King of the Baggers has kicked off at Daytona, Florida this past weekend.
Cam Petersen with no ride in Superbike this year took a seat on an Indian bagger after thirteen laps and finding it fun. The Daytona circuit I find quite boring, but it is noteworthy that this rookie finished third in his first race hustling the no-electronics-aids 600lb machine around. Kyle Wyman, who is always in the running for the win, finished first in both races. Another rookie who served as a World Superbike test rider for BMW, Bradley Smith, finished second in the first race. A third class rookie was wiped out by the HD factory rider, James Rispoli, in a first turn racing incident.
The second race saw Troy Herfoss finish second and Loris Baz third with Cam P out with a mechanical and Bradley Smith crashing.
I watched the tail end of the Supersport 200 race, which I don't care for and where no points are earned, and this might be my last MotoA pay-to-watch season unless Superbike provides some real racing again. We'll see. I purchased a WSBK video pass this year but have minimal familiarity with the format (qualifying -> race -> sprint which also determines ranking for -> race 2 ?) and the riders outside of a couple of names.
MotoGP this weekend at Argentina has sane times for all the practice, qualifying, and races. Sprint will be Saturday at 2PM EDT, and the race Sunday at the same time. Jorge Martin still out to buy time for his broken bones to heal.
I saw an ad recently for some sort of Harley bagger homologation special or similar. $120k. I have no idea if it’s a good or bad deal, but it seemed to have what a non-Harley guy like me would consider to be “all the right parts.”
That's goddamn right, to paraphrase the other Mr. White. Everything else is like watching ice cream melt at 110db.
The only other series I mildly have interest in is Lemons, and that's more like a lap inclusive hangout with fellow weirdos. But KOTB is neat and fun and is only now being fingered by the big money marketing types.
a) KotB is a ton of fun to watch and a hilarious idea which makes it surprising that it exists b) minimum 1 other commenters have expressed disdain for the series and I am 100% leaning into it.
I say this with all the meaning I can muster after the most draining week of my life (the reason for which I expect at least a few of you here, despite my perfunctory attempts at remaining anonymous, will understand immediately):
FUCK THE MALE ARMS RACE
There is no reason for any man here or anywhere to participate.
If you are single, you really do not need to have a new partner every weekend. There's no benefit for you in racking up the numbers, or in spending time with the kind of girl who decides how successful her date is based on the definition of your six-pack. Dating apps are cesspools of terrible people of both genders, almost without exception. Don't waste your time with them. Or with bars or clubs.
Instead, meet people who are not terrible. Spend the time and effort developing your skills at the sort of hobby (singing, playing casual league sports, amateur theater) where you meet people through the hobby. If your job is such that you have social events that go beyond your workplace only, attend them. Never turn down an invitation from friends to go to gatherings with friends of theirs you don't know. Get into conversations, even if (like me) that seems like an unnatural and forced thing to do, and most of them kind of suck.
You won't get anywhere with a large majority of the women you meet this way, but you will meet a lot of them, and as a rule they will be incomparably more worthwhile than the ones Worst Boyfriend Ever and his ilk are meeting. Once in a while I guarantee you'll hit it off with one over nerdy interests, similar temperament, or coincidentally similar history. When that happens, you won't need pharmaceutical assistance.
I found the one, who meets all those criteria and many more, by being invited out to a New Year's Eve dinner by a law school friend. We talked until 3 a.m., did it again on a date a week later, and the rest was history.
Yeah, real life filters can be much more discerning. On the apps, you don't get a vibe until you meet for real which is why i suggest minimal first dates. 100 dates at $10-20 isn't cheap but it also isn't going to break the bank. There were a few girlfriends in that 100 before I met the wife.
You know how normal people think automotive mishaps, especially ones that end in pieces, in fire or upside down in roadside ditches, are grotesque public humiliations? But to me, they're hilarious misadventures and grand memories-in-the-making.
In the same vein, I really ought to look at potentially getting shot down as opportunities to use outrageous pickup lines or just say, "Fuck it, let's see what happens!"
"Hey baby, wanna come dance with the big bad wolf?"
Preach, brother. Contentment in one's state of singleness is a really good place to be as a base to operate from.
I never knew that there was a male "performance" arms race, but then, I'm four decades into my time on this planet and working out or sports was the only arms race that most men would generally contemplate. Everything is hyper-ized, thus no one is at rest, at ease, or unstressed. Awful way to live, especially in one's head. Meeting someone our 'speed'? That's the good stuff. Lotta cute women that cycle, and yes I was staring at your bike. ;)
Seems that there’s been a “pornification” or “drag-queen-ization” of absolutely every aspect of life. Over the top overdone everything, always in poor taste.
I sure am abstaining. Very glad I met my wife right before the advent of dating apps. Gonna keep our 10+ year old cars running for another decade yet if I can, then will replace them with possibly even older models (90s-00s). Haven't had cable in over a decade. Saving, paying off the mortgage, and trying to set ourselves up to sell then move out to the boonies once kids are out of school.
Very depressing state of the nation with regards to all those dudes overdosing on Viagra. Don’t get me wrong, I think the blue pill is one of the greatest inventions of all time, it’s just so sad that guys are so dependent on it at such a young age. I honestly didn’t see that coming.
As an Geezer I suggest one bangs the drum as hard as possible when young or single, this way you'll know when a good one comes along .
Trying to compete with others is a true Fool's Errand .
It's like when you get into that cougar's boudoir and she has a well worn dildo that _plugs_in_ ~ you know you're not going to compete well against Edison so why bother ? have your fun and move on, she has long before she met you
The arms race is 90% in dudes heads. Like yea, don't be a slob and look respectable but you don't need 18 inch biceps. I know a bunch of ugly ass dudes who are married to perfectly normal, if not spectacular, women.
I'm nothing to write home about (maybe a 6 when I was in perfect shape, more likely a 4 at my current 210 pounds). I keep myself groomed and reasonably dressed but don't partake in any arms race bullshit. And I've had a long-term relationship with a solid 9 (who unfortunately had some mental health issues) and plenty of shorter ones with 7s and 8s. There are many women for whom attraction is mostly not about your looks, but about enjoying time in your company and feeling both respected and desired.
When I was single, I did 45-60 minutes on the weights 3x a week and rode my bike a lot, mostly cause it's relaxing to me. I'd recommend doing this, God knows I should currently take this advice, but that's all you really need. If you want to maximize your Tinder ratchet success, hit the gear, get the 6 pack, post the shirtless photos, lose a bit of your soul. I would highly suggest not doing the Tinder ratchet challenge to the younger guys.
I wish there was a young guy out there rather than us olds who could tell the youngs that there is a terrible psychic cost to banging every chick you can, no matter how exquisite the feast may appear. The Devil is a liar.
I'm gonna disagree old timer! If you're not using dating apps these days, you are going to severely limit your options. I used the dating apps to great success. And I don't just mean getting laid, I married one of them. There is a strategy to it though. Yes, most of the people you meet on them are going to be awful so it's a numbers game. Don't get emotionally attached to someone you've never met. Ask a lot of girls out and go on a lot of dates and don't endlessly chat on the apps. Message and if she seems interested, aka responds, ask her out. If she says no, move on to the next match and ask her out. You call tell who is a ratchet based on their pictures and profiles. Don't go out with ratchets. I met plenty of perfectly normal women on the apps.
First dates from apps should be 30-45 minutes tops. 1 drink, 2 tops. If she seems normal, bounce at 45 minutes and ask her out on a real second date. I suggest mini golf or bowling.
This is far more success than most of my friends who have tried the apps have reported. Congratulations on figuring out the system, but I still think real life is a more promising avenue.
The apps are such a minimal time investment if you're doing it right, there isn't a good reason not to use them. Still use real life. Apps also work better if you photograph well. I'd actually use them while out "Oh hey, we're at xyz bar, why don't you and your friends meet us here"
This is probably regional and city dependent as well. I doubt I'd have any success in LA.
My soon-to-be-wife used them as such and somehow landed on me.
She went on a bunch of dates just to see if anyone was worth paying attention to. Didn’t waste time. She even asked *me* out first because I was a hair slow on the draw and she needed to know if I was someone she cared to ever message again.
Couple years later, and I can safely say I’m one of the fortunate ones. Never had much app success before her. To MC’s point, pretty much all of my other girls were from bars or mutual friends.
I want to agree with you but I am not sure about it. It has been more than 20 years since I have dated, but I employ a lot of young people who are struggling in the dating world, men (and women now!) who I think of highly, as in people who are not terrible. Despite my flat affect when it is brought up they seem to take comfort in telling me about their dating lives and stupidly they ask advice.
The arms race is real and not participating is more limiting than not having hobbies to meet girls in. Participating in the hobby means you are competing with every other dude in that environment.
Regardless of marital status I enjoy the attention of women, even more so new ones. It is a struggle(worth it) to remain faithful.
I can say without a doubt the struggle in much more real when I am physically fit, confident, and dress (or undress) for attention, so even for married me to satisfy my ego the arms race is real.
To win you have to be in the game. To get on first base you need to separate yourself from the pack. These women that are impressed by your sixpack aren't terrible, they have options and they have no idea if any particular male is awful or not. 6 packs are not an indicator one way or another, so why wouldn't they be attracted to it?
6/6/6, as they say. You only have any control over one of those factors. You can at another 6 for your abs, it doesn't hurt your chances.
In summation, if someone wants to attract a mate sufficiently to find out if they are or are not terrible, maximize you chances, win the arms race, and make you selection from the best possible pool.
To be blunt, this sounds to me like a good prescription for attracting a woman who is going to sleep with her personal trainer, divorce you, and take half your assets.
Unfortunately, it's just reality that the court is not going to give you half her shit, unless (1) you have children and (2) she's done something sufficiently horrible that the court is willing to give you, even though you are a *gasp* man, sole custody of those children.
Is this true? Nonlawyer, but one of my brothers good friend did this. His alimony is not enough to retire on (except on a shack in the woods) but it’s a nice package. Like a beat cop who never got promoted’s pension. I cannot recall the state.
I agree with your blunt point. However it also increases your chances of meeting the girl who will be a great partner for the rest of your life. It is the point of dating to figure if the person across from you is one or the other, or neither.
It is of benefit to increase ones numbers, and I don't necessarily mean ones body count, if such a thing would be against ones morals. However the more people you get to know on an intimate level, as in when barriers to intimacy comes down, the .ore likely you are to find and pick the right one. It reduces the amount of "luck" involved with success, in the same way the experience and expertise does reduces the impact of "luck" in any other endeavor.
If you have low numbers, you’ll only ever have luck (and on some level, you’ll know it)
At the same time, too much novel trim is a surefire recipe for vertiginous nihilism. The world of women is the world of subterfuge, unreality, heedless indulgence, pointless self enslavement, capricious sadism, gleeful betrayal, intentional arationality. It’s a bad place in which normal people should expect to incur harm.
That said, both would and would not recommend, but for guys who need to “figure it out,” I would recommend. There’s no way out but through.
Learning the contours of the world - however tragic - is the opposite of a recipe for divorce
Playing at the most elite level of competition doesn’t make you a worse doubles player at the country club when you can no longer hack it on the tour.
High competition can attune the observant to deeper realities. Including basic ones. “This girl is incapable of feeling love.” “This girl really loves me and is powerfully loyal.” Etc.
Mistakes are avoidable assuming reality acceptance.
What we’re talking about is less the prize, than the deep inner work that makes finding a real prize possible
What Harry said about needing to expose yourself to many others (whether literally or merely relationally intimately) rings true because for so many men, doing so is an unavoidable part of the journey of self-discovery and world-discovery
Not saying your experience doesn’t apply, but when did you stop dating new women?
It’s a new world in weird ways, the bar has never been lower for most guys hoping to get women *including* the cuties, but marriage caliber women are harder to FIND (not saying seduce or date or wed) given the proliferation of tattoo and promiscuity culture.
The basics for getting women has and always will be the same/similar but the playing fields have changed. And the playing field includes dating apps these days.
Too many comments to go looking if this idea has already been discussed: at the same time as there is this arms race going on fueled by dating app hypergamy, particularly as I understand it in the big coastal cities (man my buddy in LA has some war stories), it seems like at the same time the bar for young guys has never been lower. So much of the young population seems to be obese and/or poorly socialized, as well as underemployed, that just doing some basic exercise /weight lifting to not be obese and not be a beanpole and being a young guy on a decent trajectory career wise (whether in the white collar world or the trades) and being decently spoken already puts you above 90% of the "general population."
All the d*ck pill stuff I had no idea about to be honest but I'm assuming you can sidestep a lot of that by trying to meet gals the "old fashioned way" as MC outlined above.
They knew this at the very beginning when the mice were dying before they started human trials. That's why it was outsourced to China like so much toxic manufacturing and why Pharma got themselves indemnified on Day 1.
Your modified Milan is tempting but being paid in snow pesos makes it significantly dearer. Also I just made an addition to fleet, replacing the 93 Eldorado with another older E body.
Speed I picked up a book this weekend that had $20.00 USD and $40.00 CAD on the cover. So if $6,000 is only $8,600 CAD you are coming out ahead. Just hope you don’t have to go to the grocery store with a wheelbarrow of notes to get a dozen eggs. 😮😮
Pop Quiz: Which European Country has the largest supply of gold on hand (regardless of who owns it), per capita of population?
NOT Sqitzerland.
PORTUGAL!
Historically, because post the Portuguese Revolution where they kicked out their Royals, lest their Royals send their sons off to World War One, a kink or quirk in Portuguese law has been that Portugal only extradites (sends someone back for criminal trial somewhere else) for crimes against the person, and NOT for solely economic crimes.
So, lotsa ill-gotten gains fled there. Nice climate and nice people, too!
So, if I were the Holy Roman Sub-Emperor in Charge of America, I'd want to acquire Portugal, on Day One!!!
For that ACF commenter who is going for the downs look without the downs.
Tadafil. Fellas, you really don't need this. Exceptions applied to a night where you want to drink a half a fifth of jack daniels and still have some fun. Not like I've ever done that... I drank 3/4
Whiskey-dick is a feature, not a bug. Your talleywhacker is aware that after your hippocampus clocks out for the night, bad things are gonna happen, and it's attempting to keep you from inadvertently impregnating the sort of woman who will actually screw you when you're shitfaced after last call.
I think the book was better than either the movie or the tv series. The show was politically liberal. The book, written by an actual combat surgeon, was not.
Happy for both the kitties and you having survived the winter. 80 degrees here near Nashville today after teen highs a couple weeks ago.
I like to see Presidents cheerleading products that employ American workers to sell more of them, whether a US-based company or not. I hope that’s not political.
Several of Biden’s cars have shown up on the used car lot at Delaware Cadillac. What is interesting in when he got elected president the special order car the dealer had disappeared because it came with the paper trail where he had the President of Cadillac contact the factory to have a not available interior installed in his new one, of course at no additional cost…..
They sold it last year on cars and bids with all associated paperwork while he was still president.
It was in a private collection (I think one of the dealer principals or managers?) and driven semi-regularly for a few years. No real conspiracies with this one.
I had the V8 convertible out today in our glorious 70 degree weather. This is true. A attractive middle age Karen smiled at me even though I am sporting my winter season unkempt beard!
Don't get me started on Axalta. Besides throwing away billions in brand equity (the DuPont brand and automotive paint have been associated closely for over a century) the name sounds like a pharma company.
Who benefited? I'm guessing members of the DuPont and Dow families. After a few generations of generational wealth tied to stock shares, some wealthy families want to cash out. There was a time when Billy Ford had to convince his cousins not to sell FoMoCo when they could get better returns putting their assets somewhere else.
If Barack Obama had the active CEO of Chevy working as his close aide who is the face of a department that is acting with questionable legality to dismantle the government order for the last many decades, perhaps it would have been political!
The list is long of the parts not available on C5, C6, C7 Corvettes and the 5th and 6th Generation Camaro. Magnetic shocks, differentials, fuel pumps (C6 ZR1), ABS module, air conditioner compressor, steering rack
I've preemptively purchased several items for my wife's C5Z and my C6Z - fender liners, fuel position senders, etc. Stuff the aftermarket struggles with. May never need 'em...
My brother and I still damn near piss ourselves when they put the old man behind the wheel of his Edsel with the dimes taped over his eyes. And Jim's expression. "Wheew, shit he smells"
"The next fellow after you on your app of choice is on tren or TRT, he’s got his Bluechew prescription, he’s using Adderall to earn more money than you are."
oh god im so tired of this fucking game man
the hoeflation or arms race or whatever name describes this series of insane competition amongst men has probably already driven too many into the dirt
also why does the worst boyfriend ever have shinji ikari as his pfp? i dont know if thats supposed to be intentional or unintentional
anyway does anyone think trump might make the next presidential limo a model y or some other tesla or are those not dependable enough for the govt yet
Women dress for other women, men use gear for other men. You can get 90% where you need to be physically by
1. not being fat
2. Doing stronglifts 5x5 for 12 weeks and eating enough protein
Unless you're on spring break, you don't need visible abs
Half these guys need blue chew subscriptions because they're on adderal. As someone who has gotten a prescription for adderal to deal with the excessive work requirements of tax season.
As a man who went bald very early in life but has since seen many acquaintances catch up with me, it’s not that bad. Not paying for haircuts and just borrowing my fiancées shampoo it whatever is delightful.
The trick to make it work is just committing though. You will look like a doofus with a horseshoe or big-ass bald spot. Let it go. Be free.
The one blessing for me out of the Covid lockdowns was owning my thinning hair. I never did a “combover” but the longer hairstyle was getting there.
With the inability to get a haircut, I ordered an electric hair clipper from Amazon and went to town. Quite liberating but I kept getting side eye from the wife and snide remarks about looking like a farmer which I took as a compliment.
Anyway I’ve never looked back since and have settled into a Great Clips 3 and 4 groove.
Started growing mine out a few years ago—which can cover the hereditary thinning spot on the roof. I wanted to do so around college thirty-five years ago, but long hair wasn’t in then, or up until, say, ten or fewer years ago.
And at 55, it’s a midlife crisis! (Cheaper than a Corvette!)
I work out at my country club, there are no big dudes, and they would be more likely to resell me a fancy bottle of wine than any drugs. Also not nearly as many hot country club milfs as I hoped for.
When I have this problem, I've beaten it back in two ways - 1, eliminate or severely limit alcohol, 2, skip 1 meal of your choice daily. If you need satiety, consume a small amount of pure protein (unflavored whey isolate) + pure fat (evoo, coconut oil, the bulletproof coffee guy MCT oil stuff, butter). Probably ground flaxseed is a less toxic way to pump Omega3s than fish oil, YMMV (perhaps theres a good fish oil manuf. that doesn't make it from bycatch: never heard of one)
Everyone is different but a change that brought massive weight loss without changing anything else for me, was really paying attention to, and avoiding sugar. It is put into things you'd never imagine unless you read the labels.
Stay away from all sugar, artificial sweeteners included and most processed carbs like pasta. Complex carbs like fruit and potatoes not all bad. Avoid booze. Skip breakfast.
To each their own with vices but a lot of these guys wake and bake every single day and don't stop till they go to bed. Even in my worst bouts of drinking I didn't start weekdays off with a bloody Mary.
When that metaphorical lightning bolt hit me three months ago, it fried my acknowedgement of personal limitations.
I've been reversing a case of prediabetes that was on the brink of becoming full-blown Type II. Scared me. Caught it just in time. After two weeks of busting my ass, my blood sugar numbers are consistently normal and staying there.
I started running again, something I haven't done THIS CENTURY. Turns out it's not so bad when it's YOUR idea and there's no dumbass in a silly hat screaming at you & telling you what a worthless piece of shit you are.
I lost 35 years to a head full of toxic, self-destructive ideas. I'm ALIVE now and this time, I'm gonna live a proper life.
For all of you in your 40s and 50s, get the weight off now, and keep it off, because after 60 it becomes WAY harder, trust me. Its like your body suddenly wants to store up for the afterlife.
I need advice. I do 'OK' right now with walking in my hilly neighborhood 3x/week (sometimes pushing a kid uphill), and some super easy and simple core/weight exercises. I stopped the intermittent fasting this week because I'm feeling out of fuel/calories. Trying to cut out processed foodstuffs. I feel I could do more but work/family keeps me slammed and stressed. Up the weights? What's easy as far as protein/diet goes?
Protein shakes, either pre-made or get powder and a shaker and make them yourself. Watch out with the pre-made ones, some of them can have a lot of calories and sugar compared to others.
Prison style workouts don't require weights or a dedicated space to do them, and will get you pretty ripped with lots of reps. Think push ups, burpees, air squats, sit ups, dips, etc.
workout hard and eat clean food. cut down on sugar and processed foods as much as possible. reduce booze if you drink. chicken and fish. Lots of veggies.
it you are short on time, you have to make the workouts count - turn those walks into hill sprints. more difficult strength training. work as hard as you think you can without getting injured. you might find the training takes less time if you increase the intensity.
I'd give the same advice to people in their late twentys. It's a lot easier at 30 than 40. If you put significant muscle on in your 20s, you will also appreciate it for the rest of your life. It's is easier to get back than build in the first place and it's a lot easier to build it when you're young.
100% on the 5x5. Got myself some Adderall over Christmas when 2/3 of my staff got norovirus. Maybe they were sugar pills but I couldn't tell a difference, side affects or benefits, on or off. I was very disappointed!
if they load up a Mod Y with all the required armor plating, etc, the range will be like 3 miles. and they would have to put a 10 foot stretch in the middle so it looks BIGLY enough.
Mrs. Speed is out there. Just like some of us here don’t follow the herd, there are women folk out there who also don’t follow the herd. It’s obviously worth the effort to find these women. Godspeed, speed!
0-Missed opportunity to note that BlueChew is a prominent, steadfast sponsor of Spike’s Car Radio; Jack is a known associate of Spike Feresten, on whose eponymous podcast Jonny Blubberman serves as a frequent co-host.
1-Now that Elon and his sidekick McDonald Trump have made it safe for a REAL man to operate an Electric Vehicle, previously the province of effete, virtue signaling coastal elite liberals and, um, immigrants making a living in the gig economy … will the TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTs magically come to terms with the all of the downsides of EVs? Range anxiety, charging, resale value, extreme weather performance, etc.?
I've never willingly listened to Spikes Car Radio, so I didn't know... but i could take a whole bag of it and still not have any interest in what Lieberman is up against. That broad looks like Brian May and i say that with love, I think May is holding up GREAT
Did you hear that the esteemed astrophysicist and 3D photography enthusiast had a minor stroke last fall? He's back to playing but taking it easy.
Speaking of May, I respect him a lot, he may be the smartest professional guitar player in the world, but I'm a little skeptical about elements of the story of the Red Special. If his father was such an outstanding electrical engineer, how come they couldn't afford a store-bought guitar? Yeah, I know that in the early '60s the British economy was still recovering from WWII and tarrifs and other issues made getting U.S. gear hard (hence the origin story of the Marshall) but Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were from much more working class backgrounds and they could afford their own guitars, albeit not Fenders and Gibsons.
Also, how many electrical engineers do you know with no power tools?
I'm guessing that they had to job out the parts for the vibrato mechanism and the roller bridge - you can't shape steel with a spoke shave.
By the way, the laser cut guitar is almost finished. Far from perfect but an acceptable proof of concept. If I make another I'll need a steel clamping fixture to make sure the laminations are flat.
My colleague Chris Huston was John Lennon's best friend in Art College. He was scheduled to have lunch with John Lennon the Thursday after Lennon was murdered.
Chris Huston installed the tremolo bar on John's first "real" electric guitar, because John was too nervous about drilling holes into something that had cost so much.
Chris's band was "The Undertakers," and John Lennon envied them, and wanted his own band. The two bands later shared billings at the Cavern Club.
Chris was Grammy-nominated for producing "The World Is a Ghetto."
"Chris was Grammy-nominated for producing "The World Is a Ghetto.""
I've met Lee Oskar, the harmonica player in War, a couple of times. His harmonica brand and Lace, who help me make my pickups, sponsored a party at the Summer NAMM show. Lee and I ended up talking about his family history.
At a later show, one morning while setting up my booth I could hear someone playing live, amplified harmonica, and it was Lee in his distributor's booth. He told me about a project he was working on, an album of songs inspired by his mother's Yiddish poetry, asked me if I wanted to hear one of the songs, handed me the headphones and played it on his phone. I was really tickled. I'm just a nobody and I'm listening to as yet unreleased music by a world class musician.
When the album was released it was a gatefolded package, including a book, that was sold through his own label. When I got my copy, I called the label and Lee answered the phone.
After some pleasantries I asked him, "Did you know that they printed your mother's poem upside down? Apparently, nobody that actually knows how to read Hebrew caught it before it went to print."
"You're kidding. Oh my God. They really did."
I suppose that makes me just two degrees of separation from the Fab Four. Who knew?
I hope we’ll see PHEVs take off a bit more, and hopefully EVs go back to being commuter cars but who knows. They make a bit more sense as commuters in urban markets, and PHEVs cover the need for most folks. I love driving my in laws Volvo V60 Polestar around in Miami, because it almost never needs gas with the 45mile battery range but still can drive as normal on roadtrips. An EV could work (and does) for most in south Florida who never drive past West Palm, but for those TRUE PATRIOTS in middle America, I just don’t see it in the cards. Things are too far apart and it does get cold, but we may see some taking advantage of those tanking resale values…
I think a lot of the opposition was a combination of the practical and political. For most lifestyles outside of urban commuters, the tradeoffs don’t make sense. Plus who wants a truck that can only tow the bass boat for 75miles?
The other day I saw a Renault ad on Instagram explaining what a hybrid is and why it’s so great. We’re going straight back to 2009 and I’m okay with it
Take, for example, a high school classmate of mine who recently opined on Facebook that his dream car is a Cybertruck because Trump and Elon made them “cool.”
I am somehow (?) a member of a FB group for my hometown which features fascinating 24/7 discussion about how amazing Donald Trump is and how everything he does is unambiguously good for small town folks who, like - e.g. - the man in question work in operations in a small local furniture store.
Piggy backing on our previous conversation. The Telluride does not have car seat anchors on the passenger side third row. I have to use the seatbelt like a plebe to fit all the kids in.
Assuming you mean LATCH or tether anchors, same story with the Highlander outboard third row seats. Going to rent a Pacifica soon to prove once and for all that the minivan is the vehicle we need.
But if I buy it will not be a Chrysler one, and probably not the Kia either.
It's that or the Sienna as far as minivans go and apparently the Siennas are hard to get and going for over sticker. The decision practically makes itself.
Thanks, the CX-90 is about same sized as the Highlander and I'm guessing has equally poor third row access/ease of getting a car seat in or out.
I will be doing hitch/cargo box for trips as our generous Scott A brought them up and mentioned they were much easier to get things into and out of then a roof box. Highlander didn't come with a hitch and I've had it in mind to buy one for a long while anyway.
I'm at the minivan or full-size SUV decision point. I think I can make the Highlander work for another year *fingers crossed* it just won't be a great experience. We had three car seats squeezed into the middle until a flash of genius inspired me to put one in the way back and bring peace to the interior: keep the siblings from constantly badgering one another.
Careful with the Honda. We have a 2018 Odyssey. Haven’t had any issues being stranded, but the 105k service ($1200) came for us at 80k because the idler pulley was leaking. Toyota can make an engine that doesn’t need invasive maintenance for 150k+ miles. One caveat- my Aunt and Uncle who split time between Alaska and Hawaii had a new Sienna briefly and it did not do well in the Alaska winter. Not a lot of data about EVs and PHEVs in extreme climates but their experience was not good.
Glad to hear about your cats, they are resilient creatures and maybe that’s why they have 9 lives…. I would be reluctant to let them outside, I don’t think that I would sleep well.
I think at this point, were I to go electric, in my mind, only Tesla would do, a standard range m3, it stands as one of the most inexpensive in its class, so it would probably be well supported in the future.
"It’s driven by the fact that all media now is female-focused, with very few exceptions."
I was a keen shortwave-radio DX'er when I was a kid. In prep school, the campus was large enough that we nerds actually had a "Pirate" AM radio station with a hot-rodded (and therefore illegal) vacuum-tube transmitter. We invented a bogus call sign (WFCZ) and sent out letters requesting airplay copies. If I had swiped and kept the Radio Promo 45rpm copy of Led Zep's "Livin' Lovin' Maid," I might be able to get $35 or so for it on eBay, today.
So, radio broadcasting long has been a fascination of mine.
A few years ago I attended a music conference, and one panel discussion was about radio programming. One participant noted that there was a total of one programming consulting company that most Country radio stations relied upon, and that company gave just about the exact same advice to all their clients:
(1) With very few exceptions, your monthly playlist should never be longer than 35 songs.
(2) Of those 35 songs, ideally, only two should be by female singers, or duos with a female member. In no case should a playlist have more than four female vocal tracks.
Why?
Because 80% of the country music listeners (or, so they claimed) were women; and women:
(a) want to hear men, more than they want to listen to other woman, in part because
b) when they hear a woman singing on a Country music FM radio station, many of them will think, "What's she got that I have not?"
Note, I think that the 80% statistic is weighted by number of hours listened to in a day.
That's certainly a valid point. Now, professional statisticians are supposed to correct for such things. But that's more art than science.
There's a phenomenon in statistics and political campaigning called the "Bradley-Dinkins Effect," wherein respondents who answer the phone and answer questions about their intentions to vote, overstate their support for Black political candidates.
So the opinion polls look good for the Black candidates; but on election day, the white candidates win. Why? Conflict Avoidance, and wanting to be thought of as taking widely-held and approved-of positions.
I think that Ms. Harris's poll numbers were at least 2.5 percentage points better than reality, and perhaps more. And, Mutatis Mutandis, I think Trump's poll numbers were at least 2.5% worse than Reality.
Note also, I was a guest at that conference and not a participant. So, I wanted to ask but in fact did not ask whether "Women who listen to Country Radio don't want to listen to girl singers" was a hard polling datum; that is, was there a point-blank question and answer precisely on that issue?
OR, was it only an INFERENCE, a conclusion that the consultants jumped to. Because the Good Lord knows that young ladies love to listen to Taylor Swift!
In fact, but for the existence of Orianthe, and Taylor Swift, I doubt there would be a guitar factory left in the US! Boys dropped guitars and keyboards in favor of online video war games, and girls picked up the guitars.
Back when Dinosaurs Ruled the World, Humble Little Me was elected to Voting Membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. I had a rigorous standard of always voting for the Cutest Girl with the Shortest Hair, so Cheryl Crow filled my Bingo Card. I did have to vote for Deanna Carter, though, for the song title "Did I Shave My Legs for This?"
Which illustrates the central problem. I live and breathe classical music, and I don't listen to country radio. But I did get to vote on who gets the Country Grammy, and my vote was as good as the vote of an actual Country expert.
And, Mutatis Mutandis, country people who know little about classical music, get to vote for Itzhak Perlman and Georg Solti, because those guys have won Grammys before, and therefore must be good.
Georg Solti, IIRC, had more Grammys than anyone else in history, because he was famous for being famous.
So, there are Structural Quirks that lead to Perverse Results.
Which is to say, I think that that Country Grammy was 80% voted on by people who were not familiar with the landscape, but they were glad to vote their agendas. As far as airplay goes... dunno. If the report about that radio consulting firm is still accurate, there might not have been much broadcast airplay. YouTube is a lot more important in music than many people realize. Beyoncé's "Jolene" (Official Lyric Video) has had 12 million views. Meh. BTW, she's distantly related to... Gustav Mahler. Something like 8th cousin, 4X removed... which takes care of the age difference. He died in 1911. There are only two other people shaking hands between Mahler and me.
I had not known that Beyoncé had won four Grammys that night, and therefore she now has squeaked past Georg Solti, her 32 Little Gold Gramophones to his 31.
John, have you considered submitting an article on your time in the music business to ACF? Reading between the lines, I suspect you've got additional interesting stories to tell.
Awww... for the most part, I really was a "Mr. Nobody from Nowhere."
At the end of this brief note, I will link to two long-form autobiographical/historical pieces I published elsewhere.
A few bullet points:
1) Music I produced (Nathaniel Rosen's Bach solo-cello Suites) was selected by the independent committee that programs in-flight music for the US Presidential Aircraft "Air Force One," as representing the best the United States has to offer. I still find that incredible.
NARAS invited me and a guest ($535 each) to sit in the non-televised audience and watch as some other cellist got the Grammy; and I politely ignored them.
2) Music I produced was used in a No. 1 domestic box-office major-studio feature film ("Heartbreakers;" Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt), and the No. 1 US daytime-drama television series ("The Young and the Restless"). I also wrote, produced, and narrated a segment for National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered."
3) Because of my music teachers and mentors, there is only one person shaking hands between Edward Elgar and me; three people shaking hands between Tchaikovsky and me; and four people shaking hands between Beethoven and me.
4) I shook hands directly with Wendy Carlos. I introduced myself by saying, "You don't know me from Adam," and she brightly said, "Hello, Adam." I continued, "When I was a scholarship student at Brown, they picked me to be the work-study Student Janitor who took out the trash and vacuumed the rugs in the Electronic Music Studio that you donated to Brown, because they knew I was studying music and was a technology nerd. (Also, because I had been the 6:30AM janitor at a snooty girls' dorm, and there was never a complaint about me.)
5) Because of my professional contacts (or, my sucking up) in music there is only one person shaking hands between John Lennon and me; only one person shaking hands between Marilyn Monroe and me; one person shaking hands between Bartok and me; two people shaking hands between Joseph Stalin and me; and one person shaking hands between mass murderer and would-be songwriter Charles Manson and me.
6) A separate note: Believe it or not, there are only two people shaking hands between Enrico Caruso (who died in 1921), and Yr. Hmbl. Svt. Me.
People have come up to me and loudly declared that Arturo Delmoni's "Songs My Mother Taught Me" was the most beautiful recording of ANYTHING ever made. It's nice that some people think that way.
But what I am proudest of (and, most thankful for) are my three amazing children.
all my best,
john
PS:
I sign my name online without an initial capital letter, as a tribute to my mentor Boris Goldovsky's "Rule No. 6":
"Don't take yourself too seriously!"
If an opera student were to be so brave and bold as to ask if it might be possible to learn what Rules 1 through 5 were, Mr. G would reply:
"Rules 1 through 5 DO NOT EXIST. The only Rule you will ever need, is Rule No. 6."
Therefore, I think that most Lutherans would describe my condition as "Unmerited Grace," and... I would agree...
I also shook hands with Wendy Carlos. What a talent!
Because this is fun: also one handshake to John Lennon, and one to Jimi Hendrix. No classical producers, composers or performers I'm aware of, unfortunately.
The late Sammy Ash told me that Taylor Swift sold a lot of acoustic guitars (and probably ukes too) but while the unit numbers were high the dollar figures on electrics were significantly higher.
copying this over to this discussion - once again its a good thing I don't have garage space, because these EVs look REALLY COOL: https://longbowmotors.com/ and not outrageously priced.
Yeah, and a few minutes ago it occurred to me - those should be Jaguars! Not that stupid something (no) Pace Jaguar EV thing. And whatever that rebranding monstrosity is.
If this were, say, three months ago when I was considering diversifying my fleet instead of continuing a One Car For All Things program, I would have bought that Milan from you instantly.
Congrats to your feline homeless population on surviving the winter. Here in the damp pacific northwest, our local daily cat visitors seems to have increased over the winter. Not by a huge amount, but there are two new faces.
If the current BMW M3 is a "deeply, truly awful car" then what does that make the C63? Or BMW's M5.
I'll actually give the M3 some credit in a 1980 Corvette kind of way. It isn't what it once was but at least kept most of the pieces intact while its peer group basically all died or metamorphosed away.
It’s weird to think about but I find the BMW half step M cars (M340, X3 M40 etc) much more appealing than the full M versions. They’re a bit more balanced without the silly useless whiz bang track attack stuff I’d never use that the full M cars get now.
REPORTING ON THE ONLY RACE SERIES THAT MATTERS
King of the Baggers has kicked off at Daytona, Florida this past weekend.
Cam Petersen with no ride in Superbike this year took a seat on an Indian bagger after thirteen laps and finding it fun. The Daytona circuit I find quite boring, but it is noteworthy that this rookie finished third in his first race hustling the no-electronics-aids 600lb machine around. Kyle Wyman, who is always in the running for the win, finished first in both races. Another rookie who served as a World Superbike test rider for BMW, Bradley Smith, finished second in the first race. A third class rookie was wiped out by the HD factory rider, James Rispoli, in a first turn racing incident.
The second race saw Troy Herfoss finish second and Loris Baz third with Cam P out with a mechanical and Bradley Smith crashing.
I watched the tail end of the Supersport 200 race, which I don't care for and where no points are earned, and this might be my last MotoA pay-to-watch season unless Superbike provides some real racing again. We'll see. I purchased a WSBK video pass this year but have minimal familiarity with the format (qualifying -> race -> sprint which also determines ranking for -> race 2 ?) and the riders outside of a couple of names.
MotoGP this weekend at Argentina has sane times for all the practice, qualifying, and races. Sprint will be Saturday at 2PM EDT, and the race Sunday at the same time. Jorge Martin still out to buy time for his broken bones to heal.
I saw an ad recently for some sort of Harley bagger homologation special or similar. $120k. I have no idea if it’s a good or bad deal, but it seemed to have what a non-Harley guy like me would consider to be “all the right parts.”
It's crazy expensive until you figure it has ~$10k brakes, probably five figures in carbon fiber body work, and on and on.
They are almost certainly are if the intent of the buyer is to brutally mog Superbike boys at track days.
"The only race series that matters: KOTB"
That's goddamn right, to paraphrase the other Mr. White. Everything else is like watching ice cream melt at 110db.
The only other series I mildly have interest in is Lemons, and that's more like a lap inclusive hangout with fellow weirdos. But KOTB is neat and fun and is only now being fingered by the big money marketing types.
a) KotB is a ton of fun to watch and a hilarious idea which makes it surprising that it exists b) minimum 1 other commenters have expressed disdain for the series and I am 100% leaning into it.
I say this with all the meaning I can muster after the most draining week of my life (the reason for which I expect at least a few of you here, despite my perfunctory attempts at remaining anonymous, will understand immediately):
FUCK THE MALE ARMS RACE
There is no reason for any man here or anywhere to participate.
If you are single, you really do not need to have a new partner every weekend. There's no benefit for you in racking up the numbers, or in spending time with the kind of girl who decides how successful her date is based on the definition of your six-pack. Dating apps are cesspools of terrible people of both genders, almost without exception. Don't waste your time with them. Or with bars or clubs.
Instead, meet people who are not terrible. Spend the time and effort developing your skills at the sort of hobby (singing, playing casual league sports, amateur theater) where you meet people through the hobby. If your job is such that you have social events that go beyond your workplace only, attend them. Never turn down an invitation from friends to go to gatherings with friends of theirs you don't know. Get into conversations, even if (like me) that seems like an unnatural and forced thing to do, and most of them kind of suck.
You won't get anywhere with a large majority of the women you meet this way, but you will meet a lot of them, and as a rule they will be incomparably more worthwhile than the ones Worst Boyfriend Ever and his ilk are meeting. Once in a while I guarantee you'll hit it off with one over nerdy interests, similar temperament, or coincidentally similar history. When that happens, you won't need pharmaceutical assistance.
We can agree on some things.
Bravo Sir.
Just want the one. Who looks good, is kind & trustworthy and laughs at the same things I do FOR THE SAME REASONS.
And I'm still laughing about that midget I saw last month.
I found the one, who meets all those criteria and many more, by being invited out to a New Year's Eve dinner by a law school friend. We talked until 3 a.m., did it again on a date a week later, and the rest was history.
I probably went out with 100+ women I met on Tinder/bumble/ok cupid before I met the wife. It really is a numbers game
It took me about 30 in real life before I found her.
Yeah, real life filters can be much more discerning. On the apps, you don't get a vibe until you meet for real which is why i suggest minimal first dates. 100 dates at $10-20 isn't cheap but it also isn't going to break the bank. There were a few girlfriends in that 100 before I met the wife.
Maybe I'm looking at dating wrong.
You know how normal people think automotive mishaps, especially ones that end in pieces, in fire or upside down in roadside ditches, are grotesque public humiliations? But to me, they're hilarious misadventures and grand memories-in-the-making.
In the same vein, I really ought to look at potentially getting shot down as opportunities to use outrageous pickup lines or just say, "Fuck it, let's see what happens!"
"Hey baby, wanna come dance with the big bad wolf?"
"No! Fuck off, creep!"
"Hey, that's okay. The other pigs said no, too!"
Exceptionally well put sir.
i met my first and only wife when i was 51.
Preach, brother. Contentment in one's state of singleness is a really good place to be as a base to operate from.
I never knew that there was a male "performance" arms race, but then, I'm four decades into my time on this planet and working out or sports was the only arms race that most men would generally contemplate. Everything is hyper-ized, thus no one is at rest, at ease, or unstressed. Awful way to live, especially in one's head. Meeting someone our 'speed'? That's the good stuff. Lotta cute women that cycle, and yes I was staring at your bike. ;)
Seems that there’s been a “pornification” or “drag-queen-ization” of absolutely every aspect of life. Over the top overdone everything, always in poor taste.
No one has to participate.
I sure am abstaining. Very glad I met my wife right before the advent of dating apps. Gonna keep our 10+ year old cars running for another decade yet if I can, then will replace them with possibly even older models (90s-00s). Haven't had cable in over a decade. Saving, paying off the mortgage, and trying to set ourselves up to sell then move out to the boonies once kids are out of school.
Very depressing state of the nation with regards to all those dudes overdosing on Viagra. Don’t get me wrong, I think the blue pill is one of the greatest inventions of all time, it’s just so sad that guys are so dependent on it at such a young age. I honestly didn’t see that coming.
wow! perfect observation!
"Contentment in one's state of singleness..."
Thank you for that. I've heard that before but your comment finally drove it home.
It wasn't until I was perfectly fine with the former until things fell into place for me on the partner side. There is a lot of depth to this.
Well ;
As an Geezer I suggest one bangs the drum as hard as possible when young or single, this way you'll know when a good one comes along .
Trying to compete with others is a true Fool's Errand .
It's like when you get into that cougar's boudoir and she has a well worn dildo that _plugs_in_ ~ you know you're not going to compete well against Edison so why bother ? have your fun and move on, she has long before she met you
-Nate
It's Xeno's Paradox, ain't it?
Women can smell desperation
The arms race is 90% in dudes heads. Like yea, don't be a slob and look respectable but you don't need 18 inch biceps. I know a bunch of ugly ass dudes who are married to perfectly normal, if not spectacular, women.
I'm nothing to write home about (maybe a 6 when I was in perfect shape, more likely a 4 at my current 210 pounds). I keep myself groomed and reasonably dressed but don't partake in any arms race bullshit. And I've had a long-term relationship with a solid 9 (who unfortunately had some mental health issues) and plenty of shorter ones with 7s and 8s. There are many women for whom attraction is mostly not about your looks, but about enjoying time in your company and feeling both respected and desired.
When I was single, I did 45-60 minutes on the weights 3x a week and rode my bike a lot, mostly cause it's relaxing to me. I'd recommend doing this, God knows I should currently take this advice, but that's all you really need. If you want to maximize your Tinder ratchet success, hit the gear, get the 6 pack, post the shirtless photos, lose a bit of your soul. I would highly suggest not doing the Tinder ratchet challenge to the younger guys.
I wish there was a young guy out there rather than us olds who could tell the youngs that there is a terrible psychic cost to banging every chick you can, no matter how exquisite the feast may appear. The Devil is a liar.
anyone who would say something like that would immediately get labeled an incel then ignored and mocked
oh so exactly right matthew!
I'm gonna disagree old timer! If you're not using dating apps these days, you are going to severely limit your options. I used the dating apps to great success. And I don't just mean getting laid, I married one of them. There is a strategy to it though. Yes, most of the people you meet on them are going to be awful so it's a numbers game. Don't get emotionally attached to someone you've never met. Ask a lot of girls out and go on a lot of dates and don't endlessly chat on the apps. Message and if she seems interested, aka responds, ask her out. If she says no, move on to the next match and ask her out. You call tell who is a ratchet based on their pictures and profiles. Don't go out with ratchets. I met plenty of perfectly normal women on the apps.
First dates from apps should be 30-45 minutes tops. 1 drink, 2 tops. If she seems normal, bounce at 45 minutes and ask her out on a real second date. I suggest mini golf or bowling.
This is far more success than most of my friends who have tried the apps have reported. Congratulations on figuring out the system, but I still think real life is a more promising avenue.
The apps are such a minimal time investment if you're doing it right, there isn't a good reason not to use them. Still use real life. Apps also work better if you photograph well. I'd actually use them while out "Oh hey, we're at xyz bar, why don't you and your friends meet us here"
This is probably regional and city dependent as well. I doubt I'd have any success in LA.
My soon-to-be-wife used them as such and somehow landed on me.
She went on a bunch of dates just to see if anyone was worth paying attention to. Didn’t waste time. She even asked *me* out first because I was a hair slow on the draw and she needed to know if I was someone she cared to ever message again.
Couple years later, and I can safely say I’m one of the fortunate ones. Never had much app success before her. To MC’s point, pretty much all of my other girls were from bars or mutual friends.
I'm about 50/50 social and apps for "successful" relationships. Obviously only one of those really worked out.
I don't care HOW I meet a good woman. Dating apps are just tools.
Exactly
I want to agree with you but I am not sure about it. It has been more than 20 years since I have dated, but I employ a lot of young people who are struggling in the dating world, men (and women now!) who I think of highly, as in people who are not terrible. Despite my flat affect when it is brought up they seem to take comfort in telling me about their dating lives and stupidly they ask advice.
The arms race is real and not participating is more limiting than not having hobbies to meet girls in. Participating in the hobby means you are competing with every other dude in that environment.
Regardless of marital status I enjoy the attention of women, even more so new ones. It is a struggle(worth it) to remain faithful.
I can say without a doubt the struggle in much more real when I am physically fit, confident, and dress (or undress) for attention, so even for married me to satisfy my ego the arms race is real.
To win you have to be in the game. To get on first base you need to separate yourself from the pack. These women that are impressed by your sixpack aren't terrible, they have options and they have no idea if any particular male is awful or not. 6 packs are not an indicator one way or another, so why wouldn't they be attracted to it?
6/6/6, as they say. You only have any control over one of those factors. You can at another 6 for your abs, it doesn't hurt your chances.
In summation, if someone wants to attract a mate sufficiently to find out if they are or are not terrible, maximize you chances, win the arms race, and make you selection from the best possible pool.
To be blunt, this sounds to me like a good prescription for attracting a woman who is going to sleep with her personal trainer, divorce you, and take half your assets.
Flip the script. Find a girlboss. Sleep with her (female) trainer/yogi and take half her shit.
Unfortunately, it's just reality that the court is not going to give you half her shit, unless (1) you have children and (2) she's done something sufficiently horrible that the court is willing to give you, even though you are a *gasp* man, sole custody of those children.
Is this true? Nonlawyer, but one of my brothers good friend did this. His alimony is not enough to retire on (except on a shack in the woods) but it’s a nice package. Like a beat cop who never got promoted’s pension. I cannot recall the state.
I agree with your blunt point. However it also increases your chances of meeting the girl who will be a great partner for the rest of your life. It is the point of dating to figure if the person across from you is one or the other, or neither.
It is of benefit to increase ones numbers, and I don't necessarily mean ones body count, if such a thing would be against ones morals. However the more people you get to know on an intimate level, as in when barriers to intimacy comes down, the .ore likely you are to find and pick the right one. It reduces the amount of "luck" involved with success, in the same way the experience and expertise does reduces the impact of "luck" in any other endeavor.
This comment 👆needs pinned.
If you have low numbers, you’ll only ever have luck (and on some level, you’ll know it)
At the same time, too much novel trim is a surefire recipe for vertiginous nihilism. The world of women is the world of subterfuge, unreality, heedless indulgence, pointless self enslavement, capricious sadism, gleeful betrayal, intentional arationality. It’s a bad place in which normal people should expect to incur harm.
That said, both would and would not recommend, but for guys who need to “figure it out,” I would recommend. There’s no way out but through.
Learning the contours of the world - however tragic - is the opposite of a recipe for divorce
Playing at the most elite level of competition doesn’t make you a worse doubles player at the country club when you can no longer hack it on the tour.
High competition can attune the observant to deeper realities. Including basic ones. “This girl is incapable of feeling love.” “This girl really loves me and is powerfully loyal.” Etc.
Mistakes are avoidable assuming reality acceptance.
The competition is for a prize of garbage.
Not disagreed even slightly, in MOST cases -
What we’re talking about is less the prize, than the deep inner work that makes finding a real prize possible
What Harry said about needing to expose yourself to many others (whether literally or merely relationally intimately) rings true because for so many men, doing so is an unavoidable part of the journey of self-discovery and world-discovery
There is no one of my ilk… Read the blog to understand
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Well there goes my afternoon.
we know, you are a Sensitive Young Man and a Wizard. no one will never understand you.
I am the most special snowflake!
You can complain about the male arms race all you want, but that doesn’t stop it from existing.
I've never had to participate and never lacked for high-quality female companionship. (shrug)
Not saying your experience doesn’t apply, but when did you stop dating new women?
It’s a new world in weird ways, the bar has never been lower for most guys hoping to get women *including* the cuties, but marriage caliber women are harder to FIND (not saying seduce or date or wed) given the proliferation of tattoo and promiscuity culture.
The basics for getting women has and always will be the same/similar but the playing fields have changed. And the playing field includes dating apps these days.
Too many comments to go looking if this idea has already been discussed: at the same time as there is this arms race going on fueled by dating app hypergamy, particularly as I understand it in the big coastal cities (man my buddy in LA has some war stories), it seems like at the same time the bar for young guys has never been lower. So much of the young population seems to be obese and/or poorly socialized, as well as underemployed, that just doing some basic exercise /weight lifting to not be obese and not be a beanpole and being a young guy on a decent trajectory career wise (whether in the white collar world or the trades) and being decently spoken already puts you above 90% of the "general population."
All the d*ck pill stuff I had no idea about to be honest but I'm assuming you can sidestep a lot of that by trying to meet gals the "old fashioned way" as MC outlined above.
I can't keep straight which are open threads, so here goes:
I'm recommending a paper on current evidence regarding mRNA COVID vaccine safety:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10452662/
TLDR: The spike proteins themselves are pathogenic. Avoid COVID mRNA vaccines. Novovax should be OK. And risk/benefit says "no" if you are not old.
They knew this at the very beginning when the mice were dying before they started human trials. That's why it was outsourced to China like so much toxic manufacturing and why Pharma got themselves indemnified on Day 1.
'T cell exhaustion' is basically AIDS.
People who don’t yet get it, probably won’t, despite incontrovertible evidence published in prestige journals
But all this stuff has been known for ages.
Q: what is the spike protein?
A: the spike protein is the bioweapon.
Q: what is the vaccine *designed* to do?
A: it is intended to make your body produce spike proteins
For those damaged by spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2 or the shots, there is some hope on the horizon
https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/friday-hope-aspnj-rapid-degradation
Your modified Milan is tempting but being paid in snow pesos makes it significantly dearer. Also I just made an addition to fleet, replacing the 93 Eldorado with another older E body.
>6k usd is 8600 cad
physical pain
Speed I picked up a book this weekend that had $20.00 USD and $40.00 CAD on the cover. So if $6,000 is only $8,600 CAD you are coming out ahead. Just hope you don’t have to go to the grocery store with a wheelbarrow of notes to get a dozen eggs. 😮😮
oh no eggs are still reasonably priced
everything else however
we are coming for your chickens!
not like we have anything to defend ourselves with
Relax Speed ;
Here in the U.S.A. stupids are _renting_ laying hens, they have no idea of the stench and work involved .
-Nate
Perhaps you can work out some arbitrage/barter deal with our host, eggs for the Milan.
thats a shitload of eggs
enough eggs to get the fbi after me for egg smuggling or something
What, like two, three dozen?
"Snow Pesos." That's Proiceless!
Pop Quiz: Which European Country has the largest supply of gold on hand (regardless of who owns it), per capita of population?
NOT Sqitzerland.
PORTUGAL!
Historically, because post the Portuguese Revolution where they kicked out their Royals, lest their Royals send their sons off to World War One, a kink or quirk in Portuguese law has been that Portugal only extradites (sends someone back for criminal trial somewhere else) for crimes against the person, and NOT for solely economic crimes.
So, lotsa ill-gotten gains fled there. Nice climate and nice people, too!
So, if I were the Holy Roman Sub-Emperor in Charge of America, I'd want to acquire Portugal, on Day One!!!
portuguese food is great too!
"...snow pesos..." hahahahahaha! That is fantastic.
"Who’s really interested in Eve Hewson? "
For that ACF commenter who is going for the downs look without the downs.
Tadafil. Fellas, you really don't need this. Exceptions applied to a night where you want to drink a half a fifth of jack daniels and still have some fun. Not like I've ever done that... I drank 3/4
Whiskey-dick is a feature, not a bug. Your talleywhacker is aware that after your hippocampus clocks out for the night, bad things are gonna happen, and it's attempting to keep you from inadvertently impregnating the sort of woman who will actually screw you when you're shitfaced after last call.
I was shitfaced banging my gf, now wife, not club rats
That's absolutely an exception to the aforementioned.
My hippocampus must have not got the message. God bless my opportunistic Eastern European sheep herding ancestors.
The Eastern europeans sure can drink
Yes, the Roundheads can certainly drink.
Yeah, I make sure to eat a big meal beforehand if I'm drinking with anyone who's got both a "Z" and a diacritical mark in their surname.
Are you familiar with the phrase, "If she's down, I'm down!"?
Without getting political, I will not mourn the death of sensitivity based speech censorship.
Did you know that in the original M.A.S.H. novel by Richard Hooker there's a running gag about an epileptic whore?
I've gotten more discerning with age. I was never into M.A.S.H
I think the book was better than either the movie or the tv series. The show was politically liberal. The book, written by an actual combat surgeon, was not.
Yes, it was an allegorical anti-war statement.
There is an old nursing home / Parkinson's / handjob joke like that.
Happy for both the kitties and you having survived the winter. 80 degrees here near Nashville today after teen highs a couple weeks ago.
I like to see Presidents cheerleading products that employ American workers to sell more of them, whether a US-based company or not. I hope that’s not political.
It wasn't when Mr. Obama promoted the Bolt, but that was full of Chinese hardware so...
Or when Biden promoted the Stellantis Jeep Wrangler. Good on them if it helped sell more of each.
imagine biden trying to figure out why there were rubber ducks all over it
Biden, for his many flaws, was always a hell of a car guy.
I saw his one-of-one spec ATS-V in person a bunch of times and that man had taste.
His Dad was a used car salesman with a taste for the good life so Joe came by that desire honestly, unusual for a Biden.
I'll give the devil his due, he was as likely to wear a Seiko, albeit an extremely tacky quartz chrono, as one of his Rolexes or Omegas.
Diamond Joe got something HONESTLY?
NO BULLSHIT?
Several of Biden’s cars have shown up on the used car lot at Delaware Cadillac. What is interesting in when he got elected president the special order car the dealer had disappeared because it came with the paper trail where he had the President of Cadillac contact the factory to have a not available interior installed in his new one, of course at no additional cost…..
They sold it last year on cars and bids with all associated paperwork while he was still president.
It was in a private collection (I think one of the dealer principals or managers?) and driven semi-regularly for a few years. No real conspiracies with this one.
Have to wonder what boxes might be in the trunk of the ‘Vette ragtop if it was ever sold! 😉
The Onion articles about Biden and his TransAm were some of the last truly funny bits from that rag.
https://theonion.com/biden-scores-800-feet-of-copper-wire-1819574421/
Ask your doctor if Stellantis is right for you.
A v8 can fix erectile disfunction
I had the V8 convertible out today in our glorious 70 degree weather. This is true. A attractive middle age Karen smiled at me even though I am sporting my winter season unkempt beard!
Days like today almost make me wish I had sunk a bunch of money into my old SL instead of selling it.
Don't get me started on Axalta. Besides throwing away billions in brand equity (the DuPont brand and automotive paint have been associated closely for over a century) the name sounds like a pharma company.
Was their paint division bought out, or simply renamed? First I’ve heard about it.
It was spun off as a result of the merger of DuPont and Dow.
Who benefits? It is always someone getting paid a lot for a job that should not exist to make changes that should not happen.
Who benefited? I'm guessing members of the DuPont and Dow families. After a few generations of generational wealth tied to stock shares, some wealthy families want to cash out. There was a time when Billy Ford had to convince his cousins not to sell FoMoCo when they could get better returns putting their assets somewhere else.
If Barack Obama had the active CEO of Chevy working as his close aide who is the face of a department that is acting with questionable legality to dismantle the government order for the last many decades, perhaps it would have been political!
Steve Rattner.
I’m still mad they killed Pontiac. Damn un-American commies.
Very nicely put, but there's also the fact that the government subsidized GM to an extent that feels impossible with Tesla.
Well. Take 7500 Bidenbux off the hood of every Tesla, and then tuck 110% of the NASA budget under the foreskin of Elon’s space-dicks.
It’s a start!
Will GM even have parts for the Bolt in five years?
The list is long of the parts not available on C5, C6, C7 Corvettes and the 5th and 6th Generation Camaro. Magnetic shocks, differentials, fuel pumps (C6 ZR1), ABS module, air conditioner compressor, steering rack
Try having a Chevy SS, a fender bender totals the car since you can't even get bumpers. Zero aftermarket for them as well.
I've preemptively purchased several items for my wife's C5Z and my C6Z - fender liners, fuel position senders, etc. Stuff the aftermarket struggles with. May never need 'em...
Hold on...the C7 already has issues with NLA parts? Didn't they make that until 2019?
Used Cars is such a great movie. Need to watch it with the kids this weekend.
No one can entice a prospect to look inside a car like Jim the mechanic can!
My brother and I still damn near piss ourselves when they put the old man behind the wheel of his Edsel with the dimes taped over his eyes. And Jim's expression. "Wheew, shit he smells"
It was either Used Cars or Slap Shot where I saw my first set of breasts on television. 3/3 would experience again.
Same here.
Also the boobs in slapshot are the mom from Christmas story.
GET OUT
She was the mom in "Harry and the Hendersons," too.
mmmmm, boobs.....
This is why I subscribe.
and charming ones at that!
Al Lewis was great as the hangin' judge.
"I could've been playing golf!"
"The hanging judge was sober
He hadn't had a drink"
The only person on the scene missin' was the Jack of Hearts.
Did you know that every song on BOTT has been covered more than once?
According to an internet factoid that popped up the other day, apparently Dylan's never played that song live.
When I read about Henry Ford I think about Big Jim. Took whatever he wanted and laid it all to waste.
I didn't know the first, but I did know the second, having searched extensively for a live cut.
I tend to think more of J.P. Morgan or John J. Astor in the role of Big Jim, but Ford fits just fine.
"The next fellow after you on your app of choice is on tren or TRT, he’s got his Bluechew prescription, he’s using Adderall to earn more money than you are."
oh god im so tired of this fucking game man
the hoeflation or arms race or whatever name describes this series of insane competition amongst men has probably already driven too many into the dirt
also why does the worst boyfriend ever have shinji ikari as his pfp? i dont know if thats supposed to be intentional or unintentional
anyway does anyone think trump might make the next presidential limo a model y or some other tesla or are those not dependable enough for the govt yet
Women dress for other women, men use gear for other men. You can get 90% where you need to be physically by
1. not being fat
2. Doing stronglifts 5x5 for 12 weeks and eating enough protein
Unless you're on spring break, you don't need visible abs
Half these guys need blue chew subscriptions because they're on adderal. As someone who has gotten a prescription for adderal to deal with the excessive work requirements of tax season.
1. It's not worth it
2. It makes your willy not work
you make some very valid points
thanks scott a
Now that I'm on the other side of 40, I'm re-evaluating this TRT thing! But I'd really rather not be bald.
As a man who went bald very early in life but has since seen many acquaintances catch up with me, it’s not that bad. Not paying for haircuts and just borrowing my fiancées shampoo it whatever is delightful.
The trick to make it work is just committing though. You will look like a doofus with a horseshoe or big-ass bald spot. Let it go. Be free.
Ive made it to 40 without going bald. As long as i lay off the gear, i should be fine
Don’t necessarily count on that—I thought that too, until the fucking hereditary bald spot on my Dad’s side started to show at about 50. 🤬🤬
Jealous. I barely made it to 20 without going bald.
Let it go. Be free. STOCK UP ON SUNSCREEN. Sunburn on the bare dome is unpleasant.
Im a hat guy not because I’m self conscious, but because of the environmental issues baldness presents.
I'm a second-shifter who stays out of the sun naturally.
At 60 my thick full head of hair is my only redeeming physical feature. That and a fully functional dick but my wife discourages my flaunting of that.
You do have REMARKABLE hair!
I hope my hair makes it that far like yours. My wife says she notices it getting thinner and thinner...
Correct. The best advice I ever received as a young man was that as soon as you start losing your hair, just shave your head.
Got the clippers on Setting 1. Fucking genetics.
The one blessing for me out of the Covid lockdowns was owning my thinning hair. I never did a “combover” but the longer hairstyle was getting there.
With the inability to get a haircut, I ordered an electric hair clipper from Amazon and went to town. Quite liberating but I kept getting side eye from the wife and snide remarks about looking like a farmer which I took as a compliment.
Anyway I’ve never looked back since and have settled into a Great Clips 3 and 4 groove.
Started growing mine out a few years ago—which can cover the hereditary thinning spot on the roof. I wanted to do so around college thirty-five years ago, but long hair wasn’t in then, or up until, say, ten or fewer years ago.
And at 55, it’s a midlife crisis! (Cheaper than a Corvette!)
I’ve been doing Stronglifts since January. I’m still fat. Stronger, but fat.
Gotta eat less. Thats only way to be Not Fat. Working out helps, but will only go so far.
Also: cardio. Do some cardio.
I have lose 20lbs since january first with zero cardio. It truly is 95% diet. After tax season i will hopefully be hitting up the bike again.
Cardio is nice cuz it gives you a little buffer.
Run a quick 3 miles and buddy that’s a whole sandwich worth of calories you just burned! Or three light beers! Or two cocktails! Whatever your fancy!
I do agree mixing in some cardio is better. It will speed up the process. When i have the time, i mix in the cardio
One Ghirardelli mint square!
There are 25 in a bag.
Like I told my nutritionist when I fired her, I'd rather be fat.
You can either put on muscle or lose fat. You cant do both at the same time UNLESS youre on gear
What is this gear you speak of and where can I get it?
go into any gym, find the biggest dude in there, and ask him loudly in the open if he will sell you illegal anabolic steroids
I work out at my country club, there are no big dudes, and they would be more likely to resell me a fancy bottle of wine than any drugs. Also not nearly as many hot country club milfs as I hoped for.
When I have this problem, I've beaten it back in two ways - 1, eliminate or severely limit alcohol, 2, skip 1 meal of your choice daily. If you need satiety, consume a small amount of pure protein (unflavored whey isolate) + pure fat (evoo, coconut oil, the bulletproof coffee guy MCT oil stuff, butter). Probably ground flaxseed is a less toxic way to pump Omega3s than fish oil, YMMV (perhaps theres a good fish oil manuf. that doesn't make it from bycatch: never heard of one)
Everyone is different but a change that brought massive weight loss without changing anything else for me, was really paying attention to, and avoiding sugar. It is put into things you'd never imagine unless you read the labels.
It really is in everything. "I'll have this nice health beef jerky snack"
Lotta sugar in a lot of brands of beef jerky.
Stay away from all sugar, artificial sweeteners included and most processed carbs like pasta. Complex carbs like fruit and potatoes not all bad. Avoid booze. Skip breakfast.
100% true for me.
"Half these guys need blue chew subscriptions because they're on adderal."
Other half because they smoke so much weed they're basically useless.
To each their own with vices but a lot of these guys wake and bake every single day and don't stop till they go to bed. Even in my worst bouts of drinking I didn't start weekdays off with a bloody Mary.
I started working out again early this year. Hitting the weights and jogging has made me drop almost 20 lbs since New Year's.
Only 40 to go!
Nice and same. Well another 25 would be nice
Thanks!
When that metaphorical lightning bolt hit me three months ago, it fried my acknowedgement of personal limitations.
I've been reversing a case of prediabetes that was on the brink of becoming full-blown Type II. Scared me. Caught it just in time. After two weeks of busting my ass, my blood sugar numbers are consistently normal and staying there.
I started running again, something I haven't done THIS CENTURY. Turns out it's not so bad when it's YOUR idea and there's no dumbass in a silly hat screaming at you & telling you what a worthless piece of shit you are.
I lost 35 years to a head full of toxic, self-destructive ideas. I'm ALIVE now and this time, I'm gonna live a proper life.
The best choices are the ones you come by yourself. Even if you did need a lightning bolt
God thought it was time, apparently. We can all relate.
"Oh, for... I can't watch this anymore. Thine baggage is no more. Thou shalt go forth and live."
For all of you in your 40s and 50s, get the weight off now, and keep it off, because after 60 it becomes WAY harder, trust me. Its like your body suddenly wants to store up for the afterlife.
At least in this case, "you can't take it with you" is a good thing.
I need advice. I do 'OK' right now with walking in my hilly neighborhood 3x/week (sometimes pushing a kid uphill), and some super easy and simple core/weight exercises. I stopped the intermittent fasting this week because I'm feeling out of fuel/calories. Trying to cut out processed foodstuffs. I feel I could do more but work/family keeps me slammed and stressed. Up the weights? What's easy as far as protein/diet goes?
Protein shakes, either pre-made or get powder and a shaker and make them yourself. Watch out with the pre-made ones, some of them can have a lot of calories and sugar compared to others.
Prison style workouts don't require weights or a dedicated space to do them, and will get you pretty ripped with lots of reps. Think push ups, burpees, air squats, sit ups, dips, etc.
My wife's been using this 'vital proteins' collagen peptide powder stuff for a while that's 18g protein / serving. Avoid or OK?
Burpees are A BITCH!
Eat like an Italian. By which I mean a real one, not an American Italian.
basically just olives and cigarettes
workout hard and eat clean food. cut down on sugar and processed foods as much as possible. reduce booze if you drink. chicken and fish. Lots of veggies.
it you are short on time, you have to make the workouts count - turn those walks into hill sprints. more difficult strength training. work as hard as you think you can without getting injured. you might find the training takes less time if you increase the intensity.
take my advice - I'm not using it!
I'd give the same advice to people in their late twentys. It's a lot easier at 30 than 40. If you put significant muscle on in your 20s, you will also appreciate it for the rest of your life. It's is easier to get back than build in the first place and it's a lot easier to build it when you're young.
The advice from my doctor was:
In your 30s and eat like you did in your 20s, you will get fat.
In your 40s and eat like you did in your 30s, you will get fat.
In your 50s and eat like you did in your 40s, you will get fat.
In your 60s and eat like you did in your 50s, you didn't listen to any of the previous advice and are already fat.
got pneumonia awhile back in a weird way; lost over a pound a day for about 3 weeks just lying in bed drinking water with a sandwich ever couple days.
"1. not being fat"
I'm screwed .
-Nate
100% on the 5x5. Got myself some Adderall over Christmas when 2/3 of my staff got norovirus. Maybe they were sugar pills but I couldn't tell a difference, side affects or benefits, on or off. I was very disappointed!
if they load up a Mod Y with all the required armor plating, etc, the range will be like 3 miles. and they would have to put a 10 foot stretch in the middle so it looks BIGLY enough.
all the more room for batteries i guess
Mrs. Speed is out there. Just like some of us here don’t follow the herd, there are women folk out there who also don’t follow the herd. It’s obviously worth the effort to find these women. Godspeed, speed!
because shinji is a sensitive young man like me
he jus like me frfr
https://www.reddit.com/r/evangelionmemes/comments/1j9kffl/its_exactly_like_this_picture/#lightbox
Tell me this wouldn't be an inspired choice to play Gendo.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GendoIkari/comments/av5wkq/a_photoshopped_hugh_laurie_as_gendo/
he would have accurately and quickly diagnosed shinjis mommy issues
and asukas
and ritsukos
Evangelion was full of bitches. Asuka was a bitch, Shinji was a bitch...
thats why theyre perfect for each other
0-Missed opportunity to note that BlueChew is a prominent, steadfast sponsor of Spike’s Car Radio; Jack is a known associate of Spike Feresten, on whose eponymous podcast Jonny Blubberman serves as a frequent co-host.
1-Now that Elon and his sidekick McDonald Trump have made it safe for a REAL man to operate an Electric Vehicle, previously the province of effete, virtue signaling coastal elite liberals and, um, immigrants making a living in the gig economy … will the TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTs magically come to terms with the all of the downsides of EVs? Range anxiety, charging, resale value, extreme weather performance, etc.?
I've never willingly listened to Spikes Car Radio, so I didn't know... but i could take a whole bag of it and still not have any interest in what Lieberman is up against. That broad looks like Brian May and i say that with love, I think May is holding up GREAT
Did you hear that the esteemed astrophysicist and 3D photography enthusiast had a minor stroke last fall? He's back to playing but taking it easy.
Speaking of May, I respect him a lot, he may be the smartest professional guitar player in the world, but I'm a little skeptical about elements of the story of the Red Special. If his father was such an outstanding electrical engineer, how come they couldn't afford a store-bought guitar? Yeah, I know that in the early '60s the British economy was still recovering from WWII and tarrifs and other issues made getting U.S. gear hard (hence the origin story of the Marshall) but Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were from much more working class backgrounds and they could afford their own guitars, albeit not Fenders and Gibsons.
Also, how many electrical engineers do you know with no power tools?
I'm guessing that they had to job out the parts for the vibrato mechanism and the roller bridge - you can't shape steel with a spoke shave.
By the way, the laser cut guitar is almost finished. Far from perfect but an acceptable proof of concept. If I make another I'll need a steel clamping fixture to make sure the laminations are flat.
My colleague Chris Huston was John Lennon's best friend in Art College. He was scheduled to have lunch with John Lennon the Thursday after Lennon was murdered.
Chris Huston installed the tremolo bar on John's first "real" electric guitar, because John was too nervous about drilling holes into something that had cost so much.
Chris's band was "The Undertakers," and John Lennon envied them, and wanted his own band. The two bands later shared billings at the Cavern Club.
Chris was Grammy-nominated for producing "The World Is a Ghetto."
"Chris was Grammy-nominated for producing "The World Is a Ghetto.""
I've met Lee Oskar, the harmonica player in War, a couple of times. His harmonica brand and Lace, who help me make my pickups, sponsored a party at the Summer NAMM show. Lee and I ended up talking about his family history.
At a later show, one morning while setting up my booth I could hear someone playing live, amplified harmonica, and it was Lee in his distributor's booth. He told me about a project he was working on, an album of songs inspired by his mother's Yiddish poetry, asked me if I wanted to hear one of the songs, handed me the headphones and played it on his phone. I was really tickled. I'm just a nobody and I'm listening to as yet unreleased music by a world class musician.
The album is called Never Forget.
https://leeoskarharmonicas.com/lee-oskar-releases-landmark-album-never-forget/
When the album was released it was a gatefolded package, including a book, that was sold through his own label. When I got my copy, I called the label and Lee answered the phone.
After some pleasantries I asked him, "Did you know that they printed your mother's poem upside down? Apparently, nobody that actually knows how to read Hebrew caught it before it went to print."
"You're kidding. Oh my God. They really did."
I suppose that makes me just two degrees of separation from the Fab Four. Who knew?
I hope we’ll see PHEVs take off a bit more, and hopefully EVs go back to being commuter cars but who knows. They make a bit more sense as commuters in urban markets, and PHEVs cover the need for most folks. I love driving my in laws Volvo V60 Polestar around in Miami, because it almost never needs gas with the 45mile battery range but still can drive as normal on roadtrips. An EV could work (and does) for most in south Florida who never drive past West Palm, but for those TRUE PATRIOTS in middle America, I just don’t see it in the cards. Things are too far apart and it does get cold, but we may see some taking advantage of those tanking resale values…
I think a lot of the opposition was a combination of the practical and political. For most lifestyles outside of urban commuters, the tradeoffs don’t make sense. Plus who wants a truck that can only tow the bass boat for 75miles?
Wrong kind of pole star in Miami if you ask me. ¡aye papi!
We are on our 3rd PHEV. They make a lot of sense.
I'd like to see Tesla add PHEVs to their lineup.
The other day I saw a Renault ad on Instagram explaining what a hybrid is and why it’s so great. We’re going straight back to 2009 and I’m okay with it
> will the TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTs magically come to terms with the all of the downsides of EVs?
Anything can be justified to own the libs!
Take, for example, a high school classmate of mine who recently opined on Facebook that his dream car is a Cybertruck because Trump and Elon made them “cool.”
extremely cringe
He has a TV the size of a billboard, about which he posts at least once a week. The caption is usually something along the lines of “mine’s bigger.”
he is the dream consumer for a lot of corporations it sounds like
posts like that and the politics is why I quit facebook.
I am somehow (?) a member of a FB group for my hometown which features fascinating 24/7 discussion about how amazing Donald Trump is and how everything he does is unambiguously good for small town folks who, like - e.g. - the man in question work in operations in a small local furniture store.
IMHO, the Tesla cars are still crap!
Elon’s space stuff, OTOH, is game-changing.
Buddy have I got* a high mileage ST1100 for you!
*just kidding but I will be moving on from it this year; budget, fourth child (September), and still being employed willing.
Piggy backing on our previous conversation. The Telluride does not have car seat anchors on the passenger side third row. I have to use the seatbelt like a plebe to fit all the kids in.
Assuming you mean LATCH or tether anchors, same story with the Highlander outboard third row seats. Going to rent a Pacifica soon to prove once and for all that the minivan is the vehicle we need.
But if I buy it will not be a Chrysler one, and probably not the Kia either.
Id probably get the Honda if it was a choice
It's that or the Sienna as far as minivans go and apparently the Siennas are hard to get and going for over sticker. The decision practically makes itself.
There are at least two AWD Siennas up here and my colleagues drool over the off-road setups each has. They're about as beefy as a minivan can look.
That said, get a CX-90 and a trailer hitch cargo box.
Thanks, the CX-90 is about same sized as the Highlander and I'm guessing has equally poor third row access/ease of getting a car seat in or out.
I will be doing hitch/cargo box for trips as our generous Scott A brought them up and mentioned they were much easier to get things into and out of then a roof box. Highlander didn't come with a hitch and I've had it in mind to buy one for a long while anyway.
I'm at the minivan or full-size SUV decision point. I think I can make the Highlander work for another year *fingers crossed* it just won't be a great experience. We had three car seats squeezed into the middle until a flash of genius inspired me to put one in the way back and bring peace to the interior: keep the siblings from constantly badgering one another.
I just went through this process and ended up with a 25 Odyssey.
Careful with the Honda. We have a 2018 Odyssey. Haven’t had any issues being stranded, but the 105k service ($1200) came for us at 80k because the idler pulley was leaking. Toyota can make an engine that doesn’t need invasive maintenance for 150k+ miles. One caveat- my Aunt and Uncle who split time between Alaska and Hawaii had a new Sienna briefly and it did not do well in the Alaska winter. Not a lot of data about EVs and PHEVs in extreme climates but their experience was not good.
This scott probably will not win the minivan fight and we will stick with the undersized fake minivan telluride
It drops to -10 regularly enough during winter and occasionally -20 where I'm at but, frankly, I don't go anywhere when it's that cold.
Im more concerned that I live at altitude and the I4 in the Sierra is anemic
No shit? That is bizzare... I'm going to check
Glad to hear about your cats, they are resilient creatures and maybe that’s why they have 9 lives…. I would be reluctant to let them outside, I don’t think that I would sleep well.
I think at this point, were I to go electric, in my mind, only Tesla would do, a standard range m3, it stands as one of the most inexpensive in its class, so it would probably be well supported in the future.
Good Call on:
"It’s driven by the fact that all media now is female-focused, with very few exceptions."
I was a keen shortwave-radio DX'er when I was a kid. In prep school, the campus was large enough that we nerds actually had a "Pirate" AM radio station with a hot-rodded (and therefore illegal) vacuum-tube transmitter. We invented a bogus call sign (WFCZ) and sent out letters requesting airplay copies. If I had swiped and kept the Radio Promo 45rpm copy of Led Zep's "Livin' Lovin' Maid," I might be able to get $35 or so for it on eBay, today.
So, radio broadcasting long has been a fascination of mine.
A few years ago I attended a music conference, and one panel discussion was about radio programming. One participant noted that there was a total of one programming consulting company that most Country radio stations relied upon, and that company gave just about the exact same advice to all their clients:
(1) With very few exceptions, your monthly playlist should never be longer than 35 songs.
(2) Of those 35 songs, ideally, only two should be by female singers, or duos with a female member. In no case should a playlist have more than four female vocal tracks.
Why?
Because 80% of the country music listeners (or, so they claimed) were women; and women:
(a) want to hear men, more than they want to listen to other woman, in part because
b) when they hear a woman singing on a Country music FM radio station, many of them will think, "What's she got that I have not?"
Note, I think that the 80% statistic is weighted by number of hours listened to in a day.
and/or way more men don't reply to surveys ....
That's certainly a valid point. Now, professional statisticians are supposed to correct for such things. But that's more art than science.
There's a phenomenon in statistics and political campaigning called the "Bradley-Dinkins Effect," wherein respondents who answer the phone and answer questions about their intentions to vote, overstate their support for Black political candidates.
So the opinion polls look good for the Black candidates; but on election day, the white candidates win. Why? Conflict Avoidance, and wanting to be thought of as taking widely-held and approved-of positions.
I think that Ms. Harris's poll numbers were at least 2.5 percentage points better than reality, and perhaps more. And, Mutatis Mutandis, I think Trump's poll numbers were at least 2.5% worse than Reality.
Note also, I was a guest at that conference and not a participant. So, I wanted to ask but in fact did not ask whether "Women who listen to Country Radio don't want to listen to girl singers" was a hard polling datum; that is, was there a point-blank question and answer precisely on that issue?
OR, was it only an INFERENCE, a conclusion that the consultants jumped to. Because the Good Lord knows that young ladies love to listen to Taylor Swift!
In fact, but for the existence of Orianthe, and Taylor Swift, I doubt there would be a guitar factory left in the US! Boys dropped guitars and keyboards in favor of online video war games, and girls picked up the guitars.
I'd like to know how much money changed hands for the Grammy Country Album of the Year to get any airplay.
Back when Dinosaurs Ruled the World, Humble Little Me was elected to Voting Membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. I had a rigorous standard of always voting for the Cutest Girl with the Shortest Hair, so Cheryl Crow filled my Bingo Card. I did have to vote for Deanna Carter, though, for the song title "Did I Shave My Legs for This?"
Which illustrates the central problem. I live and breathe classical music, and I don't listen to country radio. But I did get to vote on who gets the Country Grammy, and my vote was as good as the vote of an actual Country expert.
And, Mutatis Mutandis, country people who know little about classical music, get to vote for Itzhak Perlman and Georg Solti, because those guys have won Grammys before, and therefore must be good.
Georg Solti, IIRC, had more Grammys than anyone else in history, because he was famous for being famous.
So, there are Structural Quirks that lead to Perverse Results.
Which is to say, I think that that Country Grammy was 80% voted on by people who were not familiar with the landscape, but they were glad to vote their agendas. As far as airplay goes... dunno. If the report about that radio consulting firm is still accurate, there might not have been much broadcast airplay. YouTube is a lot more important in music than many people realize. Beyoncé's "Jolene" (Official Lyric Video) has had 12 million views. Meh. BTW, she's distantly related to... Gustav Mahler. Something like 8th cousin, 4X removed... which takes care of the age difference. He died in 1911. There are only two other people shaking hands between Mahler and me.
OOPS: Correction.
I had not known that Beyoncé had won four Grammys that night, and therefore she now has squeaked past Georg Solti, her 32 Little Gold Gramophones to his 31.
But could she sing a song a classic song as well as Carmen McCrae?
Pop singer Linda Ronstadt did a fantastic job with the classics and has my respect.
I could care less about the Grammy’s, but I was happy to see Sierra Ferrell post on Instagram that she won 4.
John, have you considered submitting an article on your time in the music business to ACF? Reading between the lines, I suspect you've got additional interesting stories to tell.
YES PLEASE
Awww... for the most part, I really was a "Mr. Nobody from Nowhere."
At the end of this brief note, I will link to two long-form autobiographical/historical pieces I published elsewhere.
A few bullet points:
1) Music I produced (Nathaniel Rosen's Bach solo-cello Suites) was selected by the independent committee that programs in-flight music for the US Presidential Aircraft "Air Force One," as representing the best the United States has to offer. I still find that incredible.
NARAS invited me and a guest ($535 each) to sit in the non-televised audience and watch as some other cellist got the Grammy; and I politely ignored them.
2) Music I produced was used in a No. 1 domestic box-office major-studio feature film ("Heartbreakers;" Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt), and the No. 1 US daytime-drama television series ("The Young and the Restless"). I also wrote, produced, and narrated a segment for National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered."
3) Because of my music teachers and mentors, there is only one person shaking hands between Edward Elgar and me; three people shaking hands between Tchaikovsky and me; and four people shaking hands between Beethoven and me.
4) I shook hands directly with Wendy Carlos. I introduced myself by saying, "You don't know me from Adam," and she brightly said, "Hello, Adam." I continued, "When I was a scholarship student at Brown, they picked me to be the work-study Student Janitor who took out the trash and vacuumed the rugs in the Electronic Music Studio that you donated to Brown, because they knew I was studying music and was a technology nerd. (Also, because I had been the 6:30AM janitor at a snooty girls' dorm, and there was never a complaint about me.)
5) Because of my professional contacts (or, my sucking up) in music there is only one person shaking hands between John Lennon and me; only one person shaking hands between Marilyn Monroe and me; one person shaking hands between Bartok and me; two people shaking hands between Joseph Stalin and me; and one person shaking hands between mass murderer and would-be songwriter Charles Manson and me.
6) A separate note: Believe it or not, there are only two people shaking hands between Enrico Caruso (who died in 1921), and Yr. Hmbl. Svt. Me.
Mes memoirs:
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/david-hancock/
(David owned and wrenched on a 1930 Bugatti Type 46 touring car.)
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/mfsl-herb-belkin/?highlight=belkin
(Herb is my handshake path to Stalin.)
People have come up to me and loudly declared that Arturo Delmoni's "Songs My Mother Taught Me" was the most beautiful recording of ANYTHING ever made. It's nice that some people think that way.
But what I am proudest of (and, most thankful for) are my three amazing children.
all my best,
john
PS:
I sign my name online without an initial capital letter, as a tribute to my mentor Boris Goldovsky's "Rule No. 6":
"Don't take yourself too seriously!"
If an opera student were to be so brave and bold as to ask if it might be possible to learn what Rules 1 through 5 were, Mr. G would reply:
"Rules 1 through 5 DO NOT EXIST. The only Rule you will ever need, is Rule No. 6."
Therefore, I think that most Lutherans would describe my condition as "Unmerited Grace," and... I would agree...
I also shook hands with Wendy Carlos. What a talent!
Because this is fun: also one handshake to John Lennon, and one to Jimi Hendrix. No classical producers, composers or performers I'm aware of, unfortunately.
The late Sammy Ash told me that Taylor Swift sold a lot of acoustic guitars (and probably ukes too) but while the unit numbers were high the dollar figures on electrics were significantly higher.
copying this over to this discussion - once again its a good thing I don't have garage space, because these EVs look REALLY COOL: https://longbowmotors.com/ and not outrageously priced.
this is only the second time a drink manufacturer has decided to make a car
which is odd that it happened twice
Those are awfully nice.
Yeah, and a few minutes ago it occurred to me - those should be Jaguars! Not that stupid something (no) Pace Jaguar EV thing. And whatever that rebranding monstrosity is.
But are they good at killing Frenchmen?
They really do look cool.
Love the proximity of this to a motorbike.
Or as I call them "an earplugs car"
If this were, say, three months ago when I was considering diversifying my fleet instead of continuing a One Car For All Things program, I would have bought that Milan from you instantly.
I will, however, accept it as a wedding gift 😉
and maybe it can come delivered with a cat or two in it.
I believe that would be easier to talk my soon-to-be wife into than another car lol
See dear, isn’t that nice, Jack got us a couple of cute cats as a wedding present. And they just happened to come gift wrapped in a car.
Congrats to your feline homeless population on surviving the winter. Here in the damp pacific northwest, our local daily cat visitors seems to have increased over the winter. Not by a huge amount, but there are two new faces.
If the current BMW M3 is a "deeply, truly awful car" then what does that make the C63? Or BMW's M5.
I'll actually give the M3 some credit in a 1980 Corvette kind of way. It isn't what it once was but at least kept most of the pieces intact while its peer group basically all died or metamorphosed away.
It’s weird to think about but I find the BMW half step M cars (M340, X3 M40 etc) much more appealing than the full M versions. They’re a bit more balanced without the silly useless whiz bang track attack stuff I’d never use that the full M cars get now.
Agreed. And that’s why they exist. Slap an “M” on everything!
The M340 is a real hoot to drive sideways.
Agreed - my M235i is in the sweet spot.
The 4 cylinder C63 can jump into the proverbial lake. A V8 C63 always has my interest.
In the future, the 4 cyl C63 will be rare and coveted by the Brownells and DeMuros of the world.
I still haven’t seen one on the road, and MBUSA is just a few miles away.
Is the 4 banger at least 6.3L?
Were that the case I'd buy two of them!