This is the most excited I've been for a MiUSA item yet. We usually just buy the bulk option at Costco, which has recently changed to a solid film from a stranded type floss and it is not good. That along with the additional PFAS/PFOA exposure has given me cause to seek an alternative solution. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm excited to try flossing with this stuff.
now i can use the same products my grandfather used
adcopy or not its odd to find something thats been used for decades with little change. a simple toothbrush and baking soda to get optimal results? i really ought to give it a go
ngl i probably fucked my teeth and gums up from doing it incorrectly for years. cant escape the consequences lol
Speaking of the Buck 284...Menards carries it, plus its big brother the 285, the venerable 110, and my personal fav and EDC, the 112 slim. All made in America.
MotoGP ran at COTA down in Tejas this past weekend. Most importantly, the World Baggers Kingship Series Exclusive to Harley Davidson revealed just how much better not even top tier rest-of-world talent is vs their American counterparts. Admittedly, the best American bagger riders weren't there to compete, but riders with more seat time got trounced by ex Moto2/MotoE riders and an Australian SBK competitor.
In practice Aprilia, Ducati, and KTM were close together with 3/10ths of a second covering them, and the top ten split only by 6/10ths of a second. There was good representation from various factories going into Q2 with the sole missing manufacturer being Yamaha.
Qualifying first was the number 49, Digi on a Ducati, then Bez, Acosta, Bagnaia, Mir, Marc Marquez, Martin, Alex, and Luca Marini. Ai Ogura managed a Q2 appearance. Qualifying was not terribly clean for the factory Ducati pair with each of them encountering cruising traffic that caused them trouble.
In the sprint Digi and Marquez tangled and an aggressive overtake by Marquez, where he tucked the front, ruined his and Digi's sprint by taking them out. 93 received a long lap penalty for the race.
Bagnaia lead in the sprint as Jorge Martin fought for 3rd with Mir. Acosta sits in a comfortable second. Bagnaia proceeded to check out early on in the sprint as Martin secured 3rd over Mir going uphill into turn 1. Jorge, the only rider on a medium rear tire, ran down Acosta in 2nd place and quickly overtook a sluggish KTM on the long back straight. Bez, having had a poor start, fought his way through traffic back to fourth. He also blitzed by Acosta on the back straight for 3rd and then closed down on Martin. A quick pass put him in 2nd place in lap 6. In lap 7 Bez crashed out and throws another sprint's worth of points away.
Jorge Martin and his tire choice looked hot in the final few laps as he reeled in Bagnaia. In the last lap he lunged for first and held the position for a breathtaking finish. Then, Martin's breath all gone and his focus astray, he would crash his bike coming down from a wheelie and be lucky to walk away unscathed.
The race begins with a long lap penalty for 93 to serve as soon as he is able. The plan to deal with a known LLP, usually, is to make as much of a gap as possible so that the ~3s long lap has minimal impact on position loss. Two other riders, Ogura and someone I don't remember, start two positions back on the grid due to cruising and other issues during qualifying.
At the start Jorge jumped to P2 in T1. Digi tumbled backward to 5th. Pedro Acosta took 1st. A big shuffle and barge all through turn one. A short time later Bez carved through into 2nd and has contact between himself and Acosta. Both bikes have damaged aero and the KTM rider was fortunate to keep the bike in control.
Digiantonnio and Marquez again clashed over and over. However, Marquez' long lap penalty forces him to move from 4/5 to position 11. He eventually worked his way back up to 5th, and Marquez likely would have been a podium contender if not for his sprint mistake that wiped out himself and Digi.
Jorge Martin almost fell off his bike during lap seven while pushing for position against Acosta. A narrowly avoided disaster.
A little further back in the field Ai Ogura displayed incredible pace and fortitude and had moved up through the pack. He passed Bagnaia with ease and looked set to secure a podium finish with this pace. A few laps later and he picked off fourth place rider Digiantonnio as well. This stunning run comes to an end with a gearbox issue in just two more laps' time.
Jorge Martin recuperated from his incident and came back at Acosta, striking during lap 14 and, this time, refrains from nearly dumping himself off the motorcycle in the process. Martin looked as if he might have the ability to run down Bez, but it is too little too late and Bez was able to manage the gap to the end of the race.
In the meantime Marc has managed to catch up with Bagnaia and Bastianini for a three way battle for fifth position. It's a knock down drag out pass and repass affair against Bastianini through the last few laps as Bagnaia fades out of contention. Marc managed to win out and finish with a solid handful of points.
The winner is Bez on a hot streak and well ahead of second place, Martin, who looked strong, and Acosta a distant third. Then came Digi, Marquez, Bastianini, and Alex Marquez who ran Bagnaia down late, or rather, who was a big winner from Bagnaia's flagging late race pace.
In the standings it is an Aprilia 1-2 with Bez ahead of Martin, but not by a huge amount as he has thrown away sprint wins. Marc Marquez is all the way in 5th in the standings and his lingering injury recovery issues seem to be impacting his qualifying ability and, to some extent, his ability to work hard at the start of races to open a gap.
MotoGP begins its European leg at the end of April.
I have yet to watch the WorldSBK round that ran the same weekend as I have been busy dealing with a major appliance failure (this basement isn't supposed to be wet! This water is coming from the ceiling! [washer]) among other things.
0-I watch Formula 1 on F1TV through my Apple TV subscription and have never been confronted with an ad. Plus, I get to enjoy the Sky audio feed instead of the braying of Alex Jacques.
1-“There is a sort of man in modern society who is (there is no nice way to say this, I apologize) is a total pussy who would be on his knees within the early seconds of any serious real-world conflict, but who adores the jungle metaphors and faux-battle of “business” and “markets” and whatnot.”
I wonder what has changed in the intervening 14 years since Jack wrote the above and the below:
“It occurred to me many years ago that the Venn diagram of “actual bad-asses” and “people who spend all their time trying to look like bad-asses” has a very low overlap. The actual “man’s work” of the world — winning wars, building businesses, feeding families, protecting the weak from the strong — is generally accomplished by men who can’t bench three hundred pounds. That’s not how Hollywood likes to play it, but that’s the way it is.”
2-Relatedly, Artemis II is headed to the moon momentarily. Apparently NASA is unaware that ACF is home to a few (self proclaimed) HIGH TESTOSTERONE ALPHA MALES whose dicks are 93MM miles long, which would ease transit all the way to the sun.
"I wonder what has changed in the intervening 14 years since Jack wrote the above and the below:"
Fully addressed in the text, but I'll do it here because your time is valuable: it is no more "manly" to be a "master negotiator" than it is to be the local cage-match champ.
I scoffed at it because it doesn't mean anything. Control is an illusion. When you say you "own your outcomes" what you mean is "I have been lucky enough to live a life where external factors have supported me enough to think I am the primary influence on what happens to me." It is like the perpetual retcon of successful entrepreneurs where they get lucky then remember themselves as having worked harder than everyone else.
People like to say "Opportunity is what happens when luck meets preparation" while forgetting that there are a hundred prepared people out there for every lucky one. If Harvard wanted to, they could just say, "You need a perfect SAT and you need to donate a million dollars a year to the school while you are here" and they would fill the entire freshman class, no sweat. It is a big world filled with absurdly talented and prepared people.
To make a middle class or maybe even upper middle class living you can do it with hard work. To make upper class money, you usually need luck.
I made partner 5 years earlier than expected because the guy who was supposed to buy out the D in AD managed to do something phenomenally stupid. "Ok, I'll buy it"
One of the things that I've learned from the Harmonicaster project, going to clubs and hanging out with musicians, is that there are plenty of local musicians in your nearest city who are at least as talented as big name stars.
At least the entertainment industry has acknowledged the importance of luck, only they call it a "big break" or "getting discovered".
I think one reason why entertainers tend to tilt left politically, is that despite their substantial egos they all know people who are more talented than they are who never got a big break. They may not admit it publicly, but they know that luck and connections had a lot to do with their success.
Billy Bob Thornton tells how he was struggling to get work as a character actor and a friend got him a gig working as a waiter at a Hollywood Christmas dinner for some bigwigs. He and director Billy Wilder started talking:
""He said, 'So, you want to be an actor?'" Thornton remembered Wilder saying. "I said, 'Yeah, how'd you know that?' He goes, 'Eh, you all want to be actors.' He goes, 'Forget about it.' I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'You're too ugly to be a leading man and you're too pretty to be a character actor.'"
"He said, 'Can you write at all?'" Thornton continued. "I said, 'Actually, I have been writing, and I used to write short stories and stuff like that.' He said, 'That's what you do. You write your own stories, create your own characters, make your own way. Otherwise you're standing on the sidewalk with everyone else. That's how you get noticed.'"
I forget if I said it first or read it somewhere, but anyone who thinks luck is not a huge factor in success has never seen Michael Jordan's brothers standing next to him.
Bro don't try and bullshit a bullshitter, if you'd been born in Peoria to a truck driver you'd be the smartest sales clerk at the local hardware store.
"You forget that I spent the first half of my life as a humble, hardscrabble hillbilly."
I will never forget that as long as you continue to bray on in this Randian-adjacent manner that is essentially indistinguishable from hearing the boasts of a drunken furniture-store owner in a minor country club. You rarely hear Social Register scions or Seven Sisters graduates yip-yapping about how the market is the sole determinant of value. Their great-grandfathers might have believed that.
"Many of the things that make me fortunate - being an American, being a man, having a high IQ, etc. - apply to you and many ACF readers."
And many of us have been exceptionally fortunate beyond that. I know I have been. I don't feel any need to aggrandize myself by claiming to be the Chosen One Of The Markets or whatever you're cosplaying at.
One of my clients just had 9mm in stock options hit. When I asked her how she did it she told me "Back when I was applying for jobs out of college, instead of applying to every major job and interviewing with whoever would take me, I listened to 10 hours of podcast per day to find the perfect job that I knew the options would hit. I walked into the office and I gave that boomer a firm hand shake! Reception was so inspired by my moxie, everyone clapped." Or she got hired because she was a pretty blond
I’m have never claimed that markets belatedly recognized my own decisions as having been correct; rather, that I had conviction as to what would likely be accorded value and executed upon those plans.
And remember, by virtue of being a humble, hardscrabble hillbilly, I am very New Money! Just like the grandfathers of the fortunate, the ones who created the wealth that their descendants enjoy. Virtuous and Fortunate Sons like your friend Matt Farah, the cohort of which you alternately glaze and deride.
You know what kept me from being super-crazy-wealthy instead of crazy-wealthy? Having to spend time with the family and trying to be a good dad. And as I've gotten older, I'm so very thankful that was my doom.
Mein Gott! This is the truth. I've been able to recognize subtle distinctions and generally pick the better option, but some people don't get any options.
"Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evi?”"
Criminally underrated talent! I ran across a YouTube video a while ago of some dude who performed one of their new songs live, solo, just using loops and samples built up over the length of the song, it was amazing. I checked the comments to see if anyone had sent it Paul Meaneys way… it WAS Paul Meany, that’s how he made the original!!!
Something about negotiating doesn't pass the smell test with me. Probably early memories of working retail, watching old men put bottles of prune juice and boxes of Q-tips back on the shelf once they found out the sale ended yesterday.
They didn't actually want the item, they wanted a deal. They wanted to feel like they beat the system.
That's that scene in Clerks where they're sitting there bitching about customers and he talks about the milk maids, the old ladies who come in looking for the milk that won't expire until after the heat death of the universe.
I was making a joke about that scene with a low-body-count woman of whom I was quite fond... at which point she told me that she, too, used to casually blow on dates.
"I'm not even supposed to be here today," I replied.
Yeah, watching the sky on Apply TV seems fine to me. It has some changes. I'll pass judgement mid-season when races are happening during the day instead of early morning/night when I'm more likely to watch a recap. (But still try to watch the whole thing.)
I just do the regular F1TV thing through Apple TV: I get an ad at the beginning (typically Ford but sometimes Cadillac) then I get three ads between the pre-show and the event, whether it's free practice, qualifying, or the race, and then three ads at the end before the wrap-up. Maybe I should switch to the Sky thing...
Same but why don't they post full races? They are also getting millions of views on 20 min highlights of races from decades ago. Just post the whole thing!
To your third point...there's a bit of chest-beating around here, but not nearly so much as might be found on conventional social media, for instance. It's a time-honored tradition among men who are men, from the Vikings of old to Davy Crockett to Bo Diddley to Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, to make outlandish boasts now and again, and I see it as an art form.
And we just launched Artemis II today, which is cool, but you know, are they going to CGI the thing enough so that we don't have to talk about the Van Allen Radiation Belts and humans being able to go through them without dying? #Ihavenoideaanymore
Apple hasn't changed anything about F1TV pro itself, other than connecting up your apple account to get access. I watched the replay with multiviewer exactly as it worked last season.
I agree. Hash marks on the rear fender of a C8 look dumb. On an already hideously-overstyled car. Insult on insult. I miss the C7. Which also means I miss the C6 Z06, too.
My buddy’s gf had an 08 or 09 Exige for awhile. My NB was making around 200whp with a higher boost JRSC M45, FMII suspension, bar etc with 205s on four corner. The Elise was stock sans exhaust and good tires.
It was fun, but I’d prefer an Elise with an aftermarket SC so I can be open roof. The Miata shifted better, arguably faster (not that you couldn’t turn up the Lotus) and I prefered the FR chassis dynamics. The mental game of pushing a $6k car hard vs a $54k car is very much real as well. It’s freeing and lets you drive harder.
Also, the mechanicals of basically wedging yourself into a TV cabinet with the roof on is kinda miserable. I had the opportunity to buy it, I declined as it was dark gray and I think it’s stupid to have a subdued color on such a neat car. I’d resent it and I already resent a car I bought that I never wanted the color of. Still want a lime green Elise. They keep getting pricier unfortunately.
im like 2/3rds your size so an elise is a more viable driving proposition for me lol
i do like how miatas are still cheap though im not sure how much longer that will last for. good to know that i can wad mine up at a track and buy a whole other one for 8k cad the next day though
Thomas, cheap is always liberating! I was having some fun in an Exige trying to keep up with someone who had just passed me at Goodwood in a Cup version. After a couple of laps a gentle thought filtered through…”hold on a moment, I don’t own this car!” At that point, I parked my ego and took a chill pill.
I've got no seat time in either, but I just got back from a 1,400mi round trip down the West Coast. A lot of that was on US101, which is crooked as a barrel of snakes, and if I had to pick between the two above options I'd have the Vette every day. Because both of them have a nonzero chance of blowing the fuck up on me, but you can get the Vette serviced anywhere.
F1- I've been eagerly watching the F1 viewer numbers. Not here in the US (due to the new contract), but internationally. Other than Kimi giving Italy a bump, it's down overall. Down by almost half in some cases!!!
They know they're killing their product. Let's hope Max's appetite is properly wet in the month of May at the Ring and other various GT ventures to keep him from just retiring and going to sim race and make more babies.
Nascar- Speaking of killing their own product.... I think Nascar has made some tweaks that have been helpful. The overall viewership experience though is just terrible overall. It does the great race tracks and genuinely good engineering a disservice. At least all the XI wins have helped bring in some fresh blood for product purchases. That's at least something.
Grand Sport- Easy to see this is going to be the one to own. I echo the stupidity of no manual. They just make excuses because the majority of old man owners have started to shift off this mortal coil. The young people? A lot of them have never driven a manual. Sounds like an OPPORTUNITY for a new owner experience!
The C6 Grand Sport has never been worth more to me than it is now. We really took that car for granted.
Markets- We're just now realizing that we are going to be treated the way everyone else is treated worldwide: Like we live in a caste system. Tiered service is a reality now and it sure seems like everyone I know is just sick of it. We're also about tapped out money wise with it!!! At a certain point you can't get any more blood from a turnip/rock/insert item.
While there are tiers of service in many modern financialized societies, I don’t understand why this is “bad,” as Jack seems to believe.
That doesn’t mean America has a caste system, because no one is trapped in a given income / wealth stratum. Social class is essentially immutable (cf. Paul Fussell), but economic circumstances are not. At least until AGI and the Permanent Underclass.
I don't disagree that we aren't a caste system. But, I also think many, many people are starting to feel like the ladder of upper mobility is being yanked away from their finger tips. When that is the case, it feels pretty hopeless for ones own kids.
There's some rays of sunshine here and there that it might be breaking back up again with another churn... but man, things can feel rough right now even trying to do something as normal as taking your family out to eat these days.
so how is someone at the bottom supposed to transition in to someone who isnt a time seller? barely getting by doesnt sound like a position that allows much money for other pursuits than just living
-Learn how to sell something (which is a high margin role), ideally something that carries very high margins (i.e., advice, which is what I used to sell)
-Learn how to use the latest, newest AI tools so that you have better job security
It seems to me people are really hesitant to point out why some people may be “lower-class”, which in many cases amounts to poor decisions. You may not be upper class making good decisions but you sure can be upper middle class.
Where you end up in America is basically an equation of:
(your family situation) x (your impulse control) x (your IQ) x (luck factors) = lifetime income
Most Americans don't have the ability to reach the upper middle class. In 2026, I'm not sure most Americans have the ability to be middle class. If you work really hard at McDonald's, you marry an equally solid McDonald's worker, and you never get sick, you can end up with $150k of household income... which makes you a renter in EVERY major market.
But that’s because I pay very, very, very close attention to all of the public pronouncements of all of the potential buyers of a business I cofounded.
This is a little rich coming from me but I am going to do it anyways. If Farah was born on third base, I was born on second.
It's all about the student loans. If you don't have loans, you can buy a house in a nice enough area that's a little on the small side easily at 150k of household income. You could be my neighbor for 2,500 a month. It's the shittiest house for sale in the neighborhood but it's 5 minutes from the train to a major market. I will say it definitely helps if you have a parent who could help with a down payment (not me) or parents who paid for college (me).
If you have an 105 IQ, you can get an accounting degree and make 100k per year by 30. Most of the people I see struggling make decent wages but could never save anything because they have 1k per month going to student loans at 40 years old. 1k per month, when they graduated school 17 years ago. I actually feel for these people because they were absolutely lied to. Go to the cheapest fricken school you can and live like a monk until those things are paid off.
My father paid for my school and I paid for my first wife's school; we were done and dusted by 34, I think. Come to think of it, we divorced not all that long after I paid her last tab!
I'm going to use the former Mrs. Baruth as an example of luck. She got fired from her teaching job because the people at her school didn't like me and my resume. Which forced her to become a temp. The temp job became a permanent job at an insurance company. She worked that until they laid her off. She got a crappy job at Amazon in warehouse devices, which was the asshole of tech for a decade. But she met a lot of people at Amazon who worked data centers, which was ALSO the asshole of tech from 1975 to... 2024.
Two months ago, CoreWeave decided to hire her and make her an eight figure net worth person. This, out of a woman who probably didn't make $100k until her 45th birthday. She's always worked hard, she was prepared, but apparently it was a chance meeting with someone at a data center who then got headhunted out of Amazon that made it happen.
She can't wait to be much richer than I am and retire much earlier. I remind her that I enjoyed my thirties and forties in a way that no 58-year-old short of Keanu Reeves will ever manage.
I don't even spend the money I have. I don't do drugs, fancy wine doesn't taste much better, 30 bucks is plenty for a bottle of booze. What am I going to do, buy another street triple? I'm tempted to waste 30k on a street fighter but the R1 i sold terrified me.. Get a porsche? Don't want one. I don't have ferrari money. Don't particularly want one but they are at least cool. I'm boring. Spend 10k on a watch I wont wear? I don't understand how people spend all this money. If I walked into 100k tomorrow, I'd probably throw it at the mortgage.
Max should make more babies and sim race so f1 can be interesting when all his sons are on competing teams in 19 years. Max is funny looking so he will have sons. This is science
This is the worst part. As a person with young children, sometimes I have to pause a race and attend to their needs. Maybe it's my samsung or sony tv but after about 5 minutes of pausing, it goes to the home screen where I have to renavigate to apple tv and fast forward to where I think I left off with me lamenting "Ugh, I miss cable. At least it worked*" Hulu live tv also sucks ass but as long as i remember to hit record, it remembers where it stopped. If I forget to hit record, i lose whatever I missed when it goes back to the home screen
*I say "At least it worked" at least twice a day dealing with new technologies bullshit.
Haggling. If you haggle me on your tax return, I will fire you. My dad might take you back and not talk to his son for a week but damnit, I will drop you. If you say "I'm having a tough year" and ask for a discount, I will almost always give you one.
Apple TV has straight-up cut out for me a few times this year. I've had to go back and try to remember where I was because it won't remember it. It simply is not as good as F1TV Pro was, but this is what we're stuck with...
I hit FF after the safety car to lap 48, I knew exactly what would happen and I was right because Formula e.
My big take away is about Piastri. In 2 years he is going to be the new Verstappen, partially because Max is going to disappear to go walk to the earth or something, sometime around the Las Vegas race, because the Vegas BS on top of the Formula e Mario Kart BS is going to be too much for him.
Oscar is going to change from a very quiet driver to a quietly rage filled driver if he hasn't already. During his slide last year I was of the mind that he lost out on points because the pressure got to him, but in hindsight I think he was simply uneven over the season due to how young and inexperienced we all forget he is. This year he is going to have a lot of races at the front, fighting for wins and podiums in the 2nd or 3rd fastest car. He will be a dangerous man for the next decade.
I think Lando is as boring as boring gets and that thing with his mom is a bit odd for someone his age BUT he did not choke 2 years in a row. Piastri choked. Maybe it's a one time thing, hopefully it is because he is much more entertaining.
Oscar was 24 years old in his third full season last year with the best car and a forgettable teammate. Michael Schumacher or Max Verstappen he will never be.
YIKES ! this is why I don't race and dislike those who do so on public roads ~ far too many times I've been going and blowing when some squid blows past me like I was parked .
I'll reiterate : charging to watch _ANYTHING_ on T.V. then showing commercials is so wrong .
It's why I don't have cable/streaming/etc. .
That NASCAR jazz is a lot like East Coast commuter traffic ~ everyone going the same direction and lots of bumping/nerfing .
I hope you spilling the beans about Cat tools doesn't mess it up .
Williams and Miller Tool Co's used to make and sell excellent stuff but mostly through dealers and so on and not cheap, always good dollar value .
I may have to see about budgeting for an Artifex belt, I currently use $20 DICKIES plain work belts but they only last 12 months or so, not really good dollar value .
Hash marks are _not_ stupid/goofy if they sell product Jack .
"Emelia Hartford’s completely sealed and mint-condition rolling toolbox" ~ ha ! I could insert the names of more than a few $100K / year 'mechanic's' who always have the fanciest most expen$ive and waxed / polished rollaway but cannot rebuild anything ~ not a carby, final drive unit, gearbox, hell, they won't even _try_ to change the brushes in a 5 year old alternator......
"What’s more, for people on the losing side of this trade, losing the bargain means being poorer, and being poorer means more cognitive demands — rationing out your pennies and eeling through the impossibly narrow gaps between payday and the day the bills are due." ~ try to remember Jack, "poor" is a state of mind, not your finances .
I feel you about the shoes : an E-Bay seller strung me along until the time window closed then ghosted me on my shoes, I wrote E-Bay and still have the text where they said 'don't worry, I see this is covered" then went silent until _another_ time window that they conveniently neglected to tell me about had closed then said 'tough shitski" and I'm out my $100 and still need the damn shoes .
I can't say I ever accept children rioting in malls but I certainly -do- understand their frustration .
As I keep telling the local sheriffs who run stop signs near the high school : "how the hell am I supposed to teach these foster buys to follow the rules when YOU DON'T ?!" .
Understood, this is why there's always so many pristine Snap-On tools / boxes for sale .
Make no mistake ~ they're the only company in the world to have designed and made the vintage Air Cooled VW specific wrench that's a 12 point 21MM box (for the special generator's fan belt nut) on one end and a raised up 17MM hex (for the tranny fill & drain plugs) on t'other, I found it in 197? perusing the Snap-On catalog where I also found the incredible compound pliers I still have . ($32 in 1977 !)
Two pair in fact .
After I foolishly helped some rando in a junkyard in 1984 he followed me and stole my entire traveling tool kit and I nearly went crazy trying to find another of these old tech VW specific wrenches, I never let it out of my sight .
I have a few other Snap-On tools , they're better than average quality but decidedly _not_ worth the big buck$ they charge .
I retain the -one- Snap-On tool that failed, a shortie 1'2" combination wrench that has a tiny flake in the brilliant chrome plating after all these years .
The only tools I'm snappy-snobby about are my 1/4 and 3/8 flex-head ratchets, and a phenomenal LED work light; acquired when I was an FCA dealer tech.
That light is small but mighty and more durable than all the hell I've put it through. It has a thick machined aluminum casing (purple because that way I'd know it's mine), the best rubber charging port cap I've ever seen, a thick magnetic base made of glass fiber reinforced nylon, and it can hinge 180 with strong detents every 45. I've dropped it onto concrete from 80in, it's been accidently hit by hammers, left stuck to the underside of a vehicle I drove for 3 days, sprayed with brake clean countless times, doused with water, and has even been submerged in various oils more than once. The battery is still holding in there and the LEDs are still bright as ever. Honestly the light has saved me more headaches than the ratchets, but those came with a nice winter coat that I got a good 5 years out of too. I have a set of Snappy screwdrivers, too, but I won those in a high school skills competition.
All my chrome hex sockets are actually decade old Duralast from the 'Zone, supplemented by a set of Tekton torx and inverted-torx sockets. My 1/2in impact sockets and torque wrenches are also Tekton. The rest is a smattering of other cheapo brands and hand-me-downs. In terms of cordless power tools though, Milwaukee has really got me by the balls and I won't own anything else for cordless mechanic's tools.
A few years before SEARS folded they had nice LED penlights with a magnet in the base . *very* bright and near indestructible .
I wanted another for my car and schlepped down to SEARS, they had a rainbow of them in a bucket next to the cash register, I grabbed the bright pink one and my son groaned "! oh no Pop ~ that's a GIRLIE light !" .
"correct my boy, let's see if it ever get stolen like so many field tools do " .
Nope, no one wants to be embarrassed by it =8-) .
I'm not "proud" of my tools per se but I -DO- value them like gold as they fed and clothed my family and I for 60 years now......
I too have mixed random Chinesium tools I bought for a specific job or thought they'd be nice, those that don't or break are discarded rapidly .
The kids that hung out when my son was in high school used to say 'Mr. Hall, your tool box looks like trash but you _always_ seem to have whatever tool it is you need" .
Yep, this is so .
I too have a couple very old 1/4" drive ratchets I don't ever take my eyes off of, they're #1 tune up tools and cannot be replaced .
Like my Motocycle, they are mute so I have to speak for them .
If you want to ask my Sweet for a bounce, that's fine, if she doesn't want to be with me she'll go with you .
The broadcast team's boner for Sir LH is nauseating. Sometimes I'm wondering if they're watching the same thing I'm seeing.
If we're hunting humans, I want to do so with a helicopter-mounted minigun. We can take turns shooting.
That said, I don't hate the poors. I was one for most of my adult life. I worked and made income under the federal poverty level while Mrs MD stayed home with our kids. I hate being confrontational and rarely had to do much haggling about anything for any reason. We found ways to improve our financial prospects and things are a couple of orders of magnitude better than they were.
Most of the poors are not bilingual, above-average-IQ couples raising above-average-IQ children and that limits their prospects (and certainly, my own shortcomings have made me oblivious to opportunities in the past, it's like I'm allergic to making money or something). The real poors are always going to be with us. They're always going to waste opportunities presented to them. They're always going to shit in the fountain downtown and get the whole thing turned off, screwing everyone out of watery refreshment. They can't be saved. I'm not really sure there's anything we can do for them besides shoring up public behavior (that is, enforcing the law and putting the worst of them in jail or in an asylum).
'I'm not really sure there's anything we can do for them besides shoring up public behavior (that is, enforcing the law and putting the worst of them in jail or in an asylum).'
Send them to church. That's traditionally been the ONLY thing that works, because you can't enforce the law on everyone and you can't keep a useful number of them in jail due to the expense.
I just saw this today on X: “People don’t change their mind when confronted with the truth, they change their mind when confronted with something they want to believe more.”
Where I live, the off-whites are all vaping THC. I have yet to encounter meth in my current city, although I do know that cocaine blew up when legalization crimped the local pot dealers' businesses. I saw THC seltzer the last time I was at the wine warehouse.
Between church and the law you're probably keeping 95% of it under control. But even in a place like Japan you've got some guy who will chain the doors to an anime studio shut and burn the place down killing the 30-40 animators inside.
See, that's the kind of shit you get in a society where people are assholes to their subordinates, bootlickers to their bosses and everybosy's just expected to accept this as the natural order of things.
I have a theory about big-game hunting, which I think should apply to hunting humans as well, which is as follows:
You pay a grand for your tag to take whatever it is you're going after, and you sign a contract absolving everyone other than yourself of any legal liability for what happens to you. Then, you get dropped by helicopter, stark naked, with nothing but a parachute and a KA-BAR combat knife, into the habitat of your chosen prey. If you can take an elephant under those conditions you deserve it.
if we can keep the chinese from hiring africans to poach rare animals for their components then maybe we can get their numbers up high enough to hunt them humanely and not have an endangered species crisis
then you can get mauled by a tiger the old fashioned way
Know what would've improved "Predator" as a movie? One simple thing: Start the film with the helicopter approaching the beach.
Leave the Predator's true nature a mystery. Everybody knew it was an alien from the word "Go." But what if that wasn't the case? What if they kept us wondering?
Is the Predator an alien? A cryptid? A demon? A government project that got away from them? Or DIDN'T? Some mad scientist's project beast?
I would still not like hamilton if the broadcast team didn't slob his knob. I'd probably feel the same way I do about george russel. He's a whiney bitch. But I probably wouldn't hate him as much as I do. Maybe I just don't like british drivers.
someone bring Kimi Raikkonen out of retirement. Everyone loved Kimi, and he couldn't do any worse than, say, Stroll even with this many years out of the saddle.
I will forever cheer for Alonso, even if he's limping across the line in 20th place. As Jack noted, rarely has someone with so much talent been handed so many shitty cars and yet dragged them to better finishes than warranted.
plus the guy has raced in THIRTY-SEVEN percent of all F1 races in history.
After the second recent bagel company article with the engineers justifying the lack of C8 manual with lines like ‘The DCT is better!” or “Nobody wanted it”, I made a rare comment about Tony Roma, the chief engineer: “That poor guy is going to have to answer the question about the missing C8 manual transmission *for the rest of his life*.” That made me happy when I realized it.
The only thing the engineers didn’t say was “Did you know that the C8 has room for golf clubs?”
I think I've told the Alex MacDonald story about the LaCrosse and the ES350 about ten times on here, but the short version is that GM tested the LaCrosse against the ES350, and it won *according to their criteria*, so they were permanently mystified when Buick didn't dethrone Lexus.
The C9 design team is led by a 40 something French woman. I have low expectations.
I would have gladly traded in my C7 on a beautiful mid engine C8, but looks like the Corvette will be dead to me going forward.
The Corvette had a nice design run from 1953-2019. I even liked the disco era Vettes. Oh well, that’s over.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Chevy runs out of Boomer buyers. I would guess that’s when we’ll see the Corvette SUV.
Tony Roma will say it’s “better” and what people want. Room for a scooter mount on the rear bumper, too, since golf club capacity will no longer be a necessity.
Just as disturbing they released a Corvette concept car designed in their UK design studio. WTF?
The main problem with the C8 is that it’s not an American design. It turns its back on Corvette history and looks like a Lambo with bad proportions.
Further, you cannot graft C7 style headlights and taillights onto a mid engine design and expect it to look good. But they only did that so it kind of looked like a Corvette.
Ford did the exact same thing when they grafted Mustang style headlights and taillights onto a CUV and called it the Mach E. Just like the C8, it has a vague resemblance to its predecessor.
All the bloviating about targeting a younger buyer with the C8 was just that.
I was scrolling though the manual C8 threads on CF. Most comments were either keyboard warriors talking about muh performance numbers, the others were saying how they were too old and frail to operate a clutch pedal.
We shit on Porsche a lot here, but being into the Corvette “scene” in 2026 is just as embarrassing. Some days I regret not picking up a nice C6Z or GS, but then I remember how terrible it was trying to sell my C5.
Yup, they are going to have problems when the Boomers are gone or too frail. I didn’t join my local Corvette club because it’s mostly Boomers and I don’t like hanging out with them.
I will give Porsche credit for exploited the 911 name with so many different models to create ongoing interest. They know their customers.
GM should have probably should have done that long ago with the Corvette.
Your C7 has AFM lifters in it, whether it's a base model, Grand Sport or Z06. The car is a 4 cylinder masquerading as an 8, toggling 4 cylinders (#1, 7, 4 &6) off and on like the movie Airplane air traffic controller. And to make matters worse, Tadge and Mary made sure all the wheels on those Corvettes crack to save a few bucks, they got them made in Mexico. And to top it off, those engines do not use gaskets on the front cover or oil pan. You need an Oil pump? That is an engine out experience due to the mess when permatexing it back together.
Yes, I saved your post from when you originally explained this to me, so thanks again!
I’m thinking of having all the AFM hardware removed by someone like Katech through one of the upgrade packages they offer. In your expert opinion, is that the way to go? I don’t care about the money since I love the car and want to pass it on to my nephew one day.
Doing that and buying a set of forged wheels is a much better way for me to spend money than buying a different car.
Mr. Lutz might like my proposal to bring back dueling. I think this would have salutary effect on society from business suite to public transport. BTW dueling was legal in Uruguay until 1992.
One I left out from the MiUSA list:
Floss like Neil Armstrong!
Made in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Made of Nylon 6.6, not PTFE (polytetrafluorethylene) polymer; PTFE may contain PFAS and/or PFOA.
Available in multiple thicknesses and traditional white or disclosure black.
https://buypoh.com/lunar-floss/
This is the most excited I've been for a MiUSA item yet. We usually just buy the bulk option at Costco, which has recently changed to a solid film from a stranded type floss and it is not good. That along with the additional PFAS/PFOA exposure has given me cause to seek an alternative solution. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm excited to try flossing with this stuff.
now i can use the same products my grandfather used
adcopy or not its odd to find something thats been used for decades with little change. a simple toothbrush and baking soda to get optimal results? i really ought to give it a go
ngl i probably fucked my teeth and gums up from doing it incorrectly for years. cant escape the consequences lol
Rookie stuff!
Real men floss with real silk
https://www.amazon.com/Dental-Lace-Refillable-Recyclable-Dispenser/dp/B074W8516Q/
fuck that
for 12.99 im buying a thrift store tie and cutting it up to get more silk for my dollar
ngl that does look decent tho
Speaking of the Buck 284...Menards carries it, plus its big brother the 285, the venerable 110, and my personal fav and EDC, the 112 slim. All made in America.
Thank you! Pinning this.
Thanks!
I'll be headed to Menards this morning, and will buy one for myself and one for each of my employees. I really do appreciate this!
May I suggest the Buck 110 slim micarta? It's a fantastic EDC. Lightweight, capable, stainless... A great little piece.
MotoGP ran at COTA down in Tejas this past weekend. Most importantly, the World Baggers Kingship Series Exclusive to Harley Davidson revealed just how much better not even top tier rest-of-world talent is vs their American counterparts. Admittedly, the best American bagger riders weren't there to compete, but riders with more seat time got trounced by ex Moto2/MotoE riders and an Australian SBK competitor.
In practice Aprilia, Ducati, and KTM were close together with 3/10ths of a second covering them, and the top ten split only by 6/10ths of a second. There was good representation from various factories going into Q2 with the sole missing manufacturer being Yamaha.
Qualifying first was the number 49, Digi on a Ducati, then Bez, Acosta, Bagnaia, Mir, Marc Marquez, Martin, Alex, and Luca Marini. Ai Ogura managed a Q2 appearance. Qualifying was not terribly clean for the factory Ducati pair with each of them encountering cruising traffic that caused them trouble.
In the sprint Digi and Marquez tangled and an aggressive overtake by Marquez, where he tucked the front, ruined his and Digi's sprint by taking them out. 93 received a long lap penalty for the race.
Bagnaia lead in the sprint as Jorge Martin fought for 3rd with Mir. Acosta sits in a comfortable second. Bagnaia proceeded to check out early on in the sprint as Martin secured 3rd over Mir going uphill into turn 1. Jorge, the only rider on a medium rear tire, ran down Acosta in 2nd place and quickly overtook a sluggish KTM on the long back straight. Bez, having had a poor start, fought his way through traffic back to fourth. He also blitzed by Acosta on the back straight for 3rd and then closed down on Martin. A quick pass put him in 2nd place in lap 6. In lap 7 Bez crashed out and throws another sprint's worth of points away.
Jorge Martin and his tire choice looked hot in the final few laps as he reeled in Bagnaia. In the last lap he lunged for first and held the position for a breathtaking finish. Then, Martin's breath all gone and his focus astray, he would crash his bike coming down from a wheelie and be lucky to walk away unscathed.
The race begins with a long lap penalty for 93 to serve as soon as he is able. The plan to deal with a known LLP, usually, is to make as much of a gap as possible so that the ~3s long lap has minimal impact on position loss. Two other riders, Ogura and someone I don't remember, start two positions back on the grid due to cruising and other issues during qualifying.
At the start Jorge jumped to P2 in T1. Digi tumbled backward to 5th. Pedro Acosta took 1st. A big shuffle and barge all through turn one. A short time later Bez carved through into 2nd and has contact between himself and Acosta. Both bikes have damaged aero and the KTM rider was fortunate to keep the bike in control.
Digiantonnio and Marquez again clashed over and over. However, Marquez' long lap penalty forces him to move from 4/5 to position 11. He eventually worked his way back up to 5th, and Marquez likely would have been a podium contender if not for his sprint mistake that wiped out himself and Digi.
Jorge Martin almost fell off his bike during lap seven while pushing for position against Acosta. A narrowly avoided disaster.
A little further back in the field Ai Ogura displayed incredible pace and fortitude and had moved up through the pack. He passed Bagnaia with ease and looked set to secure a podium finish with this pace. A few laps later and he picked off fourth place rider Digiantonnio as well. This stunning run comes to an end with a gearbox issue in just two more laps' time.
Jorge Martin recuperated from his incident and came back at Acosta, striking during lap 14 and, this time, refrains from nearly dumping himself off the motorcycle in the process. Martin looked as if he might have the ability to run down Bez, but it is too little too late and Bez was able to manage the gap to the end of the race.
In the meantime Marc has managed to catch up with Bagnaia and Bastianini for a three way battle for fifth position. It's a knock down drag out pass and repass affair against Bastianini through the last few laps as Bagnaia fades out of contention. Marc managed to win out and finish with a solid handful of points.
The winner is Bez on a hot streak and well ahead of second place, Martin, who looked strong, and Acosta a distant third. Then came Digi, Marquez, Bastianini, and Alex Marquez who ran Bagnaia down late, or rather, who was a big winner from Bagnaia's flagging late race pace.
In the standings it is an Aprilia 1-2 with Bez ahead of Martin, but not by a huge amount as he has thrown away sprint wins. Marc Marquez is all the way in 5th in the standings and his lingering injury recovery issues seem to be impacting his qualifying ability and, to some extent, his ability to work hard at the start of races to open a gap.
MotoGP begins its European leg at the end of April.
I have yet to watch the WorldSBK round that ran the same weekend as I have been busy dealing with a major appliance failure (this basement isn't supposed to be wet! This water is coming from the ceiling! [washer]) among other things.
0-I watch Formula 1 on F1TV through my Apple TV subscription and have never been confronted with an ad. Plus, I get to enjoy the Sky audio feed instead of the braying of Alex Jacques.
1-“There is a sort of man in modern society who is (there is no nice way to say this, I apologize) is a total pussy who would be on his knees within the early seconds of any serious real-world conflict, but who adores the jungle metaphors and faux-battle of “business” and “markets” and whatnot.”
I wonder what has changed in the intervening 14 years since Jack wrote the above and the below:
“It occurred to me many years ago that the Venn diagram of “actual bad-asses” and “people who spend all their time trying to look like bad-asses” has a very low overlap. The actual “man’s work” of the world — winning wars, building businesses, feeding families, protecting the weak from the strong — is generally accomplished by men who can’t bench three hundred pounds. That’s not how Hollywood likes to play it, but that’s the way it is.”
From this: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/04/hype-and-hypertrophy-how-lamborghini-lost-its-man-card/
2-Relatedly, Artemis II is headed to the moon momentarily. Apparently NASA is unaware that ACF is home to a few (self proclaimed) HIGH TESTOSTERONE ALPHA MALES whose dicks are 93MM miles long, which would ease transit all the way to the sun.
"I wonder what has changed in the intervening 14 years since Jack wrote the above and the below:"
Fully addressed in the text, but I'll do it here because your time is valuable: it is no more "manly" to be a "master negotiator" than it is to be the local cage-match champ.
I don’t necessarily dispute this.
As you might recall, I argued not long ago that the essence of “manliness” is owning one’s outcomes. You scoffed at that claim.
Is "Own your outcome' the theme for your birthday party this weekend?
For better or worse I always own the often stupid things I do / have done .
-Nate
Of course, I do, too.
I do dumb and sub-optimal things every day. I am happy to own my outcomes, good and bad.
Hush.
You’re in your fifth decade, living off Daddy (still!), and LARPing as a “man.”
Yeah, but you should see his wife. People with 100 million bucks don't get someone like her.
Yeah all of those WOKE CUCKS secretly wish they could be a (self proclaimed) HIGH TESTOSTERONE ALPHA MALE, like you guys.
I scoffed at it because it doesn't mean anything. Control is an illusion. When you say you "own your outcomes" what you mean is "I have been lucky enough to live a life where external factors have supported me enough to think I am the primary influence on what happens to me." It is like the perpetual retcon of successful entrepreneurs where they get lucky then remember themselves as having worked harder than everyone else.
Me cashing my very big checks because dad started a firm. "I am owning my own outcome"
Sherman is onto something
The trust fund kid who inherited millions "I am owning my own outcome"
Like a bad herpes commercial "Maybe owning your own outcome can work for you"
People like to say "Opportunity is what happens when luck meets preparation" while forgetting that there are a hundred prepared people out there for every lucky one. If Harvard wanted to, they could just say, "You need a perfect SAT and you need to donate a million dollars a year to the school while you are here" and they would fill the entire freshman class, no sweat. It is a big world filled with absurdly talented and prepared people.
To make a middle class or maybe even upper middle class living you can do it with hard work. To make upper class money, you usually need luck.
I made partner 5 years earlier than expected because the guy who was supposed to buy out the D in AD managed to do something phenomenally stupid. "Ok, I'll buy it"
It IS a big world filled with talented and prepared people.
Fortunately, we have markets to determine who is deserving of wealth, who is meritorious … not your feelings.
Has your fellow Mid Ohioan Butterfinger BB hacked into your computer today?
You can have the best idea in the world, you can be wicked prepared and you can work your ass off.
But nothing beats luck and knowing that one guy who can get shit done.
One of the things that I've learned from the Harmonicaster project, going to clubs and hanging out with musicians, is that there are plenty of local musicians in your nearest city who are at least as talented as big name stars.
At least the entertainment industry has acknowledged the importance of luck, only they call it a "big break" or "getting discovered".
I think one reason why entertainers tend to tilt left politically, is that despite their substantial egos they all know people who are more talented than they are who never got a big break. They may not admit it publicly, but they know that luck and connections had a lot to do with their success.
Billy Bob Thornton tells how he was struggling to get work as a character actor and a friend got him a gig working as a waiter at a Hollywood Christmas dinner for some bigwigs. He and director Billy Wilder started talking:
""He said, 'So, you want to be an actor?'" Thornton remembered Wilder saying. "I said, 'Yeah, how'd you know that?' He goes, 'Eh, you all want to be actors.' He goes, 'Forget about it.' I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'You're too ugly to be a leading man and you're too pretty to be a character actor.'"
"He said, 'Can you write at all?'" Thornton continued. "I said, 'Actually, I have been writing, and I used to write short stories and stuff like that.' He said, 'That's what you do. You write your own stories, create your own characters, make your own way. Otherwise you're standing on the sidewalk with everyone else. That's how you get noticed.'"
I forget if I said it first or read it somewhere, but anyone who thinks luck is not a huge factor in success has never seen Michael Jordan's brothers standing next to him.
I haven’t inherited a nickel.
I am not dependent on inheriting money, because I possess the apparently magical ability to create wealth for myself.
Sherman, it's ok he inherited it as long as he owns the outcome of being a millionaire
Bro don't try and bullshit a bullshitter, if you'd been born in Peoria to a truck driver you'd be the smartest sales clerk at the local hardware store.
You forget that I spent the first half of my life as a humble, hardscrabble hillbilly.
Many of the things that make me fortunate - being an American, being a man, having a high IQ, etc. - apply to you and many ACF readers.
"You forget that I spent the first half of my life as a humble, hardscrabble hillbilly."
I will never forget that as long as you continue to bray on in this Randian-adjacent manner that is essentially indistinguishable from hearing the boasts of a drunken furniture-store owner in a minor country club. You rarely hear Social Register scions or Seven Sisters graduates yip-yapping about how the market is the sole determinant of value. Their great-grandfathers might have believed that.
"Many of the things that make me fortunate - being an American, being a man, having a high IQ, etc. - apply to you and many ACF readers."
And many of us have been exceptionally fortunate beyond that. I know I have been. I don't feel any need to aggrandize myself by claiming to be the Chosen One Of The Markets or whatever you're cosplaying at.
One of my clients just had 9mm in stock options hit. When I asked her how she did it she told me "Back when I was applying for jobs out of college, instead of applying to every major job and interviewing with whoever would take me, I listened to 10 hours of podcast per day to find the perfect job that I knew the options would hit. I walked into the office and I gave that boomer a firm hand shake! Reception was so inspired by my moxie, everyone clapped." Or she got hired because she was a pretty blond
I’m have never claimed that markets belatedly recognized my own decisions as having been correct; rather, that I had conviction as to what would likely be accorded value and executed upon those plans.
And remember, by virtue of being a humble, hardscrabble hillbilly, I am very New Money! Just like the grandfathers of the fortunate, the ones who created the wealth that their descendants enjoy. Virtuous and Fortunate Sons like your friend Matt Farah, the cohort of which you alternately glaze and deride.
You know what kept me from being super-crazy-wealthy instead of crazy-wealthy? Having to spend time with the family and trying to be a good dad. And as I've gotten older, I'm so very thankful that was my doom.
Mein Gott! This is the truth. I've been able to recognize subtle distinctions and generally pick the better option, but some people don't get any options.
"Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evi?”"
Sent from my TRS-80 CoCo 3 over Fujinet.
There is no better loss than to lose than to myself with You.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K6U6UYwqX8U
What a band. I didn't know this music video existed, but it's even cooler than them playing their instruments backwards for Typical!
Criminally underrated talent! I ran across a YouTube video a while ago of some dude who performed one of their new songs live, solo, just using loops and samples built up over the length of the song, it was amazing. I checked the comments to see if anyone had sent it Paul Meaneys way… it WAS Paul Meany, that’s how he made the original!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBN9yVgXU1M
Woah. This is fun! Dude's a beast, even with a shaved-bald head.
That's an unimpeachable starting point, but I believe it's incomplete.
It could be expanded upon, but it’s step 0, for sure.
Notice that I never complain about my circumstances in life, for example.
Can't argue with that.
I own my own outomces, yet I feel less like a man.
Something about negotiating doesn't pass the smell test with me. Probably early memories of working retail, watching old men put bottles of prune juice and boxes of Q-tips back on the shelf once they found out the sale ended yesterday.
They didn't actually want the item, they wanted a deal. They wanted to feel like they beat the system.
That's that scene in Clerks where they're sitting there bitching about customers and he talks about the milk maids, the old ladies who come in looking for the milk that won't expire until after the heat death of the universe.
"Whaddaya mean there's no ice?! You mean I gotta drink this coffee hot?!"
THIRTY-SIX?
I was making a joke about that scene with a low-body-count woman of whom I was quite fond... at which point she told me that she, too, used to casually blow on dates.
"I'm not even supposed to be here today," I replied.
*ahem* it's thirty-SEVEN.
There are some thing you are just better off not knowing. I'm not an idiot but I also don't want to know. Let's just keep it in the ether.
What was the Female Body Count Equation again?
(Her age/her stated body count) x 4.
Yeah, watching the sky on Apply TV seems fine to me. It has some changes. I'll pass judgement mid-season when races are happening during the day instead of early morning/night when I'm more likely to watch a recap. (But still try to watch the whole thing.)
I just do the regular F1TV thing through Apple TV: I get an ad at the beginning (typically Ford but sometimes Cadillac) then I get three ads between the pre-show and the event, whether it's free practice, qualifying, or the race, and then three ads at the end before the wrap-up. Maybe I should switch to the Sky thing...
And I watch the F1 highlights on YT for free.
Good for you!
I’ve even stopped doing that. Don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything.
Same but why don't they post full races? They are also getting millions of views on 20 min highlights of races from decades ago. Just post the whole thing!
To your third point...there's a bit of chest-beating around here, but not nearly so much as might be found on conventional social media, for instance. It's a time-honored tradition among men who are men, from the Vikings of old to Davy Crockett to Bo Diddley to Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, to make outlandish boasts now and again, and I see it as an art form.
April Fool’s is pointless because we live in Clown World every day.
I'm constantly reminded of this every time I read the Babylon Bee and see their 'predictions' that end up coming true.
Clown show is putting it mildly.
And we just launched Artemis II today, which is cool, but you know, are they going to CGI the thing enough so that we don't have to talk about the Van Allen Radiation Belts and humans being able to go through them without dying? #Ihavenoideaanymore
at least this time the cgi will be believable as opposed to whatever was somehow possible in 1969
Used to be fun asking questions to ChatGPT about this
Apple hasn't changed anything about F1TV pro itself, other than connecting up your apple account to get access. I watched the replay with multiviewer exactly as it worked last season.
Aha. The app won't let me in now.
On the positive side of things, it sounds reasonably likely that GM is going to put the 409 in a front-engine car.
-----
"hash marks are stupid and goofy"
My car does have cartoon bees on it so I'm probably not one to throw stones.
Cartoon bees are cool for the same reason Katt Williams is cooler than Michael B. Jordan.
In matters of taste, everyone else is _WRONG_ .
Simple as that .
-Nate
You beat me to it.
Putting on my best Clint squint: "Well, opinions are like assholes... everybody's got one."
Yep ;
When Ladies are present (yes, occasionally) I say "like elbows, everyone has two" .
-Nate
I LOVE the hash marks on the C6 Grand Sport!
I agree. Hash marks on the rear fender of a C8 look dumb. On an already hideously-overstyled car. Insult on insult. I miss the C7. Which also means I miss the C6 Z06, too.
“No living human being with an above-room-temperature IQ thinks a C8 is better to drive than an Exige.”
If you append the word “everyday” at the end of that sentence then it would be an April Fool’s article
"...to the store!"
Is there anything that's better to drive than an Exige?
A Viper ACR. ;)
Supercharged Miata with a decent suspension and wide rubber under it. Drove them back to back actually.
hell yeah
My buddy’s gf had an 08 or 09 Exige for awhile. My NB was making around 200whp with a higher boost JRSC M45, FMII suspension, bar etc with 205s on four corner. The Elise was stock sans exhaust and good tires.
It was fun, but I’d prefer an Elise with an aftermarket SC so I can be open roof. The Miata shifted better, arguably faster (not that you couldn’t turn up the Lotus) and I prefered the FR chassis dynamics. The mental game of pushing a $6k car hard vs a $54k car is very much real as well. It’s freeing and lets you drive harder.
Also, the mechanicals of basically wedging yourself into a TV cabinet with the roof on is kinda miserable. I had the opportunity to buy it, I declined as it was dark gray and I think it’s stupid to have a subdued color on such a neat car. I’d resent it and I already resent a car I bought that I never wanted the color of. Still want a lime green Elise. They keep getting pricier unfortunately.
agreed on all points
im like 2/3rds your size so an elise is a more viable driving proposition for me lol
i do like how miatas are still cheap though im not sure how much longer that will last for. good to know that i can wad mine up at a track and buy a whole other one for 8k cad the next day though
Thomas, cheap is always liberating! I was having some fun in an Exige trying to keep up with someone who had just passed me at Goodwood in a Cup version. After a couple of laps a gentle thought filtered through…”hold on a moment, I don’t own this car!” At that point, I parked my ego and took a chill pill.
I've got no seat time in either, but I just got back from a 1,400mi round trip down the West Coast. A lot of that was on US101, which is crooked as a barrel of snakes, and if I had to pick between the two above options I'd have the Vette every day. Because both of them have a nonzero chance of blowing the fuck up on me, but you can get the Vette serviced anywhere.
I would rather drive an Elise (never been in an exige) everyday and I’m way too big for them.
Call me a fool I just can’t stand overweight sports cars.
Note, this changes if it’s pure highway work. Which is best done in anything other than a lotus
For highways, change just two letters...
Gigachad_yes.jpeg
F1- I've been eagerly watching the F1 viewer numbers. Not here in the US (due to the new contract), but internationally. Other than Kimi giving Italy a bump, it's down overall. Down by almost half in some cases!!!
They know they're killing their product. Let's hope Max's appetite is properly wet in the month of May at the Ring and other various GT ventures to keep him from just retiring and going to sim race and make more babies.
Nascar- Speaking of killing their own product.... I think Nascar has made some tweaks that have been helpful. The overall viewership experience though is just terrible overall. It does the great race tracks and genuinely good engineering a disservice. At least all the XI wins have helped bring in some fresh blood for product purchases. That's at least something.
Grand Sport- Easy to see this is going to be the one to own. I echo the stupidity of no manual. They just make excuses because the majority of old man owners have started to shift off this mortal coil. The young people? A lot of them have never driven a manual. Sounds like an OPPORTUNITY for a new owner experience!
The C6 Grand Sport has never been worth more to me than it is now. We really took that car for granted.
Markets- We're just now realizing that we are going to be treated the way everyone else is treated worldwide: Like we live in a caste system. Tiered service is a reality now and it sure seems like everyone I know is just sick of it. We're also about tapped out money wise with it!!! At a certain point you can't get any more blood from a turnip/rock/insert item.
While there are tiers of service in many modern financialized societies, I don’t understand why this is “bad,” as Jack seems to believe.
That doesn’t mean America has a caste system, because no one is trapped in a given income / wealth stratum. Social class is essentially immutable (cf. Paul Fussell), but economic circumstances are not. At least until AGI and the Permanent Underclass.
I don't disagree that we aren't a caste system. But, I also think many, many people are starting to feel like the ladder of upper mobility is being yanked away from their finger tips. When that is the case, it feels pretty hopeless for ones own kids.
There's some rays of sunshine here and there that it might be breaking back up again with another churn... but man, things can feel rough right now even trying to do something as normal as taking your family out to eat these days.
Absolutely .
-Nate
It is NOT a secret:
One MUST own assets to “get ahead” or perhaps even tread water.
Being a time seller is a recipe for downward mobility.
so how is someone at the bottom supposed to transition in to someone who isnt a time seller? barely getting by doesnt sound like a position that allows much money for other pursuits than just living
im probably missing something
-Learn how to sell something (which is a high margin role), ideally something that carries very high margins (i.e., advice, which is what I used to sell)
-Learn how to use the latest, newest AI tools so that you have better job security
-See my comment about “luck factors” below
They aren't and that's the point.
Once again, I agree with sherman which is why i have owned my own outcome and have an equity stake in a professional firm.
I recommend doing this.
Thinking about getting a porsche next.
996. It’s fun to drive and “the purists” hate it: How lucky can you get?
The maintenance on something like that would give me nightmares
It seems to me people are really hesitant to point out why some people may be “lower-class”, which in many cases amounts to poor decisions. You may not be upper class making good decisions but you sure can be upper middle class.
Where you end up in America is basically an equation of:
(your family situation) x (your impulse control) x (your IQ) x (luck factors) = lifetime income
Most Americans don't have the ability to reach the upper middle class. In 2026, I'm not sure most Americans have the ability to be middle class. If you work really hard at McDonald's, you marry an equally solid McDonald's worker, and you never get sick, you can end up with $150k of household income... which makes you a renter in EVERY major market.
There are a lot of “luck” factors that are not really luck:
-Where you live (recall the discussion about why living in cities is superior to small towns, for a variety of reasons)
-Who you encounter socially, and how you cultivate and develop relationships that blur social and professional lines
-How you spend your free time, and whether that is a diversion or something that creates new knowledge or skills
"How you spend your free time"
If only everyone listened to podcasts for 10 hours a day, they'd be rich
I do find it invaluable.
But that’s because I pay very, very, very close attention to all of the public pronouncements of all of the potential buyers of a business I cofounded.
damn, why didn’t someone tell me that 40 years ago. Oh, wait, ….. that was pre podcast days ….
This is a little rich coming from me but I am going to do it anyways. If Farah was born on third base, I was born on second.
It's all about the student loans. If you don't have loans, you can buy a house in a nice enough area that's a little on the small side easily at 150k of household income. You could be my neighbor for 2,500 a month. It's the shittiest house for sale in the neighborhood but it's 5 minutes from the train to a major market. I will say it definitely helps if you have a parent who could help with a down payment (not me) or parents who paid for college (me).
If you have an 105 IQ, you can get an accounting degree and make 100k per year by 30. Most of the people I see struggling make decent wages but could never save anything because they have 1k per month going to student loans at 40 years old. 1k per month, when they graduated school 17 years ago. I actually feel for these people because they were absolutely lied to. Go to the cheapest fricken school you can and live like a monk until those things are paid off.
My father paid for my school and I paid for my first wife's school; we were done and dusted by 34, I think. Come to think of it, we divorced not all that long after I paid her last tab!
I'm going to use the former Mrs. Baruth as an example of luck. She got fired from her teaching job because the people at her school didn't like me and my resume. Which forced her to become a temp. The temp job became a permanent job at an insurance company. She worked that until they laid her off. She got a crappy job at Amazon in warehouse devices, which was the asshole of tech for a decade. But she met a lot of people at Amazon who worked data centers, which was ALSO the asshole of tech from 1975 to... 2024.
Two months ago, CoreWeave decided to hire her and make her an eight figure net worth person. This, out of a woman who probably didn't make $100k until her 45th birthday. She's always worked hard, she was prepared, but apparently it was a chance meeting with someone at a data center who then got headhunted out of Amazon that made it happen.
She can't wait to be much richer than I am and retire much earlier. I remind her that I enjoyed my thirties and forties in a way that no 58-year-old short of Keanu Reeves will ever manage.
This appears to be preparation encountering opportunity!
This is wonderful news for her and her son (who is your son, as well).
I don't even spend the money I have. I don't do drugs, fancy wine doesn't taste much better, 30 bucks is plenty for a bottle of booze. What am I going to do, buy another street triple? I'm tempted to waste 30k on a street fighter but the R1 i sold terrified me.. Get a porsche? Don't want one. I don't have ferrari money. Don't particularly want one but they are at least cool. I'm boring. Spend 10k on a watch I wont wear? I don't understand how people spend all this money. If I walked into 100k tomorrow, I'd probably throw it at the mortgage.
You should have her pay you back for the loans
Max should make more babies and sim race so f1 can be interesting when all his sons are on competing teams in 19 years. Max is funny looking so he will have sons. This is science
Very subtle.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201101/beautiful-people-have-more-daughters
The science is probably bullshit but...
If it’s not AI it’s probably not true:)
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/04/63/c2/0463c29a771173df7cdb63c9d0285000.jpg
Counterpoint on F1 / FWONK valuation:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-01/-boring-liberty-formula-one-upgraded-to-buy-at-bank-of-america
That's a Jim Cramer worthy tip.
"The pre-race show is now shown with the race.'
This is the worst part. As a person with young children, sometimes I have to pause a race and attend to their needs. Maybe it's my samsung or sony tv but after about 5 minutes of pausing, it goes to the home screen where I have to renavigate to apple tv and fast forward to where I think I left off with me lamenting "Ugh, I miss cable. At least it worked*" Hulu live tv also sucks ass but as long as i remember to hit record, it remembers where it stopped. If I forget to hit record, i lose whatever I missed when it goes back to the home screen
*I say "At least it worked" at least twice a day dealing with new technologies bullshit.
Haggling. If you haggle me on your tax return, I will fire you. My dad might take you back and not talk to his son for a week but damnit, I will drop you. If you say "I'm having a tough year" and ask for a discount, I will almost always give you one.
Apple TV has straight-up cut out for me a few times this year. I've had to go back and try to remember where I was because it won't remember it. It simply is not as good as F1TV Pro was, but this is what we're stuck with...
I hit FF after the safety car to lap 48, I knew exactly what would happen and I was right because Formula e.
My big take away is about Piastri. In 2 years he is going to be the new Verstappen, partially because Max is going to disappear to go walk to the earth or something, sometime around the Las Vegas race, because the Vegas BS on top of the Formula e Mario Kart BS is going to be too much for him.
Oscar is going to change from a very quiet driver to a quietly rage filled driver if he hasn't already. During his slide last year I was of the mind that he lost out on points because the pressure got to him, but in hindsight I think he was simply uneven over the season due to how young and inexperienced we all forget he is. This year he is going to have a lot of races at the front, fighting for wins and podiums in the 2nd or 3rd fastest car. He will be a dangerous man for the next decade.
'He will be a dangerous man for the next decade.'
I agree. And unlike Lando, he doesn't need the fastest car to win.
And unlike Lewis, he doesn't need the fastest car to win.
fixed that for you
Lewis needs the fastest car
AND
he needs his teammate to lay off. To Lando's credit, he never asked for that.
I think Lando is as boring as boring gets and that thing with his mom is a bit odd for someone his age BUT he did not choke 2 years in a row. Piastri choked. Maybe it's a one time thing, hopefully it is because he is much more entertaining.
Oscar was 24 years old in his third full season last year with the best car and a forgettable teammate. Michael Schumacher or Max Verstappen he will never be.
No, but he could EASILY be Juan Pablo Montoya or Jenson Button, which is to say you never know when he will amaze you.
As long as F1 doesn't copy jet driers from NASCAR to go along with all of the other gimmicks.
YIKES ! this is why I don't race and dislike those who do so on public roads ~ far too many times I've been going and blowing when some squid blows past me like I was parked .
I'll reiterate : charging to watch _ANYTHING_ on T.V. then showing commercials is so wrong .
It's why I don't have cable/streaming/etc. .
That NASCAR jazz is a lot like East Coast commuter traffic ~ everyone going the same direction and lots of bumping/nerfing .
I hope you spilling the beans about Cat tools doesn't mess it up .
Williams and Miller Tool Co's used to make and sell excellent stuff but mostly through dealers and so on and not cheap, always good dollar value .
I may have to see about budgeting for an Artifex belt, I currently use $20 DICKIES plain work belts but they only last 12 months or so, not really good dollar value .
Hash marks are _not_ stupid/goofy if they sell product Jack .
"Emelia Hartford’s completely sealed and mint-condition rolling toolbox" ~ ha ! I could insert the names of more than a few $100K / year 'mechanic's' who always have the fanciest most expen$ive and waxed / polished rollaway but cannot rebuild anything ~ not a carby, final drive unit, gearbox, hell, they won't even _try_ to change the brushes in a 5 year old alternator......
"What’s more, for people on the losing side of this trade, losing the bargain means being poorer, and being poorer means more cognitive demands — rationing out your pennies and eeling through the impossibly narrow gaps between payday and the day the bills are due." ~ try to remember Jack, "poor" is a state of mind, not your finances .
I feel you about the shoes : an E-Bay seller strung me along until the time window closed then ghosted me on my shoes, I wrote E-Bay and still have the text where they said 'don't worry, I see this is covered" then went silent until _another_ time window that they conveniently neglected to tell me about had closed then said 'tough shitski" and I'm out my $100 and still need the damn shoes .
I can't say I ever accept children rioting in malls but I certainly -do- understand their frustration .
As I keep telling the local sheriffs who run stop signs near the high school : "how the hell am I supposed to teach these foster buys to follow the rules when YOU DON'T ?!" .
-Nate
Most people are paying for the name on the tool. LIke a rolex vs a tudor
Understood, this is why there's always so many pristine Snap-On tools / boxes for sale .
Make no mistake ~ they're the only company in the world to have designed and made the vintage Air Cooled VW specific wrench that's a 12 point 21MM box (for the special generator's fan belt nut) on one end and a raised up 17MM hex (for the tranny fill & drain plugs) on t'other, I found it in 197? perusing the Snap-On catalog where I also found the incredible compound pliers I still have . ($32 in 1977 !)
Two pair in fact .
After I foolishly helped some rando in a junkyard in 1984 he followed me and stole my entire traveling tool kit and I nearly went crazy trying to find another of these old tech VW specific wrenches, I never let it out of my sight .
I have a few other Snap-On tools , they're better than average quality but decidedly _not_ worth the big buck$ they charge .
I retain the -one- Snap-On tool that failed, a shortie 1'2" combination wrench that has a tiny flake in the brilliant chrome plating after all these years .
-Nate
The only tools I'm snappy-snobby about are my 1/4 and 3/8 flex-head ratchets, and a phenomenal LED work light; acquired when I was an FCA dealer tech.
That light is small but mighty and more durable than all the hell I've put it through. It has a thick machined aluminum casing (purple because that way I'd know it's mine), the best rubber charging port cap I've ever seen, a thick magnetic base made of glass fiber reinforced nylon, and it can hinge 180 with strong detents every 45. I've dropped it onto concrete from 80in, it's been accidently hit by hammers, left stuck to the underside of a vehicle I drove for 3 days, sprayed with brake clean countless times, doused with water, and has even been submerged in various oils more than once. The battery is still holding in there and the LEDs are still bright as ever. Honestly the light has saved me more headaches than the ratchets, but those came with a nice winter coat that I got a good 5 years out of too. I have a set of Snappy screwdrivers, too, but I won those in a high school skills competition.
All my chrome hex sockets are actually decade old Duralast from the 'Zone, supplemented by a set of Tekton torx and inverted-torx sockets. My 1/2in impact sockets and torque wrenches are also Tekton. The rest is a smattering of other cheapo brands and hand-me-downs. In terms of cordless power tools though, Milwaukee has really got me by the balls and I won't own anything else for cordless mechanic's tools.
Just so ;
A few years before SEARS folded they had nice LED penlights with a magnet in the base . *very* bright and near indestructible .
I wanted another for my car and schlepped down to SEARS, they had a rainbow of them in a bucket next to the cash register, I grabbed the bright pink one and my son groaned "! oh no Pop ~ that's a GIRLIE light !" .
"correct my boy, let's see if it ever get stolen like so many field tools do " .
Nope, no one wants to be embarrassed by it =8-) .
I'm not "proud" of my tools per se but I -DO- value them like gold as they fed and clothed my family and I for 60 years now......
I too have mixed random Chinesium tools I bought for a specific job or thought they'd be nice, those that don't or break are discarded rapidly .
The kids that hung out when my son was in high school used to say 'Mr. Hall, your tool box looks like trash but you _always_ seem to have whatever tool it is you need" .
Yep, this is so .
I too have a couple very old 1/4" drive ratchets I don't ever take my eyes off of, they're #1 tune up tools and cannot be replaced .
Like my Motocycle, they are mute so I have to speak for them .
If you want to ask my Sweet for a bounce, that's fine, if she doesn't want to be with me she'll go with you .
-Nate
I wouldn't ask that of anyone's Sweet but mine own!
=8-) .
-Nate
The broadcast team's boner for Sir LH is nauseating. Sometimes I'm wondering if they're watching the same thing I'm seeing.
If we're hunting humans, I want to do so with a helicopter-mounted minigun. We can take turns shooting.
That said, I don't hate the poors. I was one for most of my adult life. I worked and made income under the federal poverty level while Mrs MD stayed home with our kids. I hate being confrontational and rarely had to do much haggling about anything for any reason. We found ways to improve our financial prospects and things are a couple of orders of magnitude better than they were.
Most of the poors are not bilingual, above-average-IQ couples raising above-average-IQ children and that limits their prospects (and certainly, my own shortcomings have made me oblivious to opportunities in the past, it's like I'm allergic to making money or something). The real poors are always going to be with us. They're always going to waste opportunities presented to them. They're always going to shit in the fountain downtown and get the whole thing turned off, screwing everyone out of watery refreshment. They can't be saved. I'm not really sure there's anything we can do for them besides shoring up public behavior (that is, enforcing the law and putting the worst of them in jail or in an asylum).
'I'm not really sure there's anything we can do for them besides shoring up public behavior (that is, enforcing the law and putting the worst of them in jail or in an asylum).'
Send them to church. That's traditionally been the ONLY thing that works, because you can't enforce the law on everyone and you can't keep a useful number of them in jail due to the expense.
or AA
Absolutely!
I just saw this today on X: “People don’t change their mind when confronted with the truth, they change their mind when confronted with something they want to believe more.”
The blacks are all on weed and the whites are all on meth or painkillers. Who drinks anymore?
Yesterday, in the left lane on a rainy I-75, a clapped-out Altima who’d just got on at the last entrance pulls in front. I get a whiff of skunk weed.
The stereotypes are justified!
Where I live, the off-whites are all vaping THC. I have yet to encounter meth in my current city, although I do know that cocaine blew up when legalization crimped the local pot dealers' businesses. I saw THC seltzer the last time I was at the wine warehouse.
I saw THC seltzer the last time I was at the wine warehouse
My buddy buys these. I tried one "What's the worst that can happen"
THC is not for me
And those things are the weakest delivery method available!
Between church and the law you're probably keeping 95% of it under control. But even in a place like Japan you've got some guy who will chain the doors to an anime studio shut and burn the place down killing the 30-40 animators inside.
yeah that guy was fucking insane
sometimes you forget things like that can even happen there
See, that's the kind of shit you get in a society where people are assholes to their subordinates, bootlickers to their bosses and everybosy's just expected to accept this as the natural order of things.
I have a theory about big-game hunting, which I think should apply to hunting humans as well, which is as follows:
You pay a grand for your tag to take whatever it is you're going after, and you sign a contract absolving everyone other than yourself of any legal liability for what happens to you. Then, you get dropped by helicopter, stark naked, with nothing but a parachute and a KA-BAR combat knife, into the habitat of your chosen prey. If you can take an elephant under those conditions you deserve it.
if we can keep the chinese from hiring africans to poach rare animals for their components then maybe we can get their numbers up high enough to hunt them humanely and not have an endangered species crisis
then you can get mauled by a tiger the old fashioned way
Do you have to fight 1987 Schwarzenegger?
Get to the choppa!
Know what would've improved "Predator" as a movie? One simple thing: Start the film with the helicopter approaching the beach.
Leave the Predator's true nature a mystery. Everybody knew it was an alien from the word "Go." But what if that wasn't the case? What if they kept us wondering?
Is the Predator an alien? A cryptid? A demon? A government project that got away from them? Or DIDN'T? Some mad scientist's project beast?
Think of it!
AND 1987 Jesse Ventura
"Buncha slack-jawed Lewis Hamilton fans around here. This stuff will make you into a goddamned sexual Tyrannosaurus...just like me."
"Yeah, strap THIS on your sore ass, Blain!"
That's a fight even The Predator couldn't win.
And he was one ugly motherfucker, which is an essential component of MMA, by the way.
You mean to tell me that people who get punched in the face for a living tend not to be pretty?
I was talking about the tattoos but yeah, that too.
Dammit, I love that movie so much.
I would still not like hamilton if the broadcast team didn't slob his knob. I'd probably feel the same way I do about george russel. He's a whiney bitch. But I probably wouldn't hate him as much as I do. Maybe I just don't like british drivers.
But the British commentators sure love the British drivers.
someone bring Kimi Raikkonen out of retirement. Everyone loved Kimi, and he couldn't do any worse than, say, Stroll even with this many years out of the saddle.
Kimi’s take on these stupid engine regs would be hilarious for sure.
mumble mumble mumble Mario Cart mumble mumble mumble bullshit regs mumble mumble mumble V10s please...
https://youtu.be/nbxYZbs97t8?si=Pzukpgj-OWFtEQts
Bwaoh.
He couldn't possibly be bothered with these cars.
true. but it would be fun to hear his commentary on them
"Who gives a shit? The cars are shit."
I will forever cheer for Alonso, even if he's limping across the line in 20th place. As Jack noted, rarely has someone with so much talent been handed so many shitty cars and yet dragged them to better finishes than warranted.
plus the guy has raced in THIRTY-SEVEN percent of all F1 races in history.
He's also spanish
He chose this path. Red Bull wanted him. Alonso could be a 6+ time WC now.
After the second recent bagel company article with the engineers justifying the lack of C8 manual with lines like ‘The DCT is better!” or “Nobody wanted it”, I made a rare comment about Tony Roma, the chief engineer: “That poor guy is going to have to answer the question about the missing C8 manual transmission *for the rest of his life*.” That made me happy when I realized it.
The only thing the engineers didn’t say was “Did you know that the C8 has room for golf clubs?”
I think I've told the Alex MacDonald story about the LaCrosse and the ES350 about ten times on here, but the short version is that GM tested the LaCrosse against the ES350, and it won *according to their criteria*, so they were permanently mystified when Buick didn't dethrone Lexus.
No one in GM ever listens to anyone outside GM.
The engineer’s lame comments came off as pathetic.
Well they went from a guy named Tadge to one who shares a name with a rib joint. What did you expect?
The C9 design team is led by a 40 something French woman. I have low expectations.
I would have gladly traded in my C7 on a beautiful mid engine C8, but looks like the Corvette will be dead to me going forward.
The Corvette had a nice design run from 1953-2019. I even liked the disco era Vettes. Oh well, that’s over.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Chevy runs out of Boomer buyers. I would guess that’s when we’ll see the Corvette SUV.
Tony Roma will say it’s “better” and what people want. Room for a scooter mount on the rear bumper, too, since golf club capacity will no longer be a necessity.
Corvette EV SUV 3 row mom mobile.
I’d really like to know how a French woman ended up leading Corvette design.
Mary Barra? Mark Reuss?
Just as disturbing they released a Corvette concept car designed in their UK design studio. WTF?
The main problem with the C8 is that it’s not an American design. It turns its back on Corvette history and looks like a Lambo with bad proportions.
Further, you cannot graft C7 style headlights and taillights onto a mid engine design and expect it to look good. But they only did that so it kind of looked like a Corvette.
Ford did the exact same thing when they grafted Mustang style headlights and taillights onto a CUV and called it the Mach E. Just like the C8, it has a vague resemblance to its predecessor.
Isn’t that the gist of Jack’s linked infamous April Fools article?
All the bloviating about targeting a younger buyer with the C8 was just that.
I was scrolling though the manual C8 threads on CF. Most comments were either keyboard warriors talking about muh performance numbers, the others were saying how they were too old and frail to operate a clutch pedal.
We shit on Porsche a lot here, but being into the Corvette “scene” in 2026 is just as embarrassing. Some days I regret not picking up a nice C6Z or GS, but then I remember how terrible it was trying to sell my C5.
Yup, they are going to have problems when the Boomers are gone or too frail. I didn’t join my local Corvette club because it’s mostly Boomers and I don’t like hanging out with them.
I will give Porsche credit for exploited the 911 name with so many different models to create ongoing interest. They know their customers.
GM should have probably should have done that long ago with the Corvette.
'scooter mount'
ouch.
Your C7 has AFM lifters in it, whether it's a base model, Grand Sport or Z06. The car is a 4 cylinder masquerading as an 8, toggling 4 cylinders (#1, 7, 4 &6) off and on like the movie Airplane air traffic controller. And to make matters worse, Tadge and Mary made sure all the wheels on those Corvettes crack to save a few bucks, they got them made in Mexico. And to top it off, those engines do not use gaskets on the front cover or oil pan. You need an Oil pump? That is an engine out experience due to the mess when permatexing it back together.
Yes, I saved your post from when you originally explained this to me, so thanks again!
I’m thinking of having all the AFM hardware removed by someone like Katech through one of the upgrade packages they offer. In your expert opinion, is that the way to go? I don’t care about the money since I love the car and want to pass it on to my nephew one day.
Doing that and buying a set of forged wheels is a much better way for me to spend money than buying a different car.
who the fuck named their kid texas roadhouse
The same one that named a daughter Paris Hilton?
The inventor of the Lear Jet named his daughter Shanda.
I wonder if Bill Lear gave Frank Zappa advice on children's names.
Voxday could have a field day with this talking about deltas
I absolutely loathe April Fools content.
I generally agree, but my favorite Youtube channel did a alternate history on the SS Great Eastern a couple of years back that I thoroughly enjoy.
https://youtu.be/tp6W0DvSHMY?si=O1RdwgiJqlt9wL3x
Mr. Lutz might like my proposal to bring back dueling. I think this would have salutary effect on society from business suite to public transport. BTW dueling was legal in Uruguay until 1992.
Madam, I eagerly await your application for U.S. citizenship, closely followed by a campaign for a seat in the Senate.
No greater honour. I am afraid my talents are wasted here on the tundra.
We have Stanley Cups over here, too.
In this millennium we have all of them
Last Canada win was 1993.
Speed wasnt even alive
The Leafs and Canucks are preparing to take it back.
And Timmie’s!! 🍩
they do that in chicago ive heard
not as clean but the effect is similar
The valiant knights in their stolen kias, dueling glocks with switches
sir javonquavious of oblock
Chicago even has thug anime fans! Blade Runner, here we come! https://cwbchicago.com/2026/03/anime-trading-card-sales-are-ending-in-armed-robberies-in-gage-park-police-say.html
😂😂😂
There was a great scene in a Mad Men episode about this.
Absolutely! #1 takeaway from reading the first three books of the Master and Commander series.