Robert Hall

2 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

 

Mostly, I agree.  My favorite would be the Parisienne (he didn't mention it) followed by the 88.  Right, 307s and 301s over 305s (for me, anyway).  

Parisienne (the US market one from '83-86) would be a 305.  It was basically a facelifted Caprice (had the Chevy-based interior, and got the Pontiac rear 81 rear clip for '85-86).  The Pontiac 301 was gone after '81, last year of the B-body Catalina and Bonneville. 

As far as 80s GMs, I wouldn't mind having an '80-84 Buick Electra Park Avenue, '80-89 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham de' Elegance (long name!), or '80-86 Caprice as an occasional drive around car.   

I like that green...the R32-R34 generations were better looking cars, IMO.

I love the R34 styling..

Enjoying the week off...pretty quiet.  Unusual late December weather for NE Ohio, was 60 on Christmas.  Took the Mustang out for a spin on some of the nice back roads close by.   Then soaked in the hot tub for a while.   (Big meal was Christmas Eve, my sister and I went to a great local steakhouse for a big dinner, champagne, wine, etc).   

Speaking of actresses w/ distinctive eyes, anyone remember Meg Foster from the 70s-80s?  Her eyes were very unusual...very pale blue.

On 12/21/2023 at 4:13 PM, trinacriabob said:

Can't GM or any entity, for that matter, announce layoffs AFTER Christmas or the holidays are over?  Is it about making some kind of a favorable accounting or tax related entry on the books for the current fiscal year? (I'm theorizing, since I can't come up with what that would entail.) Shouldn't it be about people?  Who wants to see glum faces at the breakfast or dinner table?

A friend who had been with a company for 15 years got laid off last Friday...the Friday before Xmas they laid off 300+ IT people...(a place I worked back in '10-11, a horrible vile bank w/ a sweatshop environment).

Nice sunny afternoon, 56...nice for Ohio in December.   Took it for about a 20 min drive at lunch today..hard to get good photos with all the shadows in the late fall.

As an aside, I'd really like to have a 2nd gen Legend coupe w/ a manual.   Beautiful cars..

I'd like to see a big sedan and coupe named 'Legend' again.. 

Updated pictures after recent restoration after a 20 year slumber.   65k miles now.  

More pictures, now stored for winter.  Got to get more boxes out of the garage from the move to make room for the '69 which will be going in eventually.. 

A couple photos of how grubby it was in June 2022 when I put a new battery in and drove it out of the barn.  Not sure the last time it had been driven, I hadn't been in the barn since June 2017 due to ongoing dispute with my (now-deceased) deranged brother after our mother's death in April 2015.

11 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I’m going to be working on the ads this coming week . I am not happy with the ads provider we’re using. If you’re seeing ads but are a subscriber, let me know

I'm not seeing ads on Safari on the desktop, but am seeing a lot of ads on mobile Safari.   The site is pretty much unusable on mobile because of the ads.

1 hour ago, surreal1272 said:

You are a premium subscriber so you don't get all the pop ups I do. Not just the ad after the first page clock. It's the constant video pop up that come up and on a mobile device, the "x" (to close) button is so small that you will click on the video 9 times out of 10. The desktop version is much more manageable in this regard but I am all but done with using the site on my phone.

Yeah, I'm a premium subscriber and see a huge number of ads when trying to access the site on Safari on my iPhone.  I would have thought being a premium subscriber would reduce the number of ads, but It's pretty much unusable on a phone with all the ads....so I usually only go to the site on my laptop.

On 11/18/2023 at 7:16 PM, trinacriabob said:

Is it possible to know the disposition of a vehicle a person once had?  By the VIN or other information?  I'm not expecting an obit, but maybe the date (and geographic location) where it was junked, scrapped, etc.

I've used carfax and just google searches of the VIN to find info on past cars I've owned... found out my '00 Grand Cherokee I sold in Phoenix in 2017 turned up at a Copart lot in Tuscon 6 months later, and that the '88 Bronco II I traded for that Jeep in 2000 was registered in a small town in Colorado until 2003.   Also found out my brother's Ranger that sold at the farm auction in 2022 appeared on a nearby used car lot a few month later, at 50% markup.

On 11/17/2023 at 2:43 PM, ccap41 said:

The Problem Cadillac/GM have is that they're rebadging vehicles and as EVs, they're even more similar to their Chevrolet counterparts. They're desperately doing something to differentiate themselves, That Optiq is nothing different than an Equinox EV,,,, but it charges faster!  

I'm sure there is a substantial price difference...

Nice sunny day, went down to the restorer's shop and picked up my Mustang and drove it home today.   94 mile drive on freeways w/ low traffic, hit the 65k mile mark driving through the Akron area.    Happy to have it home, with me again after 21 years apart.  I felt 25 again driving it... drives like a new 36 yr old car..tight and free of rattles, quick, loud, stiff springs and bouncy/jarring over freeway expansion joints...tiny side mirrors, no cupholders, comfortable seats though. It feels so small in traffic and sitting down low. Great to drive a manual again.   And so very RED.  

One thing that gets me is the realization that when I was 26, I drove this car from Ann Arbor, MI through Chicago to Colorado Springs over a few days..without cupholders, NAV, and only a rudimentary 1997 cell phone (Motorola Star-Tac).  How the world has changed in the last 25+ years.

Hard to get good photos at 3:30 on a late fall afternoon, so many shadows..   got a few minor things still to fix but no biggies. 

People are people.  

26 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Just thought about this because I just saw this:

I saw an early 2000s Impala and saw how they still had the rubber bumper strips integrated into the body-colored bumpers, which are now how bumpers are designed/made in their entirety.

It's much easier to see a severe dent or ding in a polyurethane bumper.  It makes me think they changed to this to create more work for body shops.  Ya think?

Cheaper to manufacture...fewer parts.   And it looks cleaner without the strips inset into the bumpers. 

Keep on keepin' on...you do [email protected] boring.

3 hours ago, David said:

I am such a Depeche Head, Loved them since my first concert with them in Japan.

Depeche Mode Music for the Masses Tour 1987 to 1988, Japan Leg. This is memory lane of an amazing time in my life.

Depeche Mode "Music For The Masses Tour" 1987-1988 (depmode.com)

 

They were great...2 hr show tonight on the new 'Memento Mori' tour...new songs and songs from throughout their career.  Gore and Gahan don't disappoint. 

19 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

Does this qualify as mid-life crisis?   Even though the Mustang is yours since 40 years ago?   

 

 

 

I think so.   It’s been over 10 years since I’ve driven it more than 50 feet.  It sat most of the last 20 years.  
 

And I’m at a Depeche Mode concert tonight, and going to a Geddy Lee event where he tells stories from his autobiography next week.   So I’m really indulging in 80s nostalgia.

32 minutes ago, David said:

Are those the pictures he sent ya? WOW that is very sharp indeed.

Yes, taken this morning at his shop.  That's the original paint, they buffed it out, waxed, etc. 

Got a call today from my auto mechanic that my '87 Mustang GT is done and ready to go.  Plan to go pick it up next week.  Looks good after 20+ years in storage--been thoroughly cleaned inside and out (original paint, 64k miles).  Went through it mechanically and replaced a lot of seals, gaskets, hoses, etc.     Looking forward to getting it home and enjoying it again like I did in Colorado in my 20s. 

33 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

All funny, but this stood out.  Interesting.  Were they first-gens born in the Northeast and then transplanted down or were these kids born in Florida?  They probably understood the language more than they spoke it ... and they might have even understood wooden spoons! Rossi was the first name of one of them?  That is Italy's most common surname.  I just looked it up - Smith is the most common last name in the U.S.

Rossi Nuccio.. the kids I went to school with were the 1st gen...parents were born in Italy and immigrated to the US in the late 60s I believe..we went to school together in Marathon in the 80s.   IIRC, they had a home in Marathon and one in Westchester County, NY--I think the kids were born up there. 

4 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

My wife and I are expecting our first in January and names are where we are completely stumped. We're having a girl but no name we've heard has really stuck out to us yet. 

Can always use the name of a beloved grandmother or aunt.. my folks did that w/ my sister's name (which is still a very common name in the UK but has become quite uncommon in the US). 

9 minutes ago, David said:

It is interesting to see how names from TV shows are popular in naming babies.

I wonder how AI will deal with pronunciation of strange forward looking names as you posted. 

🤔 How does one say Ae37-XD or Gzhn???????

Can you imagine the bullying they will get?

'Gzhn' would be pronounced 'John'.. maybe 'Ae37-XD' could be 'Alex'... 

10 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Don't get me started on the lists above.  I will come back around to take a swipe at those.

One of the things that sort of irritate me is how people name a kid with a foreign first name a few generations down as if to culturally appropriate or channel the culture.  I've seen kids with names like Enzo,  Giovanni, and several others.  These people do not speak Italian, they probably have never been there or their going there is brief, and their connection to the country is tenuous.  It's just recent trendy stupidity.  Enzo comes from Vincenzo, so name that kid Vincent.  And give that Giovanni the name John.  (I know I can't tell people what to name their kids.)  I find this a little insulting since Italian-Americans went through discrimination up until the last few decades and this is when their parents who had come to North America named them Michael, Joseph, Louis, Mark, and other "normal" names.  And it's likely that these types described above were more connected to the culture.  So, it's ludicrous that people who are removed from the culture have the foreign names.  And it's also these people, who with a great grandfather on one side, clutter the consular channels to get dual citizenship for God knows what.

* end of rant *

I went to high school with a  Rossi, Enzo and a Giovanna..3 siblings whose parents immigrated from Italy to S. Florida in the 60s..  They were the 1st generation born in the US in their family.   The kids spoke a bit of Italian IIRC.   I wonder how they named their kids..

I've worked w/ people who had unusual names, and not names that would be considered 'ethnic'..  like a Jhonathn.. spelled like that, said his parents were non-conformist and wanted a non-standard spelling for his name..   also went to high school with a guy named Sky Rockett.   

Then there were people whose names seemed unfortunate...like a Richard Head (just like the actor)...hated being called Dick.  We shared an office in grad school.  

Also worked with a Vincen... don't know what happened to the 'T' at the end. 

As far as naming babies, there has been a trend in the last 20 years of names seemingly made-up rather than previously exising--such as lots of names ending in -den (Kayden, Jayden, Chaden, etc).   Also names borrowed from series like Game of Thrones seem to be popular..

Maybe people should be forward looking and use names that sound like they are from the future, as Elon Musk did with his kids... why not names like Ae37-XD, a Zdx223-b, Khelbhar, Gzhn, Ztorr, etc..