My Dad is a great guy, but he has two habits that drove me crazy when I was a kid.

1. He doesn't end conversations in a timely manner. It's never easy to leave because there is always one more thing to say (which of course, leads to another thing).

2. When using a desk phone, he would dial first (on speaker) and then pick up the phone to talk.


I now see clearly that I have both problems myself. I can understand the talking thing, but who would have thought I would pick up the phone thing?

This Sunday, 2pm, at Lafayette Church (sorry about the bad near-pun)

Which means another "yinz love da Stillers." Enjoy:

My friend Dan will present his one man show, "It is no desert" at Niagara University. It is a great show. Here is a review from another time it was performed:



Also, in searching I learned that I have a friend with a wikipedia page! I wonder if any of my other friends do? (I don't think so):



Sadly, I cannot attend the show, but I promise it is worth it. For tickets:

Test drove a Scion today, as part of their promotion on Elmwood.

I'm always happy to drive a different car, and the fact that I got a free coffee card made the deal even sweeter.

When Scion was announced a few years ago, I was thrilled. Why? Because I knew that Toyota made the best cars, but I also knew that they had become expensive and were made more and more for an "older" demographic. Scions were supposed to be cheaper and cooler.

And they started out that way, with small, affordable, efficient cars.

And then they got bigger.

And more expensive.

And less efficient.

And then they decided that the most important thing was being cool.

So there were all kinds of custom paint jobs, and fancy options, and lots of fluff added to what started out as a cool affordable car, from a company that really didn't need the gimmicks at all.

Here's a tip, Toyota. If you want to sell a lot of cars, the options aren't that important. The "accessories" (hats, t-shirts, key-chains, etc.) are even less important.

In fact, you don't even have to work that hard on design. Japanese cars of old are just what we need today. Here's a car you made in the 80s that I would buy in a second if it was still made today. It got great gas milage, was cheap, lasted at least 100k miles, and was still fun to drive. Please see the Toyota Tercel:



Some other cars that would completely sell if anybody bothered to make them anymore:

The car that I knew as metro: (over 40 mpg on old technology)

Even cooler was the CR-X:

Put a new clean diesel in one of these things, and they would sell even faster!

Stop making cars bigger and more powerful. Stop making them more expensive. Stop trying to be cool. Just make a good, small, car. PLEASE.


Don't believe me? Check out this story: