Homeland Security has been all up in my face these past two weeks. Using up a bunch of parking spots, sometimes blocking the road, creating “no-go” areas around the office. This is how I know that Homeland Security doesn’t really have anybody like Claire Danes working on these problems. If they did, they’d have been in San Bernadino this week, not Columbus, Ohio. Interestingly enough, the place they took the victims of Mr. Farook and Mrs. Malik’s rampage, Loma Linda University Medical Center, is the same place I went to have my initial X-ray done almost two months ago.
Speaking of that injury, just look at the really dorky cool way I figured out to get my cane on my CB1100, Just two neon-green shoelaces does the trick. It should also protect me from pedestrians running at me from behind, I think.
Alright. Let’s see what Bark and I got published this week. At TTAC, my brother unveiled his plan for a digital dealership that waves goodbye to the “stale, male, and pale” status quo. Then he puts you behind the wheel of a purpose-built, lightweight race car in an introduction to the EXR Exotics Racing Series. You’ll be hearing more about EXR in these pages during the first quarter of 2016, trust me.
I had three very different articles at TTAC this week. I did Part Two of the minitruck series, a piece about a vivacious Latina council member who wants to help drive a few more nails into the coffin of individual freedom, and a a love letter of sorts of Harley-Davidson and their willingness to satisfy the customer.
For R&T, I wrote a sort of “Things Remembered” article on how I got rid of my radar detector. I’ll break the fourth wall for a minute here and note that this particular piece received a reasonably significant edit, probably in the interest of keeping the angry letters and Facebook comments to a minimum. In my submitted draft, I indicated that I chose my attorney specifically because she was good-looking. This got wiped out, so the ending of the piece probably makes a bit less sense. (The reader is invited to judge for himself here.)
Look for a fair amount of new content on this site in the week to come. I have a few things I’m working on and I can’t wait to share them with you. It’s also possible that we’ll have a new category on the site: “Fiction”. Talk to you soon!
What happened to Barks’ R&T piece about exotic car dealers in Miami?
Still up:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/11/barks-bites-want-car-noticed-miami-better-guy/
Ever thought about creating an RSS Feed of links to your articles?
Probably should.
For what it’s worth ;
On a Moto seat like that you can simply sit on the cane , it’s not uncomfortable and takes less time to get off the Moto , you just reach and grab it , nothing to undo .
-Nate
Great idea! Thank you ď
Does it have a face on the knob ? I tried enlarging the pic. but still can’t quite make it out .
At the moment I’m using a colorful cane I found in Colorado , made of Sumac root .
Going to ride to the Los Angeles Cretins new club house to - morrow .
-Nate
It’s a skull, done in German Silver by a fellow named Boris Palatnik.
Sweet ! .
I have a brass knobbed ‘ Bubba Stik ‘ , made in Texas , it’s quite handy but cannot be hung over my arm when I need to use both hands…
-Nate
If I need a cane for the long run I’ll be looking at the Bubba Stik. You recommended it to me before and I quite like it.
I figured the R&T piece was edited and glad it worked.
My V1 gets shut off in Ohio as well. Speeding there just isn’t effective or conducive to a relaxing journey. Indiana state police primarily use Ka-band radar, frequently scanning traffic in the opposite lane (either always on or in burst mode). The V1 is useful in these circumstances, especially in lightly traveled areas.
Ohio police have a particular fondness for pulling over folks with Michigan plates, so I drive very carefully when south of the border.
It seems to me, though, that there’s a lot more speed enforcement on Ohio highways than on the 55 mph two lane roads. When I drive down to Jack’s place, I see lots of cops on 23, 15 and 75 but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a speed-trap on the 55 mph two-lane roads.
“I chose my attorney specifically because she was good-looking. ”
Did she know that? I was wondering about her description of her encounter with the judge.
BTW, that’s one of the things that annoys me about lawyers. Their relationships with other attorneys, prosecutors and judges are sometimes more important than serving their clients.
No, I did not discuss that with her 🙂
I think the picture on her homepage is even better:
http://www.jennaellis.org/
I got a pretty big speeding ticket on Christmas last year. Probably first one in ten years. Apparently I should have hired a prettier attorney.
Your reputation precedes you, Jack. Of course you would have picked the prettiest one, even if it didn’t play into your courtroom strategy. The outcome in the courtroom just showed that it was not mere chauvinism on your part, and the editor(s) should have understood that, simply from the fact that your strategy was highly efficacious.
(Chauvinism, perhaps, but certainly not mere, or merely, chauvinism.)
Hope you took the time to talk with her a bit, Jack. From seeing an excerpt from a book she co-wrote, she seems like a very intelligent woman, as well as a good-looking one.
I don’t know about you, but for me that is a combination capable of getting past my usual defense mechanisms. To say the least, I find it an intriguing combination.
I’ve got mine. If that’s a combination that does the trick for you, I hope you find yours, too. The one that makes you want to focus instead of continuing the search. Scary to those who are independent-minded, but in the end quite soothing and reassuring.
The world would be a better place if there were more women like her in it.
I had a long, troubled involvement with a beautiful attorney for whom Christianity was a guiding principle. Not anxious to do it again…
Hey Bark, thanks for bringing Ruggles back from the dead over at TTAC.
How sincere is this comment? 🙂
Adding Ruggles to a conversation is like adding jet fuel to a marshmallow roast.
What a dinosaur he is.
That cb1100 looks way cooler than the Harley breakout!
Bark is right about the car buying/selling business. The internet has failed to materially change the way we buy and sell cars and houses. As long these purchases involve borrowing substantial sums of money it is unlikely to change much.
Any review on the CB1100? There’s a 2014 new on the showroom floor about 30 miles away from where I sit. I have a daily commuter bike now, just looking for a toy. The alternative is a CB from the 1970’s at half the price of the 2014. Wondering what your thoughts are since you own both.
I’ll write it up today!
Re LA and facial recognition: I’ve seen it mentioned that Dazzle camouflage can defeat the software. Now I’m waiting for every third person on the street to be obviously wearing his/her hair like Glenn Danzig in the Misfits years…