride via Lyft was in a Nissan Rogue. The Lyft driver liked it. While I don't like the squared off and chopped off looks of the RAV 4, I had one as a rental 2 years ago (a few months after Covid became front and center) and it's not something I would own, but the automatic transmission - a geared 8 speed - shifted incredibly well and made the rental a pleasant experience.

Good morning ...

Like watching movies starring Frances McDormand, you might need antidepressants to listen to most Sting songs. (Except for "Englishman in New York," maybe.) I haven't listened to Elton John for a long time, but this reminded me what an incredible voice he has. Some singers sound like other singers, but not him. As for the girl in the video, I wondered who she might be. She was already a known actress. She was in "Gorky Park" (1983) and her name is Joanna Pacula. It turns out she had to flee Poland when she was young and came to the states. There was a girl I knew in the business school in college who looked a lot like her, was an "A" student, and, similarly, was half Polish and half Slavic (with those grandparents coming from the old Yugoslavia).

Clearly, it's not us, then.

I wasn't listening to them on my own, but they were tied into some articles and links on various homepages. Both are sort of prescient with insightful lyrics, having listened to them in the past. Sting - "Russians" - 1985: Elton John - "Nikita" - 1985

Go ahead and make an '82 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ coupe or '82 Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe electric for me. I can dig it.

Very random (and funny ... we can all use funny these days) thought: When I am on my profile page, I have one very dated and inactive warning for some heavy duty arguing with ocnblu almost 13 years ago!

Very cool photo. I like the effect. I've seen this sort of photo before, usually looking upward. And I'm sure you went to a public high school. I split my time about equally between 2 Catholic ones (the first a prep one in a not so great neighborhood and the second a regular archdiocesan one in a good neighborhood) and NO ONE talked to me about college tracks and whatnot. The counselors we had were incompetent. This one b!+ch in the attendance office gave me one of my two detentions in H.S. because I got there an hour late one day when I had to take my parents' new car to the dealership for warranty work since they both worked (so they could send me to Catholic schools). The second one was once a popular one for kids, but no longer is and is fading. The second school also did not prepare me for college as well as it could have, even though I got through it and did graduate with the lower tier of 3 tiers of honors.

I'm really torqued right now because I thought 2022 would be the slowing down of Covid 19 and things might get back to "normal," or close to something normal. I wanted to go back to enjoying "normal." It's pretty serious when, in modern day Europe, someone is ordering attacks that kill the vulnerable - children, elderly folks, sick folks, not to mention ordinary folks and which also destroy tons of property.