The Red Brick Times

  Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The Cleveland Auto Show has been in town this week (at the IX Center at Cleveland Hopkins Airport). The fitness instructor at the Community College was talking with one of his students about the jaw-dropping prices of "Big-Three" cars. "I bought my last new Buick in 1997," he said, "and the prices have just about doubled." He was also discussing who had the highest horsepower ("That one has over 432 horsepower," he quoted reverently). The US consumer is not yet ready for fuel-sipping and efficient tinymobiles. But here come the Chinese cars. Their labor rates are miniscule, but they still need to import the majority of assembly components like engines and transmissions, which, when coupled with traditional high import duties, make cars expensive to build in China. That will change as they reduce rates and build their own component manufacturing plants on-shore. Ford could vanish as a domestic producer, to be re-introduced as an import. What's in a name, after all?

Posted 8:57 AM by Andy (1) comments

       Comments:
  • Or wait for the Smart car from Daimler-Chrysler. Lots of them in Europe.
    # posted by Blogger Andy : February 28, 2007 9:40 AM
     
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  Sunday, February 18, 2007

My letter to the editor got published! I'm now an official local crackpot! (As if you didn't already know.) Hooray! Gotta admit though, I'm a little worried about Emil, my fellow crackpot. Should he ever see Niki wag her tail (quite the plume and her most striking feature)... well, let's not go there.

Posted 2:50 PM by whatley (2) comments

       Comments:
  • Umm..., it occurred to me that RBT'ers living elsewhere may not be up enough on current Elyria happenings to appreciate my letter for the gem that it is. Suffice to say that the school board, trying to get money for yet another new high school (the last one just got paid off and was abandoned, the school board members use it for luxury offices now), has been out of control for 7+ plus years (They first tried to get a new building levy in November of '2000, it failed, so they scheduled an "emergency election" in Feb. of '01 hoping older folks (on a fixed income and therefore anti-tax) couldn't get to the polls due to weather. Nice people.) Then the Mayor chimed in with his ideas of a central gym/swimming facility and mega-library and on and on...

    These would all be wonderful things to have but there ain't no jobs here. The largest employer in the City of Elyria? The City of Elyria itself. The local mall is dying because people have less and less discretionary income. We're barely making our monthly utility payments. The solution: double (or more) property taxes. Do you get it now? I'm a letter writing genius aren't I?
    # posted by Blogger whatley : February 18, 2007 3:53 PM
     
  • Hmmm. Maybe it is time to pick a nice, quiet, rural county with no major airports, highways or rail lines and telecommute to life.
    # posted by Blogger Andy : February 19, 2007 8:50 PM
     
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  Saturday, February 17, 2007

Texas, a state of mind. Small ones. Here's an overview:
What, in the name of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, is wrong with these people?

Posted 4:45 PM by whatley (2) comments

       Comments:

This was a nice surprise. www.myspace.com/neilyoung

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Posted 10:14 AM by Terri S (0) comments

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  Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Anti-Valentine's Day.

Posted 1:53 PM by Andy (0) comments

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Weakening El Nino to exert little influence.

Posted 1:39 PM by Andy (0) comments

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  Saturday, February 10, 2007

SEVENTY-TWO VIRGINS by Steve Martin

Posted 4:23 PM by whatley (1) comments

       Comments:
  • ...led the big parade, with a hundred and four cadets right behind. They were followed by rows and rows of the oldest gigolos, there was porn, of every shape and kind....
    # posted by Blogger Andy : February 10, 2007 10:01 PM
     
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  Monday, February 05, 2007

Since it is three below zero this morning, it seems the appropriate time to reveal that 2006 Is Sixth Warmest Year On Record for the planet Earth.

Posted 6:35 AM by Andy (9) comments

       Comments:
  • First thing every morning I open the patio door for Niki and say "wanna go out?". Today she looked me right in the eye and said "fuck no". I never heard her cuss before.
    # posted by Blogger whatley : February 05, 2007 8:27 AM
     
  • It could be getting hotter yet Sandia's Z machine exceeds two billion degrees Kelvin. Fusion may finally be here.This is pretty interesting, too.
    # posted by Blogger A. O. : February 05, 2007 11:26 AM
     
  • I was cold today too. It was 60 degrees when I went out for my run at 6 am. Had to put on a t shirt over my singlet.
    # posted by Blogger Terri S : February 07, 2007 8:03 PM
     
  • Up here, we are wearing quadruplets, and pulling on goosedown atop that. But it warmed up considerably today. It was above 10 degrees, slightly.
    # posted by Blogger Andy : February 07, 2007 8:34 PM
     
  • Tell me more about your singlet. It makes me feel warmer somehow. (Warmer yet wondering if perhaps the t-shirt got wet along the way.)
    # posted by Blogger whatley : February 08, 2007 5:26 AM
     
  • Well, yes, there was some perspiration along the way. I thought it would be cruel to mention anything that suggested warmth.
    I will save that for my report on the beach weather this weekend.
    # posted by Blogger Terri S : February 08, 2007 7:14 PM
     
  • Aah! Half dressed sweaty women. Add in single malt Scotch, a Cuban cigar, chocolate and grapes and life is about as good as it gets
    # posted by Blogger A. O. : February 08, 2007 10:53 PM
     
  • At this point I'd settle for sweaty scotch and a half dressed grape.
    # posted by Blogger whatley : February 09, 2007 6:46 AM
     
  • Chilled grapes on the Lantana beach (bottle of St. Pauli Girl), sweaty Cuban smoking a cigar upwind of me and a wee dram of Glen Morangie Portwood I will enjoy at sunset.
    # posted by Blogger Terri S : February 09, 2007 6:05 PM
     
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  Friday, February 02, 2007

$34.06 an Hour
That's how much the average public school teachers makes. Is that "underpaid"?

Hooboy, am I gonna hear about this one.

Posted 4:08 PM by whatley (2) comments

       Comments:
  • Depends on your current income level, I guess. Mine is in negative numbers. Just got hit with the property tax that the gleeful local citizens upped last year. Businesses closing, unemployment rampant, and the few who still vote boost the bite. What a country.
    # posted by Blogger Andy : February 04, 2007 11:27 PM
     
  • For an alternate view try this
    # posted by Blogger A. O. : February 06, 2007 12:54 AM
     
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