trinacriabob

Happy Father's Day, gents. You all get medals for bravery.

After she had the incredible sense of humor to go along with this ridiculous televised parody, I decided I liked her. R.I.P.

For her vintage, the Normandie had a much nicer bow than her British counterparts of the era. But the superstructure and the smokestacks are a little squatty. The way it's decked out inside shows they threw a lot of francs at building this ship. I love it when they christened them, hurled the champagne bottle at the hull, and send the hulls sliding down to the water. A mechanical engineer in Italy I know told me they are not willing to risk a failed launch and, for decades, they have been built and floated in dry dock / a separate basin. The food had to have been off the charts. French Line's last flagship - the SS France - was renowned for having the best food on the North Atlantic run. The France wasn't in operation for that long - from 1962 to 1974. The fate of the Normandie was sad. I didn't know they righted it and moved it to New Jersey. I assumed it was dismantled right at the Hudson River pier. - - - - - I may have posted one of these before. Here's the alpha and omega of the "QE2," which served for Cunard from 1969 until 2008. Black and white footage from a British video for its maiden voyage arrival in New York: - - - - - Almost 40 years later, bought by Dubai. They threw a lot of money at this incredible welcome party. I saw a clip where the last captain of the QE2 got teary eyed handing over the keys and paperwork to the developer-buyer in Dubai. The economy tanked and the ship sat there for about a decade, with people from the U.K. coming up with plans and funds to bring her back home. The economy turned around again and she made it, so to speak. She is now open as a hotel in Dubai.

I've seen this sort of behavior in female and male puppies. Given that he was hungry and abandoned, he played his cards right, so to speak. Had he not warmed up to them, he might not have found a home. Many feral animals are afraid of people, even after being fed by a certain few for a long time, and they don't find homes by the time winter arrives. Yes, beautiful dog. Hilarious take with this math. I think most schools would be in deep $h!t if it was proffered at their Math and Science Fair/Day.

Don't get me wrong. I love what I call coffee weather. Even for a good part of the year. But when summer (like in the PacNW) only lasts 2 or 2.5 months, I don't want it to rain on the weekends!

I like most reads or audiovisual accounts of dogs ... This YouTube is from Bulgaria. Almost 3/4 million people like the video, which begs the question as to who the 7,300 dip$h!ts who don't like it must be. When you're thinking of this breed or that breed, and a dog like this comes along, you probably lucked out.

First, those Saturn Skys really catch my eye because they're rare and they were possibly the nicest of this GM set-up. Second, ah yes, those stunning days in the PacNW, where it's 82F to 84F everyday as you're driving to and from work during the summer, with a clearly visible Mt. Rainier in the distance, and you are planning to spend Saturday and Sunday outside, on or near the water. But, then, it reliably tanks to 68F and drizzle for the weekend. Then it goes back up to 82F to 84F on Monday! I've seen that maddening pattern quite a few times.

That's a '77 Chevy Malibu Classic coupe. Is that John Cusack when he was younger? It looks like him. - - - - - You couldn't go visit it, but you could have bid on line. This thing sold for $ 450 CAD (or $ 371 US). It has a diesel. Link to '80s GM boulevardier on its last legs auctioned off in the Canadian prairie ... albeit with a diesel

I know ... I know. The Charger remains high on my list. Thanks for the support! I saw (part of) this crazy movie called "Free Solo" on an airplane flight. I was flipping through channels. I would look at it ... and then look away. Read up on Alex Honnold, the person the movie is about. See what happens when you go to Berkeley?

I can't put this on the June spotting thread ... because I spotted it in my imagination ... and laughed. - - - - - I saw this person driving this "car" and saying, "Candy, little girl?" from its windows.

I've been thinking about cars. First, my sled is running fine. Next, I don't know what to buy sooner than later. My accumulated GM points are looking pretty good. (I am almost sure you can't use you them on CPO.) That aside, do I chuck them and get something get something other than GM - domestic, or even foreign? Then, assuming I go toward a smaller, more economical car on the next purchase, how about looking for a cheap daily driver like this? Not a Lumina Euro, but the basic coupe with a 2.2 Ecotec, no electric gizmos, and low mileage (if I can find one) to putt around in? It's the only W-body with a 4 banger. If it has wheel covers, I'll swap them over to stock alloys. I've got a weird thing for basic GM coupes with the smaller base engines and engine bays where you can spot everything and can see the ground ... if that isn't apparent by the crap I post. But I'd be breaking my rule and going back to two cars. Which then would probably prompt me to drive around more.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. After the 747, it was my favorite aircraft on which to cross the pond. Since the A340's engines were smaller, it still managed to look sleek. This one (could even be a 340-200) belonged to Air France. It's sad that Olympic of Greece no longer crosses the Atlantic and is now a Europe-only carrier. Here was theirs, with a great paint scheme. This one (probably a 340-300) from Iberia is either taking off from or landing at Madrid. Poetic! And, finally, here's one from Air Canada (probably a 340-600 with those bigger engines) with their recent and cleaner livery. (I see the tip of a snow capped mountain peak in the background.)

It may be tacky, but Dubai is sort of on my bucket list. Sort of.

I had to respond. I grew up with JAL ... sort of. When I was a kid, I'd ride my bike with a friend to LAX and, at the time, JAL had a beautiful 747. Didn't they all? We'd go up to the theme building observation deck and got a 360 degree view of all the terminals and the runways. JAL does use the Boeing 787 Dreamliner quite a bit and I've seen it land at LAX. What a beautiful wing design. I really thought JAL would be a Boeing 777-X customer. I guess not. I am not an expert on the B-777, having only flown on it just once. United used the 2-5-2 seating on the one I flew on from DC to Denver and onward. I didn't like that layout. I am not a fan of Airbus because it's Airbus and not Boeing. I think this new A-350, with its "masked" cockpit window, is sort of ugly. But I can't argue with the seating layout of 2-4-2 on the A-330 and the A-340. The A-340 is fading away and it's my favorite Airbus product, with its 4 smaller engines, but operators don't like how thirsty it is. The A-330 is comfortable enough, except for one really long flight from Frankfurt to Calgary, with a connection back home to the Pac NW, that was too long and was pushing against strong headwinds. Boeing's "Dreamliner" is just that:

Tomorrow, June 4, is National Donut Day. Mark your calendars, gents, and scour your local deals.

Yes. Definitely. And the guy in the gif is a graduate of Wazza Matta U.

Being concise has never been one of my strong points. ^ Look at that ... this very sentence is a step in the right direction!

Ok, this one I like. The vinyl top shape is unusual, or maybe I don't remember it, but that's a nice looking Cutlass coupe. My votes for GM mid-size COUPES based on appearance from from '70 to '07 would go like this: 70-72: Buick Skylark (1), Pontiac Le Mans (2) 73-77: Olds Cutlass Supreme (1), Buick Regal (2) 78-80: Pontiac Grand Prix (1), Buick Regal (2) 81-87: Olds Cutlass Supreme (1), Pontiac Grand Prix (2) 88-96 (transition to W-chassis): Buick Regal (1), Chevy Lumina (only part of this span of years, see photo below) (2) (Looking at it, this was a very clean looking car that was fairly timeless for a while) 00-07: Chevy Monte Carlo (1) - - - - - Edit: I've owned THREE of my (1) choices. Perhaps I'm biased. Or perhaps that's why I bought them, or encouraged my parents to buy them.

@oldshurst442 You've covered them all! I'm going to disagree here. However, I liked one year of Cutlass during this 1968-1972 period. And it would have been the more formal coupe of 1970 - nice front end, nice side view, and nicer twin vertical lamps inset into the bumper on each side. One car my dad had, although a purist 1970Pontiac LeMans, was just like that GTO, but without all the bells and whistles. It had a 250 c.i. inline 6. That color, if I recall, was Bimini Blue, which I believe is in or near the Caribbean. Good call on Pontiac's blending the various C-pillar treatments. You are right in that the Skylark and Malibu coupe are almost too twinned. So, I think I still like the Buick coupe the most, closely followed by the Pontiac coupe. It saddens me that, to get a coupe from GM these days, the main offerings are the Corvette or the Camaro. It used to be raining coupes!

Sure, I have a computer and a phone. But I also always get a calendar from my GM dealer. And what a beautiful sight in terms of classic cars on it for the month of June. Voila: Come to think of it, for once, the Buick was the best looking of the Malibu-LeMans-Cutlass-Skylark fraternal quadruplets. The front and rear were clean and interesting enough. The side profile had nothing garish about it, including when closed up with a hardtop. And the dash had tasteful square bezels with small rounded corners. It came with quite a few engines. There were definitely 350s and 455s, but I learned that the 250 c.i. 6 was also available (read the fine print), possibly in down-line models. It would have theoretically been cool to have a purist convertible with the 6, no A/C, crank windows, buckets, console, gauges, and the alloy wheels shown ... as a hobby car. Nice car. Beautiful photo. Welcome to summer!

I've now spoken to quite a few people. Most of the ones thrown for a loop were recipients of Moderna. It was after the 2nd injection. It was just what has been described - malaise, tiredness, achiness (for some, it was very bad) - and then it was gone in 24 to 48 hours. Most Pfizer recipients don't report much after the fact. I had Pfizer. At first, I wanted Moderna because of its less stringent storage requirements. But, then, the storage requirements aren't my concern. So I'm glad I got Pfizer. Right now, and being vaccinated, I'm doing some "California dreamin'."

Gray interiors are a turn off. For me, gray and tan interiors with black door trim, black consoles, and black dashboards (when you can tell it's to save money and are done cheaply) are also a turn-off. Black interiors are not my favorite. Nowadays, you might pick one because it's the lesser of two evils for a particular car. Thank God that avocado and mint green interiors are gone! At least, for now. I am on board with solid dark red and solid dark blue interiors. Along with some variants of tan interiors, these would be my preferred options to trim out the interior of a car.

Okay, we can agree to disagree. This is why I say this. Those interiors were pleasing to MY eye. I had a blue one in a Cutlass Brougham coupe and my dad had a gray one in a Regal Limited sedan. My criteria is this: how did I feel after a 10 hour jaunt from NorCal to the PNW, or vice-versa? I felt better (more relaxed, less fatigued) in these than I did in my current and last intermediate GM cars' fairly substantial bucket seats. Now, I can tell from their appearance and ergonomics, that I would like the seats above based on their boxiness and contours. I like the placement of the seat belts up front ... I have always preferred that location. I would want such seating to be in cloth, though. The very last Monte Carlo coupes I've rented had plumper and squarer bucket seats (much like this), finished in cloth, and they were great for long-haul driving.

Spotted on Memorial Day weekend ... yesterday, on a Sunday. Something "right up my alley." Here's a Regal Limited coupe parked at a repair garage in the downtown of a small city while I was headed off searching for coffee. It is an '81 to '83, based on the rear light bar without the dual horizontal division. I thought it was hoisted up on a "metal platform." Hell no. Those were dual exhausts I was looking at! Wonder if its stock engine was the 3.8 V6, the then-newer 4.1 V6, or the small block V8 produced by Pontiac ... or something else the owner dropped in. (The differential looked chromy and not OEM.) I have, on rare occasions, seen this combo of enamel beige with the burgundy interior (and burgundy landau roof). It's unusual. The burgundy Limited interior was in fantastic shape. To the left, you can see that it had crank windows. It had the full gauge package in the square bezels, but the clock did not work. Never again will we see automotive interiors like this. Anyone driving by might have wondered what the hell I was doing. I would just have to explain to them how much I love the old school GM intermediate coupes!

A very cool and unique piece of music. And also very suited to the movie to which it attaches.