The last line in the first paragraph seems overly flowery for something JB would write. If you’re being held hostage just tell us why the latest water cooled Porsches are the best cars ever from the company and we’ll take care of it.
But seriously, is the FP something I actually should be reading or only the stuff you sneak into it?
By the way, great article, encapsulated a lot of my feelings on the Cars and Coffee set and others, which are hard to explain, but essentially boil down to “owning cool stuff doesn’t make you cool if you don’t do any cool stuff with it.”
that thought runs through my head every time i see some modern shop build custom car with several hundred or thousand plus horsepower or ultra trick suspension
you know full well its never going to be utilized ever
"because i wanted it" sounds childish and unsatisfying
I know we all love to say that, but there's always the exception and they may be more than we know. I used to think that way, but now I've been surprised by how many of those people have track club memberships around me and actually run the cars there..
Also from experience in the bike world, you learn quickly that everyone has different thresholds for what "using it" means. I get a lot of looks from people on hard rides and races done on my quite "tricked out" custom, made to measure bikes, but it's what I enjoy riding/racing
To me, “using” something is treating it like a rental but with an eye towards maintenance and at least trying to keep it clean/damage-free. If I can’t write something off more or less without caring, I don’t own it.
This has kept me from owning some cool shit though, so YMMV.
When I was into cars, as in seriously wrenching and rebuilding them, we called them 'trailer queens'. They never get driven, except onto the trailer and off of it at car shows and meets.
Of course, you could show that you’re using your toys in a negative way!
Such as when you mat the throttle of your Mustang, or any other RWD vehicle which is subject to wild oversteer! Hopefully it’s just the vehicle that gets pranged, along with the driver’s why! (Edit: ego! Fucking Apple auto-correct! 🙄🤬)
Not all that long ago while out on a highway somewhere I saw what I thought was a ratty old pickup truck being trailered home. "Someone's got a project," I thought.
I eventually caught up with the rig and noticed that what at a distance appeared to be a ratty old truck was instead a custom truck that had, at what was surely great expense, been meticulously painted to look like a ratty old truck. It represented the very zenith (nadir?) of the rat rod and patina movement, something even Jonathan Ward would be embarrassed to do with his absurd "Derelict" cars.
There's a really beautiful Fox-body Mustang GT on BaT right now that exemplifies this. It has triple-digit mileage and zero cosmetic flaws and a slew of awards as a trailer queen... but Fox-bodies don't seem to be worth having unless they've burned up at least a few pairs of rear tires at some point in their lives.
I discontinued my support when it briefly transformed into Jewish Grievance Studies last fall - Bari is Jewish, of course - but I have relented given the content has, ahem, moderated.
I don't think that I've ever said anything negative about Ms. Weiss. In general I like her writing though I don't agree with her all of the time. She's an advocate for free speech and I welcome refugees from the left who have come to that realization. I suppose my main criticism of her is that it was only when the woke monster bit her on her own ass that she left the NYT.
I guess when you consider Orwell and Arthur Koestler, some of the most important criticism of the left has come from those originally on the left.
Although Tablet Mag is probably the best newspaper or newspaper equivalent (?) that still exists, the FP is one of the least worst places to entertain oneself with general items of noteworthy interest on the internet.
Still, both Tablet and the FP could be said to be neoconservative or to generally espouse a neoconservative viewpoint - you know, PNAC, yellow cake, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz, deposing Saddam (huh?) in Iraq (huh?) after 9/11 (huh?), the endless war on “terror” aka “exterminating people that Israelis don’t want living near them”
None of these two excellent online newspapers will ever truly criticize Americas foreign policy blunders. But the writing really is top-notch
“exterminating people that Israelis don’t want living near them”
Approximately 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs with full political and civil rights. The only people Israelis want to exterminate are the ones planning to exterminate them.
In as much detail as possible, explain your understanding of Israel & Israeli intelligence’s / Mossad’s involvement with the alleged terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(“HTS”) that with American support and/or acquiescence swept through Syria murdering all in their path on their way to chase the Assad regime out of Damascus.
Feel free also to drop your sources for your views here.
Finally, as a proud Zionist, doesn’t it feel odd to dissemble about the agenda and what photos / videos show is happening (specifically in Syria here) in incontrovertible detail? Your team is taking territory. Isn’t taking territory something to be proud of ?
Most of my close friends - and business partners / associates - are Jews. I obviously have no problem whatsoever with any of them.
Ronnie is like a broken record in that he views EVERYTHING through the lens of being Jewish, and he cannot bring himself to recognize the humanity in the “exotic brown pets” and “bestial” people that he believes are inherently inferior to him. That is genuinely, deeply racist, and therefore abhorrent to me. The profound irony is that he is, essentially, a Nazi.
I wouldn't know, I'm out of the loop. Not only have the Elders of Zion failed to send me a weekly check for my share of Jewish world domination, they also don't invite me to the monthly meetings so when it comes to manipulating you Goyim, I'm completely on my own.
Bob Talbert going outta his mind on Monday moanin’!
Maybe the Toledo-area home delivery of the Free Press went a little further into the 1990s, because I remember seeing his column—maybe it was a special one—after J.P. McCarthy died, and that poor man was so out of sorts!
I also remember tuning in to the special broadcast on WJR that Frank Beckmann (may he RIP) and J.P.’s crew put together the day after he died, where they put J.P.’s coffee cup in front of the microphone, and arranged the rest of the studio just the way he would have liked it! And good God almighty, Paul W. Smith, his heir apparent, is now doing a “Focus”-esque afternoon show, as a year or two ago, he got tired of having to get up at the ass-crack of 3:30am after being out the evening before at some awards dinner or other philanthropic event of which either he, or the Great Voice of the Great Lakes was a part! Easing into an eventual retirement without enduring the usual DJ’s fate in the modern era of having the station manager mention in passing during a commercial to stop by their office after the show, where they know they’ll be shitcanned!
And Jimmy Brandstatter isn’t doing Meeecheegun football any more!
Now I’m going to start crying just like Bobby Talbert! 😢
My Dad’s side of the family was partial to the Free Press because my Dad delivered it as a kid, and they wanted to support him, even though their political viewpoints were more in line with the editors at The News. (For those unaware, the Detroit News was delivered in the afternoon, and the Free Press in the morning. Between the so-called “Joint Operational Agreement” into which the two newspapers entered in the late 1970s/early 1980s in order to pool resources and save their skins (they still maintained separate editorial voices, columnists, etc.), and the cutbacks in physical circulation, I don’t know when anything is delivered anymore, except that I’d presume that a joint Sunday paper is still delivered.)
They used to home-deliver it in the evening in the Toledo area up until about 1990, maybe, along with Sundays.
My family moved from St. Clair Shores, MI, to the Toledo area in 1984, but in addition to the Toledo Blade, would get the Freep, as I mentioned, and Buckeye Cable, the sole cable company, also broadcast (and still does) the Detroit TV stations. So we made a gentle transition.
Of course, nowadays, The Blade only publishes a pamphlet of a hard-copy on Thursday and Sunday (and overcharges for an electronic subscription; I’ve read toilet paper with more meaning and less bias, so that’s a no-go), and I’m not sure how often the Free Press/News publishes a printed paper. (Their e-sub price is even more ridiculous!)
Some of us (Looking_both_ways_puppet.JPG) did chase off username @Alan some time ago.
I honestly thought he was casuistrizing* us sometimes (surely no one could be this much of an above-it-all meta-centrist?) but perhaps he really meant it.
*trying to verb the word casuistry , surely there must be a verb form of this word
I think I disliked that he was simultaneously deeply aware of modern progressivisms flaws, yet would rhetorically flee to them when any even vaguely conservative counter-proposal was voiced
User @MaintenanceCosts is far, far more liberal / progressive, but at the very least @MC is consistent in this - Alan was all over the place. Maybe just an iconoclast! There are at least several here
Speed, it is interesting that you admire proper sentence structure and paragraphs but opt not to use punctuation or start sentences with a capital letter. Would you care to explain?
“For just $6,000, come to Ohio and have a curated Baruth experience while feeding his cats, holding his flashlight while he angrily wrenches on a car, and listen to a concert put on by him and his son, The Commander. For just $2,000 more, Danger Girl will mock you relentlessly for the duration of the experience.”
If you write an op-ed justifying the annexation of the Golan heights from Syria, Bari will give you 3 months free, and a low-effort hj if you’re charming
Perfect! Its only a 1400 mile one way road trip to get a 12 cent hot dog. Hmmm .... I do have a bag of Canadian coins that I somehow need to get rid of.
It’s been forty years since my Canadian coins were refused by the same diner that had originally given them to me!
(Note: it’s an old urban legend/joke from SE Michigan that restaurant owners/managers would go to Windsor for coins in order to profit from the exchange.)
Sam's hotdogs taste better, are $1.50 w/ tax (in DFW), the drink is 32oz instead of 20 and the lid works with a straw instead of a coffee cup lid Costco uses.
Congrats Jack! Not only on being published in the Free Press, but on a phenomenal, thought provoking piece.
It dovetails nicely with conversations I've been having recently, and why I'm so frustrated with my peers and their "hobbies" lately. This may turn into one, but I'm sure it would make for a great open thread here...
Did it have to be the Free Press? I was one of their first subscribers, as I’d been admiring Bari’s work for years. However, while I don’t get offended easily, Nellie rubbed me the wrong way (ahem!) enough times that I cancelled my subscription over there. Only other one who had done that to me is Krystal Ball. All that being said, congrats to you, Jack. They are lucky to have you.
I don’t mind paying to read your article. I just don’t want to sign up to another subscription. Though I might have to sign up to the Free Press and just ignore Nellie.
I really like Bari even though there are many things I don't agree with her on but I find what she's doing with The Free Press refreshing. Her own story is an interesting one.
Speaking of curation, I at one time was a curator of pocket knives. I'd never call it a hobby.
Speaking of collections, Adam Corolla who lives in L.A., reported that his Paul Newman car collection is safe sitting in Reno.
Jack, I do hope you do more pieces over at The Free Press.
- Shopped for a new (to him) vintage vehicle online
- Bought an R/C truck kit and the accompanying accessories
- Spent Saturday afternoon/evening watching other men race motorcycles
- Started playing Red Dead Redemption 2
I need a winter hobby.
Jokes aside, congratulations on a great article. IIRC, you’ve mentioned Collier’s take before. His stance on the collector car “hobby” is one I wish was more popular. Revisiting this topic especially timely with the January auctions coming up and the inevitable deluge of articles about the hammer price of a certain 917.
I played the original if that’s what you’re referring to. Not the story, only just kind of screwing around at a friend’s.
Aside from the Nintendo Classic, the last game system that I owned was a PS2. Fiancé brought her XBox One COVID purchase when she moved in. When I inevitably get sick in January, I usually spend a couple of days playing. Last year it was Far Cry 5 and 6. I guess this year it’ll be RDR 1 and 2.
RDR2 is so good! I need to get back into it, but I've been obsessed with NFS Underground 2 again. I found out there's a few abondonware sites that have the game files available for download, and a big community of modders who are STILL improving a 20 year old game. Although, one of the story races that you HAVE to do is broken, so I'm not sure I can actually play the whole campaign...
You can bet your ass I already have that Unreal demo too! Problem with that is the controller support is wacky so I have to play on my keyboard... which I am NOT conditioned for.
The only time I ever beat that game was after I finally bought my own copy when I was in high school, and my best friend had a game night that we all brought consoles and tvs to. I had a svae file started but not very far, and I played the entire rest of the game that night and beat it by 2am. I still have the ps2 with that save file at my parent's house, and I want to make a "retro corner" in my basement to play the ps2 on the old family CRT but just haven't made any moves yet. The beginning of my obsession with that game was restarting it at my friend's house over and over when it was new (his older brother wouldn't let us take up memory card space; we were 8). Still probably my favorite video game of all time due to the vibes, but it's very closely matched by the original Forza Horizon.
i loved the original forza horizon and its one of the best forzas they ever made along with motorsport 4
im just glad that both can be emulated on pc with all dlc because way back when it was new i actually did pay for all dlc but deleted it to make room on my hard drive but when it got delisted i lost the ability to redownload it
Rip in peace to your DLC. FM4 is actually tied for my favorite game ever but for different reasons, though I never had the DLC for it. I got all the Horizon DLC cause I bought the ultimate edition or whatever off EBay and it came on a 2nd disc.
I skipped 2 (though I did rent it for a weekend in college) and I own 3 and 4 but have absolutely 0 interest in 5. I want 6 to return to starting out as a totally random and normal car enthusiast working their way to the top of the leaderboards, but preferably set in Japan this time.
you didnt miss anything with 2 becuase it was so incredibly boring and formulaic and horizon 1 especially with the rally expansion and even the 1000 club were vastly more entertaining
entirely agree with you on having a japanese horizon game though becuase motorsport 4 was the last game to feature fujimi kaido and im dying for some more touge action lol
Hell-to-the-fuck-yeah!!!!
The last line in the first paragraph seems overly flowery for something JB would write. If you’re being held hostage just tell us why the latest water cooled Porsches are the best cars ever from the company and we’ll take care of it.
But seriously, is the FP something I actually should be reading or only the stuff you sneak into it?
By the way, great article, encapsulated a lot of my feelings on the Cars and Coffee set and others, which are hard to explain, but essentially boil down to “owning cool stuff doesn’t make you cool if you don’t do any cool stuff with it.”
that thought runs through my head every time i see some modern shop build custom car with several hundred or thousand plus horsepower or ultra trick suspension
you know full well its never going to be utilized ever
"because i wanted it" sounds childish and unsatisfying
I know we all love to say that, but there's always the exception and they may be more than we know. I used to think that way, but now I've been surprised by how many of those people have track club memberships around me and actually run the cars there..
Also from experience in the bike world, you learn quickly that everyone has different thresholds for what "using it" means. I get a lot of looks from people on hard rides and races done on my quite "tricked out" custom, made to measure bikes, but it's what I enjoy riding/racing
To me, “using” something is treating it like a rental but with an eye towards maintenance and at least trying to keep it clean/damage-free. If I can’t write something off more or less without caring, I don’t own it.
This has kept me from owning some cool shit though, so YMMV.
When I was into cars, as in seriously wrenching and rebuilding them, we called them 'trailer queens'. They never get driven, except onto the trailer and off of it at car shows and meets.
I took my humble Kia K5 into the Expel wrap place today. They parked it next to what they said was a $680k Aston Martin.
Even if I was wealthy enough to afford it, I don’t think I could enjoy driving it just waiting for the next rock to hit the hood or windshield.
Every time I go to Block-A-Chip in Mentor, OH, there’s ALWAYS something drool-worthy next to my humble Honda! 😎
The Free Press is the only other publication I pay for. It has an interesting range of topics with intelligent writing from multiple viewpoints.
Of course, you could show that you’re using your toys in a negative way!
Such as when you mat the throttle of your Mustang, or any other RWD vehicle which is subject to wild oversteer! Hopefully it’s just the vehicle that gets pranged, along with the driver’s why! (Edit: ego! Fucking Apple auto-correct! 🙄🤬)
That sounds exactly like doing power slides around corners in the snow with dad’s rwd cars back in the 70’s.
But this is on dry pavement, and then they run into other objects, or worse, people, while spinning like a top!
Not that I didn’t go to snowy parking lots to learn a little car control! Most times, my Dad insisted on tagging along!
Cris ;
What if one owns lots of uncool stuff and plays with it as much as one can ? .
TIA,
-Nate
You know, old crap no one else cares about that I've been chastised for liking since I was a child .
As if I'd care that others don't like my crap . =8-)
-Nate
it makes you cool becuase youre having fun with it
You qualify for a “boy who never grew up” medal.
I'll take that, thank you Gentlemen .
It is so that one *must* grow old but nowhere is it written that one must grow *up* =8-) .
-Nate
BTW : this Sunday the So. Cal. Norton Club is having a ride up to Camarillo, if you like to look a old Motocycles it meets at :
CAFE 50's 11623 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025 at 9AM .
I plan to be there but not to go on the ride, I have things to do after the fire etc.
Drop on by and laugh at my vintage Tiddler =8-) .
-Nate
Not all that long ago while out on a highway somewhere I saw what I thought was a ratty old pickup truck being trailered home. "Someone's got a project," I thought.
I eventually caught up with the rig and noticed that what at a distance appeared to be a ratty old truck was instead a custom truck that had, at what was surely great expense, been meticulously painted to look like a ratty old truck. It represented the very zenith (nadir?) of the rat rod and patina movement, something even Jonathan Ward would be embarrassed to do with his absurd "Derelict" cars.
I could only feel contempt.
On a trailer, no less!
There's a really beautiful Fox-body Mustang GT on BaT right now that exemplifies this. It has triple-digit mileage and zero cosmetic flaws and a slew of awards as a trailer queen... but Fox-bodies don't seem to be worth having unless they've burned up at least a few pairs of rear tires at some point in their lives.
The FP is worthwhile.
I discontinued my support when it briefly transformed into Jewish Grievance Studies last fall - Bari is Jewish, of course - but I have relented given the content has, ahem, moderated.
Cars are really cool.
yes they are ronnie
yes they are
Did you write an article or an extended comment on why she was a bad thing for the Jewish people?
It sunk in and I won't be subscribing to the FP.
I don't think that I've ever said anything negative about Ms. Weiss. In general I like her writing though I don't agree with her all of the time. She's an advocate for free speech and I welcome refugees from the left who have come to that realization. I suppose my main criticism of her is that it was only when the woke monster bit her on her own ass that she left the NYT.
I guess when you consider Orwell and Arthur Koestler, some of the most important criticism of the left has come from those originally on the left.
That line is a riff on Hamlet: " “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Although Tablet Mag is probably the best newspaper or newspaper equivalent (?) that still exists, the FP is one of the least worst places to entertain oneself with general items of noteworthy interest on the internet.
Still, both Tablet and the FP could be said to be neoconservative or to generally espouse a neoconservative viewpoint - you know, PNAC, yellow cake, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz, deposing Saddam (huh?) in Iraq (huh?) after 9/11 (huh?), the endless war on “terror” aka “exterminating people that Israelis don’t want living near them”
None of these two excellent online newspapers will ever truly criticize Americas foreign policy blunders. But the writing really is top-notch
“exterminating people that Israelis don’t want living near them”
Approximately 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs with full political and civil rights. The only people Israelis want to exterminate are the ones planning to exterminate them.
Ronnie,
In as much detail as possible, explain your understanding of Israel & Israeli intelligence’s / Mossad’s involvement with the alleged terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(“HTS”) that with American support and/or acquiescence swept through Syria murdering all in their path on their way to chase the Assad regime out of Damascus.
Feel free also to drop your sources for your views here.
Finally, as a proud Zionist, doesn’t it feel odd to dissemble about the agenda and what photos / videos show is happening (specifically in Syria here) in incontrovertible detail? Your team is taking territory. Isn’t taking territory something to be proud of ?
Careful, Jew Hating Jew Hater from Jew Haterland with a terminal case of Jews on the Brain!
If you had the moral high ground, you could walk away from being called a anti-semite and it wouldn't still bother you months later.
Most of my close friends - and business partners / associates - are Jews. I obviously have no problem whatsoever with any of them.
Ronnie is like a broken record in that he views EVERYTHING through the lens of being Jewish, and he cannot bring himself to recognize the humanity in the “exotic brown pets” and “bestial” people that he believes are inherently inferior to him. That is genuinely, deeply racist, and therefore abhorrent to me. The profound irony is that he is, essentially, a Nazi.
Good vocab!
I had to look up dissemble.
Context made it clear you hadn't misspelt disassemble.
I wouldn't know, I'm out of the loop. Not only have the Elders of Zion failed to send me a weekly check for my share of Jewish world domination, they also don't invite me to the monthly meetings so when it comes to manipulating you Goyim, I'm completely on my own.
to me The Free Press does and always will mean the Detroit paper. read it everyday growing up, often jumping straight to the sports box scores.
Same here
Almost always better liked the sports columnists for the Detroit News, but I read George Puscas every time I got the chance.
Pete Waldmeir and Joe Falls were both pretty good.
Bob Talbert going outta his mind on Monday moanin’!
Maybe the Toledo-area home delivery of the Free Press went a little further into the 1990s, because I remember seeing his column—maybe it was a special one—after J.P. McCarthy died, and that poor man was so out of sorts!
I also remember tuning in to the special broadcast on WJR that Frank Beckmann (may he RIP) and J.P.’s crew put together the day after he died, where they put J.P.’s coffee cup in front of the microphone, and arranged the rest of the studio just the way he would have liked it! And good God almighty, Paul W. Smith, his heir apparent, is now doing a “Focus”-esque afternoon show, as a year or two ago, he got tired of having to get up at the ass-crack of 3:30am after being out the evening before at some awards dinner or other philanthropic event of which either he, or the Great Voice of the Great Lakes was a part! Easing into an eventual retirement without enduring the usual DJ’s fate in the modern era of having the station manager mention in passing during a commercial to stop by their office after the show, where they know they’ll be shitcanned!
And Jimmy Brandstatter isn’t doing Meeecheegun football any more!
Now I’m going to start crying just like Bobby Talbert! 😢
My family subscribed to both Detroit daily newspapers when I was a kid. The Detroit Times too, before it folded. My dad liked crossword puzzles.
Thanks to both of you. I had forgotten those names; its been a long time.
Nobody beats Ron Cameron. His later shows were absolutely hilarious. RIP.
My parents were Free Press people, even though Joe Falls was a neighbor.
My Dad’s side of the family was partial to the Free Press because my Dad delivered it as a kid, and they wanted to support him, even though their political viewpoints were more in line with the editors at The News. (For those unaware, the Detroit News was delivered in the afternoon, and the Free Press in the morning. Between the so-called “Joint Operational Agreement” into which the two newspapers entered in the late 1970s/early 1980s in order to pool resources and save their skins (they still maintained separate editorial voices, columnists, etc.), and the cutbacks in physical circulation, I don’t know when anything is delivered anymore, except that I’d presume that a joint Sunday paper is still delivered.)
In that case I was also featured once. Yay me.
As an Ohio resident, I concur.
They used to home-deliver it in the evening in the Toledo area up until about 1990, maybe, along with Sundays.
My family moved from St. Clair Shores, MI, to the Toledo area in 1984, but in addition to the Toledo Blade, would get the Freep, as I mentioned, and Buckeye Cable, the sole cable company, also broadcast (and still does) the Detroit TV stations. So we made a gentle transition.
Of course, nowadays, The Blade only publishes a pamphlet of a hard-copy on Thursday and Sunday (and overcharges for an electronic subscription; I’ve read toilet paper with more meaning and less bias, so that’s a no-go), and I’m not sure how often the Free Press/News publishes a printed paper. (Their e-sub price is even more ridiculous!)
Page 4D, if memory serves!
Congrats, Jack! You've finally hit the big time!!
Man, more like the big time wised up and hit on Jack.
Women who physically resemble Bari Weiss have been doing that for decades
And they're welcome to keep doing it, haha
our boy is finally making it in the world
anyway welcome to new and potential acf readers
its basically impossible to get banned from here if you keep it civil and level headed
And don't assume you know what civil and level headed is until you've seen Boom and his opponent du jour get going on caste, offshoring or Danny Ric!
THIS IS WHY I PAID TO BE HERE
jokes aside its very rare to see two people with entirely opposing outlooks to behave sensibly and even use proper sentence structure and paragraphs
goes without saying that i like both of those guys
speaking of ive not seen sirmorrisleyland commenting recently and i hope hes alright
It's literally one of the few forums where you can have a good cathartic argument and not fall out.
between that and the complete lack of pedos this place is essentially the polar opposite of bluesky/twitter/x
Some of us (Looking_both_ways_puppet.JPG) did chase off username @Alan some time ago.
I honestly thought he was casuistrizing* us sometimes (surely no one could be this much of an above-it-all meta-centrist?) but perhaps he really meant it.
*trying to verb the word casuistry , surely there must be a verb form of this word
of yeah i kinda remember that guy
he got butthurt over being one of a few liberals
couldnt figure out or just forgot why he didnt try to convince anyone of his position or why he had that outlook
I think I disliked that he was simultaneously deeply aware of modern progressivisms flaws, yet would rhetorically flee to them when any even vaguely conservative counter-proposal was voiced
User @MaintenanceCosts is far, far more liberal / progressive, but at the very least @MC is consistent in this - Alan was all over the place. Maybe just an iconoclast! There are at least several here
Speed, it is interesting that you admire proper sentence structure and paragraphs but opt not to use punctuation or start sentences with a capital letter. Would you care to explain?
i am a walking contradiction
I will permit!
Makes sense! 🙃
We can try though.
WTF! We're paying for this shit and yet we're still the product?
Apparently FP goes deeper than what pops up for free in my feed, I had no idea.
“For just $6,000, come to Ohio and have a curated Baruth experience while feeding his cats, holding his flashlight while he angrily wrenches on a car, and listen to a concert put on by him and his son, The Commander. For just $2,000 more, Danger Girl will mock you relentlessly for the duration of the experience.”
is there a $6 option?
he throws a (made in america) crescent wrench at you
You get litterbox duty. Many, many litterboxes.
No 💩!
Welll..there IS in that case, I suppose!! 😂😂
Lies. They are nearly 4 figures apiece and self cleaning.
They are exceptionally serious looking but don’t you still have to pull out a bag of litter nuggets and dump them somewhere?
ah, but someone has to empty the trays and occasionally release a very angry cat.
Yes. volunteer to crew for him at a race.
(I'm teasing Jack. the three times I've done that have all been great fun.)
Who knew this was like signing up for a GM OnStar subscription?
I need to go into the ACF settings and disable the tracking feature.
What? Jack’s tracking all of us!?!
Can’t know for sure, but every time I read a new ACF post I get a bunch of cat food ads, and I don’t even own a cat.
if you wanted one i might know a guy
You've got to stop reading out loud.
genuinely laughed out loud
Me too!
FP is always interesting, congrats on the article. Grumpy curmudgeon indeed.
Just a curmudgeon here , not really grumpy…
Sneezy curmudgeon here, but my current common coronavirus will run its course in due time and I'll revert to plain old curmudgeon.
Do I have to pay for the free press?
Yup
If you write an op-ed justifying the annexation of the Golan heights from Syria, Bari will give you 3 months free, and a low-effort hj if you’re charming
Damn, sounds like a deal. Can even do it one sentence if need be.
dear palestine
why is it called the west bank if its not part of isreal
I mean that’s a pretty easy argument to make
Free as in speech, not as in beer, as Richard Stallman would say!
In a perfect world, you'd invest more in Costco socks and less in motorcycles!
Sane and smart purchase suggestions are not welcome here. Thanks. #sarcasm or not.
That's why Kyree, myself, and a few others get no love for promoting the joys of Land Rover ownership here
Whoa land/ range rivers are great when they work. Plus you get to be on first name basis with the dealer so service is excellent.
Unlike the 1980s, they work most of the time these days, the Prince of darkness has been banished as well.
As long as it keeps prices low and depreciation high I am fine with it.
While Land Rover depreciation is excellent, I really appreciate the first owner of my jag who paid something like $3 a mile in depreciation on it.
I know...from 50 plus years of trying!
but at least the hotdogs are 1.50
In Canada too. Which is like 12 cents US.
Perfect! Its only a 1400 mile one way road trip to get a 12 cent hot dog. Hmmm .... I do have a bag of Canadian coins that I somehow need to get rid of.
It’s been forty years since my Canadian coins were refused by the same diner that had originally given them to me!
(Note: it’s an old urban legend/joke from SE Michigan that restaurant owners/managers would go to Windsor for coins in order to profit from the exchange.)
So THAT's why I used to occasionally get Canuk nickels and dimes back as a kid?
It’s cynical- but probably true in some cases? Also it certainly would have stopped once the loonie gained value after the eighties/nineties.
Their pizza slices are also surprisingly good.
Their pizza slices were the only thing that kept me sane while we lived in Japan.
Sam's hotdogs taste better, are $1.50 w/ tax (in DFW), the drink is 32oz instead of 20 and the lid works with a straw instead of a coffee cup lid Costco uses.
HOLD YOUR TONGUE SIR ! .
-Nate
I think one motorcycle might represent the same cash value as a lifetime of costco socks
Helpful advice on some levels but for me, motorcycles have always been cheaper than therapy.
Even more to the point guitars will help you reach enlightenment
....(all the great people who read this blog)
Every one of us reads it for you, and have followed you around to here.
A bit off topic, Jeff.
Did you by any chance used to live in Houston? Did you ever fall out of a boat while fishing in one of the lakes in Minnesota?
Neither, sorry. Probably a (very) distant relative, though.
Congrats Jack! Not only on being published in the Free Press, but on a phenomenal, thought provoking piece.
It dovetails nicely with conversations I've been having recently, and why I'm so frustrated with my peers and their "hobbies" lately. This may turn into one, but I'm sure it would make for a great open thread here...
We need the hobby piece. Please write it up, or I will write my version.
TL;DR I think people get the value of their hobbies (to them, to others, and to society) confused.
seconded
one of you ought to write that thing
I guess I should give the people (and myself) what they want. Will get something in writing by next week and start a conversation..
I really do need to write and share more before I become one of Jack's hobby types outside of cycling and my usual crowd.
Did it have to be the Free Press? I was one of their first subscribers, as I’d been admiring Bari’s work for years. However, while I don’t get offended easily, Nellie rubbed me the wrong way (ahem!) enough times that I cancelled my subscription over there. Only other one who had done that to me is Krystal Ball. All that being said, congrats to you, Jack. They are lucky to have you.
It's also in Washington Post.
Is that any improvement?
Examiner!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/3276972/when-ownership-is-the-only-hobby-left/
Whoops!
Is there a place where we can read it without having to subscribe?
It depends where you live... some areas are pay walled. I'll excerpt it over here.
I don’t mind paying to read your article. I just don’t want to sign up to another subscription. Though I might have to sign up to the Free Press and just ignore Nellie.
Does the “archive.whatever” trick work for the Examiner? Asking for a friend.
Post or Examiner?
Jack in the WaPo? Now that would be amusing. Better, the B&B following him there (if they still had a comment section).
Post definitely wouldn’t be.
I had no idea that I had such esteemed company.
All this time the rest of us thought YOU were the dignitary!
Lmao😊
The first and second (and only) substacks I pay for have collided.
We should offer a package discount, from which I get all the revenue, because I need it!
Its a good thing you can’t link ads here. I hate to think of the eclectic and bizarre products that would pop up based on some of the discussions.
Surely you mean in the comments?
Cuz I’ve seen substack posts full of Amazon affiliate links and other affiliate programs.
Yes in the comments.
You can always post the link, it might not function as a link but it should be copy/paste.
Just so you can curate more g-shocks, guitars, Japanese motorcycles and American tools?
If by curate you mean "break, or crash" YES
It would increase the FP paid subscriber count by 0.75% overnight. What's not to like?
Package deal would make it worth it. Not sure if I want to commit to the other ‘Stack.
A few things to unpack here....
I really like Bari even though there are many things I don't agree with her on but I find what she's doing with The Free Press refreshing. Her own story is an interesting one.
Speaking of curation, I at one time was a curator of pocket knives. I'd never call it a hobby.
Speaking of collections, Adam Corolla who lives in L.A., reported that his Paul Newman car collection is safe sitting in Reno.
Jack, I do hope you do more pieces over at The Free Press.
Rough article for the guy who in the past week:
- Shopped for a watch and Italian loafers
- Posted about it here
- Bought an overpriced F1 Lego set
- Assembled another F1 Lego set from Christmas
- Shopped for a new (to him) vintage vehicle online
- Bought an R/C truck kit and the accompanying accessories
- Spent Saturday afternoon/evening watching other men race motorcycles
- Started playing Red Dead Redemption 2
I need a winter hobby.
Jokes aside, congratulations on a great article. IIRC, you’ve mentioned Collier’s take before. His stance on the collector car “hobby” is one I wish was more popular. Revisiting this topic especially timely with the January auctions coming up and the inevitable deluge of articles about the hammer price of a certain 917.
at least rdr2 is cheap
by the way you should play the sequel that came out about a decade ago after youre done with that
a bit dated but entirely worth it as one of the best games ever made
I played the original if that’s what you’re referring to. Not the story, only just kind of screwing around at a friend’s.
Aside from the Nintendo Classic, the last game system that I owned was a PS2. Fiancé brought her XBox One COVID purchase when she moved in. When I inevitably get sick in January, I usually spend a couple of days playing. Last year it was Far Cry 5 and 6. I guess this year it’ll be RDR 1 and 2.
i was referring to the original yeah
its kinda funny how the one release first is the direct chronological sequel to a game that came out much later
For the record, I didn’t know that was the case until like two hours ago when I was on Wikipedia looking up something on RDR2.
Bought it on sale. Third party login? Ugh. CAPTCHA to play single player campaign because of VPN? Refunded.
Screw you, Rockstar.
sometimes pc gaming has its drawbacks i guess
shame it gave you such trouble trying to install
Understandable, but worth it. Rockstar doesn't hassle me at all.
I don't think it should be required for story mode, but I haven't had any annoyance from it.
RDR2 is so good! I need to get back into it, but I've been obsessed with NFS Underground 2 again. I found out there's a few abondonware sites that have the game files available for download, and a big community of modders who are STILL improving a 20 year old game. Although, one of the story races that you HAVE to do is broken, so I'm not sure I can actually play the whole campaign...
nfsu2 is great but man do the later stages get grindy
there was a u2 remake that just got release very recently that remade the game in unreal engine and another that added a huge amount of mods
You can bet your ass I already have that Unreal demo too! Problem with that is the controller support is wacky so I have to play on my keyboard... which I am NOT conditioned for.
The only time I ever beat that game was after I finally bought my own copy when I was in high school, and my best friend had a game night that we all brought consoles and tvs to. I had a svae file started but not very far, and I played the entire rest of the game that night and beat it by 2am. I still have the ps2 with that save file at my parent's house, and I want to make a "retro corner" in my basement to play the ps2 on the old family CRT but just haven't made any moves yet. The beginning of my obsession with that game was restarting it at my friend's house over and over when it was new (his older brother wouldn't let us take up memory card space; we were 8). Still probably my favorite video game of all time due to the vibes, but it's very closely matched by the original Forza Horizon.
i loved the original forza horizon and its one of the best forzas they ever made along with motorsport 4
im just glad that both can be emulated on pc with all dlc because way back when it was new i actually did pay for all dlc but deleted it to make room on my hard drive but when it got delisted i lost the ability to redownload it
all the later games were not nearly as fun
Rip in peace to your DLC. FM4 is actually tied for my favorite game ever but for different reasons, though I never had the DLC for it. I got all the Horizon DLC cause I bought the ultimate edition or whatever off EBay and it came on a 2nd disc.
I skipped 2 (though I did rent it for a weekend in college) and I own 3 and 4 but have absolutely 0 interest in 5. I want 6 to return to starting out as a totally random and normal car enthusiast working their way to the top of the leaderboards, but preferably set in Japan this time.
you didnt miss anything with 2 becuase it was so incredibly boring and formulaic and horizon 1 especially with the rally expansion and even the 1000 club were vastly more entertaining
entirely agree with you on having a japanese horizon game though becuase motorsport 4 was the last game to feature fujimi kaido and im dying for some more touge action lol