trinacriabob

The Boeing 737-Max situation is so dire. It's as if we've forgotten. This makes the teething problems of other commercial aircraft seem like child's play. Thinking back, I've actually flown on one. It was on a Southwest leg from Denver to L.A. It even had to be deiced. Once it got going, it majestically climbed up over the Front Range with negligible turbulence and continued on for a smooth flight to L.A. I thought this was a joke, but it's true. Southwest Airlines will soon cease flights to EWR (Newark). They will consolidate their New York flights into LGA (LaGuardia). I didn't read whether or not Islip (Long Island) would be affected but their dropping out of Newark does not make me happy. It's easier to use than are LGA or JFK if you are only flying domestically. I see part first-gen Riviera and part early 70s Olds 88. I don't see any Pontiac in the mix and I certainly don't see any Chevrolet.

Economic downturn? I like to look at real estate sites. There are already residential properties (not the mansions Robin Leach would tour) in California, Washington state, et. al. that are showing "reduced" in their prices. We've only seen this recently. We certainly haven't seen this in a long time. I would agree that there is a downturn coming.

Here's my trivia on this. The '75s and 76s came standard with the 4.1 liter 250 ci L6. I've seen a couple. Mostly in the '75s. Advertised for $3,999 and with no air. I'd have taken one off their hands. Just for '77, the 3.8 liter 231 ci V6 was standard. It was odd firing and I wish they had never put them in there. Just say I came across the big Cutty like these with the inline 6, I'd gladly have kept it. How can you destroy a Chevy inline 6? It's not easy. On the other hand, Regal/Century used the odd firing 3.8 liter 231 V6 in '75, '76, and '77. And it was unfortunate to see a rare and beautiful Regal S/R coupe with the trestle shifter between the buckets sometimes powered by one. I didn't have a problem with 3.8s from 1978 on, when the crankshaft revision made for smooth idling and an inherently more durable engine. I also feel that the Regal/Century should have always had the 260 V8 option if the LeMans/Grand LeMans always had it in those same years. That made no sense. Pontiac had something like 5 engine choices for the slower selling vehicle among GM's opera windowed coupes.

On a better note, these were the days! Oh yes they were! One of Detroit's finest moments ... and so perfectly timed for our bicentennial year. Haha ... from the UK? I think NOT.

No one saying anything about the Jeffrey Epstein thing? What a thing to wake up to upon turning on the computer. But it doesn't surprise me. He was living beyond large for too long a time and it caught up with him. Now, of course, they have to do an inquest as to what happened to him and the protocols around that. It looks fairly obvious to me. At any rate, this circus will continue as many will now come forward, perhaps with more ease and it will get a lot of air and media time, which I will not be watching or following. Within the last 20 years, Trump, in his glad handing and glib style, said Epstein was a 'great guy' and that they had similar tastes in women, and he even mentioned that he tended to like them on the young side. This would all still be bad. I just wonder how much "less bad" it would be if this dude hadn't dipped below the age of majority. In a couple of photos of him I saw, he looked suitable to be cast for the role of a turtle neck wearing, wife swapping husband from some bad 70's movie filmed in, you guessed it, the Hollywood Hills. What a horrendous week - El Paso, Dayton, Epstein, and God knows what else. How am I supposed to even think about cars?

Why the hell not? The era of the Cutlass Supreme, Greg Brady and Marcia Brady hair, and this! "Satisfaction ... ... came in a chain reaction"

@dfelt Love that convertible GTO you posted. There is still a group of dealerships named DOUG up in Lynnwood? Haha. Does he have a last name or is this like a Cher joke? Even Cal Worthington could do better than that. Never mind Cal Worthington. I have been seeing a lot of base Dodge Chargers in black/black. You can only get black cloth seats on the base model. The black makes them look more trim though I have not owned dark colored cars and prefer not to. The white/black Charger conundrum is analogous to "do this outfit make me look fat?" You wouldn't believe the discounts on current non-specialty Chargers. Wow.

On the plus side, after decades, it looks like a completely different car yet still identifiable enough as a domestic and a Corvette. It would be nice to see a cut-away showing the placement of the engine and how it meshes with the transmission.

"Laptop left open" look ... nah. And the ridge segregating the only other passenger in the car is too much. I can only hope that the "laptop left open" look does not appear on the 2021 Charger. It's everywhere these days.

Twizzlers are "dangerous." Twizzlers on sale are even more so.

For my parents and relatives, comparatively speaking, that would be early. I only did it to know if I had much in the way of input from countries and regions other than the one my parents come from ... and I don't. I most definitely did not do it to trace relatives. For the last 4 generations, I know they all came from within a very tight geographic radius and knowing that is good enough for me.

First, considering Tacoma WA has been a much maligned city that has only recently been looked at for a renaissance because Seattle has become so congested and expensive, I have to snicker when I see a Toyota Tacoma and that Toyota named a truck that. Meh. It sounds good. It's an alliteration. I wouldn't say I'm ashamed of liking this car, but if I had to putt around in an econobox, I'd putt around in a Hyundai Accent. When I did rent one, I was surprised how much I liked it. I got in synch with it right away. Anytime I think of an old Mercedes, I think of the ones my first-gen German-American childhood friends' parents hung onto for eternity and kept in mint condition ... or Irma Bunt.

I always look for this type of information when I read biographies about interesting or important people. In the U.S., only people in the most ethnic and diverse metro areas or who are well traveled tend to tune into this. I'm sure it's much more prevalent in Canada, especially in Toronto and Montreal. There, it's almost reflexive to do it. I think it's good. In most of America, it's considered weird ... and maybe even in Canada's prairie provinces. Anyone who thinks it's weird is probably a hick in my book. Then, why are people interested in Ancestry-dot-com and 23 and Me all of a sudden? It's because people want to know "what they're made of."

What? Be bold. Speak up.

@oldshurst442 I hope you're not a fan of Montrealer Gino Vannelli. Haha ... as '80s as they came! Actually, he's a McGill grad, as is William Shatner. That's impressive. I found it! Summer of '96 and putting around in a rented Peugeot econobox in Portugal's Algarve ... (I believe it's Alex Natale and not Bob Marley)

@dfelt Thank you ... thank you. I love it. So, then, Snohomish and Pierce Counties are in on the deal. Good to see it might eventually reach Everett and Tacoma, respectively. I'm having trouble envisioning light rail to Issaquah, to the base of the "Issaquah Alps." You'd think NIMBY. I remember misty, foggy mornings having breakfast when there were empty fields near the Bob's Big Boy that was once there. It was amazing to ride it from Downtown (Westlake station) to the new University of Washington station in all of about 6 minutes. In gridlock, driving that can take 36 ... or 46 minutes. Also, Fife is a great name for a dog!

We are. One person gets offended and that gets the ball rolling. Then, statues have to come down and streets need to be renamed. It sucks. And the thin skinned a-holes suck, too. Life was better before the New Millennium ... in my mind.

Not sure if the 2007-ish DTS was available with buckets (or 40-40 seats) but I'm almost sure it was. At that point, the flagship Cadillac became a boulevardier that anyone would have been proud to drive. All the weird and exaggerated angles had been worked out of it and it had become an attractive full size vehicle. I was pawing one at a closed Cadillac dealership in the Florida panhandle one evening when on vacation there back around that time. I hate this: you are driving along stretches of roadway where no one tends to walk ... or bike ... and someone is walking or cycling right in front of where you plan to turn. When it rains, it pours. Last month, this happened so many times that it was almost surreal. Once, it occurred in a very spread out and blistering desert city. SMH.

There are many Midwests, it seems. The area (great photos, btw) is too close to the Pennsylvania line to feel that Midwestern. It ain't Kansas or Nebraska, that's for sure. South Dakota, though, would be a Midwestern state and the scenery in the Badlands is stunning and much more aligned with that of Colorado and Wyoming. It's weird to drive over the Continental Divide in Wyoming in the summer and find that it's snowing very lightly at over 8,000 feet. Was this done because the brand is gone, the image is no longer that relevant to way younger people, and/or due to political correctness? I know that the Univ. of Illinois mother campus had to shelve the imagery of Chief Illiniwek in logos, sportswear, and communications because people are tightly wound and have to look for the worst in things.

Thank God. Just like the double decked freeway at the Embarcadero in San Francisco was taken down, the Seattle waterfront ought to look way better with the viaduct down. When did the tunnel become operative and how many lanes does it have in each direction? I was amazed at how long the light rail from the airport to downtown takes because it veers over to the southeast side of the city (Rainier Beach, etc.) before angling back up to downtown. I'm not complaining since I used to take the articulated bus to and from the airport from the east side and it meandered along I-405 and through Renton streets, all to be civic minded and save money. When is the light rail supposed to cross over to the east side and up to Northgate? It needs to go even further north but neither county north and south of King Co. has funds going toward the light rail, IIRC. All these shoehorned cities like San Francisco and Seattle decide to upgrade infrastructure WAY AFTER the growth and gridlock has occurred. Better late than never.

Saw a mid '70s base Chevy Nova in near perfect condition at a fast food place this afternoon. Base! No wheel covers, no mouldings, and no air conditioning. With all its bare bones, it was probably a 250 c.i. L6 ... which means it will run forever. I'll put up some photos when I sort them.

I saw a new Lacrosse driving home last night. It was white. I like it better than the chunky 2010-2016 rendition. It had 2 exhaust rectangles. You could sort of see the suspension's wishbone arms at the rear of the car when it pulled away. The big demerits, for me, are the seating position, console height, etc. I ain't 6'-2". If one were to get it with the new entry-level 2.5 L4, would they still get 2 exhaust outlets … or one? Ah, yes, summer in Seattle … about 2 months of it … but outstanding nonetheless.

Ghetto looking Grand Prix. I see the graphic even tells you which part of the Bronx it's in. Doesn't seem too close to the Westchester County line! If this is a GT, I'm wondering which engine it ran with. I'd say the GP was the best looking RWD downsize from 1978-1980 but then the Cutlass Supreme overtook it from 1981-1987 when it shovel nosed the grille and narrowed its tail lamps. The sleeker lines on the GP when the quadruplets all got refreshed in 1981 looked better. Too bad they also got CCC (Computer Command Control) that same year and had to work through teething issues. There was a term I saw used for the unique back lite treatment on these cars. Perhaps it was finned rear back lite. I think they were only featured on GM midsizes from '66 to '68, +/-. And they definitely looked better when on a Pontiac.

Did you go medium-haul or long-haul on the Dreamliner? JAL and ANA use them nonstop from Tokyo to Boston, probably bringing brainy folks to and from MIT and other brain trusts. I believe they now fly them on the nonstop LAX to AUK/SYD/MEL route. That's some 14 hours. This route had always been a mainstay for 747-400s and A380s. When I was a kid, the flights to Oceania would go LAX-Honolulu-Down Under, so 5 +9. Yes, I really liked my flight. However, I probably prefer the 2 (window side) in the back of the '47 where it narrows more so than 3 (window side), which is everywhere in the '87, though.

Congrats. What a cool place! Is there an implied or stated dress code? I looked at the link and saw that piece of salmon. It may be good but, like most fine dining, the portions are small and I'm always hungry.