I think I shared this with you, but I was at Whole Foods a few months ago and saw an African American gentleman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “MY CREDIT SCORE 850”
This made me think of Lewis Grizzard, who knew plenty about women (he married four of them in his all too brief life; in fact, his first wife later remarried and became the mother of a fellow W&L alum who once hired me ~10 years ago; we remain friendly and smoke cigars together 3-4 days a week). Anyway, on to Lewis’s inimitable ode to the Gucci Loafer:
“What makes a pair of stylish Italian loafers by Gucci so appealing is their softness, their master workmanship, and their price.
I've bought cars for less. Walk into a Gucci store, and they ask for your shoe size second. First, they want a quick glance at your Dun and Bradstreet.
Not just anybody can wear a pair of Gucci shoes, of course. Those crass dolts down at the lodge, for instance.
"You get a purse, too?" cracked one of the sorry lot, a hint of white swocklet peering outside the top of his brogans.
Disgusting.
My new Guccis are an unpretentious oxblood, accented perfectly with buckles and slightly raised heels.
The cushioned inner soles wear the proud Gucci crest with the subtle, but effective announcement, "Made in Italy, " as if there was any doubt.
When I am in the company of individuals with the proper breeding to appreciate such hallmarks of style, I am not hesitant to remove one of my new shoes to prove I am wearing the Real McCoy.
"Have you noticed I am wearing Guccis?" I asked the hostess at a dinner party.
"Frankly, I haven't, " she said.
I took off one of the shoes and showed her the proud Gucci crest on the cushioned inner soles. I didn't want to stay at her stupid dinner party anyway.”
As JB knows, I create content under a variety of pseudonyms in order to better tailor my content to diverse constituencies; perhaps I should release a mixtape under the name “Yung Krugerrand”
Here's the problem: it's not enough to be black and gay. You also gotta be willing to read the script they hand you. And THAT is where I think you'd have second thoughts.
That's not the case and it's never been the case. It's always about access. If they talk about your driving ability, it's to fluff you and tie you more closely to the brand.
Like the PR girl who spent the night with me and then asked, the next morning, in the most offhand way possible, if I'd send her my copy on the new sedan before I published it.
Good lord almighty. Stories like this are why I’m here. It still amazes me that company PR folks will put up with such hacks - I guess it shouldn’t after everything you’ve shared.
Shit like this makes the occasional cleansing fire of a 18% interest rates, a depression and/or world war a necessary evil. Flammable undergrowth.
Trying to be very generous, but a ham-handed move in a Leaf might not chuck you off the mountain with quite the verve of one in a Porrrrshhaaa GT-gorillion.
There are so many 'randos' in the auto journo game. I am in the process of selling my vulcan s and moving on to a bigger bike, and in the very random field of contenders are BMW RnineT and a Ducati Diavel.
I made the mistake of watching some reviews of the bikes and just test rode the BMW yesterday. The 'agricultural' gearbox as claimed in the video was anything BUT! I don't think these people would realise something was wrong if they woke up with their arm being where their butt is. Its all made up and nothing means anything anymore.
Side note: I STILL dislike Johnny more than the grifters you mention here, because they're honest in being thieves. Jonny is just a pretender and he takes the pretending so seriously its PATHETIC.
I'm kind of curious why the auto PR thing hasn't collapsed yet, it is a tremendous drain and doesn't really lend to increased sales, ESPECIALLY in this market. The thought of 'eyeballs' as you're referring to was always tenous at best, and I REALLY don't think internet advertising is very effective. I need to see data to convince me otherwise. Cars just sell themselves these days as you correctly identified the near - soviet level of gratitude for just being able to BUY a car at 20% margins.
It isn't tough period. I don't know why people who have no clue what they're saying need to have an opinion, let alone be given a podium to voice them from. I just see them as complete clowns.
Honestly I did not notice anything, except that maybe it needed 10% more effort. I would liken it to a short throw shifter on a car. It was crisper than a honda in 'relaying' to me that the shift was complete.
BTW : if you really want to experience a clanky Motocyle gearbox, try a Ural ~ it's a 1930's ratchet shifted box made by drunken communists in a Friday using worn out tooling....
My '94 Ural Tourist Solo 650's box sounds like it's making ground beef but has never once jumped out of gear....
I was taught to shift sans clutch in Agricultural trucks, Urals have crude synchronizers so all that gear jamming just beats the poor old truck up worse .
TBH I think this guy is familiar with the breed, it's likely just a) stone cold transmission in subzero temps and b) a very tired abused old rig (a massive old KRaZ military truck). I've seen enough of these old Soviet rigs and their operators in their natural habitat to know that this guy is following Standard Operating Procedure lol
I know the original CB500s were known for somewhat balky shifters that were improved for the 550 in '72(?)
Have you ever tried adjusting the clutch down at the actual cases (locknut and screw adjustment). It could just be adjusted too far out and that will cause the clutch to not be fully engaged and result in very notchy shifting. I was just playing around with this mechanism on my XS1100 when I was diagnosing the slipping clutch (which can result from having said adjustment too far in the other direction where clutch is never fully disengaged).
It was VERY good. I don't know about your wife but the adjustability makes it very easy to get used to for a short individual. The only thing that COULD be better is the suspension is a bit harsh, which is felt on bad roads.
Very easy to service, easy to mod, all standard Japanese bike stuff. Just wish the black paint on some of the hardware was more rugged. A couple of times of taking the seat off and the allen bolt loses its black finish uniformity.
I'm selling it only because I can't ride for a year now with 2 small kids, and its going to change hands for a 20% profit for me in this market.
Personally, I'd recommend the Ducati. Unless things have changed in the last 10 years, the Ducati is the better made machine - though they have a few interesting quirks of their own.
I once made a post along the lines of 'You know life is weird when the Italian made sportbike is more reliable and better engineered than the German one'. This was after owning one for quite a while and finding out it was right up there with the jap bikes for dependability.
Hoo-boy did the beemer heads come after me for that one!
But honestly? It's true. German engineering ain't all that...
I have to see if I can manage the Diavel at 5' 3" with most of it in the torso. 500 lbs is more or less a hard limit for me to manage on tippy toes. I'll know more after today's appointment.
The Diavels have electrical issues and the extra service that the Desmo heads need.
Kimatni is a known associate of the mercurial, enigmatic automotive industry gadfly known only as Woke Wheels. They both rep for the Black Automotive Media Group, and I recall that WW once suggested that AMG make a special model for BLACK folx ONLY and have a special press event for BLACK folx ONLY with Lewis Hamilton in attendance.
The last I heard, WW was caught in the crossfire between two industry luminaries - Carcounsel and Blake Z. Rong.
Regarding the two idiots complaining about the infotainment system in the "used car", sometimes I think 99% of the problems in the world would be solved by an adult, a real live adult, standing up and telling those select few to "Shut up, you ridiculous clowns. No one gives a shit about your ... (wokeness, pronouns, racism, reparations, veganism, pussyhats, MAGA, antifa, whatever) ... Just shut the hell up cause 99% of the population disagrees with your delusional moronic rantings!"
I mean, not me. I'm not going do it. Hate to make waves and all that. but someone should. Soon.
You gotta know your audience. And mix in a bit of humor with your sarcasm or else it really does get you booted out. I once survived a full day "inclusivity" meeting which was basically half the technical staff sitting around having HR mediated chats. I said nothing for 8 solid hours. I mean, absolutely nothing. Not hi, not hello, not nothing. I walked in the room and zip went my lips. People would ask questions and then stare at me, but finally after the 2nd or 3rd hour they got the picture and just ignored me. Our HR manager back then was a complete snake and I knew the moment I started talking I would get fired. One of the oddest and most difficult days of my life. I'm thinking my silence said more than anything bit of wisdom that could have come out of my mouth that day.
This happened at a friend of mine's workplace. This one obnoxious asshole was giving a guy shit and the guy pointed at him and did the thumb cocking thing, like he was shooting a gun.
The called the cops, he was arrested, sent to jail, everything in his house that could be a weapon was seized, and he was fired.
I was basically joking, but point taken. The entire conservative press is basically beta (if that's the right term, I'm so far behind what's what it's not even funny). In any event, while I have the right to remain silent I suffer from the inability to remain silent. The only reason I'm not in the HR office daily is that most people like me. My boss makes a special point of telling me to shut up first prior to repeating the corporate DEI bullshit at our staff meetings. Thank God I'm in Texas where most people tend to recognize BS when they see it.
I’d make a snide remark about this had I not been forced to sit through a “Day of Belonging” recently. 80% of that was a Zoom call where execs read from scripts and sounded like the guy selling magazine subscriptions on Office Space.
Jack, I figure you’re busier than stink--new job, cars out of hibernation, etc.--but isn’t it about time for another scorched-earth, the empire is dying, diatribe? Daniel Penny charged with manslaughter. Dianne Feinstein being wheeled around DC--by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!--like a political homage to Weekend at Bernie’s. Stewart Rhodes getting 18 years whilst the FBI can’t charge Hunter Biden with anything? Your position was we aren’t a banana republic--yet. I respectfully disagree.
“Dianne Feinstein being wheeled around DC--by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!--like a political homage to Weekend at Bernie’s”
I made this very comparison to someone much younger than myself and they said “What does spending a weekend at Bernie Sanders house have anything to do with it?”
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Could not decide which I needed to do so I laughed so much I cried. Then showed them clips of the movie Weekend at Bernie’s.
Instead of THAT, I have something wickedly fun and unpleasant and frustrating to cover early next week. Here's a hint: the two groups that are going to come into conflict over it are married gay couples and childless women in their forties.
OMG; "Dianne Feinstein being wheeled around DC--by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!--like a political homage to Weekend at Bernie’s.", approaches a Baruthian level of brilliance.
Not there currently, but I come from the manufacturing side of the business, where wars are fought over cost improvements that are measured in pennies.
Seeing this kind of waste is both unsurprising and depressing, as if a team of engineers working overtime for a month to prototype a design change that saves a dollar per car were working directly for these grifters.
You should have seen the corners we cut at Honda. Uniforms and sweatshirts with holes in them. Three usable chairs in a twelve chair conference room. Repeatedly raising the process on the meager meals sold in the cafeteria. Paint robots that were old enough to vote. But there was always enough money for PR.
That stupid paint robot will run for another 20 years with minimal input. Thank God, because the "engineer" running it has no idea what the robot connects to.
They’re cutting corners worse than ever--witness the new, sorry “Accord,” and as I discovered today, the Integra Type-S, the car for which the Civic Type-R was seriously decontented, doesn’t even come with a damn SUNROOF! MSRP of $52K, and guaranteed you won’t get out the door for under $70K in this fucked-up market!
I wish I could buy a Lexus without a sunroof. I'd even pay extra.
And not to sound like Seinfeld, but what is it about sunroofs anyway? Do people actually open them? Or slide back back the cover and let the sun start baking your bald spot? Does _anybody_ ever use them after the first month of ownership?
Pointy-Haired Boss: "Due to budget cuts, only managers at my level and above will get donuts at meetings from now on. Hey, this is going to be hard on everybody. I mean, I don't know if I can eat that many donuts."
I got into automotive blogs initially by finding the ttac podcast which I believe was Johnny Lieberman and Robert farago in like 2007-8! I can honestly see this article creating Jack Baruth auto writing tree with enough branches to screw with automotive PR for a generation
I call that "Chasing Fractions," that business of pushing past the point of diminishing returns.
Chasing fractions is the reason cars and ships and planes went from looking cool to looking weird. When you start going for sub-single-digit improvements, you're wasting effort, money and time.
Those were certainly the days. I remember paying $9200 for an x230 server and feeling like it was a good deal. Because it was. It lasted 11 years in service.
I'd suggest that the obsolescence time for computers has LENGTHENED in the past decade. My clients used to switch out hardware every 2-3 years, just to keep up with operating-system demands. By contrast, today's business laptops don't perform much better than the business laptops of 2013.
I've made much of my living for the past 30 years as either an IT professional or working with software/online and I've never personally owned a state of the art computer. This box right now is an i7-9700 rated @ 3.00GHz with an Nvidia 2060 graphics card. The only time I notice speed, or lack of it, is when I'm saving a CAD project that has lots of iterations and parts.
I'm typing this reply on an eleven year old Macbook Air. That has only needed a new screen because i cracked it when I accidentally smacked it into a bookcase. Apple must've screwed up by not programming this computer to self-destruct after three years.
I had a $10000 desktop for work running OS2 that ran Windows under emulation faster than it ran natively. I had left IBM and was installing TCP/IP on a major insurance company’s mainframes in Columbus. This was 1993.
I can repair any Pure IC vehicle on the road, but there's no way I could get a job as a mechanic these days - I never got any ASE certs when I was doing that work.
I can take a turbo Audi apart and put it back together correctly, but I can't prove it on paper.
Back when 1200 baud was considered fast I bought my first hard drive for a first gen IBM 5150 (before they rebranded it the PC). It cost $325 and had a capacity of 100 mega bytes. I just had to replace the main storage drive on my desktop computer. I bought a 10 *giga* byte drive for $269 plus sales tax. Of course that old Seagate drive might still work today if I had it whereas the Toshiba drive getting replaced because it started making a regular, periodic noise with an accompanying slowing of the transfer rate was not even three years old. I'd already scratched Seagate off the list because of quality concerns. I guess I'm stuck with WD, and then just the more expensive ones.
Imagine if car companies charged by how well an engine performs on a dyno. Computer component companies take the same chips, drives, etc. and based on how well they test out they call them a different model and charge more or less depending on those tests.
That IBM was an 8086. Somehow blew up the motherboard and bought a replacement direct from IBM for something like $150. I ran a BBS for a non-profit on that machine, which was in my basement office directly below our bedroom. I'd go to bed listening to the dulcet tones of the modem connecting to the BBS feed.
My first PC was an 8088 clone with a Hercules graphics card with amber monochrome monitor (with a CGA emulator program), and sadly, I don’t recall the amount of main memory. But it had a 30MB hard drive! Yup!
Oh..just thought about it--I think it was running 640KB of RAM. It was used as my word processor in college. (WordPerfect 5.1 running under DOS 6.2 FTW! Even had a program that opened up a ton of extra fonts and stuff! Livin’ La Vida Loca, computer-wise, c. 1989! 😂) Ran Flight Simulator of a version I don’t recall, albeit not really well--that ran on a Hercules, which provided a touch more resolution than CGA.
It will be interesting to hear how the press loaner car thing changes once the automakers focus more on electrics. Will the loaners be swapped out each day to get charged? Or are there going to be a lot of free universal chargers getting installed?
By then the only people getting press loaners will be EV evangelists like Lieberman who already have chargers and don't need to drive long distances because the "bulls" come to him.
I stole a look at the latest C&D before I marked it UTF and tossed it in the returns. I was pleasantly surprised to see them actually dig a little bit at a Chevy Bolt comparing it to a Jetta Sport. First time I've read that wet pavement destroys range.
Since the EVs are loaded with "driver assistance technologies," these guys should be able to puff themselves up as even bigger heroes than they already do.
I think he's gotten there based on a look at his YouTube site. I honestly did find him entertaining on the old site and was sad to see him go.
The Man Who Framed His Credit Rating!
To his credit, he wanted to have all the money and all the access PLUS say whatever he wanted to. Turns out his truck wasn't big enough for that.
I think I shared this with you, but I was at Whole Foods a few months ago and saw an African American gentleman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “MY CREDIT SCORE 850”
Wouldn't he attract a higher value woman with a D&B rating?
This made me think of Lewis Grizzard, who knew plenty about women (he married four of them in his all too brief life; in fact, his first wife later remarried and became the mother of a fellow W&L alum who once hired me ~10 years ago; we remain friendly and smoke cigars together 3-4 days a week). Anyway, on to Lewis’s inimitable ode to the Gucci Loafer:
“What makes a pair of stylish Italian loafers by Gucci so appealing is their softness, their master workmanship, and their price.
I've bought cars for less. Walk into a Gucci store, and they ask for your shoe size second. First, they want a quick glance at your Dun and Bradstreet.
Not just anybody can wear a pair of Gucci shoes, of course. Those crass dolts down at the lodge, for instance.
"You get a purse, too?" cracked one of the sorry lot, a hint of white swocklet peering outside the top of his brogans.
Disgusting.
My new Guccis are an unpretentious oxblood, accented perfectly with buckles and slightly raised heels.
The cushioned inner soles wear the proud Gucci crest with the subtle, but effective announcement, "Made in Italy, " as if there was any doubt.
When I am in the company of individuals with the proper breeding to appreciate such hallmarks of style, I am not hesitant to remove one of my new shoes to prove I am wearing the Real McCoy.
"Have you noticed I am wearing Guccis?" I asked the hostess at a dinner party.
"Frankly, I haven't, " she said.
I took off one of the shoes and showed her the proud Gucci crest on the cushioned inner soles. I didn't want to stay at her stupid dinner party anyway.”
https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/the-good-life-guccis/Jc4jfGr3Hg1ooLMK6fX9vM/
the cool thing is to have krugerrands in your loafers instead of pennies
As JB knows, I create content under a variety of pseudonyms in order to better tailor my content to diverse constituencies; perhaps I should release a mixtape under the name “Yung Krugerrand”
! Go Kyree go ! .
-Nate
I'm ready for Black Gay Wheels by Kyree!
Here's the problem: it's not enough to be black and gay. You also gotta be willing to read the script they hand you. And THAT is where I think you'd have second thoughts.
I believe the standard these days is Obnoxious and Flaming. Anything less in inauthentic.
That's not the case and it's never been the case. It's always about access. If they talk about your driving ability, it's to fluff you and tie you more closely to the brand.
The manufacturers were stroking the egos of the assembled auto journalists? Hard to believe.
Like the PR girl who spent the night with me and then asked, the next morning, in the most offhand way possible, if I'd send her my copy on the new sedan before I published it.
Egos... I said stroking egos.
The sad part is that you probably felt more used and exploited than she did.
Not in the slightest. My mind doesn't work that way.
It was a comment more about her than you. Do you think she ever considered herself to be a working girl?
I think the hookup was pretty organic, as the kids say. She was just trying to work an angle on the way out.
I can see Quagmire asking her, "I have a question for you: Why are you still here?"
Baruth knocks it out the park again! Excellent piece!
Good lord almighty. Stories like this are why I’m here. It still amazes me that company PR folks will put up with such hacks - I guess it shouldn’t after everything you’ve shared.
What do said hacks EVEN HAVE that the car companies want so badly?
They provide the PR people with a reason to stay employed. It's a supply-side situation, not a demand-side one.
THAT's thin gruel, to be sure.
Who's the joke really on here?
Jack, isn't this an "Emperor has no clothes" situation, and thus only a matter of time before it all collapses?
Like those government and non-profit workers dealing with poverty and homelessness. Do they really want those problems to go away?
Of course not.
Shit like this makes the occasional cleansing fire of a 18% interest rates, a depression and/or world war a necessary evil. Flammable undergrowth.
Trying to be very generous, but a ham-handed move in a Leaf might not chuck you off the mountain with quite the verve of one in a Porrrrshhaaa GT-gorillion.
The irony is that the leaf is slower in a straight line by A STUPENDOUS AMOUNT so you gotta be faster and therefore riskier in the corners.
I love a happy ending.
Happy Ending? Isn't that the Thai "massage parlor" down on 9th?
Oh yeah...
Giggity!
"Dear Diary...Jackpot!"
I sure hope his new wife is willing to give him the occasional beej without him having to beg for it.
There are so many 'randos' in the auto journo game. I am in the process of selling my vulcan s and moving on to a bigger bike, and in the very random field of contenders are BMW RnineT and a Ducati Diavel.
I made the mistake of watching some reviews of the bikes and just test rode the BMW yesterday. The 'agricultural' gearbox as claimed in the video was anything BUT! I don't think these people would realise something was wrong if they woke up with their arm being where their butt is. Its all made up and nothing means anything anymore.
Side note: I STILL dislike Johnny more than the grifters you mention here, because they're honest in being thieves. Jonny is just a pretender and he takes the pretending so seriously its PATHETIC.
I'm kind of curious why the auto PR thing hasn't collapsed yet, it is a tremendous drain and doesn't really lend to increased sales, ESPECIALLY in this market. The thought of 'eyeballs' as you're referring to was always tenous at best, and I REALLY don't think internet advertising is very effective. I need to see data to convince me otherwise. Cars just sell themselves these days as you correctly identified the near - soviet level of gratitude for just being able to BUY a car at 20% margins.
Only by comparison with a frontline Honda or Yamaha is the Beemer gearbox tough.
It isn't tough period. I don't know why people who have no clue what they're saying need to have an opinion, let alone be given a podium to voice them from. I just see them as complete clowns.
Maybe tough is the wrong word. There's a plastic-feeling kickback from the dogs in the boxers that you don't get in a Honda transmission.
Honestly I did not notice anything, except that maybe it needed 10% more effort. I would liken it to a short throw shifter on a car. It was crisper than a honda in 'relaying' to me that the shift was complete.
BTW : if you really want to experience a clanky Motocyle gearbox, try a Ural ~ it's a 1930's ratchet shifted box made by drunken communists in a Friday using worn out tooling....
My '94 Ural Tourist Solo 650's box sounds like it's making ground beef but has never once jumped out of gear....
Good design works even when mis used or abused .
-Nate
(still working on learning speling)
I love boxers! They have so much personality!
All the whiners need to take a ride on an old XS1100. I think the gearbox wouldn't feel out of place on a Ural (truck!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e62l8LaLiMc
! that guy has no idea what he's doing .
I was taught to shift sans clutch in Agricultural trucks, Urals have crude synchronizers so all that gear jamming just beats the poor old truck up worse .
-Nate
TBH I think this guy is familiar with the breed, it's likely just a) stone cold transmission in subzero temps and b) a very tired abused old rig (a massive old KRaZ military truck). I've seen enough of these old Soviet rigs and their operators in their natural habitat to know that this guy is following Standard Operating Procedure lol
Could be, I don't think so as a Mechanic and driver of non synchronized gearboxes .
-Nate
It's better than the shifter on my old CB550, which was pretty bad even in 2012 when I got the bike and has NOT improved.
I know the original CB500s were known for somewhat balky shifters that were improved for the 550 in '72(?)
Have you ever tried adjusting the clutch down at the actual cases (locknut and screw adjustment). It could just be adjusted too far out and that will cause the clutch to not be fully engaged and result in very notchy shifting. I was just playing around with this mechanism on my XS1100 when I was diagnosing the slipping clutch (which can result from having said adjustment too far in the other direction where clutch is never fully disengaged).
The Vulcan S is on the short list for mah wife's first bike.
How do you like it/what are the shortcomings you've noted from ownership?
It was VERY good. I don't know about your wife but the adjustability makes it very easy to get used to for a short individual. The only thing that COULD be better is the suspension is a bit harsh, which is felt on bad roads.
Very easy to service, easy to mod, all standard Japanese bike stuff. Just wish the black paint on some of the hardware was more rugged. A couple of times of taking the seat off and the allen bolt loses its black finish uniformity.
I'm selling it only because I can't ride for a year now with 2 small kids, and its going to change hands for a 20% profit for me in this market.
Thanks!
She's short, particularly in the torso, and the reach on the one she sat on she liked.
That and the Rebel 500 (maybe the new Eliminator) are in her aesthetic and size wheelhouse.
Dunno what old bikes in that size class would be good buys but a used Vulcan S doesn't seem too crazy priced, or wasn't at the end of last season.
I would consider an SV650, if she can handle it.
"she is short, particularly in the torso"
May I suggest rephrasing "she is short and very leggy"?
Your original, accurate, relevant to the situation style is what has gotten me in trouble over the years.
She is no stranger to the lack of tact that is my every day existence.
I too, have a gift for phrasing things in the worst possible light.
Personally, I'd recommend the Ducati. Unless things have changed in the last 10 years, the Ducati is the better made machine - though they have a few interesting quirks of their own.
I once made a post along the lines of 'You know life is weird when the Italian made sportbike is more reliable and better engineered than the German one'. This was after owning one for quite a while and finding out it was right up there with the jap bikes for dependability.
Hoo-boy did the beemer heads come after me for that one!
But honestly? It's true. German engineering ain't all that...
I have to see if I can manage the Diavel at 5' 3" with most of it in the torso. 500 lbs is more or less a hard limit for me to manage on tippy toes. I'll know more after today's appointment.
The Diavels have electrical issues and the extra service that the Desmo heads need.
How does a system designed to make valve float mechanically impossible need so much work?
This in a media type that has so much less influence than it once did. I can only imagine how worse it is in journalism that draws eyes.
In political journalism now you basically need to be the socialist kid of millionaire parents.
I'd try the millionaire's child thing.....
What could possibly go wrong ? .
-Nate
Kimatni is a known associate of the mercurial, enigmatic automotive industry gadfly known only as Woke Wheels. They both rep for the Black Automotive Media Group, and I recall that WW once suggested that AMG make a special model for BLACK folx ONLY and have a special press event for BLACK folx ONLY with Lewis Hamilton in attendance.
The last I heard, WW was caught in the crossfire between two industry luminaries - Carcounsel and Blake Z. Rong.
The former of whom has never touched a vagina and the latter of whom has never touched a vagina of voting age.
Yikes
What's next? Separate schools? Separate drinking fountains?
No, the "horning in on their racket" only goes one way.
"What's next? Separate schools? Separate drinking fountains?"
Tried that, didn't work out like they hoped .
-Nate
Rabid anti-dentite!
I don't know what this means.....
-Nate
Silly Seinfeld bit.
Regarding the two idiots complaining about the infotainment system in the "used car", sometimes I think 99% of the problems in the world would be solved by an adult, a real live adult, standing up and telling those select few to "Shut up, you ridiculous clowns. No one gives a shit about your ... (wokeness, pronouns, racism, reparations, veganism, pussyhats, MAGA, antifa, whatever) ... Just shut the hell up cause 99% of the population disagrees with your delusional moronic rantings!"
I mean, not me. I'm not going do it. Hate to make waves and all that. but someone should. Soon.
You gotta know your audience. And mix in a bit of humor with your sarcasm or else it really does get you booted out. I once survived a full day "inclusivity" meeting which was basically half the technical staff sitting around having HR mediated chats. I said nothing for 8 solid hours. I mean, absolutely nothing. Not hi, not hello, not nothing. I walked in the room and zip went my lips. People would ask questions and then stare at me, but finally after the 2nd or 3rd hour they got the picture and just ignored me. Our HR manager back then was a complete snake and I knew the moment I started talking I would get fired. One of the oddest and most difficult days of my life. I'm thinking my silence said more than anything bit of wisdom that could have come out of my mouth that day.
Me, at an all-hands safety briefing:
"I have a question. If a disgruntled coworker comes in here with a gun and starts shooting, do we have to put on hearing protection?"
This happened at a friend of mine's workplace. This one obnoxious asshole was giving a guy shit and the guy pointed at him and did the thumb cocking thing, like he was shooting a gun.
The called the cops, he was arrested, sent to jail, everything in his house that could be a weapon was seized, and he was fired.
For a hand gesture at an obnoxious piece of shit.
Cha-CHING!!!
Lawsuits for wrongful termination, Fourth Amendment violations, defamation of character...
Plenty to go around.
If only. Since all the rest happened to him then the court system in that region must be well locked in.
This was in NY. He didn't get squat. After all he 'threatened them'.
I have a long list of SOMEONE SHOULD but eventually I'll have to do them myself!
"I mean, not me. I'm not going do it. Hate to make waves and all that. but someone should."
Have you considered writing for conservative op-ed sites? The above is basically their attitude, minus the "this is what should be done" part.
I was basically joking, but point taken. The entire conservative press is basically beta (if that's the right term, I'm so far behind what's what it's not even funny). In any event, while I have the right to remain silent I suffer from the inability to remain silent. The only reason I'm not in the HR office daily is that most people like me. My boss makes a special point of telling me to shut up first prior to repeating the corporate DEI bullshit at our staff meetings. Thank God I'm in Texas where most people tend to recognize BS when they see it.
I’d make a snide remark about this had I not been forced to sit through a “Day of Belonging” recently. 80% of that was a Zoom call where execs read from scripts and sounded like the guy selling magazine subscriptions on Office Space.
Yeah, I figured you weren't serious.
I was, however.
I'm only half-joking when I call the conservative op-ed media a leftist psyop designed to demoralize normal people.
The Washington Generals of media.
Yeah, with each website being an individual player.
Jack, I figure you’re busier than stink--new job, cars out of hibernation, etc.--but isn’t it about time for another scorched-earth, the empire is dying, diatribe? Daniel Penny charged with manslaughter. Dianne Feinstein being wheeled around DC--by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!--like a political homage to Weekend at Bernie’s. Stewart Rhodes getting 18 years whilst the FBI can’t charge Hunter Biden with anything? Your position was we aren’t a banana republic--yet. I respectfully disagree.
FWIW ;
Speaking to to clowns like this can be fun .
Once in a while I might get into a fight but more often they're gobsmacked when faced with reality .
-Nate
“Dianne Feinstein being wheeled around DC--by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!--like a political homage to Weekend at Bernie’s”
I made this very comparison to someone much younger than myself and they said “What does spending a weekend at Bernie Sanders house have anything to do with it?”
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Could not decide which I needed to do so I laughed so much I cried. Then showed them clips of the movie Weekend at Bernie’s.
Still makes me laugh.
Instead of THAT, I have something wickedly fun and unpleasant and frustrating to cover early next week. Here's a hint: the two groups that are going to come into conflict over it are married gay couples and childless women in their forties.
OMG; "Dianne Feinstein being wheeled around DC--by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!--like a political homage to Weekend at Bernie’s.", approaches a Baruthian level of brilliance.
Even ze Germans can't say that 2+2=4.
>Porsche wasted fifty-plus grand on watching Lieberman crawl up Pikes Peak like a blind, terrified kitten trying to find its way to Mama’s nipple,
This cracked me up. What a specific, beautiful metaphor. And it works on multiple levels in regards to Mr. Lieberman. :chef-kiss-emoji-here:
Not there currently, but I come from the manufacturing side of the business, where wars are fought over cost improvements that are measured in pennies.
Seeing this kind of waste is both unsurprising and depressing, as if a team of engineers working overtime for a month to prototype a design change that saves a dollar per car were working directly for these grifters.
You should have seen the corners we cut at Honda. Uniforms and sweatshirts with holes in them. Three usable chairs in a twelve chair conference room. Repeatedly raising the process on the meager meals sold in the cafeteria. Paint robots that were old enough to vote. But there was always enough money for PR.
STOHR.
That stupid paint robot will run for another 20 years with minimal input. Thank God, because the "engineer" running it has no idea what the robot connects to.
They’re cutting corners worse than ever--witness the new, sorry “Accord,” and as I discovered today, the Integra Type-S, the car for which the Civic Type-R was seriously decontented, doesn’t even come with a damn SUNROOF! MSRP of $52K, and guaranteed you won’t get out the door for under $70K in this fucked-up market!
I wish I could buy a Lexus without a sunroof. I'd even pay extra.
And not to sound like Seinfeld, but what is it about sunroofs anyway? Do people actually open them? Or slide back back the cover and let the sun start baking your bald spot? Does _anybody_ ever use them after the first month of ownership?
Pointy-Haired Boss: "Due to budget cuts, only managers at my level and above will get donuts at meetings from now on. Hey, this is going to be hard on everybody. I mean, I don't know if I can eat that many donuts."
I got into automotive blogs initially by finding the ttac podcast which I believe was Johnny Lieberman and Robert farago in like 2007-8! I can honestly see this article creating Jack Baruth auto writing tree with enough branches to screw with automotive PR for a generation
From your lips to God's ears.
I call that "Chasing Fractions," that business of pushing past the point of diminishing returns.
Chasing fractions is the reason cars and ships and planes went from looking cool to looking weird. When you start going for sub-single-digit improvements, you're wasting effort, money and time.
At IBM we called it majoring in minors. Back when IBM was a world class company.
Those were certainly the days. I remember paying $9200 for an x230 server and feeling like it was a good deal. Because it was. It lasted 11 years in service.
That, and a computer wasn't obsolete six months after you bought it back then.
Maybe I'm weird. I'm still gaming on an I7-2600k that I bought in late 2011.
House server is an R720 of similar vintage. Not as power efficient as a newer server, but for $200ish it was hard to argue with
All that matters is that it works.
I'd suggest that the obsolescence time for computers has LENGTHENED in the past decade. My clients used to switch out hardware every 2-3 years, just to keep up with operating-system demands. By contrast, today's business laptops don't perform much better than the business laptops of 2013.
Really?
Huh. Shows what I know.
I've made much of my living for the past 30 years as either an IT professional or working with software/online and I've never personally owned a state of the art computer. This box right now is an i7-9700 rated @ 3.00GHz with an Nvidia 2060 graphics card. The only time I notice speed, or lack of it, is when I'm saving a CAD project that has lots of iterations and parts.
I'm typing this reply on an eleven year old Macbook Air. That has only needed a new screen because i cracked it when I accidentally smacked it into a bookcase. Apple must've screwed up by not programming this computer to self-destruct after three years.
"Majoring in minors"
You missed an opportunity for another Blake Z Rong joke
I didn’t even think of it that way. Thanks for taking me there. :)
My man was 27 years old dating a high school senior.
Beyond the social distastefulness of this, I can't imagine trying to actually hold down a conversation with a high school girl anywhere in my 20s
I had a $10000 desktop for work running OS2 that ran Windows under emulation faster than it ran natively. I had left IBM and was installing TCP/IP on a major insurance company’s mainframes in Columbus. This was 1993.
Those were the days -- when the tech was forthright and you needed intelligence rather than patience to deal with it.
You didn't need a degree or even certs as long as you could do the work.
I can repair any Pure IC vehicle on the road, but there's no way I could get a job as a mechanic these days - I never got any ASE certs when I was doing that work.
I can take a turbo Audi apart and put it back together correctly, but I can't prove it on paper.
Back when 1200 baud was considered fast I bought my first hard drive for a first gen IBM 5150 (before they rebranded it the PC). It cost $325 and had a capacity of 100 mega bytes. I just had to replace the main storage drive on my desktop computer. I bought a 10 *giga* byte drive for $269 plus sales tax. Of course that old Seagate drive might still work today if I had it whereas the Toshiba drive getting replaced because it started making a regular, periodic noise with an accompanying slowing of the transfer rate was not even three years old. I'd already scratched Seagate off the list because of quality concerns. I guess I'm stuck with WD, and then just the more expensive ones.
Imagine if car companies charged by how well an engine performs on a dyno. Computer component companies take the same chips, drives, etc. and based on how well they test out they call them a different model and charge more or less depending on those tests.
486SX, anyone???
That IBM was an 8086. Somehow blew up the motherboard and bought a replacement direct from IBM for something like $150. I ran a BBS for a non-profit on that machine, which was in my basement office directly below our bedroom. I'd go to bed listening to the dulcet tones of the modem connecting to the BBS feed.
My first PC was an 8088 clone with a Hercules graphics card with amber monochrome monitor (with a CGA emulator program), and sadly, I don’t recall the amount of main memory. But it had a 30MB hard drive! Yup!
Oh..just thought about it--I think it was running 640KB of RAM. It was used as my word processor in college. (WordPerfect 5.1 running under DOS 6.2 FTW! Even had a program that opened up a ton of extra fonts and stuff! Livin’ La Vida Loca, computer-wise, c. 1989! 😂) Ran Flight Simulator of a version I don’t recall, albeit not really well--that ran on a Hercules, which provided a touch more resolution than CGA.
It will be interesting to hear how the press loaner car thing changes once the automakers focus more on electrics. Will the loaners be swapped out each day to get charged? Or are there going to be a lot of free universal chargers getting installed?
By then the only people getting press loaners will be EV evangelists like Lieberman who already have chargers and don't need to drive long distances because the "bulls" come to him.
I stole a look at the latest C&D before I marked it UTF and tossed it in the returns. I was pleasantly surprised to see them actually dig a little bit at a Chevy Bolt comparing it to a Jetta Sport. First time I've read that wet pavement destroys range.
Since the EVs are loaded with "driver assistance technologies," these guys should be able to puff themselves up as even bigger heroes than they already do.
This guy sounds like a fictional character he's playing, like rappers are alledged to in courts of law.
It would be more honest, anyway.
I made a mistake. I should've said, "...rappers' LAWYERS claim when the prosecution wants to introduce their clients' lyrics into evidence."
To be fair I think Alex Jones did it as well.