trinacriabob

Good Parthenon Bad Parthenon (I once read an auto review that likened the grille of the '77-'78 Riviera to the Parthenon.)

This was my first weekend of grocery shopping after all the shutdowns have been announced. Water was available while toilet paper and bread had been picked through fairly thoroughly. People are probably doing the freeze/thaw with the bread. Any of the more upscale grocery stores where they had self serve deli areas to put artichokes and the like into cartons, make salads, etc. had emptied the containers of ingredients to pick through. The stores were not at all crowded. People are practicing social distancing. Restaurants are sparsely populated. Those random casinos that all seem to have a buffet (and buffet specials during the week) are closed. Don't even think about the "Costco lunch." I saw a curve about the pandemic. If you don't suppress it, it spikes faster and higher, and then cycles through. If you do suppress it, the spike is much flatter but its duration in the population is longer before cycling through. We can only hope the health policy gurus have a good grip on this.

Found this photo of a '77 on line. The Malibu Classic could sport the stacked rectangular lamps more so than the Monte Carlo could. Those wheel covers were great, and shared with the Impala/Caprice of the same year. They often seemed to be missing on these cars - theft. Anymore, they are tough to find. That's the Central California coast, with the historic Bixby Bridge in the distance. So many car ads have been sited here.

I've seen a few in March. I will try to remember previous ones. Today, I spotted an interesting GM intermediate. It was probably a '76 Malibu Classic coupe. From afar, it looked basic - blackwalls, hubcaps, no uplevel trim. I thought it might have been one of those rare 250 c.i. inline 6s. Nope. As I got closer, I could see two modified exhaust pipes and that it was rumbling - 305, 350, or 454 V8? - I don't know. It was burgundy. The body was in good shape but the paint was faded. Of the '76 and '77 fold, most of GM PLCs got more garish in '77. This one had the simpler tail lamps ('76) but the nicer vertical bar grille ('77), as opposed to the busier diamond hatch pattern of the preceding year. It would have been cool to see if it was a purist model with no A/C, where you can better see the layout of the engine bay.

I know. Especially as a daily driver. For rented wheels with an automatic on the cheap in a less populous area in a foreign country, it was fine.

Photos taken during this 5 day rental Here's the Toyota Aygo at a filling station and Autogrill adjacent to the highway. That's it - and the one on the left is a roll-aboard that you can't roll aboard into the cabin when you stuff it to the gills. The cheap rear compartment cover was flailing with the wind (a small vid would have been better) and did not engage into its slots that easily. Here's the IP - speedometer (kms), tach to the left, idiot lights to the right, and a decent steering wheel set-up (stitched, but probably still urethane). Here's the center stack - the infotainment screen was easy to use and the climate control cluster was even easier to use (less is more). One big windshield wiper for this little windshield - note that the trees and bushes kept their leaves during winter. This is the automatic gear selector - no console, armrest, or anything like that ... if you look to the bottom right, you can see the "E." There's not much in the way of rear leg room and you push out the rear windows like you would vents - they don't roll up or down. Here's the split rear seating and you can see the cover over the small rear trunk/storage area. Even with a thicker rear sail panel / C-pillar, visibility is very good, largely because it's a small car. - - - - - End of photos

@dfelt Right now, the north of the country has been severely affected by COVID-19. Sicily has only seen a few cases. On a shaded map, they were are 1 to 10 cases the last time I looked. A friend who lives there told me that most people are doing fine and trying to keep their chins up. I'm fine but it's distressing to read about what they're going through. I read that the country has been badly affected because, percentage wise, it has the oldest population in Europe and the second oldest population in the world. I set aside a series of photos to put up when I wrote the review. I will put them up, along with explanations of each.

Generally speaking, I prefer not to drive a rental car in Europe unless it has an automatic transmission. That allows a person to pay more attention to the nutty or aggressive drivers than on timing the clutch in tricky situations. Now, even with an automatic transmission, I would not drive in left-hand drive countries - UK, IE, or Malta. Period. Automatics are more readily available and larger cars over there. And they cost more. That slims how many econoboxes with automatics are available as rentals. The icon on my rental reservation indicated a Smart coupe, which would have been fine for 5 days. Instead, I was given a Toyota Aygo. The tiny Toyota had almost 60,000 km (about 36,000 miles), so they weren't as fussy as they've been in the past with small dings and scratches at Italian airport rental agencies. And, while not many were noticeable, closer inspection revealed that there were quite a few of them ... and I made sure that they were noted. It was sort of cool that my rental car would be a sedan. I felt it would feel more substantial on the road than a Smart coupe. And that it would have more trunk space. Getting used to the Aygo was easy. There isn't much to set up, except maybe for the Bluetooth. There is a center instrument panel, a tidy center stack area with simple controls, and the glove box to the right. On the steering wheel were infotainment tuning adjustments and phone controls. The seating was just okay ... a little on the hard side. The rear seat was tight and only suitable for people who aren't that tall. Trunk space was extremely limited - one medium sized suitcase and one smaller bag or item. I did not bother to look at what was under the hood until later. The Aygo was sufficiently powered for everyday situations but insufficiently powered for merging and passing. It was an automatic that really, really wound out when the car was throttled ... and then shifted. It was in fact a geared automatic. The reason it wound out is because it was hooked up to a 3 cylinder engine, the first in my life I've ever driven. It didn't vibrate at idle, and you might have even assumed it was a small 4 banger. However, it sure was grainy ... grainier than most 4 cylinders in cheap cars. The automatic transmission had 3 automatic modes - R, N, and E. I couldn't find a P, for park. I guess you put it in N and apply the parking brake ... and find a level place to park. I didn't know what E stood for, but that was the setting for forward driving and automatically shifting through the gears. If you moved the shifter to the left and downward, you could move through the forward gears manually. I saw no point in using that feature. The Aygo's handling was competent and not much more than that. It held the road but it wasn't set up for aggressive driving in curves, cloverleafs, etc. Looking back, the ride of a Smart coupe was surprisingly better than one would think. The same is true here. It was just a little bit smoother and more planted than a Smart coupe, even though neither of them can soak up road imperfections all that well. I found the rear visibility to be good. It was very easy to park. Between the good visibility and the mirrors, parking in small spaces, changing lanes, and driving defensively was more possible. This is one cheap car, though. I liked the center stack, where audio controls on a touch screen and climate controls in a square-round cluster (as opposed to a horizontal strip) were easy to learn. However, there is a lot that one would take for granted that is missing. One thing is that there's no temperature gauge. I've even seen this in some domestic offerings these days. Another thing is that the rear windows don't go up or down. They just push out ... like vents. There is only one windshield washer up front. Then, much like a contradiction, it featured some good amenities - a remote fuel door, power windows for the front 2 windows, a tilt and telescopic steering wheel, and a stitched steering wheel, though I couldn't tell if was leather or urethane. They cut corners in many places to make this basic transportation that people can afford. Its best feature was its gas mileage. I didn't calculate it but, ball parking it, I was getting about 50 mpg in mostly highway driving. The Aygo base sedan with an automatic transmission (or a manual one) is basic transportation. I would not want one as my daily driver. It was fine for a short rental.

Then, how about another go at the Subaru Brat?

Not sure how I feel about this Bronco. It looks too much like Ford's more enclosed version of a Jeep (Wrangler, maybe). I don't like most SUVs and CUVs. I'm not there yet. The only one I might have a bit of a soft spot for is the Acadia. One can keep the price low by getting one with a 2.5 L4 and only FWD. But does that defeat the purpose of getting something like an Acadia? The 2.5 might be fine ... but only FWD to deliver power to the wheels? People might be a little enthused about the lower gas prices, but it's not a good thing. The trend toward electrification might lower oil prices over the long run but no one can be sure about that. Even if assured that gas was to continue being cheap, I don't need a lot of displacement under my hood ... you can get in trouble real easily with a powerful 4 banger or a plain old V6 (I'm talking about speed traps). Why push it? As for things environmental, how much milder winters have become is a little perplexing. Maybe there's hope. I know that L.A. used to be held up as the poster child for pollution, being showcased on its worst days for the media to snack on. The truth is, with much cleaner running cars, the air there has become quite a bit cleaner and the yellow-gray skies of yesteryear, which would make your eyes water, seem to be in the city's rear view mirror.

A few days ago, I read they were mulling it over. Today, I read it's official. Lufthansa is grounding all of their Airbus 380s until May. They cite that some of their double-decker jumbos have flown with occupancies as low as 35%. When it's summer and times are good, I've seen slightly smaller 747s without an empty (main cabin) seat in the house, which means the airline might have turned down some potential customers. That's when the extra 50 or so seats on an Airbus 380 would come in handy.

On this side of the pond, there's nothing new and exciting at FCA. They are constantly being asked when the new Charger is coming and they don't have an answer. Two things might explain this. One is that, on a corporate level, they have to see which way the wind is blowing. The second is that they cannot fumble on the release of the next Charger. The current car has served them so well because it was a successful launch that just improved with each tweak. The next one has to do the same. And I hope that's the case.

New trumps old, in this case ("Hazy Shade of Winter"), as was the case with "MacArthur Park" (Donna Summer) and "Misty" (Ray Stevens - country rendition) Here's a good movie that had a good song to go along with it:

Of the few times I've gone to E.R. in my life - depressing places - I believe once was at Evergreen. That's off Totem Lake Blvd., right? Some basic questions about Covid-19 ... 1) Aren't the number of cases in China decreasing ... or maybe increasing at a slower rate? It's picking up in other countries and spreading to new U.S. states 2) For healthy adults who get through it, how long are they ill? 3) Once one has been ill, I think they can pass this virus through a sneeze, even if recovered and asymptomatic. I'm trying to read up on it. The problem is that there is too much written about it to create any kind of hierarchy of take-away major points.

Many. In addition to Bob's, there are/were Frisch's, JB's, etc. One of them is big in Michigan ... it still is. JB's still exists but has a menu that has diverted in a big way from the Big Boy boilerplate. I'm not even sure they have the double decker burger anymore. As for Denny's, I'm not a fan. Their food tastes the same across their breakfast offerings, lunch offerings, etc. When I was in SoCal, we had some local chains that outdid it - Norm's, Copper Penny, Carrow's, and there was even one named ... drum roll ... Sambo's. Sambo's ceased to be amidst all the PC-awareness (their icon was a little kid that resembled Mogli from "The Jungle Book"), with the locations picked up by other chains. Norm's near Pico and Sepulveda in West L.A. - still there! Sambo's - check out the styling - there used to be one in Santa Monica

Blast from the past When in college, there was a Bob's Big Boy about 1.5 miles from campus. (Bob's is what they called them in the West ... Big Boys have other names in Eastern states.) Would eat there about 2x a week. When the "combo" (double decker burger, fries, salad) was on special, it was more like a pilgrimage - we'd go in groups about 3x to 4x a week. Back then, we ate poorly and no one seemed to gain weight. I miss the plastic triangular salad dish. Everything used to come on one plate. Of the few franchises that remain, they bring out the salad first in a conventional bowl. That's probably because now it's soup OR salad. Every L.A. suburb had at least one Bob's Big Boy. Those were the days. D'accord. C'est vrai.

I put the STP Ultra 5-in-1 into the tank. (STP wants you to put their additives into a fairly full tank while Techron wants them to go into a fairly empty tank.) I had seen this product around and wasn't sure about the 5 things it's supposed to improve. Also, a bottle treats up to 35 gallons, so it must be potent. So I put in a little over half and am putting in the remainder with the next fill-up. You can't even feel my car idling ... but it was that way prior to putting in the STP Ultra. I've mostly used Techron and the Valvoline product, so this is the first time using this one.

Thanks for the chart. I love this sort of information. It's amazing that, while only 10 million people live in Portugal, it's the world's 7th language. The answer is an easy one: Brazil. I once read something that said the 2 languages which polled the highest on the "want to learn" list are French and Italian. That's "want" as opposed to what people ultimately do. The second list bumps up French quite a bit. Most high school and university students in this country study Spanish. I took a lot of French in high school and a little bit of Spanish in college. Most people forget what they learned. I never did. It sure has come in handy. Guess what, folks? You go to Quebec or Argentina, for example, and speak to the locals fairly proficiently in THEIR language ... and you will be treated even better. I should have asked @oldshurst442 Qu'est-ce que avez-vous fait pour ton anniversaire? I'll ask 442 this because I know ocnblu wouldn't want to field the same question in another language.

Do they speak or understand Greek?

Cigarettes in his chest pocket ... probably Bel Air brand. @oldshurst442 How are you spending your birthday, olds?

There's no doubt that this coronavirus is both serious and depressing. What's odd is the random distribution of it - clusters in (1) east(ern) Asia: China, South Korea, Japan, (2) Iran, and (3) Italy (more northern). The first reported death occurred in the U.S. - in Washington state. Maybe we should focus on the people getting through it ... which is most people. I read this courageous account told by a Chinese 27 year-old who went through 3 difficult weeks fighting off the virus until it ran its course. You can read it here: https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-survivor-recounts-fear-confusion-040847300.html

Chart - COVID-19 - small chart - when averaged together, it's obviously higher than 1 or 2%. The table does not reflect the distribution of age groups (alive in the general population), so that could lower the percentage some. (I somewhat recall that, on average, American women today live to 83 and American men today live to 79.) For those over 80 (and in poor health), it's bad news. Of course, the news focuses on the younger and healthier people who have succumbed to it because that's more alarming. I'll take the Toronado any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

There is a coronavirus chart by age groups (in increments of 10) and the likelihood of mortality for each of those age groups. I somewhat remember SARS - one can only guess it meant Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Early 2000s, right? How did that all shake out and how long did it rattle up the American and global public?

He did ?!?

I got sidetracked reading and forgot what "random thought" I was going to throw out. This week has to have been one to put so many people in a funk. First, this coronavirus is capturing the headlines and they make it seem so random, in geography, in how it is spread, and in how it runs its course for the people affected. Then, in 4 days, the market - rather, the DJIA as a barometer of it - loses over 10% of its value. But isn't the news meant to be depressing in general?