When did you last drive to Manhattan? I got nailed the same way during the Holidays. Sign said "on school days." Got a ticket anyway. During the Christmas break. On a fscking Sunday.

Or park somewhere in Brooklyn (hopefully near the Bridge) and take the train.

So then the future terrorist attack will involve an EM pulse, one big enough to cause a continent-wide power outage. Then where is all your electronic cash, hmm?

Dang thing had a fridge in it, too. I mean, what good is a car fridge unless you leave the engine running 24/7?

I'm 49 years old. My career goal is to find a job and keep it long enough to reach retirement age without having to crack open my 401K to pay the mortgage.

So cool, Toyota had to steal it.

So a Scion xA is a wagon. The roofline extends to the rear bumper, and the hatch is nearly perpendicular to the pavement. It just happens to be rather stubby.

It's an abbreviation of sorts. They have a few new words like this, like "handy" for a cell phone or "krimi" for a crime novel (or TV show). Instead of "fernsehen," most Germans nowadays use "TV", pronounced "tay-fow". A "fernsehgeraet" (TV set) becomes "glotze" in southern Germany. These, at least, make more…

The Germans call it a "kombi." As in "multi-purpose vehicle." Straight, and to the point, not to mention descriptive.

Well, some say his balls are made of a top-secret titanium alloy...and that he has at least five of them.

It's a wonderful place to live if you can afford it. I wouldn't even own a car.

Yeah, because safety, reliability, and durability are so boring. Cars with fatal flaws are so much more exciting and fun to drive.

Al is perfectly suitable for aircraft. Standards for auto body parts are not quite as demanding.

Can you wash your clothes (or dishes) in it? That's all I'm really asking, that my major appliances, for which I have paid significant amounts of money, are as reliable and durable as a a Toyota automobile. Is that really too much to ask? Our Corolla has to get us from point a to point b in all kinds of weather,…

There is a disturbing trend that we've been burned on a few times now. Disposable major appliances. You go down to the basement to start the washing machine because somebody set off a laundry bomb down there. You fill the drum with all those towels that were used once and thrown on the floor, load up the soap…

We set a $50 limit and stuck to it. That was our Christmas present to ourselves. We might take the difference and go out for Chinese and a movie with the Jews.

Or the even older school natural gasoline, which was perhaps 45 or so octane.

They gawk because you really are a rare bird, so to speak. Just like girls who really enjoy watching football or stock car racing (or Star Trek). I can't even think about watching a ballgame when my wife is home.

It is if you're starting your vigil on Thursday night.

And remember, if you're working on a holiday, you should be getting time and a half.