Every Day Occurrence ..

..dozens every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. (Unless it rains, which like....)

This was taken on our most recent 250 mile Sunday Joy Ride, west on NM Rt9, (more on our Sunday adventures in a future post), but we can usually see lots of them in the valley by just walking out onto the front porch.

Simple Mathmatics

I can do the simple cipherin'. For instance, if I know that we have a healthy sized swarm of honeybees that hang around the leaky faucet in the yard (1), and I walk into the living room and find Buffy has changed her name to Puffy (1), then I can posit that the silly girl has put her face where it doesn't belong, and is likely       not to ever go again.That equals "2".   (1 + 1 = 2. Get it?)

One Win Away!

The Michigan Wolverine men's ice hockey team is one win away from their tenth NCAA Division 1 Championship! (Yes that's a record, as is the fact that this is their 21st consecutive year making the tournament).

Last night, behind the tallest 5'6" goalie in The Universe, they put the clamps on the Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota, easily the best team remaining in the tournament. They had a 36 goal scorer! Nobody in college hockey scores 36 goals! Not often, anyway. Last night he was shut out, along with the rest of his teammates, 2-0. And when Michigan scored the empty net goal to ice the victory, it was all too much for this hapless Sioux fan-




You wouldn't think there would be much flexibility in those heavily padded hockey gloves, but Louie Caporusso does a fine job of returning the sentiment!

Michigan plays University of Minnesota-Duluth tomorrow evening for the championship. On ESPN.

UPDATE 4/10/11: Alas...  Good run for a bunch of overachievers, though, especially Little Man Hunwick.

Scientists Just Wanna Have Fun

Music awards you never heard of.. "Best Lab Song". And the winner is:



..as judged by the editors and writers of BioTechniques, The International Journal of Life Science Methods. Isn't Baylor a Baptist college? They're dancing! I won't tell.

Other finalists in the competition can be found at EarthSky. I didn't watch them, but I'll assume they're as good as the one above.

Actually, I have watched one of the other finalist videos. I even posted it here.

The Lost "Sparky" Video, Found.

Last year when former Detroit Tigers manager, Sparky Anderson passed away, I posted a memorial and a video clip of my favorite "Sparky moment".  As I said then, the video wasn't the version that I knew existed, but was unable to find.  Thanks to the fine folks at the Down With Detroit Facebook page I can now share this great Detroit moment with everyone..

RIP Sparky Gibby vs Goose Game 5 1984
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

It's very clear that Sparky wanted everyone within the sound of his voice to know, "He didn't wanta walk him". And I suppose we should offer our thanks to Hall of Fame pitcher, "Goose" Gossage, for not doing what his manager wanted him to do... walk Kirk Gibson.

Two Very Tangible Signs of Spring in the High Desert

Turkey Vulture

Peaches in the yard

The Finest In Automotive Spy Photography

Several times over the past 25 years, I've been fortunate enough to be in  the right place at the right time to photograph upcoming automobile models on public roads, doing "real world testing".  Most often the vehicles are disguised, with outlandish extra body panels, or wild graphic paint schemes, designed to misdirect the viewer's eyes so as not to determine exactly what the shape of the car really is.  Other times, when they're closer to production, only the badging, and other identifying marks are stripped from the cars.


I first got lucky in Anchorage, Alaska of all places.  Engineers apparently experienced a stalling problem, and left what would later become the Subaru Impreza abandoned in a hotel parking lot, with the hood up.  I snapped away. I couldn't help it.  Those pictures ended up in AutoWeek Magazine.


Jump ahead several years, and I'm working as an independent representative for a firm which required me to visit a lot of backroads businesses.  I was in Livingston County, Michigan when a convoy of overly clad vehicles was leaving a rural gas station.  Again, I fired away, and again the images ended up in AutoWeek.  It was America's first look at the Oldsmobile Alero and Pontiac Grand Am.


Recently, I happened to capture images of the 2012 Audi A6 on nearby back roads.  These were brokered to several automotive online journals by the "Doyenne" of  automotive spy photography, whose name you would recognize instantly.


What follows, is the published account of my most recent discovery.  It was late at night, at a gas station in Abilene, Texas......

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Our intrepid, tireless, ambitious, poverty-stricken, Instamatic®- toting, weasley, automotive paparazzi have been at it again.  Caught real world testing, without so much as a single fig leaf of disguise is Ford’s upcoming retro spectacular, the 2014 Edsel Redux!  (pronounced Ree-doo).

Word has been out there among the automotive cognoscenti for several months now, that this masterpiece of backward-thinking was in the works, but this is the first time it’s been captured on film, as it were, and we here at AutoLuddite were victorious in the bout of feverish bidding that ensued to be the first to present this image to the public.


Our sources in the industry tell us this fantastic retro-sled weighs in at an astonishing four-and-a-half tons, due in part to the extensive use of carbon fiber in the floor mats, and turn signal indicator.  Power to overcome massive amounts of inertia comes from the technologically advanced cast iron, straight 6 cylinder EcoBǖst, (pronounced boooost), engine, which produces upwards of 175 BHP when using 102 octane unleaded fuel.  Naught to 60 times are expected to be in the range of sometime before dark, therefore, no convertible model is expected to be produced.  Our sources tell us that an optional 3-speed manual transmission, mounted on the steering column (!), has never, ever been considered.

The designers have really outdone themselves in recalling the essence of the original, right down to the extremely wide white sidewall bias-ply tires, to the rust spots on the quarter panels.  One wonders why, with all of these styling cues resurrecting the marque’s illustrious past, the “toilet seat” was left off of the massive chrome grille?  Perhaps it will appear on a higher trim level model.  We can only hope and pray.


Unfortunately, prices are not expected to fall in line with those of 50+ years ago.  You can expect to pony up around $25,000 for a base model, to a staggering $55,000 for the super deluxe, although to be fair, that price does include your own personal dwarf mechanic in a satchel, so you will never have to worry about breakdowns, or even regularly scheduled maintenance.


The Edsel Redux will be produced in limited quantities, by Ford of Honduras, and for reasons known only to those at the very top of the Ford hierarchy, will only be sold through Kia dealerships.   We look forward to our first test drive!


- Peter S. Tingly,  AutoLuddite




....Y'know... I've been thinkin'... I might just could be wrong... about all of this.  Just sayin'.