Category: What the…?

You’re asking me, “What’s it leading to?

Will we live a long life, will it treat us fair?”

No point asking me because I haven’t got a clue.

You’re asking me, “Will it be alright?”

If you’re asking me, don’t take my advice.

And don’t make me responsible for you living your life.

I could say there will be laughter, you will never cry.

I could just as easily go tell a lie, couldn’t I? Yeah,

What would come after, that would be unwise.

If that’s what you really want

Then get a life, get a life, get a life.

You’re asking me, “Will it be alright?”

Because I’ve been around, I have the insight.

And I was there the first time so I must know what it’s like.

If you’re asking me, don’t take my advice.

—Ray Davies, “You’re Asking Me,” Workingman’s Café

I’ve been meaning to post this (video at link) for days. Guess I’m not as speedy as a smart car:

Smart Car Leads Police, CHP On Fast Freeway Chase

LOS ANGELES  With speeds often reaching 90 mph, police chased a suspect Monday evening in a Smart car through the San Fernando Valley towards Pasadena.

CHP officers, about half hour into the chase, decided to pull back in an effort to get the driver to slow down, according to authorities.

They abandoned the chase altogether when they determined who the driver was and where he lived, said officials.

At that point, the chase was well onto the eastbound Foothill (210) Freeway approaching Sylmar.

The super-small and very fast (who knew?) Smart car was pursued initially on the northbound Hollywood (170) Freeway.

According to comments on the Smart Cars of America forums, the chopper pilot himself was surprised:

I was the pilot-reporter over the pursuit, and I will never forget it ’till the day I die.

We took off to go on an unrelated story and just as we lifted, my photographer, who was monitoring the scanner, notified me that we had “our favorite story going on.”

When he told me that it was I-5 north passing Osborne, I couldn’t believe it: we were only 1 1/2 miles away at lift-off. It took me three minutes to catch him ’cause he was really hauling butt. (First reason I didn’t think it was a smart.)

When we got overhead and went live I noted that it was a “subcompact” because of the darkness, crappy monitor that I have upfront, our altitude (I heard “CHP 51” on our common frequency calling inbound), and that my head is always on a swivel and looking outside.

As we climbed into the Crescenta Valley (east 210), the CHP called off the pursuit, CHP 51 aborted, and we cleared Burbank’s class Charlie so I got rid of Burbank tower. It was just me and the car. I dropped down to about 500 AGL and sure as shootin’, it was a blue passion with a silver tridion.

I went on the air to say that I, Larry Welk and Gary Lineberry (three of KCAL/KCBS’s pilot-reporters) are all smart car owners.

About this time the dude has slowed to the normal flow of traffic because no one’s chasing him anymore.

We continued to track him out to Rancho Cucamonga where we saw him pick up the I-15 south towards San Diego. (Apparently the registered owner lives in La Mesa.)

I often wondered if I would ever see a smart car pursuit. Now I have. It happened January 12th, five days before the first anniversary of the delivery of my first smart car.

Hope those of you who saw it live last night enjoyed it as much as I did.

Finally, something from the Hunan (Man I love that place!):

You will bring sunshine into someone’s life.

Well, I’m going to be doing a little less of that until my smart car with the convertible top gets out of the shop. A bozo rear-ended me at a light on Wednesday afternoon and then took off for parts unknown. Plastic body damage and a big dent in the muffler is what I saw before they took off the panels.

I just about fell out of my chair laughing when I saw the title of this note from Jeopardy!-winner Bob Harris about the US Air incident yesterday:

Get These Motherf***ing Geese Off This Motherf***ing Plane

INTERFACE was one of the earliest computer hobbyist magazines, and this issue was the first computer publication I bought, in the summer between my freshman and sophmore years in high school. I was taking a chemistry course at Lane Community College, and after class I’d stop downtown at the transit mall to hang around at The Real Oregon Computer Company, one of the first personal computer shops to open up in the state.

ROCC sold the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080 (which was by far the cooler-looking of the two units). That’s not what’s on the cover of the magazine, though. Neither machine had a monitor, they had to be hooked up to some sort of terminal to get human-readable output. That’s an ADM video terminal behind the cheesy plastic model of the Enterprise. The 12″ terminal (the size of an original iMac) alone cost $1,000 or more — in 1975 dollars — and it displayed one color. Well, two, I guess, you could get green or white phosphor versions.

I just watched someone buy a 19″ flat-screen for a fraction of that price at Office Depot yesterday.

Yeah, everyone’s year-end 401K statements should be rolling in about now, and I got mine yesterday. Down just about 36% from where it was at the beginning of 2008.

The good news is, because the past few years haven’t exactly left a lot to squirrel away, there wasn’t much there to begin with, at least not for someone closing in on 50. Wheeee!!!! as Atrios would say.

Down in Rancho Cucamonga, California today, a smart car tussles with a school bus full of kids (from KTLA):

School Bus Carrying Students Collides with Smart Car

The accident happened at the intersection of Banyan St. and Milliken Ave., just east of Chaffey Community College.

The white Smart Car was significantly damaged, but there did not appear to be major damage to the bus.

…

It appeared that no one was seriously hurt.

Look at the tiny little car!

Will this winter wonderland never cease?

Got a 10, 11, or 12-year-old who’s Jeopardy!-smart? Get them started on the track to success early with the Kids Online Test on January 13.

I have to say that even though I’ve never made it onto the show, the four times I’ve tried out (and the three times I’ve made it as far as the potential contestant pool) were nonetheless a lot of fun. It’s nice to find a use for a head full of useless knowledge.