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trinacriabob

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Everything posted by trinacriabob

  1. I have never had a bad experience with either United or Delta. Delta used to be outstanding but has become less so over the years. In terms of alliances, United's Star Alliance is the best, followed by Delta's SkyTeam, and then American's One World. One World has both British and Iberia. I dislike both of them. As far as American carriers go, I'd have to say Alaska and Southwest have been the best and I've been flying on them for about 20 years. As far as international carriers go, my nod goes to both Air France and Alitalia, and they are both in SkyTeam. The former has never been arrogant, as the French are reputed to be, and the latter has really been getting their act more together. Good food in steerage on both Air France and Alitalia. Just tonight, I was discussing with someone how I never like to cross an ocean on an American carrier. It's not exciting to me. I want to be on a foreign one from the get go. I have to bite my tongue here. That would be very scary but I'm thinking the plane might not have wanted to go to Sacramento.
  2. I also went with Defenders after the OEMs wore out on the current sled. The OEMs wore out too quickly compared to those on the last car ... the Regal. Tread life that comes nowhere close to 90,000 miles is what the personal reviewers were complaining about. Let's see how mine do. Past sets of Michelin have made good on their longevity. They came so close to the stated tread life that I didn't even mess with the minor proration remnant and, generally speaking, I'm cheap. In my mind, Michelin has always been the gold standard for American tires. I hope that they haven't stopped carrying that torch.
  3. What was really nice was a whitewall that I once bought that had a very thin white stripe. I think it was one of the Michelin replacements. It was the best of both worlds, looks wise. I recall that it was durable. I had a set on the Regal coupe that I had before the LaCrosse. Sadly, even though Consumer Reports touts the Michelin Defender, the personal reviews of them on other sites are far from stellar. I am now at the point that I am more open to other tire brands. I do want to see that some people have had good experiences with them before buying, though. As far as plane seats go, I usually end up in the very back of the aircraft on Southwest because of my boarding sequence number. I go right to the penultimate window seat and pick a side of the aircraft depending on what I might want to look at when taking off or landing.
  4. It was really weird to learn about yesterday's Southwest flight 1380 (NY-La Guardia to Dallas - Love Field) that made an emergency landing at PHL when it lost one engine and after my being on a Southwest Boeing 737 flight about 1 hour earlier yesterday and sitting by the window. I try to sit by a window almost all the time. A couple of men apparently had to pull the one passenger, who later died, back into the cabin. She was at a window that had shattered by the engine's failure. It's sad that the lady passed away, but it sounded like she was in serious condition after such rapid decompression. It's also amazing how some people rise to the call of duty when there's a tragedy and try to help out. The photos of the engine and how charred it was are eye opening. Passengers said that the plane operated satisfactorily after the loss of the engine and that the pilot did a great job of bringing the plane to the tarmac safely.
  5. That's interesting ... Dobermans and German Shepherds .... at the same time? If so, I wonder how they interacted. And how they interacted with a Miniature Schnauzer ... I've only had one dog and it was an Australian Shepherd ... in my teens and twenties. A grammar school friend's family had two of them in their back yard and I decided that was the kind of dog I'd push for. Ours was a female and about 35 pounds. Males typically weigh about 50 to 65 pounds. I think 30 to 40 pounds is the ideal size for a dog. I held her on the ride home for over 30 minutes from the people's house where we purchased her, so I'm the person she bonded with. Australian Shepherds are consistently ranked at the top for intelligence and she definitely delivered on that. I now feel I will compare every possible dog option to that dog. My soft spot for Australian Shepherds and Border Collies continues. They have now engineered "minis" of these two breeds. It's starting to get sort of weird. Many popular and more recent breeds have been engineered, so to speak.
  6. I think Steven King is really the only well known alum of the University of Maine (main Orono campus). What makes the area look more northeastern is the presence of evergreens. Going east along I-90 toward New York state and New England, there will be even more of them.
  7. Check out those hip roofed brick ranches out back! Those sorts of houses can be seen here and there around Seattle and Portland, and they have always caught my attention because they look much more "eastern" for the setting. I was expecting a small dog. Cute. That looks like at least 30 pounds worth of dog!
  8. There are some real characters riding public transit trains. And they often seem to talk to me. Why so? I look somewhat conservative. It just happened on a train ride some 30 minutes ago. Mostly, it's funny but, at times, it can be annoying.
  9. We've been inching our way out of that past Recession with a capital R for about 8 years now. The business cycle is fairly predictable. A recession is forecast for 2019 +/-. The personal income tax rates haven't been tinkered with all that much. They're more streamlined than anything. I haven't seen a "bottom line" number on how much more or less will be coming in. Also, there's the corporate tax rate and, if there's less inflow from that for a prolonged period of time, that's not too good, either. The other thing that is sort of weird is the increasing prices of homes ... and the markets that got real hot a dozen years ago have gotten real hot again, as well as a few additional markets. Some things that could bolster this is more foreign money coming in to buy said properties (via a bigger global economy) or people who have cashed in on riding the crest of the wave of the uptick in the market, AND investing in large quantities. Those people can always buy whatever they like in terms of housing because "if you have to ask the price ..." Adding: I was going to mention that people watching can be interesting. Do you people watch / watch people?
  10. Saw a 1972 boat tail Riv on Thursday. The owner told me it had the 455 V8. (I don't recall anything else ever powering those Rivs.) He also told me he didn't break 10 mpg. Funny that half of that displacement would power the car 20 years later ... meh, 231 c.i. (3800) is close enough to 227.5 ... And, as I was talking to this dude, a truck loaded with cars went wizzing by on the freeway. Of the handful of cars on it, one was a much "cherrier" boat tail Riv in a light metallic blue with a white vinyl top. With those odds, one probably should have bought a lottery ticket that day.
  11. This. I grew up around L.A. A lot of kids were up to no good. I don't need a locking gas cap. However, I want a remotely operated fuel filler door. The Hyundai Accent has the tiny lever on the floor, right to the left of the front seat, along with the rear trunk release tab. It's more nicely placed on the Charger. It's low on the door, near the map pockets, and slightly rearward. So, no "cap" is fine. However, locking "door" is required ... for me.
  12. Regarding the lot impression of the Regal, I have now gotten to sit in one. And my verdict is NO. I just did this the other day. I looked to my rear. I thought I was in the wagon for a second. No, it was the sportback. Check out the thickness of the rear pillar. It was over the top, with a thick pillar and a roof line that comes down very low. I always ask myself, "Would I like driving this sled (insert name of car) around in rush hour traffic in Manhattan?" As for the trunk, it's huge. And becomes more so when you fold down the seat. There is also the new dash. It's a wash with me. I liked the previous one just fine. This new one is more horizontal and shares its styling cues with the bigger LaCrosse. However, for being a smaller car, the console is, again, too high. The car also does not have a remote fuel door release, yet a Hyundai Accent does! What's the problem here? I have no doubt the road manners will be great - refined, supple, sporty, etc. However, this isn't the car for me. Buick has gotten farther and farther away from what suits my automotive needs.
  13. I anxiously await being able to look at, and sit in, a 2019 Ford Focus and the next-gen Dodge Charger.
  14. If someone wants to see a great foreign flick (bittersweet comedy/drama) about the Greek islands, check out "Mediterraneo." It is of 1993+/- vintage. It may have won Best Foreign film in its year. I recall that it was subtitled, being a product of Italy. It sure has some kinky and strange subplots, but remains firmly PG. I've seen it more than once. However, it was the funniest the first time around. Like singer Sade' says, "It's never as good as the first time." That casts a broad net!
  15. Q: How many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: One to do it and nine to SHARE in the experience.
  16. Do you sing in the shower or elsewhere in your abode? Do certain places remind you of certain songs? When in Pensacola, I always think (never fails) of Jimmy Buffett's song "Creola," (great, smooth flowing Jimmy Buffett song obviously about the South) and I might sing it in my hotel room. Not loud or anything, but sing it nonetheless. What's weird is when the housekeeper hears you and you know she has.
  17. I always need a gyro. Regarding copious amounts of alcohol, I'm thinking this could be to the left side or right side, per the map, of the Irish Sea. Or it could be near the North Sea. If it's on the right side of the Irish Sea, per the map, most of the jokes I hear are about bad teeth. Joke ... Q: You go to an airplane manufacturer's delivery area. How do you know which aircraft was built for the Italians? A: It has hair under its wings.
  18. My opinion of Greece has not changed. I have been there and liked it. I would have liked to spend more time in Athens. Athens does not have a beach. The city is about 10 to 15 miles inland from Glyfada and other coastal towns near the old international airport. Since I last went, the Metro into the new international airport has been completed, so it's just one line into the center of Athens. Like most people who do Greece and a few islands, those islands were of the Cyclades chain (think dry, sparsely vegetated, and windmills). I want to see Adriatic Greece, meaning Corfu (Kerkyra), Zakynthos, et. al. Zakynthos: Speaking of the islands, many have more than one name. The residents of Lesbos/Lesvos got testy once when they were being referred to as Lesbians. There was nothing incorrect about that. However, they are also known as the island of Mytilini (sp.). They could just as easily be Mytilinians. I don't know many Polish jokes and I only remember one. Q: How does a Polish guy take a shower? A: He pees against the wind. There are a lot more Italian jokes floating around out there. Bring them on!
  19. In my ode to jokes a few posts up, I forgot to add the creativity factor. I'm laughing at the outlandish thinking process that even led to the creation of these jokes. When we were teens, we had (inside) acronyms for everything. Some of them were pretty funny. They went great with Big Boy burgers, fries, a Coke, and a side of zits!
  20. Right, they squeeze the nickel real tight, so to speak ... Right, and it's interesting how vehicles like the Suburban and the Tahoe have gotten more angular with the latest refresh, rather than more rounded, which is more suggestive of cheating the wind.
  21. For what it's worth, I laugh at almost all jokes, including almost all jokes made about Italians. Sometimes, it's more about the irony, sarcasm, stereotyping, fatalism, and drawing of parallels that overrides the facts. Q: Why do most men die before their wives? A: They want to. Anyone have any other jokes?
  22. Currently, millennials in Italy have forgotten what the sentiment toward Germans was like in the 50s and around there. Time, globalization, and the internet have smoothed over some of those dynamics and the differences, not to mention the fact that the EU has allowed many folks to move to other European countries more effortlessly. At the time you refer to, the average Italian on the street was blindsided that they would be allied with the Germans in a war they did not support. For people from that generation, the attitudes toward Germans were not exactly positive. My parents were young and remember the bombs that the Allies were dropping on the countryside as a result of who their country was in bed with. Sicilians felt liberated when the Allies finally stormed through and had essentially taken back the island, as depicted in the epic film "Patton." The joke, as I'm sure you know, has to do with Germany's Angela Merkel era and the countries in southern Europe whose economies have teetered the most during this last global recession. But it was a joke limited only to the current era ... on a joke thread.
  23. This joke is sort of 2013 in its punch, but it will probably always have some relevancy, relatively speaking ... Q: An Italian, a Spaniard, and a Greek go to a bar. Who picks up the tab? A: A German.
  24. I don't follow it either until it gets down to the end. Don't have the desire to sit in front of the boob tube with a bunch of grunting beer drinking ex-frat types or "pick up truck alumni" (term I learned while living in the South) commenting on the goings-on for months prior to the slimming down of the schedule. I have a similar joke: Wanted into UVa for grad school and didn't get in, but got into U of I (IL). Either way, I ended up with the same school colors - blue and orange. The two schools couldn't be more different, though!
  25. Only the "school of hard knocks" in that things seem to come 180 ... flat fronts are now normal in dress pants, with pleats gone and, for a while, I saw some rendition of shag carpeting in newer model homes in California, though the fad didn't last long. Yes, that sawed off Sequoia does look very notchback like! I was saddened that the famous California redwood one could drive through is no longer. I actually set foot in church tonight, after over 5 years, so that I wouldn't have to go on Easter Sunday. Regarding the NCAA tourney, I took off from where I was having a gyro to go to church and Loyola was leading Michigan and I hoped they'd pull through. They didn't. Then, when I came home late, because they ALSO served food after the service, I learned that Villanova had won. At this point, I want Michigan to win. Could you imagine all the new suits Jay Wright would buy with the ensuing avalanche if Nova Nation were to win? Go Blue. Meh ... it has always been my favorite Big 10 (it's still 10 to me) school.
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