Imaginary Conversations

I have not written and published this post before because once it’s out there, it’s there. Well, I guess I can delete it at some future date.

Recently, while “on the throne” reading Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook 2003 I began to imagine having a conversation with him. Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of his death and, no, I never met him.

Ebert is far from the first person with whom my brain has created an imaginary dialogue and, no, they are not usually “on the throne.” Maybe it’s a weird manifestation of my OCD tendencies, but my mind just creates these conversations. I don’t know from where or how I perceive the other person’s perspective.

Once these imaginary conversations end, I forget all of the details except that they took place. It’s times like these that I particularly miss my friend, psychologist Richard Segal, who died in February of 2017.

Maybe these are just exercises in wish fulfillment. Maybe I’m just off my rocker. I guess the two explanations are not mutually exclusive.

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How to segue to something else…

Yes, it’s the new “addition” to the family. Originally, I was going to show the Mecum car card, but when I saw the VIN and the fact that the VIN is not shown on their website I figured that discretion was the better part of valor.

The one-car bay at the Goose Bumps house is not exceptionally long, but has good width at 14+ feet. (The two-car bay is both wide and long and has more square feet than the alleged three-car garage at our first Arizona house.)

On the advice of my “car guy,” my wonderful wife and I will take the Maserati for an emissions inspection before he gets the car early next week. If it passes, that’s one fewer issue and I can then relay the info to Mecum and they can complete the request for an Arizona title.

Some of my friends and former colleagues don’t understand my disinterest in sports and my obsession with cars. Remember, the cars were first. My paper for History class in my senior year of high school was called The Development of the Automobile and its Effect on 20th-Century American Society. Yes, I attended high school in the 20th century and not in the 19th.

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I found this AP story to be very interesting. I am also glad that Finland is now formally a NATO member, but wish Turkey and its lackey, Hungary, would stop the bullshit and allow Sweden to join.

Puck Futin!

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According to a recently published study and via this Why Evolution Is True post, plants make noise when stressed; for example, when they are cut or not watered. If the audio file I will try to load works, then the sounds of a tomato plant under stress are down-sampled to the audible range, and the silent intervals between the tomato sounds are compressed (by a factor of 200) in order to produce a short file; the original recording was one hour.

Maybe the Beach Boys should have made an album called “Plant Sounds.” In case you don’t know, or even if you do, they released an album titled “Pet Sounds.”

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Speaking of Why Evolution Is True:

“In a punitive decision, two federal appellate-court judges decide to no longer hire clerks from Stanford Law School.” Like Yale Law School and other institutions, Stanford Law School has gone completely ~~woke~~ and anti-free speech.

“Black DEI director fired for being too conciliatory.” In my very strongly held opinion, DEI means Deny Excellent Individuals. First earn, then receive! Meritum Supra Omnes!

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Here is a slightly modified version of a tweet I sent yesterday:

Orange Drump should be in jail…so should Clillary Hinton, Sleepy Joe and his son, MoronToGo from Georgia and all of the IDIOTS we have elected. SHAME ON YOU, AMERICA!

#LockThemAllUp #TakeBackTheCountry

I weep for the future even though I will not be alive to see it.

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This recent MotorTrend piece shows the “Cheapest 300-HP Cars You Can Buy.” The sub-head reads, “When did it get so cheap to park 300 horses in your driveway?” All of these cars have a base MSRP of less than $40,000 and some are priced at less than $30,000.

One of the cars is one of my “sleepers,” the Kia Stinger. Specifically, it’s the 2023 Stinger GT-Line.

I am not usually a fan of four-door sedans, but I like the Stinger and think it is one of the great underrated cars of recent times. It will not be produced after this year as Hyundai/Kia will consolidate its sports sedans into the Genesis make and will also succumb to the EV delusion.

Mass delusions are much more common than one might think at first glance.

#ImaginaryConversations

#OCD

#2010MaseratiGranTurismoConvertible

#PuckFutin

#KiaStinger

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Beautiful, Beautiful

As long as I can remember, one of the manifestations of my OCD has been to softly speak a phrase that is not related to anything going on at that moment. Someone ten feet away would probably not be able to hear it, although I never do this in the presence of other people.

For most of my life the phrase has been something benign like “The 1958 Baltimore Colts.” After the career apocalypse of October, 2010 the phrase became less benign and less detached, often an expression of anger and frustration. However, it was/is the same two phrases; you don’t want to know what they are.

On the other hand, on those rare occasions when something goes well I often cannot help but mutter, “Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.” The four words, and it’s always four, are said in rapid-fire fashion. The last time I remember saying them was after successfully completing the second normal workout after the scare of the last Friday in August. (I had no problems with my workout yesterday, either. Well, except giving myself a case of brain freeze from drinking some very cold G Zero.)

Someone who doesn’t know me well would not know I have OCD. I don’t think my case is extreme; anyone looking at my messy desk would conclude I don’t have it at all. However, even amidst the mess there is a strange order of sorts. Once again, that is probably too much information to share, but this is my blog.

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Something that is definitely not beautiful is what is going on at Oberlin College. This institution has become the most ~~woke~~, most head up its ass place in the entire country. Here are two links from Why Evolution Is True on the topic.

Gibson’s Bakery wins for good; Supreme Court of Ohio upholds verdict against Oberlin College

Despite the civil verdict for $36 million, Oberlin College hasn’t paid Gibson’s Bakery

I will not share any excerpts as I don’t want my blood pressure to spike. (Oh, it was measured at 114-over-70 at my visit to the doctor the last Thursday in August.) I will reveal that this case had been going on for six years. There is something very rotten in the US.

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This recent piece from Hemmings should be of interest to the large contingent of Disaffected Musings readers from Canada. Its title is, “If Studebaker were still building cars, would Canada still be able to enjoy its beloved Tim Hortons coffee and donuts?” Actually, I think the piece should be interesting to most gearheads, period. Here is the picture from the article:

In case you don’t know, or even if you do, Tim Horton was a Hall-of-Fame defenseman who played most of his career for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history by the National Hockey League. The Leafs won four Stanley Cups while Horton played for them, including their most recent win in 1967.

However, like virtually all athletes who played before big money entered professional sports, Horton worked at other jobs during the offseason. He eventually began buying, fixing and flipping cars. From Hemmings:

“By 1961, Horton was ready to go into new car sales, so he added a Studebaker franchise to his Toronto location. Exactly how involved he was with the Studebaker operation, it’s difficult to say: He lent his face and a couple of quotes about the 1962 Studebaker lineup to a couple of well-circulated newspaper ads for the dealership, but references to Tim Horton Motors and to its Studebaker sales tend not to delve much deeper. Horton himself said in a later interview that he didn’t care to discuss his pre-donut ventures. ‘They flopped,’ he told a reporter. ‘Let’s just leave it at that.'”

Oh yeah, donuts. Tim Horton and Jim Charade established Tim Hortons in 1964. It has now become the largest quick-service restaurant chain in Canada, but began as–basically–a coffee and donuts shop, not unlike Dunkin’ Donuts. Here is the last paragraph from the Hemmings article:

“But had Studebaker been in a less-precarious financial situation in 1962 thanks to different products or financial saviors, would we now know of Tim Horton not as the namesake for a donut chain but as one of multiple hockey stars who parlayed their success on the ice to success on the showroom floor? A strange question to ask, indeed.”

Sadly, Horton died in 1974 at the age of 44; he was still playing in the NHL. He was killed in a one-car crash while driving his DeTomaso Pantera and, apparently, was under the influence of alcohol.

Although I can’t remember exactly where, I have eaten at a Tim Hortons. I am 99% sure it was in a Canadian airport. The chain has locations in the US and have begun expanding farther away from the US-Canada border.

As every regular reader knows, I don’t believe that one’s life is pre-ordained; I don’t believe in destiny. I think life is a Monte Carlo simulation with every possible outcome, except one, having a probability of less than 100%.

#BeautifulBeautiful

#OCD

#BoycottOberlin!

#TimHorton

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Chai Day

No, I am not writing about the tea where the “ch” is pronounced as in “child.” I am writing about the Hebrew word for life and the number 18, where the “ch” is pronounced like you are clearing your throat. חי is how Chai is spelled in Hebrew. Of course, Chai is really just an approximate transliteration of the Hebrew word into English.

Today, of course, is the 18th day of October. In my OCD world, much of my behavior is shaped by the number 18. You’ve heard the Hebrew/Jewish salute and drink toast, L’Chaim. That means “To Life.” To me, 36 is also “To Life” since it’s two times 18. (Yes, I know “to” and “two” are not the same word, but they are homophones, meaning they sound the same.) Every Hebrew letter also has a numerical value, or equivalent; the two letters in the word Chai add up to 18.

When I spray my reading glasses with Lysol® after using them in the bathroom, I count to 18 or 36 before wiping down the lenses. When I walk, inside or outside, to get my x,000 steps for the day, I start counting until I reach 72, which is four times 18, or “for life,” another use of homophones. Then I keep walking without counting.

I have uniform tops that I had made when I worked as a consultant for major league baseball teams. Besides my last name, the backs of those tops always had the number 18.

Yes, I am spilling a lot of secrets today. Except for my wonderful wife, the people in my life almost never see the manifestations of my OCD. She doesn’t even see them all.

Happy Chai Day for October! L’Chaim!

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According to 365 Days Of Motoring, on this day in 1951 the first DeSoto with the Firedome V-8 was produced as a 1952 model year car. (The Wikipedia article about the Firedome states that production began in 1952. Well, all sources state that the first model year of the car was 1952 and since it was the norm for a model year to begin in the last 3-4 months of the previous calendar year, I’m going to take 365 Days Of Motoring’s word on this.) The Firedome motor was a Hemi. As part of Chrysler Corporation, DeSoto was given a Hemi one model year after the Chrysler make. From Jalopy Journal a picture of a 1952 DeSoto Firedome:

See the source image

I’m not 100% sure of the year, I think it was a ’52, but a DeSoto Firedome was once the car in an episode of Wheeler Dealers. This was still when Edd China was the mechanic. When they purchased the car it had “custom” bumpers, window tinting, and shaved doors. The car pictured here looks fairly stock to me, except for the shaved doors, but I’m not a DeSoto expert.

Sadly, ten years after the introduction of the Hemi, DeSoto was no more. While my current “favorite” DeSoto is from earlier, if I had A LOT of money I might try to find an early 50s model and maybe even keep the original engine. While my obsession with defunct American makes has waned, they still tug on my heartstrings.

#ChaiDay

#OCD

#DeSotoFiredome

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Halfway To What…

At noon today, 2021 will be half over. I don’t know about you, but even with progress against the damn virus and a strong first-half performance in the US equity markets, I don’t think this has been a great year, so far.

As I wrote here, I actually divide events into thirds, as per my OCD. We are now in the second third, or the middle, of meteorological summer. (Today is Day 32 of 92.) Although I have had a surprising ability to tolerate the Arizona summer, I will be happier when it passes. We did receive some rain, though, this morning and may receive more in the coming days as the monsoon season seems to actually be happening this year, unlike last year. Of course, my wonderful wife and I were not living here last summer.

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Friend and former neighbor MB sent me an article–sent to him by another friend and former neighbor, PP–about Robert Wimmer’s testimony in front of the US Senate in March. Wimmer is Toyota’s head of energy and environmental research. Here is one thing he said:

“If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, and affordability.”

Wimmer also noted that while manufacturers have announced ambitious goals, just 2% of the world’s cars are electric at this point. For price, range, infrastructure, affordability, and other reasons, buyers continue to choose ICE [Internal Combustion Engine] over electric, and that’s even when electric engines are often subsidized with tax breaks to bring price tags down.

Neither Toyota, Wimmer’s company, nor Honda have committed to producing only electric vehicles by 2030 or 2035. [After this post was published, Honda announced its intentions to go all electric by 2040.] The German car companies haven’t done so, either. For example, BMW’s formal goal is to have 50% of its production be electric by 2030.

Of course, committing to producing only electric cars by 2030 or 2035 is not exactly the same thing as saying that all vehicles in use will be electric by then. I will also offer the politically incorrect opinion that the announced mad dash to EVs by Ford and GM is as much about trying to get their stock price to perform like Tesla stock as it is about anything else. Five years ago, Tesla’s stock was trading at about $40/share. Today, it’s almost $700/share.

I maintain that for the next 10-20 years, a large part of the market for vehicles will still want to buy ICE-powered cars and trucks. For me, I have learned to never say never. While I would not consider buying an EV in the near term, I–like all humans–am not really that good at predicting the future. I would, however, buy one of these before I would buy an EV:

See the source image

From autonxt.net a picture of a Toyota Supra. Remember that this part of today’s post began by referring to Robert Wimmer’s testimony and he works for Toyota.

Have a great holiday weekend…

#HalfwayToWhat

#OCD

#MadDashToEvs

#ToyotaSupra

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Fried Chicken

In one of his books Bill James wrote something like, “It’s hard to compare the pizza you’re eating now to the fried chicken you ate three weeks ago.” He was trying to illustrate the importance of temporal proximity to judgment.

In A List For Saturday I showed a list of my favorite songs with lyrics. Even though I wrote that it was probably an incomplete list, one omission was quite glaring: “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors, of course.

I have the 45, but don’t think I have a digital copy (at least not as I write this) so I just don’t hear it when I listen to music from my iPhone. What reminded me of how much I like the song was hearing it today on the way back from a breakfast run to Chick-Fil-A.

Maybe I just need to stop worrying about lists, about trying to make order out of chaos. (Yes, I should just ignore my OCD. Why haven’t I thought of that before? [sarcasm]) One of the reasons I haven’t published my Ultimate Garage 3.0 is I am agonizing over the Cadillac XLR and Saturn Sky.

In Ultimate Garage 2.0 I left both cars out because familiarity with them had left me a little sour. I had a friend who bought two XLRs new and both had to be repurchased by Cadillac under our state’s lemon law while my wonderful wife and I had test-driven a Sky and were put off by the interior.

I have not driven most of the cars that are likely to be a part of 3.0 if it is published. Is it fair to exclude the XLR and Sky because I am more familiar with them? This reminds me of the obstacle that caused my Masters Thesis to be completed much later than I had hoped.

I was trying to figure out a way to apply the significant cost of player development in baseball to a player’s Marginal Revenue Product (MRP) in the hopes of being the first to calculate a net MRP. I just couldn’t get my head around how to apply player development costs to each player, in large part because much, sometimes even most, of a team’s major league roster was originally in another team’s organization.

One of my former professors finally told me that I was worrying too much about nothing, that any reasonable solution would suffice. That pushed me to an idea that had been percolating for awhile and I used it in my thesis, “Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball, The Early Free Agency Era.”

So, what should I do about the XLR and the Sky? I’m all eyes; I can’t be all ears because I can’t hear you.

See the source image

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I found each of these pieces to be interesting reads, Article 1 and Article 2. It might be difficult for those of you reading to realize they were written by a Democrat. I suspect he would be labeled a traitor by the lunatic component of the party, a group that–in my opinion–grows larger all the time. One of these pieces addresses my pet theory of increasing temporal arrogance.

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It’s only about a month until I take my Z06 in for the “bolt-on” application that will increase horsepower, torque and decibels. Of course, one of the cool things about the NPP exhaust option for C7 Corvettes (standard on the Z06) is that with a couple of touches on the screen I can quiet the exhaust. The cost is 5-10 HP.

Will that be the end of the performance upgrades? If you ask me now I would say yes. If you ask me in a year, I don’t know what I would say.

#FriedChicken

#RidersOnTheStorm

#OCD

#Woke=Evil

#My2016CorvetteZ06

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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PS, this post about the disturbing trend of ideology being injected into science is also worth reading. I will note, though, that since science is an endeavor of human beings it can never be purely objective.

Friday “The Thirteenth”

I’m going to let you in on an OCD manifestation of mine. I hate the number 13. To me, today–8/21–is a bad day because 8 from 21 is 13. No, I do not interpret today as .381, which is 8 divided by 21.

It’s not a superstition, I think, but I could be wrong. In any event, virtually all of my OCD manifestations are internal, which means no one else sees them or even knows they exist. They do exist, though. The number of stars in the post “divider” below is always the same number and a reason exists for that number.

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From this article comes a debunking of claims made by proponents of “Medicare for All.” The first one listed is that such a “program” will save money because Medicare is efficient. From the piece:

“Medicare’s stated administrative expense is 1.1% which is an accounting mirage. Medicare receives free services from other federal agencies (NY Times, Austin Frakt) and calculates its efficiency based on total dollars spent, rather than per beneficiary…The Veterans Administration claimed it was more efficient than Medicare, while being a hornet’s nest of fraud and abuse. Federal claims of efficiency should always be suspect.”

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

– Aldous Huxley

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From Corvette Blogger an article reporting that General Motors has issued a stop delivery order on new Corvettes until the “Frunk” recall is ready. It has been reported there and elsewhere that some drivers of 2020 Corvettes have had issues with the front trunk (Frunk) lid opening on its own while the car is in motion. More from Corvette Blogger:

“…because GM has notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that a Recall was in play for the 2020 Corvette, they are also obligated by law to halt deliveries of any new vehicles until the remedy (i.e., software update) can be installed.”

“…We are hearing now that the Stop Delivery Order is for ‘certain 2020 Corvettes’ and, as an example, we heard that the Rapid Blue 2020 Corvette Convertible that was delivered to Criswell Chevrolet today can, in fact, be delivered to its new owners. So it appears that the Assembly Plant has been able to update the latest shipments before they are being sent to dealerships.”

Apparently, the solution is, indeed, a software update. Computers on wheels, but in this case a very good looking and very fast computer.

See the source image

From Corvette Mike a picture of a 2020 Z51 Corvette in Sebring Orange. You may recall that when I decided to buy a seventh-generation (C7) Z06 I originally wanted to buy one in orange. I bought a 2016 model; the Orange for that year was called Daytona Sunrise Orange and only 251 Z06 coupes were made with that color, which made one hard to find. Of the 11 colors available on 2016 Corvettes, Daytona Sunrise Orange was third from the bottom in usage on Z06 coupes and one of the colors “behind” it was Admiral Blue that was not available until late in the 2016 model run.

As a Corvette fan and owner I hope the “Frunk” issue is the only defect in the new Vette. As I have written before, I think if the C8 fails then the Corvette will be history.

#OCD

#SayNoToMedicareForAll

#Frunkified

#C8Corvette

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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What To Say Saturday

The flash drive with my copy of the Action! PC Football 2020 NFL game arrived in the mail yesterday. Like every other piece of mail since the coronavirus situation exploded, the envelope was disinfected and will stay “quarantined” for at least two days before I open it. Yes, there are no documented cases of transmission via mail. Uh, tell that to my OCD brain.

Unfortunately for me, behaviors adopted ostensibly for the crisis will almost certainly continue for the rest of my life. I think millions of people, tens of millions, will develop a type of PTSD that could affect them for a long time, if not the rest of their lives.

I do not pretend to know what is the right path for governments and their citizens to adopt in terms of “normalization.” Some countries, like Sweden, didn’t really lockdown. The government issued voluntary guidelines for behavior while emphasizing keeping a distance from vulnerable segments of the population, like the elderly. The Swedish government’s goal was to reach herd immunity.

In South Korea, the country was also not ever placed under a mandatory stay-at-home order. However, the South Korean government instituted widespread testing and contact tracing. If someone in your neighborhood tested positive, the entire neighborhood received texts naming the person(s) and their address(es). I don’t think most US citizens would tolerate that type of government “intrusion” even if it saves lives. My understanding (blogger engages in frantic Internet search to find articles with data, but comes up empty) is that South Korea has had very low rates of infection and death without the total disruption to the economy that other countries, like the US, have experienced.

Even people with MDs and Ph.Ds in epidemiology don’t KNOW what the “optimal” path for policy is. Their guesses are better informed than most of the rest of us, but they don’t KNOW. However, doing nothing and pretending the situation doesn’t exist is almost certainly not the best course of action.

As I may have written before, my routine has been affected far less than most people. I don’t “work” and I don’t have a large group of people with whom I socialize on a regular basis. Basically, my wonderful wife and I can’t dine out, can’t attend car shows or visit antique stores. Still, perception is reality even if it isn’t. I perceive that my life has been radically altered and some of my behavior reinforces that perception.

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Executing a hard turn…how about this as a Corvette companion/grocery car?

Used 2008 Maserati GranTurismo Coupe Kenner, LA 70065 - 550668987 - 4

From this AutoTrader ad a picture of a 2008 Maserati GranTurismo. This BEAUTIFUL car is in Grigio Touring Metallic over Grigio Medio. That’s basically Gray over Gray.

This example has 16,600 miles and the seller, a dealer in Louisiana, is asking $25,880. According to the ad, the Kelley Blue Book® value range is $26,431 to $30,558. It is rare to see a dealer ask less than the low end of this range.

The Maserati GranTurismo qualifies as a grocery car because it has four seats and a trunk. The fact that it has 405 HP/339 LB-FT of torque and is a beautiful car are just bonuses, really. It’s a good thing I’m not Pinocchio because my nose would be growing…

My wonderful wife would prefer a convertible and I would prefer an S spec car, but those cost more money. For a little more than 40 percent of what we paid for each of our Corvettes, we could have a stylish, high-performance Italian car with a Ferrari engine. Neither of us has ever owned an Italian car.

Any thoughts on this car? This is not the Maserati 3200GT that was voted out, 3-2, but is obviously similar. I just want this coronavirus situation to go away so we can proceed with our lives and move to the desert.

#OCD

#PTSD

#2008MaseratiGranTurismo

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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OCD For The Holidays

I wasn’t going to post today or tomorrow, almost no one reads blogs on these days, but can you say OCD? I can rationalize this post by saying I am trying to reach a certain number of views for the month or a “milestone” in number of visitors since the beginning of this blog. Both are nominally true, and it’s also true that more people read Disaffected Musings on days I post, but I am just compelled to write. Reminds me of a line from the movie Throw Momma From The Train…Billy Crystal plays a frustrated writer who teaches a writing class. His character often says, “A writer writes, always” to motivate his students although the line is also an indication of his dissatisfaction with life.

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Speaking of dissatisfaction, I have to admit that December 23rd is actually not a pleasant day for me. If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, December 23rd, 1987 was the day I was offered my first full-time job in baseball. While I achieved a lot in my 20+ years in baseball, such as becoming a “father” of Moneyball and earning two championship rings with my name on them, I have been out of the game for almost a decade. I did not really leave of my own accord.

People do not judge life events by an “objective reality,” but against expectations and the status quo.

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See the source image

I have been re-watching the Mecum Auction broadcast from Phoenix that I recorded in March. I saved the episode for many reasons, but one was the amazing group of cars offered for sale. This picture from curbsideclassic.com is a 1955 Chrysler Ghia ST Special. One of these, one of just four that were made, was offered at that auction. The Mecum car was in brown and white, not my favorite colors for a car although it still looked great. The car was bid to $450,000, but not sold.

In green the car does bear a resemblance to the Continental Mark II of 1956-57, which I also think is a handsome car. I REALLY have come to understand why people have car collections. I am also still figuring out how I can get into the car business, somehow. Hey, Dana Mecum! I know someone with a great combination of analytical and communication skills who wants to write and to crunch numbers for your company!

Thanks for reading.

#OCD

#ChryslerGhiaSTSpecial

#MecumAuctions

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Crypto Crash

The title of this post is not a prediction; it’s a statement. This CNBC article was very interesting to me. Here are the bullet points at the beginning of the article:

The entire crypto market has lost roughly 65 percent of its value as of Thursday but some coins have fared worse than others.
CNBC compiled a list of what a $1,000 at the peak of the crypto hype would have yielded in some of the most popular cryptocurrencies.
XRP has been the worst bet, down 92 percent since its high in January.

The “main” cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is down 65 percent compared to its peak. If you had purchased $1,000 of Bitcoin at its peak, your “investment” would be worth $350 as of yesterday.

Could these “currencies” see a resurgence in value in the future? Of course, but that doesn’t mean they have intrinsic value and that doesn’t mean they won’t have another bust (or implosion) later.

I have a graduate degree in Economics, I held FINRA licenses for five years and I have had success in investing with the family portfolio. The interest in cryptocurrency is a mystery to me. It’s like a group of people have decided to unilaterally change the rules without any basis.

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A picture of a peaceful sunrise for, hopefully, a peaceful day. I took this during one of my many early morning excursions to get breakfast at my local Dunkin Donuts.

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I just can’t get this car out of my head:

A picture of a 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line, which means it has the turbocharged 2.0-liter (122 cubic inches, have to keep Bill Stephens happy; I wonder what the odds are that he will ever read this blog?) 4-cylinder engine that produced 260 HP. My brain is so messed up with all of the cars that I would like to own. I mean just yesterday I visited a “local” Corvette restomod shop for an hour and was graciously shown the entire place. This establishment has been in business for 30 years and they will do everything a customer wants from A to Z including finding a donor car. So why am I thinking about a Saturn Sky Red Line? I guess that’s the definition of OCD.

Anyway, the seller (a dealer) is asking about $11,500 for the Red Line. These cars were produced in such small quantities (only about 34,000 in total and that’s all Skys and not just the Red Line) that I believe value is difficult to ascertain. No, I am not going to buy a Saturn Sky, but it sure sounds good.

What cars do you think about? Once again, I am asking for comments and/or constructive criticism. I am too old to do all of the work. 🙂