A friend of mine, who I’ve known since birth, was a pretty squirelly kid, and he hurt himself doing some really dumb shit until he was in high school. His biggest bonehead move was the time his mother was frying chicken in a cast iron skillet full of oil. He was about 7 or so, and had zero impulse control, or pretty…

I’ve never been stuck on a plane, but my mother, me, my sister, her best friend, and her mom were going to Chicago about August 1969 or so, riding what was left of the formerly great NYC 20th Century Limited, now Penn Central whatever, from Toledo. Everything was OK until Elkhart. The AC went out for some reason, and…

A friend of mine used to rag endlessly about Chevettes. What did he drive? A Pontiac T-1000! We let him go on and on making fun of some of the kids he went to school with driving Chevettes. Then we broke the news to him, “Uhhh Bill, your car is just a Chevette with a Pontiac name on it!”. He stammered, “But but my car…

For decades, Wendy’s was my favorite fast food place, it took over from McDonald’s in the late ‘70's or so. Now, it’s a last resort, only if Culver’s (Best ever, IMHO) or Arby’s is closed. The Arby’s close to my home is closing about 9pm most of the time, which is ridiculous, so if I want it, I have to drive a few…

A friend of mine’s mother was just an amazingly bad cook. There were 7 kids, and they lived on the following:

I haven’t spent much time driving in the NE US, but I have driven in DC, Atlanta, Chicago, and SoCal quite a bit, and most of my true rage producing drives have been in Chicago, with Atlanta right behind it. The trip from Toledo to Northern Minnesota was one traffic jam in Chicagoland after another with one of the 3…

Yeah, it’s a nightmare, for sure. I don’t have any blood relatives who have had it, but I’ve been around quite a few people who did/do. One friend of mine has had a ton of little strokes, and recently, two big ones, and she was pretty much out of it by age 63. Her kids and husband are just hoping it all ends soon,…

Our neighborhood whackjob was an old man who looked like Goldfinger from the movie and drove a beige inside and out Olds 88. It was just one sign of him being demented. Band-Aid color is a perfect description of it.

The best bagged popcorn I’ve ever had is the Pop Daddy original. Red popcorn, popped with olive oil, and some salt. It’s not bad. Not great, but not bad. Worst is the air popped stuff, doesn’t matter who makes it, it’s just sad. 

I haven’t bought popcorn at a movie theater for almost 30 years. It sucks, to put it bluntly. It was never great, even when they popped it while you watched and smelled it. The smell was the best part of it. Overpriced, pre popped at most places, it’s little better than microwave. Give me baby white corn, popped in…

One of the local ones in NW Ohio was shut down for a list of health code violations a mile long a couple of times. I thought it was permanently closed, but I went by it last week and it was open. Hopefully, it will get back to the point it was when it first opened up. Pretty decent back then. Last time I went to the…

I really don’t understand what makes people lose their minds over it. We don’t seem to have much drama at our ever increasing in number roundabouts. Brakes slammed on, and a lot of hesitations is it. No fun there.

The ones where they are going so fast that they go airborne are just so insanely great. I really wish I could talk to them, just to see how they explained it. I know a lot of them are just drunk/high, but the rest of them are naturally stupid and those conversations would be “gold”. 

I don’t go to the movies much anymore. I still have nightmares from that damn National Amusements’  Charlie Chaplinesque “These are the rules” POS they used to play before the movie previews. I must have seen that thing a thousand times. Once was more than enough. I don’t think I ever heard as many groans in a theatre…

Mashed potatoes without the peels are just not right. Even the instant ones have peels most of the time in them. 

Didn’t we learn the “rules” about crossing the street back in Kindergarten or 1st grade? “Don’t cross from between parked cars!” was number one, but I see people ignore it all the time. Pretty much makes it their fault if they do and they get hit. One of the new rules should be, “Put away the damn phone and don’t…

The new struts are going on this morning. These will lift the trunk up without any help from me when it’s 30 degrees out, so the conking should be a memory, at least until next winter.

A half hour or so driving a stick, and I’m done. Almost as annoying as when I borrowed a car(same guy, different car) to take my dog to the vet and the person that lent it to me called and needed a ride from the other side of town. The damn car blew it’s radiator all over one of the busiest streets in town and the guy…

I think that sound actually was recycled from The Flintstones, but it still works.

I would seriously curtail my driving if I had to daily drive a stick. Last time I did it, I was ready to just dump a friend’s car I had borrowed and walked home. And it was a Corolla I was driving, which has about the softest clutch I have ever used. When I bought my last car, the sales guy said, “You want the 6…