Maybe not as bad as some, but my old Roadmaster wagon had a couple of these. Several years ago at Thanksgiving, I drive out to a relative’s place the night before the holiday. I stop to get gas, and when I start the car again the low coolant light stays on. I swear, get out and look underneath. Looks like a minor…

Continuously sh-clack cycling sh-clack pump sh-clack action sh-clack shotguns sh-clack for sh-clack dramatic sh-clack effect. Or just pointing a gun produces clicks and other metallic noises.

Hoopty only begets more hoopty.

Don’t forget the schoolbus race.

I find this to be a pretty good tell of how they think. Listens to classic rock exclusively, disdains anything recent? Good odds they’re not too introspective and not all that open-minded.

Fair enough. My hill is using loose and lose correctly.

The battle was lost about a decade ago or so, I think even in 2007 then the cultural inertia was too great for the dozens of us (metaphorically speaking) that care about the usage to overcome. I recall similar discussions online back then.

Or, a bumper sticker that says ‘Your argument is invalid. I have a tank.’

Historic armored vehicles as a hobby is in a league of its own. It’s not just enough to be able to have the cash to buy one, you’ve gotta be able to transport it and insure it. A couple owners I’ve met needed to rent or buy semis and lowboy trailers to move these things around.

Someone get Speedycop on the line, here’s their next Lemons project.

The Spacewrecks TTA book was always my favorite, I stumbled across that around age 12 or 13. Found an e-book copy a couple years ago and some of the stories were just as eerie as I remembered.

Didn’t look that energetic relative to the rest of the vehicle, to be honest, though some retention wouldn’t be a bad idea. If a pedestrian was close enough for that battery to be an issue they might have greater concerns, like the rest of the car, and whatever it hit in particular.

Eh, problem with that reasoning is that plenty of accidents involve innocent drivers/bystanders who may not have had any control over the outcome of the accident. Drunk or distracted drivers suddenly veering into oncoming traffic on a two-lane road, or blowing through a standing red light don’t give a whole lot of…

Not necessarily. While ship naming is up to Congress, it seems typically even for Presidents there has to be notable reason to get things named after someone. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Nimitz are fairly obvious ones, but others also have reasons. George H.W. Bush was a…

Pretty much, they come up with a pool of names and run it through a focus group. I’ve got it on pretty good authority that the pool of names for the focus group used for what we know as the Chevy Traverse was pooled from northern MI towns like Traverse City, Kalkaska, and yes, Gaylord.

Kia Santa Fes, clapped out Grand Caravans and Grand Prixes are strong contenders. The first are usually confused how they found themselves behind the wheel, the other two tend to show a total disregard for traffic laws, written or no. 75 in a 45? Check. Making a left hand turn from the right turn lane? Yep. Passing in…

There’s a bit of a fudge factor involved, so for example you can buy a $600 car, sell off $400 of unneeded parts then add $300 of go-fast bits; going over the $500 just nets you penalty laps. Also, keep in mind safety items (cage, tires, brakes, etc.) are not counted in the $500 budget. The judges can be bribed with…

That’s just how manufacturing is, especially in the Just-in-Time age. Sounds like this was in an auxiliary building, so no reason to stop the line. A friend of mine was a manufacturing engineer at a final assembly plant elsewhere in SE MI and had a worker suffer an aneurysm and died on the line. Work stopped just long…

I know, right? My high school history classes also did some of the Magna Carta and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Not so much jingoism there.

More true than you think, before there were dedicated EMS/ambulance services where I grew up the funeral homes handled emergency medical transport, usually with the same vehicle. Not unimaginable that some might have taken their time getting to the hospital in the hopes of generating some new business.