Tag: automobiles

Wizards, Dogs, and Rabbits, Oh My!

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Some selected news chum, gathered from lunchtime perusals of the headlines yesterday (when I had a bad headache) and today:

  • From the “We’re Off To See The Wizard” Department: I’m not sure which story is more bizarre. Variety is reporting that NBC is planning an update of the Wizard of Oz called “Dorothy Gale”, which follows the story of Dorothy, a girl from Kansas who tries to tackle modern-day Manhattan (her version of the Emerald City), finding a job in the art world where she must deal with a wicked boss. This is being executive produced by the fellow who brought you the recent remake of “The Bionic Woman”. But that’s nothing compared to the report that Andrew Lloyd Webber is planning to bring the 1939 Wizard of Oz musical to Broadway, combining the original songs with new songs by Webber and lyricist Glen Slater (who is working with him on the Phantom sequel). Sir Andrew’s opinion of the current attempts to bring this movie to the stage, “They attempt to do it exactly the same as in the movie. That’s completely wrong! You’ve got to think of it as a theater piece, which just happens to have three or four of the greatest songs of all time.” Lyricist Slater notes that neither the Wizard nor the Witch have songs — something he plans to remedy.
  • From the “Going to the Dogs” Department: Both Honda and Toyota have come up with a new approach to options to sell cars: making them dog friendly. Specifically, dog-friendly features are being added to the Toyota Venza and the Honda Element. The Venza offers doggy seat mats, barriers and other items designed to make dogs and their owners more comfortable, included $44.99 for a “zip line” to keep an 80-pound or larger dog confined in the back seat or $99.99 for a “bi-fold pet ramp.” The Element will feature a built-in bed in the cargo area, a private electric cooling fan, a spill-proof water bowl and a mesh net to keep animals separated from people… and rubber floor mats embellished with a dog-bone design. The dog-oriented Element will even have a fold-out ramp for dogs that can’t, won’t or shouldn’t (because some breeds can develop bad backs later in life) make the leap into the Element’s rear.
  • From the “Breaking (Unleavened) Bread” Department: Turning to a more serious note, the LA Times has a good article on an effort in Rancho Palos Verdes to educate catholics about Passover. This is a joint effort between Cong. Ner Tamid in RPV and the archdiocese of LA… and isn’t the only one in the area. Very interesting article… but they don’t note whether there is an equivalent effort to inform Jews about what Easter is — I’m not talking about the specific event it commemorates, but how it is observed (e.g., why is it, if there is an Easter bunny, that folks eat ham instead of hasenpfeffer?). Oh, and speaking of rabbi-t (look at the link), the NY Times Magazine has an interesting article on Barak Obama’s cousin, the Rabbi.
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Non-Foolish Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

It’s past April Fools Day, so today’s lunchtime news skim brings you items that are 100% true:

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Chum to Chew On

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Some accumulated news chum from the weekend and today’s lunchtime perusal of the newssites:

  • From the “Didn’t They Try That In Santa Clarita” Department: Shades of the Honda ad that played the William Tell Overture on an isolated road in Santa Clarita when you drive it in the right Honda at the right speed, there are those who are claiming that the subway cars that run beneath Broadway play music from West Side Story. Specifically, just as the No. 2 train pulls out of Times Square station, people seem to hear the first few words from “Somewhere”. Of course, there is no such music playing: it is a side effect of newer trains that run on AC instead of DC. The inverters that convert the DC frequencies excite the steel, he said, which — in the case of the new R142 subway cars — responds. No, it really doesn’t sing “Somewhere”; rather, it creates intervals that the mind fashions into the song. In the case of “Somewhere”, there are two intervals: Between the first note — “there’s” — and the second note — “a” — the interval is known as an ascending minor seventh. From that second note to the third — “place” — there’s a descending half-step interval. “Somewhere” is one of the few songs with those intervals, and thus… the mind hears it. It’s always amazing how our minds work.
  • From the “Memories of Brands Past” Department: Last week, the auto bailout was in the news, and with it was a lot of nostalgia for what the Pontiac Division of GM was. There were memories of Pontiac’s muscle car days, days of the GTO, Grand Prix, and Bonneville. There was discussions of how Pontiac lost its way (funny, but there seems to be no nostalgia for Saturn, the other division on the chopping block). I mention this because there’s another auto brand memory story, but this time it is one of a more FrankenCar (and I don’t mean Al, pal). It seems that Boiceville NY is the home of the second Collectible Car of the Year contest winner, and his car is an interesting mix: a custom car constructed out of a 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan and body panels from 11 different classic cars, in particular a 1957 De Soto. The “Marquis de Soto”, as he calls it, retains the DeSoto look with the positive traits of the newer Mercury: air-conditioning and predictable handling. It even passes the state inspection. Of course, folks like us will appreciate him less for the car, and more for what he is doing with his winnings: Buying the ‘Stargate Atlantis’ action figures and building a small Jumper spacecraft like those on the show.
  • From the “Because I Find You Trustworthy” Department: In an interesting twist on the infamous Nigerian Email Swindles, a Nigerian has been arrested for trying to swindle a bank directly, vs. going after the depositor. To carry out the elaborate scheme to dup Citibank out of $27M, Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world. The fraud was uncovered after several banks where the conspirators held accounts returned money to Citibank, saying they had been unable to process the transactions, and an official of the National Bank of Ethiopia said that it did not recognize the transactions. What’s scarier is that Citibank didn’t catch the problem: in October they received two dozen faxed requests for money to be wired and dutifully transferred $27 million to accounts controlled by the conspirators in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States.
  • From the “And The Saints Go Marching In” Department: In the spirit of the upcoming Mardi Gras, I must bring you a story about saints. This time, it’s a new one. In an attempt to curry favor from Barak Obama, the Pope is elevating Father Damian of Hawai’i to sainthood for his work ministering to the lepers of Molokai. He will be declared a saint on October 11.
  • From the “The Changing Face of News” Department: You may have noticed that all of the articles so far have come from the New York Times. That’s because many of my local newssources are going down the tubes. The LA Times is a shade of its former self, and as for the Daily News… well, it is soon going to be back to the Valley News and Green Sheet quality, if Singleton keeps things up. San Jose — watch out — the Mercury News is likely next. Anyway, according to LA Observed, the Daily News has formally lowered its sights back to the valley: the Editor has said coverage will be focused almost exclusively on the San Fernando Valley, which would be a return to the coverage model that predated Dean Singleton’s ownership. This is made clear by a note to readers in today’s issue, which tries to put a positive spin on things: “We thank you for your loyal support as we confront this troubled economy. We are committed to producing a relevant local news report that is focused on the San Fernando Valley.” As for other local news, the distinction between KNX and KFWB is blurring, which likely means at some point there will be only one all-news outlet in LA. As for the Times, they just keep losing more and more staff — well, losing isn’t the right word — they know where they are, they just keep kicking them to the curb. On the positive side, they are dumping the retconned “For Better or For Worse”.
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And Talking of Dinosaurs

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Ah, lunchtime. A time to read the papers… and to think of the past… and the present…

  • From the “I Always Thought The Name Was Redundant” Department: There’s a fascinating article in the LA Times about a major trove of fossils unearthed near the La Brea Tar Pits. This appears to be the largest known cache of fossils from the last ice age, and includes a nearly intact skeleton of a Columbian mammoth — named Zed by researchers, as well as loads of smaller fossils of tree trunks, turtles, snails, clams, millipedes, fish, gophers and even mats of oak leaves. Now, it’s no surprise that they found something: they are excavating under the old May Company garage in the Park La Brea area, right near La Brea Pits. What is interesting to me is how they are doing things, because they are in a rush to build a new underground parking garage for the adjacent art museum: Instead of having paleontologists spend days to weeks carefully sifting through the soil at the site of a dig, they are treating the areas like big trees: Carefully identifying the edges of each deposit, the paleontology team dug trenches around and underneath them, isolating the deposits on dirt pedestals. After wrapping heavy plastic around the deposits, workers built wooden crates similar to tree boxes and lifted them out individually with a heavy crane. The biggest one weighed 123,000 pounds. In 3½ months, working seven days a week, they removed the entire collection two years ago and delivered them to the museum. For some of the deposits, they had to wear oxygen tanks with full gas masks because of unusually high levels of hydrogen sulfide escaping from the soil. The only exceptions to the crating process were the mammoth named Zed and a horse skull. Because they were separate from the other assemblages, they were partially excavated and encased in plastic casts for cleaning in the museum — the conventional technique for recovering fossils. There are now 23 crates available for the conventional slow approach.
  • From the “And Speaking of Dinosaurs, Take I” Department: Yes, there is a theme today. In our first class of modern dinosaurs, I present: wealthy cities. According to the LA Times, it seems they are discovering they aren’t immune from the recession. They are seeing significant decreases in sales tax revenues and property tax revenues. Beverly Hills now projects a $24-million drop in tax revenues over the next 16 months, representing 15% of the general fund budget. Santa Monica has a budget gap that could swell to $10 million next year. Newport Beach has seen a drop in luxury car sales resulting in an anticipated $3.5-million budget gap. There are vacancies on Rodeo Drive, pink slips abound, and conspicuous consumption is dead. We’re seeing a shift in mentality folks to what our parents (or for you youngsters, your parent’s parents) had from the depression: save, don’t spend. Think about what that means for getting people to spend our way out of the recession.
  • From the “And Speaking of Dinosaurs, Take II” Department: Our second class of modern dinosaurs: Pontiac and Saturn. Yup, GM has a proposal to shred shed brands, and it looks like Pontiac and Saturn are on the chopping block, together with Saab and Hummer. This is a significant change for GM, which loved its myriad brands like Gollum loved his ring. They may try to spinoff Saturn (but to who… and would it survive). Both brands had their caches… well, Saturn did once when it first came out, but now it is just rebadging. The Pontiac name may become a mini-brand, probably just a sub-line within Chevy or Buick. The NY Times also has a nice car-blog entry remembering Pontiac, when it was actually something unique and muscular, before the brand jumped the shark.
  • From the And Speaking of Dinosaurs, Take III” Department: Our third class of modern dinosaurs are the extinct stores. Ever wonder where their customers go, after the store is gone? The usual answer is: Wal-Mart. The attitude seems to be “If I can save that much money, I’ll live with the lack of selection or customer service”. In a recession, do you blame them? Other stores are trying to position themselves, but not seeing the profits they expected: Best Buy (grabbing Circuit City folks), Bed Bath and Beyond (going after Linen & Things), and Kohls (going after Mervyns).
  • From the “Censoring and Dinosaurs” Department: There are two interesting cases of self-censorship in the news… and both have some connection to dinosaurs. The Mayor of Television (mayor_of_tv) is reporting that TV Land is adjusting episodes of Sanford and Son (a dinosaur of a TV show) where Red Foxx (who never had a clean mouth) was using the “N-Word”. What’s next? Archie Bunker? That was the point of the show. In more local censorship, the LA Times Culture Monster Blog (lat_cultrmnstr) reported that a Corona Del Mar High School production of the student edition of the musical “Rent” (which has already been censored) has been cancelled. One report says it was due to gay characters, but the principal and staff at Corona Del Mar high school deny that, just claiming there was still unidentified “objectionable material”. By the way, want to know what the replacement is? “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”. Talk about dinosaurs!

    By the way, since we’re talking Orange County and high schools, I should note some things never change: two Orange County HS students (Beckman HS in Irvine) are accused of hacking grades. Specifically, they allegedly used a stolen password to change their grades in the school’s computer system, apparently using the password information of a teacher they had befriended to log onto the system. Last year, two seniors at Las Flores’ Tesoro High School were charged with a combined 73 felony counts for purportedly breaking into their school at least six times to steal tests, hack into school computers and change grades.

Theatre Note: In some recent posts, I’ve been talking about The Wedding Singer at Rep East. Well, it appears that an upcoming National Tour of the show has resulting in the rights for Rep East being cancelled. They are voting on a new spring musical at their website, and I encourage those in the area to vote. My thinking on the potential shows: Little Shop is being done by too many high schools, including Van Nuys HS in the same time period. Singing in the Rain was recently done by Cabrillo, and I don’t think Rep East has the space to top that. Forbidden Broadway might work, but it is more of a revue of potentially older shows (unless they have the latest version) and I don’t think would draw. Debbie Does Dallas might not work well up in Santa Clarita. That leaves Great American Trailer Park Musical and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Forum is one of the weaker Sondheim musicals (although funny), and better suited to the Canyon Theatre Guild at the other end of the block. That leaves Trailer Park, which hasn’t been done in Southern California before (giving them a premiere, which Wedding Singer would have been) and has great music. You can probably guess how I voted.

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Hello, Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Been busy the last few days, but I do have a few news items for you to consider:

  • From the “Butter. Parkay.” Department: Missouri is considering finally decriminalizing margarine. Missouri House member Sara Lampe said Tuesday that she plans to file legislation repealing Missouri’s butter law, which dates to 1895. The law restricts the sale, possession or shipment of imitation butter and bans yellow-tinted varieties. Those dealing contraband dairy products can be fined up to $100 and jailed for up to a month.
  • From the “Remember When They Were Joined At The Hip?” Department: MGM Mirage is selling Treasure Island TI to Phil Ruffian, owner of the site that used to be the Frontier hotel. TI was built for $450 million by casino mogul Steve Wynn and opened in 1993, featuring a public pirate show set on a replica ship in front of the building. It now has 2,885 guest rooms and suites, 90,000 square feet of gambling space, restaurants and entertainment. The property was recast in 2003 by MGM Mirage as TI, with a sexier “Sirens of TI” show replacing the pirate extravaganza. Me? I liked the pirates.
  • From the “Where Are We Going To Eat?” Department: Orange County has rejected having letter grades for their restaurants because the Board of Sups is worried about harming restaurant owners during a recession. Come again? What about the patrons? In the last three months, for instance, health inspectors have shut down an ice cream shop in Orange after finding cockroaches on the floor and wall near the preparation counter and a Laguna Beach restaurant after finding a live rodent caught on a glue trap. Both of the restaurants reopened after passing follow-up inspections.
  • From the “Mmmmm. Fat.” Department: Want to know what makes holiday cookies good? Butter. The NY Times has a nice article about its secrets.
  • From the “When Will They Learn?” Department: Wondering why the big three don’t build successful small cars? Because they’ve failed before and before that.
  • From the “Planned Obsolescence” Department: And yet again Stan Freberg comes to mind. No, not Green Chri$tma$. Rather, there’s a good article in the NY Times about how things are now meant to be non-repairable, to be thrown out and replaced in our disposable culture.
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‘Tis The Season To Be Chummy

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Today’s lunchtime news chum seems to all be connected to marketing and advertising. I have no idea why.

  • From the “Creative Financing” Department: Tired of the mundane school fundraiser? Have enough greeting cards? Don’t need another magazine subscription? An instructor in Rancho Bernardo (near San Diego) has a novel idea: Sell advertising space on the exams. The teacher, Nick Farber, started letting parents and local businesses sponsor tests this fall after learning budget cuts would limit his in-school printing allowance — tracked by the school’s copy machines — to $316 for the year. The cost of printing quizzes and tests for his 167 students will easily be more than $500, he said. So Farber, who says he’d never asked for money from parents in his 18 years of high school teaching, pitched the ad idea to parents at a September back-to-school night. For checks made to the math department — $10 a quiz, $20 a test or $30 for a final exam — they could insert an inspirational quote — their own or someone else’s — or a business advertisement at the bottom of the first page. He’s already collected more than $300, and is on track to top $1,000.
  • From the “Valley of the Dolls” Department: There has been an interesting legal verdict in the battle of Barbie vs. Bratz. The judge banned MGA from making or selling the Bratz doll. Note that this is almost 30% of the business of MGA (HQed in the San Fernando Valley). The LA Times gives more details: the judge ruled that Mattel (HQed in El Segundo) is the legal owner of the edgy toy line and has the right to recall all unsold Bratz. The order says that MGA may no longer manufacture, sell, advertise or license its core lineup of Bratz dolls or any other product with the Bratz name. However, the order does not take effect until February, and an appeal is expected. My expectation: Mattel will keep manufacturing the dolls under their imprimatur, and there will be more job losses in the valley.
  • From the “Notice how Saturn wasn’t in the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter?” Department: As we all know, the “Big 3” are all in DC pleading for their lives (oops) asking for a handout (oops) groveling. One piece of information coming out of this is that the one division truly GM created, Saturn, may be on the chopping block (most of the brands came in with the mergers that created GM). According to the LA Times, Saturn may be on the chopping block, be sold, or be merged. It has evidently not been profitable, they’ve abandoned most of their original core ideas, and their cars are either rebadgings or imported Opels that the exchange rate is killing. Instead of being a model of how to compete with the Japanese and other imports (the original goal of Saturn), it has become a drag, and didn’t provide ideas to improve the other divisions. This is highlighted in the NY Times article on the subject. Could perhaps GM be too hidebound, and this be the reason for its failure? Nah. GM knows it isn’t their fault.
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The Great Gods of the Highway get a new vehicle…

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

The Daily News is reporting that the CHP has purchased 88 Dodge Chargers for use on the highways:

  • Nine will be white with a CHP logo on the front doors and will be used at the academy for training and evaluation.
  • Nine with a snappier logo will be distributed to the eight divisions across the state and at the Sacramento headquarters, and will be driven by public affairs officers and used as a recruiting tool.
  • The remainder will be used undercover, with regular factory colors and no CHP logos.

Seventy-nine of the cars will have a more fuel efficient V-6 power plant but they are still pursuit-rated vehicles. The nine at the academy will have the bigger 340 horsepower, 5.7 liter V-8 Hemi engine.

The article has additional tidbits, such as the fact that in 1996, the agency put the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor in service as its general purpose patrol vehicle. And in 1994 and 1995, the agency used the Chevrolet Caprice. Of course, we all know that in 2006, the CHP placed an order for Porsche Boxsters. The requirements are simple:

  • It must be rear-wheel drive and a certified police vehicle.
  • The agency’s radio has to work in it, the weapons have to fit inside the cockpit and there has to be adequate trunk space.
  • There must be room to haul around a prisoner.

Of course, there’s never a cruiser around when the fool in front of you makes an unsafe lane change 🙂

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Dinosaurs in the News

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Some observations while perusing the headlines at lunch:

  • From the “Did Dinosaurs Drink Kool-Aid” Department: CNN is reporting that a dinosaur mass grave has been discovered in Switzerland. This area contains the bones of one animal per 100 square meters, so the entire area might contain bones of 100 more Plateosaurus. Evidence found at that site indicates that a government dinosaur had recently visited.
  • From the “And Speaking of Dinosaurs” Department: CNN is also reporting that George Bush has rejected an attempt to increase the gas tax to pay for infrastructure repairs, wanting congress to first examine how it sets priorities. Remember, folks, that the gas tax is an interesting oddity. As people drive more, income from the tax goes up, but as the price goes up, including tax increases, people drive less. Combine that with more fuel efficient cars (which reduce the gas tax), and you have less infrastructre spending (especially compared to the 1960s, putting the dollars in the same year of reference). Of course, we know what this really means is that Bush wants the spending for the war and his pet projects, not what congress wants. But then, who needs to repair a 60-year-old infrastructure that is critical to interstate commerce. We all know what that did to Eisenhower’s reputation.
  • From the “And Speaking of Dinosuars Redux” Department: CNN is also reporting that GM is working again on a battery-powered electric car. Hopefully, with the trend towards hybrids, they will support unlike their last all-electric car. But then again, we know that the real answer is ethanol, because who needs corn for eating.
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