I do not have a problem with Patrick, her using her body as a tool, or her shoes. I have a problem with the double standard you are imposing on her actions. She wanted to be noticed. She got noticed, and it was just a comment. Had he said “Cute shoes” as opposed to “sexy shoes” would that have passed your prudish…

Elizabeth, stop trying to defend Patrick and her use of her body as a way to get ahead. It is not a “choice she made at 25" since according to my phone feed last week she “looks really hot in a bathing suit” a photo that her publicist put on the web to keep her name appeal up. Do I think that she wore those shoes to…

Fabulous essay! Thank you very much. 

From race car livery, no. I did however get suckered by an historically incorrect product placement in a race film. In the film “Rush” they have multiple placements for Beta brand tools. When my last set of ratchets took a dive, I decided to go expensive upscale, and I have to say that as expensive as they are for a…

This is an excellent point. I have limited exposure to automotive computer aids. I have driven my wife’s Mercedes wagon enough to get some inkling at the dumb stuff its computers think, particularly a little red light that goes off periodically to inform me that a pedestrian may be entering the road. There never is.…

Thanks for the reply. It certainly isn’t possible to solve all potential failures, but I do find computers checking computers interesting.

I agree with your assessment whole heartedly, but I do wonder both in airliners and autos why the duty of vigilance belongs primarily to the driver? It seems to me that there should be an idiot light, like the one in 1970's US cars that lit up to tell you that the car was overheating, that would light up when the…

If it is like my ‘93 Maxima, the injector has a 50% chance of being under the intake manifold. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to do all six on my Maxima way back when, and to do the injector was one tool and some ATF fluid. Need a screw driver to undo the fuel hose then pry the old injector out of the hole. I coat the…

I have found that cars can often be referred to as a model year due to being originally titled in the year following the model year. It is a left over on the lot, gets sold that February, and the title and registration call it the title year for rest of its life. Also, as everyone else has said, parts can be…

Absolutely. I have found Lucas lighting equipment and switches on MB cars from the period. They were a major supplier to all European companies. The part that flummuxed me for a while was a fuel injection balancing component for a ‘72 SE 4.5 from a company called A. Pierburg. I have no idea who they are or were, but I…

Oh this is just too absurd! You assume that a TC could run, ho, lord please I can’t take any more.

First Gear: I am so happy that Europe is again heavily engaging in distorting the auto market with incentives. The massive success of their diesel campaign I am sure will be reached in no time! 

For me automotive design/engineering jumped the shark 2006 just as it did in 1972. I don’t like driver aids. I want a manual so I can accurately control the torque to the wheels in any conditions, particularly snow. You can lug a manual in snow the way no automatic transmission will ever allow you. You can prevent…

Standards are slipping. 

That’s funny. My kids spilled milk on my keyboard last week, and I get all sorts of stuff like that now. 

Forget the trucks ... did they really put “trump adiminstration” on one of the crane booms because that is the cheesiest thing I think I have seen this cheeseball administration do.

I would say that my truck out work trucks this work truck on one pivotal metric. no AC. I have a 2006 Chevy 1500 5 speed, on demand 4WD, 4.3V6, regular cab, long bed, bench seat, with wind up windows and hose out vinyl interior. The only option on the thing is cruise control, which the original owner needed since he…

I gave up on peg board. It never works as well as you think it will. I moved over to slat wall, which I see a great home version of below. Pre-made the stuff is expensive, but you run it around your walls in a line, and you can hang pretty much anything.

I moved a coat closet that came out of my house during a remodel into my garage and found it an elegant place to hang my motorcycle jackets, put the helmets on top. Repurposed cabinetry rocks. 

An XK120 with more power will be capable of going exactly zero more MPH. I heard a lecture from Norman Dewis, the man driving the XK when it set it speed run Belgium in 1953 for I believe the XK150 variant of the car. He topped 172 MPH in a timed run, but an observer told him that the car was pretty much flying off…