trinacriabob

@riviera74 Yet another birthday per the C&G list. Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. @David Per today's birthday list, happy birthday! Did you arrive to this world on Thanksgiving Day proper? Enjoy your day. I am sure good food will be involved.

Yesterday, a '91 or '92 Buick Riviera coupe was coming the other way. With my window down, the exhaust growl was acceptable, but not as quiet as it could have been. It was triple black - black exterior, padded black landau, and a black leather interior. This car has always been a little tricky with the vantage points. It looks better in angled views. From the front, the grille looks too short in the vertical sense. From the back, it's another story. As I pulled away and looked in the rearview mirror, the padded landau overpowered and the taillamps looked small and not that interesting. From an angled view, and without the landau, the rear taillamps combined with the formal back lite look great. No landau roof for this gen of Riviera. In short, the Olds Toronado fraternal twin of the same years looks better from all vantage points.

It will be interesting to see what else you will find with this new up-line model. It's definitely true to the Buick vocabulary but also trying some new things (the diamond pane seating pattern). Also, many car's tan offerings for interiors aren't even tan, but off-white. This is both in domestic cars and in foreign ones, such as VW products. That big touch screen to the right of the IP is a little overpowering. I have seen it in showrooms. A grainy engine at this price point is a no go. And, I agree with you, if these pick up any steam, some should be built in North America. And, I'm including Oshawa ON, since it has historically been a very good plant.

Backtracking to October A Charger exactly the way I would have ordered one, based on the exterior, if in the market. It's the $30K base model (no spoiler). Adieu, Dodge Charger as we know it and which has aged like a fine wine. I don't see many of these post-Dust Buster minivans anymore. This is a Chevy Uplander, which might have been named a Chevy Venture. These ran with Chevy built 3400 V6s, which held up well in Impalas and Monte Carlos. I would have probably liked the BOP equivalents (Terraza, Silhouette, and Trans Sport) a little more for their slightly better styling and how they're trimmed out. Here's a Maserati coupe, but don't know which model it is. Lastly, here is something I've never seen before. This Mustang has a license plate from Canada's Northwest Territories. It says "Spectacular Northwest Territories" and the plate is shaped like a polar bear! What? A RWD car in the Northwest Territories?

I have seen the first vid before and it's cool how it chronicles the car (they had NO idea what they'd be getting 2 years later ... haha). In 1978, both the intermediates (Cutlass, Regal) and the PLCs (GP and Monte Carlo) went onto the same chassis AND wheelbase. I sometimes wonder if the '76 and '77 GP had been put onto the shorter wheelbases - and the finned fender tops and the beltline sweeps were toned down somewhat - if it would have snagged some of the Cutlass (and Regal) coupe sales during those same 2 years. In the first commercial, the camera effectively pans the beautiful sweep of Pontiac dashboards at their peak. That dash, and that of the (G)LM of the same years , was a standout. The second video shows that that vehicle is registered in Quebec. Canadians, and especially French Canadians, loved Pontiacs. The predominance of French nameplates didn't hurt that marketing effort.

I had forgotten "The mark of great cars" campaign. "We build excitement," even if they sometimes didn't, sounded better. As for the GP in the vid, I think they showed it the way they did to align with the base price displayed. That would have been a 49-state car with the 301 V8. (Calif. had to go with the 350 V8) I don't think the idiot light grouping, the base cloth bench seat, and the black seat belts helped. Shown with more up-level options, the commercial would have been a bigger hit. And, showing the GP in motion would have helped make for more "excitement." I think I liked the '76 a little more, especially in the simpler rear taillamps. The GP medallions made it look like too much of a luxury car. As for the front grille, it's a toss. Thanks for the update on what that Olds was. That it's a '64 seems plausible.

Haha. Similar, but different enough. If I was given an a-b-c-d multiple choice test on 100 Italian, Greek, and Iberian physiognomies (throw in the French, too), I'm thinking I'd get 70% to 80% of it correct.

New York City spotting ... by borough! MANHATTAN a Dodge Charger (in a color I like) crossing west to east through Times Square a Pontiac Grand Prix near Washington Square Park (NYU area) - I asked if it had a 350 ... no ... a 301 ... no ... it had a 400 ... it's a 1977 in excellent condition and with yesteryear's color combos, and overstyled as hell ... we're talking 45 years worth of car! Cars used to have so much personality. BROOKLYN a boat-tail Buick Riviera ... not my favorite specimen, but an unforgettable and polarizing design before it returned to being more "mainstream." an Olds Ninety-Eight, but not offered in Regency trim in those days @NINETY EIGHT REGENCY It makes it an even bigger treat (no trick) to see unusual cars in places like NYC in temperate enough October weather.

Those old school Greeks - men with herringbone berets and women dressed in black - shown in yogurt commercials for eating yogurt every day and who live to be 100? There must be a way to say "la dolce vita" in Greek, too. Spring is actually very nice in the Med because the rainy season that is now behind them has the bougainvillea and other plant life in bloom, and the backdrop has green hills instead of the brown hills we see in many photos.

If living at a northerly latitude: 1. Autumn 2. Summer 3. Spring 4. Winter If living at a southerly latitude, especially one with a Mediterranean climate: 1. Summer 2. Spring 3. Autumn (tie) 3. Winter (tie) There are so many different climates and micro-climates, even within short distances. That's why my rankings differ. However, for me, autumn is all about great photo opportunities.

Survey says: https://morningconsult.com/2022/10/20/fall-seasons-ranking/

Happy Sunday . . . alert: troglodyte on the loose

Clean and sophomoric one ... Q: What did one ocean say to the other? A: Nothing. They just waved.

Last month, I was in Boston ... and Cambridge, too, and this ran through my head. - - - - - A new freshman is walking through the middle of the Harvard campus during the first few days of school trying to find his way, but is seemingly unable to identify which building is the library. He spots what is probably an upperclassman in the vicinity and stops him to ask. Freshman: "Excuse me, but can you tell me where the library is at?" Upperclassman: "We at Harvard do not end sentences with prepositions." Freshman: "Okay, then, can you tell me where the library is at, a$$hole?"

This one is a tough customer!

Happy Sunday ... Indeed ... I found this clip of the maiden flight.

I like Colorado. After living in the PacNW for a few years, the forestation and vegetation in CO seem drier - and they are. I just have an issue with too much fleece, those "hiking shoes" everyone wears and seem to have been issued at birth, and, of course, the Subarus. That would knock the forested communities of Northern New England out of the running, too. Here you go: Kate Brown, ex-governor of Oregon, and her husband doing some "free advertising" for LL Bean or Eddie Bauer or one of those companies. I liked the physical geography of California and didn't think I would ever leave. My entire family left, although not at all one time. Having just gotten back, I realize how much I liked, and have always liked, interacting with New Yorkers and Northeasterners. I get along with them more easily than the folks of any other American region. But, then, our living room in CA while growing up was usually populated by transplanted New Yorkers and European immigrants. The California natives were fine, too, and more relaxed, but nowhere near as colorful.

It's interesting how, among regular American folks, some gravitate toward northerly latitudes and some gravitate toward southerly latitudes. If they relocate from one to the other, I notice that they tend to go back to the latitude they know. Some Californians who moved up to Washington and Oregon during the different "waves" ended up going back to California. Some Northeasterners or Midwesterners who moved to Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, or one of the metro areas in Florida end up going back up. It's a baseline thing. For one, northerly latitude and southerly latitude people (in the States, for one) seem to develop different personality styles. Upon relocating, Californians in the PacNW are told to "tone it down," or they read the cues and do so. - - - - - My real random thought: It's great when people can resist the movie stars, athletes, and other celebrities at the polls. With me, someone's being a star or a celebrity most likely brings on the visceral reaction that I WON'T be voting for them. "Just say no" - well, that was a "movie star's" wife who said that ... * short rant *

Argh, I thought it was on the 8th. @Drew Dowdell Happy belated birthday. I hope you had a great day.

Yes, from this vantage point, it sort of does have the taillamp bar of this Town Car. though the front very much remained '90s Oldsmobile. As for the video clip, it's all there - there's both a "cathedrale roulante" and a "mini" cathedral that isn't rolling, even though he was rocking his way through those jump ropes. (I wonder how many takes it took to get that scene right.) Those very early Ninety Eights and Electras/Park Avenues needed to get some meat on their bones, which they did at some point into the '90s. The Ninety Eight became more appealing than the more rounded Electra/Park Avenue models, IMO.

@David I know that there are more and better cameras and sensors to help with changing lanes, backing up, and such. They are useful. No doubt about that. I just think that a minimum amount of over the shoulder visibility is desirable ... for anyone. It can help you gauge how fast someone is coming up on you. I know from having driven rented moving trucks a time or two or three that changing lanes can make for an uncomfortable feeling.

This has been a larger and older GM sort of weekend. Yesterday, I saw a powder blue Olds Toronado with a white top. That meant it was a '75. It was spotless. I couldn't take a photo. I waved at its driver. He waved back. This morning, I saw a mid 1990s' Olds Ninety Eight Regency of the variety @NINETY EIGHT REGENCY has. I saw it coming up on me in the fast lane on the freeway. I saw that it was silver. When it caught up with me, its interior was burgundy. But I already knew this is my favorite color combo for a vehicle. This was another immaculate GM car. For a split second, with its lack of finning at its rear, it almost resembled a small Lincoln Town Car from the rear. "Cathedrale roulante," baby. Within the last half hour, I saw a '76 or '77 Cadillac Eldorado convertible - white-white-white leather interior sitting perpendicular to me at a light. We're talking about times when nothing was cookie cutter.

Happy Sunday Maybe not ...

@David No to that aeroback/fastback EV Wildcat coupe. It's just plain bizarre. It will probably be hard to see out of it, too. I get it that auto styling studios will push the envelope. They did the same thing at Olds with the Antares that would become the Intrigue. Looking back, Antares mock-ups were too much. They typically dial things back. Intrigues were tasteful and the market responded accordingly.