I’m not sure I care whether a vehicle is “luxury” or not. My 2012 Mazda CX-9 GT FWD is in excellent mechanical condition, interior is clean - it has a few scratches, but that happens to any car. Biggest thing is that it is reliable, paid for, and not outrageously expensive to run. I’m probably going to keep it until…

There are actually very few citizens of Vatican City, mostly just those members of the Vatican Curia (civil service) and a few full-time Vatican employees. Only an infinitesimally small number of actual priest, religious brothers and sisters are citizens. If Vatican City wanted to extradite a pedo priest to face trial…

I remember reading about Cuomo’s attitude to Byford, apparently the ex-gov’s fragile ego couldn’t tolerate someone else in NY government getting better publicity than him for doing his job better. My guess is that at Amtrak, this won’t reoccur because neither President Biden nor Secretary Buttigieg are known to have…

I would argue that there are a few real sovereign citizens, but not of the USA: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, King Mswati III of Eswatini, Sultan Hatham bin Tariq of Oman, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Pope Francis of Vatican City. These are all absolute monarchs. No citizen of the USA could be considered…

When I was a child my parents drove a succession of Valiant and Falcon station wagons (this was Australia) with two kids relegated to the luggage area in the back. This was dangerous and is now illegal - you are not allowed to drive with an unrestrained passenger in the vehicle. Remember those episodes of “The Brady…

Something that screams “serial killer on the prowl for twinks”.

The Jones Act is also the reason that consumer goods are so expensive in Hawaii. If you’ve been to Hawaii recently, you’ll note that all the produce and other goods in supermarkets are exactly the same as those in supermarkets on the mainland, albeit at a much higher price. All of these goods are shipped on Matson…

I’m pretty sure I know how that one likely went down, you have my sympathies. As I said, I would only co-sign a loan with my spouse, and even then only for the house or car - no business loans, ever - and I wouldn’t agree to a business loan being secured by our personal residence or cars either.

First, I am not a parent, nor am I expecting to ever be a parent. Buying a car for a teenager can foster a sense of entitlement, this is to be discouraged. I think the teenager should be getting a job (if their grades are good enough to permit the time away from study) and buying their own car. I would never co-sign a…

I think that auto mechanics damage vehicles about as often as cleaners steal things - which is not very often. Lots of people love to assign blame to others because of damage they’ve caused themselves, or items they’ve lost/misplaced themselves.

At Portland International Airport (PDX), it is common, or so I’m told, for the charging stations to be completely occupied by people flying away somewhere. I’m sure at some point someone will use their house key to remind EV owners that a charging station is not free long-term parking. 

Playing chicken with a freight train rarely works out well, even for the train.

I’m seeing MySpace in Twitter’s future.

I would agree with you. When my parents visited from Australia in 2006, and we took a road trip from NYC to South Carolina, I looked into taking in a Dolly Parton themed show in SC. Then, when I looked at what they were going to serve each guest for food: half a chicken, a full rack of ribs plus sides, I nixed that…

First Gear: Steve Lehto has several videos detailing Carvana’s woes. Steve points out that in the State of Michigan, where he practices law (specializing in automotive lemon law, and other aspects of automotive law), there are detailed requirements that licensed automobile dealers must follow, including maintaining…

In my experience of living 10 years in New York City, the biggest offenders of parking in bicycle lanes are police officers, either in their city owned police cruisers, or in their private vehicles with their NYPD “get out of jail free” placard. I’m not surprised that the NYPD police union is opposed to the law. If…

I am actively avoiding Hertz and its subsidiaries (Dollar, Firefly, Thrifty) when renting vehicles. Budget, Avis, Enterprise, Alamo, and Sixt don’t seem to be having this issue. I’ve never experienced a problem like this but I am not all that frequent a renter.

My husband and I were on Maui last month and on O’ahu earlier in the year. Both times we went, we rented a car for the entire week of our stay. We had no problems. We did reserve the car as soon as we booked our flights and accommodation. For our trip to Maui, when we first booked the prices were outrageous, but…

The Constitutional arrangements for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms are matters for the citizens and residents of those countries. King Charles will accept with humility any decisions those countries make about their constitutional futures.

I’ve been on three cruises, loved the first two on P&O Australia out of Sydney, loathed the Carnival cruise out of NY I did with my husband. Was on vacation on Maui last week and reveled in the amount of space in our one bedroom condo, the beach at our doorstep and the lack of crowds on the beach, in the supermarket…