Paolino

Ugh, I want a CXS so badly, but just can't afford it! What killed me last night was I was pulling my goddaughter around in her wagon down her block when we passed a parked Lucerne CXL V8 in Sagemist. It was so funny because she's only 2.5, and she saw the Buick insignia and said, "Ucoo Pawee's car!" I couldn't believe she recognized the logo! I picked her up, swung her around and said, "Yeah, I wish!" :AH-HA_wink:

I don't know about anyone else who saw it, but I thought it was hysterical! I can't get the Spider Pig theme out of my head! LOL

True, but the 2.7 base engine still puts out more power than say.... a 1992 Buick Century's anemic but bigger 3.3 V6...?

:AH-HA_wink:

j/k

That's not even a good joke when comparing it to a car 16 YEARS OLDER :AH-HA_wink:

Happy Birthday Guys! Get a little crazy for me!

Intrigued, take pics. LOL :AH-HA_wink:

Hope your Friday rocks!

It's pronounced LA Crosse, not LU. And I don't think it's a bad name... although I wish they never got rid of Regal.

I believe all the discussion in the past has stated that there's a good chance it's coming here in like 2011? Am I wrong?

Madonna! Che cazzo facendomi?!

You know... I wish I had a picture of this girl that wanted me. She was, and I feel terrible saying this, a disaster. She wasn't fat, but she was horrible in every way, and worst of all was, her personality.

Sigh.

My 3rd quiz in this summer class. First one was a 96. Second a 91. This one an 85. Do you know where I lost points IN EVERY SINGLE QUIZ? Writing Italian. I lost... FIFTEEN POINTS for writing in Italian. And I keep scanning the tests to make sure I didn't put any Italian in.

More

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_cont...-hybrid-dilemma

Wait wait wait... the EPA rates the Prius at 48/45? Are those the new 2008 numbers? If so, that's a HUGE drop, although fairly accurate based on my own findings.

Wow. Nothing exciting. I would have at least hoped they'd get rid of the 190hp 2.7L V6 as a base engine.

The UK will never let it happen...

Is he wearing capri pants?

OMG, he is! I thought they only made those for women?!

No, you did good. Who are we trying to kid...French is a beautiful language.

I had a blast both learning and teaching French. My heart still lies with Italian... if I could teach solely that, that's all it'd be. Unfortunately, I foresee myself teaching Spanish one day. The idea is to get me certified in that and then supplement my Italian with Spanish classes, giving me a full schedule in one building should I not have one.

nissan VQ

Ford 3.0 Duratec and 4.6

Chrysler 2.7 and 3.5

Toyota 2.5-3.0 litre V6s only recently replaced

Not defending GM on this one, I think the 3.6 should be in there as the base engine.... but I have driven a Lucerne with the 3800 multiple times and it is a perfectly pleasing engine for the purpose of this car. If you want more power, get the N*.

Show of hands... how many of you who are bashing the Lucerne with the 3800 have actually spent more than a round the block test drive behind the wheel?

Well, not that I disagree with you, but I've rolled my eyes at the Ford 3.0 being around, and the Chrysler 2.7 is not something I like seeing in existence. The VQ has been continually updated in many ways, including power increases. It makes a substantial amount more power than the larger GM 3.8L does.

The 3.8 just shouldn't be in a car of this price range, not to mention it's supposed to be premium?!

Oh, I do NOT like.

I had a lot of problems at first when I was learning Italian because I would remember the Spanish word instead. Now it's flip-flopped...I remember Italian better than Spanish even though I took 4 years of Spanish (five years ago) and only three weeks of Italian (but lived there for four months, so I was around the language).

Unfortunately, it'll fade FAST if you don't practice.

I'm going to try and say this with the LEAST enthusiasm possible:

whoo

hoo.

Damn.. that was too much.

Happy Birthday!

Bob... you know how he knew I was Sicilian? By the way I pronounced "Professore".

Apparently (and I had NO idea I was doing this), Sicilians make the first "o" open, whereas northern Italians keep it closed.

As for Italian, one of the biggest disadvantages is having had to learn Sicilian prior to Italian. It has made me extremely self conscious (since I am in Northern Italy right now) in that I try not to let out a "meridionale" cadence. (Don't get me started) In fact, people here ask me where I'm from.

The north/south thing will always be present. We've had fights with professors in class. He's a northerner, and I'm a Sicilian. Try getting a good grade with that!

Ventana in Sicilian? Seriously? It must a regional finessing of the dialect. On the eastern side of the island, we pronounced it "a fineshia."

Agrigento, kinda southwest on the island.

And Pontiac... don't need a history lesson on Sicily... it had SO MANY influences, it's really hard to pinpoint where anything came from. Evidence is going to the actual land and seeing the 50 different cultures all blended in one area.

My question is could we bottle that as a scent and sell it like they do the new car smell!

Okay, too far...

:AH-HA_wink:

Thanks.

Again, I'm dumbstruck by how close a lot of words, ill-intent or not, only require an alternate spelling to become interchangeable for that language. It also reminds me of how close Italian and Spanish are (and I also think Portuguese is also very closely related to the two as well), but how each culture and the people who speak it can really make their similarities almost vanish.

What boggles my mind is that some Italian dialects (such as Sicilian) are closer to Spanish than the book Italian (Fiorentino) is. God, even French has words closer to Spanish than Italian.

For example:

English / Italian / Spanish / French / Sicilian

to work / lavorare / trabajar / travailler / travagliare

window / finestra / ventana / finêtre / ventana

come here / vieni qui / vini acá / venez-vous ici / vini ca

to go / andare / ir / aller / ire

Exactly!

Now, is it an extra cost option?

Don't be surprised if you get a PM out of the blue sometime, taking you up on your offer.

A choice word (or would it be a set?) I know in Italian and have down pat and ready for immediate use is "pezzo di merda." I don't think anyone needs to translate that.

What I do find interesting is how close the word "merda" is to it's French equivalent, which would be "merde" I think. (Well, I guess I know a dirty French word, too! )

Take all misspellings, etc., with a grain of salt. My foreign languages are pretty rusty.

No problem. Mierda in Spanish.

I had that problem twice in my life. I learned Latin 1st, then Italian, no problem there. Then I learned Spanish and that's where my problems began, there is not much difference between otto and ocho, cuantos anos or quanti anni, then one day it just clicked but I learned Castilian Spanish, which is like speaking Spanish with a lisp. I then had problems speaking Castilian Spanish in South America, first they don't use Vosotros and the accents are way different such as in the word llama which I pronounced like yama, in South America the same word is pronounced like jama and in Puerto Rico they for some reason don't pronunce the rolling RRRRRs, they for some reason become silent R's. But this too became second nature once I lived in Mexico and Ecuador.

Good luck Paulie, I'm sure you will get it, it just takes a little time and then one day it will just click. For me I know I have a language down pat, once I dream in that language.

See, that's just it.. 11 years ago I took 1 semester of Spanish and the teacher taught us Castilian... had NO problem pronouncing things. This professor wants us to speak with a Latin American accent, and therefore no lisp. I think I was better with the lisp, because it differentiated it more.

My other beef is that I'm taking this class with people who are fulfilling a requirement. I sit in the back of the room and twiddle my thumbs because 90% of the grammar is identical to Italian. The students were angry because I was the only one who had no problem with the imperfect and preterit, and I tried to explain to them the uses are identical in Italian. Uffa!

YJ, if there are any other "choice" words in Italian you care to know, let me know! LOL

I think they should have called that color, bowel movement.

Bowel Movement Metallic.