So my kiddo passed her driving test, and even as I type this, she’s driving around town. In my car. I guess I’ll get used to it, but in the meantime, I’d like to install a Valium lick at my desk. Please feel free to discuss whatever.
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Mustang Bobby
Don’t let her drive in Miami. She’ll never learn what that stalk thingie on the left side of the steering column is for.
gratuitous
I believe Erma Bombeck said it first: Never give your car keys to someone you gave birth to. I think Amazon has a valium lick available.
rikyrah
Congratulations for Mini-Betty Cracker. Getting the license is a big deal in a kid’s life.
jl
Just heard on news: Robin Williams’s widow discloses he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, and was developing early stage symptoms.
In Yahoo news already:
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/wife-robin-williams-had-parkinsons-disease-his-94744481702.html
Wife: Robin Williams Had Parkinson’s Disease, His Sobriety Intact Before Death
Edit: dear Rush, please spare us another imitation of the symptoms. And don’t lie again about how you spewed your filth because you thought people were somehow glorifying or idealizing Williams’ suicide. No one was in anything I heard or read.
BGinCHI
Look on the bright side, Betty, at least “You fly, I’ll buy” is a better deal since before you had to do both.
Riley's Enabler
I received a notice in the mail yesterday about it being time to update my driver’s license. Since it’s been a few years, I don’t have the option to do this online and have to go in person. None of this was a surprise. The surprise was the list of documents I’m required to bring with: 1. Proof of Citizenship – they helpfully suggest I bring a passport (original or notarized official birth certificate will also work) 2. Proof of residency – They helpfully suggest I bring the title to my home. And 3, my social security security card.
Excuse me, what? This is for RENEWAL of a Texas Drivers License that I’ve held for more than 30 years.
I guess I should bring my own tube of lube for the GPS chip, too?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I’m reading the current draft of my novel before commencing on the next one. I think my writing has improved significantly since I wrote a lot of the text. On the upside, that means that I can improve it. On the downside, it means that the thing isn’t as good as I thought it was and the next draft is going to take longer than I thought.
I also have structural things. The first half covers a two year span with flashbacks to the protagonist’s childhood. So I need to figure out what part of the main narrative each flashback relates to and where it should be placed relative to that portion, both the question of whether the flashback comes before or after the relevant narrative and whether it is placed adjacent to that part or well separated. I’m assuming that there will variation on both axes but we’ll see.
The second half covers the next three years interspersed with the events of her adulthood. I know what order the pieces will come in for each plotline but not how they’ll be mixed together. I recently rewatched The English Patient for reassurance on how to deal with two temporally separate plotlines occurring simultaneously within a narrative.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just walked by my muted TV to see Jay Nixon quoted as saying “There’s been gunfire on both sides”
PhoenixRising
Your Valium lick is on its way.
[another topic] But make sure you stay sober. Gosh, it was nice to know that Robin Williams wasn’t drinking when he decided to end his intolerable pain and confusion. Whoever wrote that press release has been to a couple too many 12 step meetings–the only people comforted by knowing that he maintained his sobriety to the end of his rope (and past it) are the ones who, as your sponsor, would reply to ‘I garrotted my grandma with a piano wire’ with ‘But you didn’t drink, did you?’
The experts in sobriety who saw him last month at rehab must be very proud of their work. Client is dead, but he was drug-free when he took his own life! it’s going in their marketing brochures.
Yep, a little bitter. Coming up on the third year without my kid’s godmother, who also managed depression and anxiety without alcohol or medication…until she couldn’t anymore. There are in fact drunks for whom that isn’t the worst outcome, who are drinking for a reason, and telling them to quit self-medicating is the start of getting healthy–not a goal.
Iowa Old Lady
My sympathy, Betty. I can’t even think of anything comforting to say.
Betty Cracker
@Riley’s Enabler: They’ve gotten very strict, I hear. Last year, my mom was bitching up a storm about renewing a Florida license she’d held for ages because they made her bring proof of marriage and divorce to every ex-husband, and some of that went back 40 years.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): But a completed draft is an excellent thing. Jane Smiley says all first drafts are perfect by virtue of being finished.
BGinCHI
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Best of luck.
Revision and re-drafting are very difficult but that’s how you get a novel finished. Just stay stubborn and keep working every day.
Elizabelle
Congratulations to Cracker Junior!
Now she can drive herself to the craft store for her wicked mad design projects.
This week has needed a Valium lick.
BGinCHI
@Iowa Old Lady: I agree with sentence number 1. Sentence number 2 is a nice fantasy, but unfortunately many miles from the truth….
JPL
@Riley’s Enabler: A friend told me about a discussion with a new neighbor. The neighbor tried to get a license but since she was married and divorced several times, she has to have a copy of each. I came close to tearing up my marriage certificate after my divorce but didn’t. I suggested to my sons S.O, that she not change her name. The family value folk, make it too difficult for females and the solution is don’t take your husband’s name.
Elizabelle
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Current draft completed and idea for a next book percolating.
My congratulations, sir or madam.
Good luck with the fine-tuning and killing whatever darlings need to go.
BGinCHI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Symmetrical warfare: militarized cops who killed a teenager and people protesting in their own neighborhood.
Fuck.
Belafon
After my son got his license, I took him out driving and said “Now I’m going to teach you how to actually drive.”
Libby's person
Via GOS: Nationwide protests scheduled for tonight over the Michael Brown shooting and subsequent events in Ferguson:
https://www.facebook.com/NMOS2014 (This page includes a link to a google doc with the locations and facebook pages listed by state.)
There are 2 gatherings listed for NC, one in Durham and another in Charlotte. The one in Durham starts at 7:00 at the old Courthouse; the Facebook page shows 447 people going (I’m sure the actual number will be higher).
Elizabelle
NYTimes alert:
Sounds like progress. And lose the paramilitary swag.
Amir Khalid
If it worries you that she’s driving around in your car, it might be time to get her one of her own, or at least to consider it. But I fear that that wouldn’t reduce your worrying by even a little bit.
Belafon
@JPL: So, in their zeal, the right will drive a Christian tradition into the ground.
Rileys Enabler
@Betty Cracker:
Yea, they mentioned name changes as well; not certain how far that goes back, but I’ll drag out those documents too. I’ll need a camel-drawn wheelbarrow and half of that Valium lick, please.
(congrats to babyBetty for sticking the parallel parking!)
raven
@Riley’s Enabler: Same in Georgia.
Shana
This may or may not sound comforting Betty, but the best you can hope for is that Cracker daughter gets in a mild, and I repeat mild, accident where no one is hurt but she’s a little shaken up and the damage to the car in minor. It will make her much more careful behind the wheel in future and mitigate the sense of teenage invincibility that even the most perfect parents can’t shake their children out of. Happened within a month or two of both of my daughters getting their licenses.
Gin & Tonic
Apparently Dylan Byers tweeted “If you think David Gregory is having a bad day, think about how the executives at ABC and CBS are feeling.” Is it only me who thinks they are feeling giddy with relief that NBC has chosen to hand the reins from one two-bit hack to another, and their lead over Meet the Press in ratings will only grow?
raven
@Elizabelle: Who ever the African American Highway Patrol officer was that spoke right after the governor seemed like he knew his shit and ready to make a change.
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
There are undoubtedly places in the world where that is true. Ferguson, MO doesn’t appear to be one of them, unless the Guv has some evidence he’d like to share.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
This Dylan Byers chap seems to haz a confused about who just got fired, and who fired them.
Jay C
Those are the 1000mg (1kg) ones, right? Like a flattened blue soccer ball with a “V” in the middle?
I think you can get them from Canadian pharmacies online…..
PS: Only “kids driving” story I’ve heard recently: daughter of cousins-in-law just got her license at 17: and griped no end about having to drive the family hand-me-down vehicle ( a late-90’s Volvo wagon) as “her” car. Last winter she wrapped it around a pole due to ice (and walked away unscathed): now, she swears by Volvos as lifesavers, and insisted on a “new” one (a 2005 S40) as a replacement. How many teens these days actually ASK for Volvos…..?
ETA: What Shana said @ #25
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: She will have her own car shortly, a hand-me-down Jeep from my late mother’s estate. It’s old but sturdy as hell. In fact, any other car that ever hit it got totaled while the Jeep didn’t have even a dent. But at the moment it’s getting refurbed, so the kiddo is driving around in my car. You’re right, though: I won’t worry any less.
Evap
I never get used to my offspring driving and they have been driving for 5 and 8 years respectively. Whenever I know that my youngest is driving too/from college (it’s a 3.5 hour drive), there’s always some low level anxiety until I know she’s safe.
The worst was the week my oldest got her license and took a trip to the store with the youngest in tow. I was biting my nails until they got back, although I did my best to hide it from them.
Amir Khalid
@Jay C:
Ahem. 1000mg is only one gram. A kilogram is 1,000,000mg.
Shana
@Jay C: Ummm, mine. And we’ve never owned a Volvo, but then she’s kind of a hipster.
burnspbesq
@Libby’s person:
You might be surprised by the turnout. The dorms open at NCCU today (it’s just athletes at Duke until next week).
raven
@Betty Cracker: When I turned 16 my old man let me buy a Honda 150 Dream figuring I’d only kill myself and one other person.
brantl
My son just got his license this year and my wife needs the valium lick. My son drives like an old lady, so she’s overreacting to the risk of anything except him getting rear-ended.
MattF
Via Daring Fireball:
https://medium.com/message/how-to-be-polite-9bf1e69e888c
I recognize that this is an extremely inappropriate thing to post here, but it’s a charming essay, IMO.
opiejeanne
@Shana: That happened to my son right after he got his license: got plowed into by a little old lady who was extremely annoyed that his car was in her way (he was on the through-street, she turned left from a stop sigh). What bothered him was when he checked to see if she was ok she lit into him, yelling about disrespectful, spoiled teenagers being allowed to drive, etc.
There were witnesses who handed their contact info to my son, thank goodness, and we got an apology from the lady’s insurance agent. He was driving a 55 Chevy, a straight 6 with everything on it except a radio (owned by the wife of a Nazarene pastor) bought just for that purpose, The paint was slightly scuffed. She, on the other hand, had about $600 damage to her car. It was an Olds or something big and tank-like, but a lot newer than his Chevy. That car saw him through HS and a couple of years of college, and then we sold it for more than we paid for it.
Jay C
@Amir Khalid:
Correct, of course: but I’m sure Betty would be happy with one of those (of Valium) in any case….
raven
@opiejeanne: YOU SOLD A 55 Chevy?????????
burnspbesq
Wouldn’t an insulin pump loaded with Valium be more efficient?
flukebucket
The closest I ever came to speaking in tongues was when my daughter merged in to expressway traffic for the first time. Teaching my girls to drive was some of the most horrifying times I have ever had. And then getting those “I JUST WRECKED MY CAR” calls were not all of the soothing either. Just remember. If it is them telling you that they have wrecked all is well. They are fine and nothing else matters.
Botsplainer
Wishing you better luck than we had.
tybee
@Riley’s Enabler: @Betty Cracker:
i was told it was due to DHS requirements and the state, by adhering to the “homeland” regulations the state gets some kinda funding. or a cookie. i don’t remember which.
the whole rigamarole is to prove that you are who you say you are by documenting every name change from birth to social security documentation to what could be death by frustration at the DMV.
but you do get this really cool gold star and a hologram on your new license.
Cervantes
@Gin & Tonic: Byers knows exactly what he is doing.
Elizabelle
@raven:
Good to hear. Haven’t been watching the tube, but I’ve liked the troopers I’ve dealt with in the past.
@Gin & Tonic: NYTimes has a new article up by David Carr about “Hack Attack.”
Oh good, a book about the Villagers, I think.
But no. It’s about the Murdoch cabal phone hacking.
burnspbesq
@raven:
When we first moved from Upstate to NJ in 1964, my dad got a ’56 Belair as his station car. It eventually got traded in on a ’71 Pontiac Catalina. Yes, I still speak to him.
Anoniminous
@raven:
puttputtputtputtputtputtputtputtputtputt (etc)
My first bike was a 1970 CB 350. (Feel the POWER! :-)
Suffern ACE
@Gin & Tonic: gosh, I miss Charles kurault on Sundays. I think a full hour of a camera on a stream in the woods would beat what we have now ratings wise.
Betty Cracker
@MattF: Delightful. Thanks!
burnspbesq
@Anoniminous:
Probably had more power than my first car, a 1969 VW Squareback.
Elizabelle
My sweet nephew got rear-ended recently while driving his pride and joy first truck. Which was totalled.
Accident-causer was a teenager who didn’t see the stopped traffic ahead on a 3-lane highway. No one hurt, and I thought it might be a wake-up call for all 3 young people involved.
Hate to see the trouble nephew and my BIL are going through, trying to find an older, high mileage but good truck that nephew can afford. It’s been a full-time project for them. Relieved, though, that all but the truck came through safely …
Bloix
Here’s some totally unsolicited advice:
Call your agent or company NOW and buy an umbrella policy. What are your life savings? That should be the limit. At least $500,000. The premium is low and it will stand between you and bankruptcy if your daughter runs a stop sign and turns someone into a paraplegic. I bought one while standing in the parking lot of the DMV while my son was taking his test.
Mandalay
.
Mandalay
@jl:
Limbaugh’s U-turn is easily explained. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know this when he initially spewed his bile:
When his minders told him that he must have crapped his pants. His show is still broadcast on Armed Forces Radio so our entire military heard Limbaugh politicizing William’s death. Whoops.
opiejeanne
@raven: You wouldn’t have wanted it. Straight-six automatic, gun-metal gray, teal-green interior. It was an old lady’s car. Truly.
The guy who bought it owned a Mitsubishi dealership. He bought it because it was exactly like the one his father owned when he was growing up in Jordan. I figured he’d take good care of it.
beth
After two years, I’m finally getting used to my daughter driving. I still hit the imaginary brake on my side a lot and her dashboard may have some of my fingernails embedded but I’m getting better. What was fun was the first time we went out to dinner and my husband and I both realized we could have more than one drink since we had a designated driver with us. Fun times!
max
@Elizabelle: Hate to see the trouble nephew and my BIL are going through, trying to find an older, high mileage but good truck that nephew can afford. It’s been a full-time project for them. Relieved, though, that all but the truck came through safely …
My first car was a 1970 nuke green Ford pickup with a 390. It got rear-ended (while parked!) at school by a girl in a Mazda. The Mazda was totaled. The truck was a little bent in the back in spite of having been picked up and moved 10 yards.
My last truck was stolen from me, by a relative of my step-dad. I am still trying to replace it.
So I feel his pain.
max
[‘Oh, man, a good truck is hard to lose.’]
Libby's person
@burnspbesq: You’re right – there’s probably going to be a LOT more. The way the Durham police have dealt with minorities has been an issue here lately, so this issue is particularly resonant here.
Cervantes
@MattF:
Wow. That must have been hard for you to do.
skerry
@Riley’s Enabler: I just renewed mine in MD. I didn’t have to shown any other ID, just turned in my old license. Didn’t ask about marriages, divorces, name changes, etc.
I did have to take an eye exam cuz I am the olds.
However, my mother in IN had to show birth certificate and marriage license along with proof of address when she recently got a new license. Funny, though, my father didn’t need any of that when he got his.
Based on her experience, I have requested a copy of my marriage certificate. I did shred it when the divorce was final. Didn’t think I’d ever need it again. I do plan to keep my passport current.
I, too, have advised my daughters not to change names due to DHS, and all the 9/11 security theater. I have one getting married next year. Not yet clear what she will do.
opiejeanne
@burnspbesq: Meh, “56? What you really want is either the 55 or the 57.
Anoniminous
@burnspbesq:
The top speed claim was 100 (?) IIRC I could hit 60 on a highway, solo.
Elizabelle
@MattF:
Hardly inappropriate, and tonic. Enjoying it. Politely. Fulsomely, even.
Also: Imani Gandy — ABL! — got big-time mentioned in a Washington Post tech blog today. Post was — sadly — about the Twitter abuse Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda suffered. Imani has had her own stalker on Twitter, and Post linked to her account.
Your daily Imani, fresh from the Bezos Post.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid: Completely O/T: It looks like Malaysian gerrymandering is even worse than ours.
opiejeanne
@MattF: Thanks for posting that.
I will share it with some friends.
Suffern ACE
I never had a car until I turned 29. But I understand that lots of schools are located outside town limits and that only children and special needs teens are offered bus service these days. An early model smart car Is really all the cracker crumb would need and would probably help Betty save on Valium.
SiubhanDuinne
@MattF:
What a great read! Thank you for linking.
Elizabelle
Here’s Imani’s blog account of her Twitter stalker.
WP eated my first attempt at posting it.
Tommy
The first car I drove. A 1966 fastback Mustang. I am alive and I still own that car. Put it into a ditch a time or two. But as I said still here.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne:
I thought of you at once on realizing the topic, and knew you would like it!
I could read more by Paul Ford. He’s entertaining and snarks politely.
The Pale Scot
So Betty, did you happen to catch any of the NPR coverage of the ten yr anniversary of Charlie’s rampage thru FL?
The Punta Gorda emergency manager was proudly recounting how the residents there didn’t sit and wait for a “FEMA handout” they went to work fixing right away fixing things.
I was there, I watched the eye pass right over my dad’s house.
The population of PG is mostly white and retired. It’s a lot easier to get to “fixing things” when you have medicare, a government check and credit. And the president’s brother is the governor.
And I guess he forgot about those young white men that were arrested looting what was left of the trailer park.
raven
@Anoniminous: In 1966 that Honda wasn’t too bad for 115 lb kid. Those were the days when everyone who rode gave that “hey” sign to each other. Now you want to talk fast? My Yamaha RD 350 was a fucking bullet.
raven
@burnspbesq: The 71 poncho was really fast! 389 if memory serves.
Elizabelle
@max:
Truck stolen. By a relative, sort of.
There’s a country song in there somewhere.
raven
@The Pale Scot: What was the one that flattened Homestead?
raven
@max: Diamond steel rear bumper?
jeffreyw
Food fun.
currants
@Libby’s person: YES! Boston’s FB page shows 1.3k going so far.
rikyrah
Our youth can lead…..
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Georgia Teens Develop App to Document Police Abuse
Posted by For Harriet
14-year-old Parkview High School Freshman, Caleb Christian was concerned about the number of incidents of police abuse in the news. Still, he knew there were many good police officers in various communities, but had no way of figuring out which communities were highly rated and which were not. So, together with his two older sisters: Parkview High School senior Ima Christian, and Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology sophomore, Asha Christian, they founded a mobile app development company– Pinetart Inc., under which they created a mobile app called Five-O.
Five-O, allows citizens to enter the details of every interaction with a police officer. It also allows them to rate that officer in terms of courtesy and professionalism and provides the ability to enter a short description of what transpired. These details are captured for every county in the United States. Citizen race and age information data is also captured. Additionally, Five-O allows citizens to store the details of each encounter with law enforcement; this provides convenient access to critical information needed for legal action or commendation.
http://www.forharriet.com/2014/08/georgia-teens-develop-app-to-document.html
Bill Arnold
@raven:
Andrew, since no answers yet.
Quaker in a Basement
Awesome.
Betty Cracker
@Tommy: Lucky dog. My first car was a Gremlin! My kid and her friends laughed their asses off when I told them that and they found a picture of one online.
Dog On Porch
A comedian (circa my age) once said, “When I was a teenager, the designated driver was the guy who hadn’t vomited yet”. You can thank god today’s teenagers are wiser and more prudent than when I was at their age. Rest easy, B.C.
rikyrah
Sunny Hostin ✔ @SunnyHostin
Head of DOJ civil rights criminal section, Robert Moossy, has been sent to Ferguson, MO along with a team of investigators.
Tommy
@rikyrah: Kids rock! I do a lot of WordPress work. I used to use this plugin. Downloaded like 35,000,000 times. I read the back story of it. A 14 year old kid from Germany. Got grounded by his parents So he wrote a new computer program. One I used.
Betty Cracker
@The Pale Scot: I didn’t hear that, but hubby and I were having our own walk down memory lane about it yesterday. It only brushed us, but I did have to make coffee on the grill for a few days.
Suffern ACE
@The Pale Scot: back in my day, people knew how to hammer and saw and cleaned up their own fallen brush. Unlike us in New York, who simply didn’t start picking up our yards until March of last year.
Missouri Buckeye
Does anyone else think of the man in front of the tank in Tienanmen Square when they see the picture of the man in front of the Ferguson riot police yesterday?
max
@raven: Diamond steel rear bumper?
The ’70? Nope, just a stock steel (i.e. not shiny, because nothing on that truck was shiny anymore except that saddlebag gas cap) bumper with the grating. The bumper got bent a little. The front edge of the Mazda’s hood was sitting on the girl’s brake booster. The story I got was that she got stoned, was a little late for a test at our mutual HS and peeled around corner expecting to park and there was my truck, parked. So she effectively tried to park her little Mazda sports car under the bed of my truck. Oops. All-heavy sheet steel 70 Ford that I got for 500$ just shrugged it off. It was all already beaten to shit anyways, which was one reason I loved it.
I’d have driven the red ’67 Mustang, of course, if my mother hadn’t been forced into selling it.
@Elizabelle: Truck stolen. By a relative, sort of. There’s a country song in there somewhere.
He probably loaned to his momma and she stalled it out in front of a train.
max
[‘Sniff.’]
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Yes! I’d love to see more by him. (I started to “follow” him on Facebook from the links at the bottom of the page [I don’t do Twitter] but it turned out to require signing up for a whole new account and I didn’t want to do that.)
Bob In Portland
Will the US countenance an attack on the humanitarian convoy? Probably.
Meanwhile, it’s been a month. Where are US satellite intel pictures? Where’s the information from the black boxes? Where are the recordings from air traffic controllers? Down the memory hole.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
That was Andrew.
Edit: Exactly as Bill Arnold said.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
Gag. Thanks, parents. Although I’m glad she’s good at tech. Great idea for an app.
Face
What nick can we apply to your dot? Lil’ Cracker? Cracker Lite? Cheez It? Smalltine?
After she returns, chizz’eck that car for dents. And weed.
SiubhanDuinne
@Missouri Buckeye:
Very first thing I thought of, in fact.
opiejeanne
@Suffern Ace Back in your day did they know how to shovel water?
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Sounds like they mean business.
Good.
mtiffany
FFSMS, I need help: GoFundMe’s page titles are a maximum of 30 characters. Please FSM someone help me with a better page title.
http://www.gofundme.com/d0bdzo
All feedback welcome. If you can chip in, that would be great, too. If you can chip in and spread the word, that would be awesome.
HeartlandLiberal
Words of encouragement. Well, words, anyway.
I had a nice Datsun 280 ZX sports car, 1979 model, years ago, when our son was in his early twenties.
I had it until he drove it one day. In his favor, it was the old lady’s fault, the one who ran the stop sign and broad sided him and totaled the car. He was OK, thank goodness. It helped that she took out the passenger side.
He had not driven long enough to understand that just because you are at a four way stop does not relieve you from looking to both sides to make sure some fool is not running the stop sign before you pull into the intersection.
different-church-lady
@Elizabelle: That is a hell of an essay, and I’m pissed ABL has to put up with it. But unfortunately it misses an important point: “social media” as we currently know it is inherently corrosive in its design. It is a catalyst for bad behavior, and by making the barriers to participation so pathetically low in an attempt for raw volume, it pretty much leaves the gate open for anything at all to slither in.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
Yelp for cop reviews? What could possibly go wrong!
Tommy
@max: As I said I got a 65 Mustang. First car I drove. Has under 40,000 miles on it. My dad and his father loved their cars. My dad did not like the Mustang, gave it back to my grandfather. Went to my great grandmother. She drove it to church, which was across the street and to the grocery store. It is and was a fun ride …..
Mike in NC
@Bob In Portland: Does “Humanitarian Aid” include machine guns, assault rifle magazines, mortar rounds, and rocket-propelled grenades?
Tommy
Here is a pic for you:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/8114170277/
My mom on her first date with my dad. Taken in a ’57 Ford Thunderbird. A few years ago my dad tracked down that exact car. Bought it from this guy in TX. Had it shipped north and told mom here it is. I love you. I always thought that was so darn cool.
The Pale Scot
@raven: Andrew
Elizabelle
@different-church-lady:
You put that so well, and succinctly. (140 characters? Maybe not …)
Elizabelle
@Tommy:
I was kind of expecting to see the car. Although your mum looked good.
And that next photo, of the widow keeping an overnight vigil beside her fallen husband, always gets me.
Glocksman
@different-church-lady:
Well, I’ll give you a few reviews here along with just enough details for anyone who really cares to figure out my real name.
My most recent interaction with the police was on December 28, 2013 because I was arrested for blowing a .23 while causing an accident.
I am an admitted alcoholic, and while no one was injured in this accident (hitting a parked car with my foot off the throttle after putting it in gear in a parking lot), frankly getting busted was the eye opener I needed.
The EPD and VCSD officers were uniformly professional and courteous, though the cynical side of me believes that’s because I didn’t argue and didn’t even think about resisting arrest because my mother the ER nurse said never to do so, even if you’re 100% innocent.
Other incidents ranged from having an ISP trooper pull me over for doing 115 and accelerating in a 45 zone on US 41 to doing 6 over the limit in a school zone at 2 am on Sunday morning and being stopped by the EPD.
The ISP trooper was professional and courteous while the EPD asshole was just that; an asshole.
Never mind the EPD plainclothes asshole who threatened to beat my ass, and would have done so if I hadn’t had the luck to pull over in a hospital parking lot during shift change with literally a hundred people watching him throw a screaming fit.
On the other hand, there were numerous instances of EPD and VCSD officers being professional and even somewhat sympathetic while writing the tickets.
I know that’s because they were taught to do that as part of conflict resolution, but it was still nice enough to be treated as a citizen instead of a criminal because of a civil infraction.
IMHO, cops are people that vary in attitude just as much as any group of people, though I’m more wary of the young ones wearing fatigues than the guys and gals in their late 40’s wearing blue serge.
The Pale Scot
@burnspbesq: The earlier Catalinas were sweet. a friend had a worn out ’63 convertible, it was a great beach car, you could of pitched a tent in the rear trunk. We actually hid a keg of beer in there from a nosy parent.
PaulW
Okay, so those of us in Polk County need to avoid the roads at what times of the day again?!
PaulW
Okay, so those of us in Polk County need to avoid the roads at what times of the day again?!
Glocksman
@Tommy:
Shit.
My first car was a 1978 Chevy Monza 2+2 with the infamous Iron Duke 151 engine.
The only thing slower I ever ran into was the 1982 Camaro that had the same engine.
I found that out when I had a street drag race down Lincoln Avenue by the state hospital.
My big surprise that I was actually beating him until I glanced ahead and saw the Sheriff’s car about to pull out of the McDonald’s by Green River road.
I laid on the brakes and the driver’s girlfriend flipped me off and laughed as they went by.
They weren’t laughing when I drove by a few minutes later and the Deputy was shaking his head ‘no’ as they started pointing at me. :)
Glocksman
@Glocksman:
To me, the real irony is that my second car was a 454 Caprice with power everything, while the Monza was almost all (auto tranny excepted) manual everything.
The first time I drove the Caprice, I managed to burn 5000 miles off the rear tires by accident while slamming my head into the windshield because of the power brakes and almost went into someone’s yard because of the power steering.
Violet
@mtiffany: This sounds like a cool and useful app for people. Sorry I’m not understanding what it is you need help with. The name of the app? A change in the URL?
Are you also going to include–maybe as an optional thing–a way for people to indicate if they are alone or with people? That might also be helpful for them. Obviously it wouldn’t record automatically, but maybe it could be an optional feature if people wanted to add that.
I’d recommend the name focus on being sober. A name like “Not Drinking App” is not as good as “Sober App”. I don’t know? Recovery GPS? Sober GPS?
JCT
@burnspbesq: I always loved those squarebacks- still see a couple on the road out here from time to time.
I had a green 71 Beetle- could see through the floorboards. Loved that damn car until my younger brother totaled it while I was in college .
mtiffany
@Violet: The title for the GoFundMe page — they allow 30 f*cking characters. Anything that I can think of that’s descriptive is at least 60. Maybe “Help me build Sober GPS?”
The Pale Scot
@Suffern ACE: Way back in the day when I was a teen in NJ we got hit with a N’easter, our property had 32 trees on it (growing up in Bayonne I found that amazing) which was covered neck deep with debris. We drove to Sears using multiple detours because of downed trees. Pop was just going to buy a new handsaw but there was just one chainsaw left in the store. Now this is the guy who when we moved to the suburbs to a half acre plot bought a hand pushed reel mower and a special rake (hmm..Scottish) to remove the decades of thatch and left the work to me, who spent the next month of proving the futility of using hand tools on a yard that had been neglected of decades.
Fortunately I was finally old enough to understand how to use sarcasm to make a point,
“Just once, could we do this the easy way.”
I still have that chainsaw.
The Pale Scot
@Bob In Portland: Polish joke,
A german and a russian are charging you with bayonets and you only have one bullet left,
Who do you shoot?
The russian, business before pleasure.
As much as I admire Russian literature, It does seem that russians only feel russian when their boot is on someone’s neck. And Vlad seems to be getting sucked in believing his own propaganda, Now… where are those plans for that bomb shelter I was considering in “63?
Suffern ACE
Passed a Chevy Citation on the road tonight. Is that a classic car now?
The Pale Scot
@Tommy: Can you tell us the story about the mattress, coffin and the Marine standing guard?
Edit, never mind.
burnspbesq
@raven:
Ours had the base engine, a 355 with a highly restrictive 2-barrel carb. Took about 2 1/2 minutes to get up to 55.
Chris T.
@Betty Cracker: Well, that’s because a driver’s license is also now a voting license, and you know we can’t just let anyone have one of those!
Violet
@mtiffany: I like that. It’s interesting anyway. Would make me take a look because “What’s Sober GPS?”
LT
Betty,
Shortly after getting my driver’s license I was driving with buddy Ken to pick up tux for prom him getting set to roll a doobie wind blew bag into back seat we both reached back to grab it looked back OH mailbox in front of windsheld BAM CRASH. Mailbox had been concreted into the ground by an engineer, I think, four-by-four posts, possibly depleted uranium for the box itself.
Who knew you could total your parent’s Plymouth Fury station wagon on a mailbox right after getting your license?!
I’m sure your daughter will do nothing like that, though.
J R in WV
@MattF:
Matt,
Wonderful piece! Thanks!
JR
Jay C
@The Pale Scot:
Was that literature, or history….?
The Pale Scot
@Jay C: Not sure of the question, but….
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, masters.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Anoniminous: I had a ’73. I could get it over 90 if I laid flat on the tank.
max
@Tommy: As I said I got a 65 Mustang. First car I drove. Has under 40,000 miles on it. My dad and his father loved their cars. My dad did not like the Mustang, gave it back to my grandfather. Went to my great grandmother. She drove it to church, which was across the street and to the grocery store. It is and was a fun ride …..
Oh, yeah. A year or two ago I saw a 62-63 black Ford Falcon, the Mustang’s ancestor. Gorgeous car. Looked like this. If I’d ever been able to lay hands on one to do a resto, I’d have so totally done it up in jet black, blackout chrome, convertible, with black rims. Sweet!
max
[‘Love me some Fords.’]
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@max: A girlfriend in high school had a maroon ’65 Mustang convertible with a 289.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: That is so awesome. It gives me hope.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Your posts have made me smile twice in one minute. Thank god for that, it’s been such a discouraging week.
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@raven: Flattened Homestead? Hurricane Andrew. I was in Hollywood, and it damn near flattened Hollywood too. 60 miles from Homestead.
Desmo
@Jay C
“How many kids these days ask for Volvos?”
Having had about 20 Volvos, when it was time to look for a first car for the Granddaughter, I went looking for a Swedish Steel Brick. A 240 Volvo.
Took the kid along to look at one and it seemed really neglected. Sitting under a tree, covered with filth. Owner was late to the meetup.
I said, “Alex, I don’t know, this one looks pretty rough.”
She wiped dirt of the window. “The interior looks great!”
Owner shows up. We clean off the windshield so vision through it is possible, car fires right up. We drive it around, runs OK. Body is actually good other than bubbling clear-coat, no sign of collision damage. I ask the kid, “Alex, is this the sort of car you would enjoy driving?”
Alex: “I really like this car. I’ll work hard to clean it up, I’ll take care of it. Would you get it for me?”
$800 later we own the safest car a kid could possibly drive. Swedish engineering. Slow. And inexpensive to maintain.
I figured she’d say, “This is a really boring car.”
But no, she wanted it! Yeah!
And the mechanic to whom it has been assigned for rehab reports “Car is basically in sound condition, no rust, never been hit. Lots of evidence of regular maintenance. And the motor is fresh, it’s from a later model car, looks to be very low miles.
There is still luck in this world, that isn’t bad.
Sad that cars as solid as those old Volvos are no longer made.
Gravenstone
@Glocksman:
I looked at a Monza when I was looking to buy my second car (first being an 1970 Impala, puke green). I sat down in it, went to close the door and had it bounce off my shoulder. Not a lot of space between the door and the seat.
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
Very old story here. Pakatan got more votes in total than Barisan in last year’s general election; it’s commonly understood that Pakatan would have had the parliamentary majority if not for the gerrymandering.
low-tech cyclist
We’re in Plant City for the next couple of days, Betty. Is that somewhere your daughter might go, or are we safe? ;-)