Elcaset- worth a try

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:15:22 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

You really are a stunod.
What is a stunod? snip

Stunod: stoo-NAWD n. Ital. slang: An idiot, a stupid person,
imbecile. Usage: "Cheryl Nudo deve essere uno stunod perché ha
sposato Charlie Nudo."

Stugot: stoo-GAHT n. Ital. slang: A derisive reference to the male
genitalia, usually regarding that of an animal. Usage: "Charlie Nudo
è uno stugot grande e grasso."

Bacciagaloup: BAH-chaw-gah-LOOP n. Ital. Donkey, jackass, beast of
burden, usually expressing stupidity. Usage: "Charlie Nudo si
comporta come se sia un bacciagaloup poiché è pazzesco."

Pazzesco: patz-AYSK-oh adj., n. Ital. Crazy, insane, mentally
disheveled. Usage: "Charlie Nudo, é pazzesco come potete rilevare
tramite il suo comportamento."

Nudo: NOO-doh n. Ital. Knot, something that it tied in knots, a
tangle. Usage: "Charlie, Il suo cervello è legato in un nudo!"

"'Ey, 'at'sa my-a boya, dat Cholly Noodles....STUGOT!" --Mama Noodles

"Cholly, take ya pills!" --Cheryl Noodles

"I am da capo of 8 track fraud!" --Cholly Noodles

A worthy and rare example with which to tinker. Many Somersets make
it up into the GWN?
Back in the 50s, English cars were the dominant import thanks
to our Britishness I suppose. When better imports started arriving it was
soon realized we had been hoodwinked by crappy Limey cars that would not
start, navigate the snow drifts, or "demist the windscreens" in our winters.
Rule Britannia, eh! British car industry thinking - Make our cars work for
you, we will not deign to design them for use in your country. Pip, pip, old
bean! Sayonara...Austin, Hillman, Jaguar, Ford of England, etc.

"'Ey, 'at'sa my-a boya, dat Cholly Noodles....STUGOT!" --Mama Noodles
"Cholly, take ya pills!" --Cheryl Noodles
"I am da capo of 8 track fraud!" --Cholly Noodles
Pretty funny stuff.

I guess they never taught that in Probability class and UCLA
well, it's a free college, you get what ya pay for.... snip
Funny, but probably incorrect.

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:45:13 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

A worthy and rare example with which to tinker. Many Somersets make
it up into the GWN?
Back in the 50s, English cars were the dominant import thanks
to our Britishness I suppose. When better imports started arriving it was
soon realized we had been hoodwinked by crappy Limey cars that would not
start, navigate the snow drifts, or "demist the windscreens" in our winters.
Rule Britannia, eh! British car industry thinking - Make our cars work for
you, we will not deign to design them for use in your country. Pip, pip, old
bean! Sayonara...Austin, Hillman, Jaguar, Ford of England, etc. snip

Not to mention their awful Bristol buses. Some of the old double
deckers (the old Route Masters) are still knocking away out in
Victoria, I suppose, making dutiful deposits of tourists for high tea
daily. They were built by Bristol, and had a HUGE 6 cylinder engine
that went perhaps as far as 1500 RPM, coupled to a licensed copy of
the GM HydraMatic provided by Jaguar...of all people.

Examples of "Britishness" in British cars: The Jag XK-E or V12,
neither of which would run much past 500 miles after a complete
tune-up, the Triumph XR-7 (what WERE they thinking when they designed
that completely stupid engine???) and anything made by Lucas, Prince
of Darkness. Their aeroplanes were similarly strange, as well. If
they bought them somewhere else, they made them "strange" by
specification.

Example: Prior to full scale production of the Lockheed P-38
"Lightning" in 1941, the RAF ordered a passel of them under the
"Lend-Lease" agreement. A sparlking performer in its USAAF dress, it
was a bit of a slug as an RAF fighter, mainly because the Brits
demanded usage of inferior Rolls-Royce engines rather than the
turbocharged Allisons, and specified that both engines/propellers turn
the same direction. Thus, you wound up with a plane which could turn
on a dime in one direction, but the pilot would have to fight mightily
to get it go elsewhere...or even straight! The Avro Lancaster was a
storied, but very quirky, aircraft that lasted well into the 1960s in
airliner and freighter service, mostly in South America, due to the
British presence there. Not many USAAF pilots would go back for
second trips in a Lancaster, while any RAF pilot lucky enough to get a
B-17 or B-24 would have to have their fingers pried from the stick.
The Lancaster seemed to be designed to fight the pilot at all times
in the air and even on the ground. Perhaps that's a part of that
"stiff upper lip" demeanor, eh?

32° here as I type, with all doors and windows sealed tightly to keep
in the interior at a nice 22°. Thank goodness for those mandatory
insulation and weatherstripping codes demanded by Jerry Brown back in
'78!

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:50:15 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

I guess they never taught that in Probability class and UCLA
well, it's a free college, you get what ya pay for.... snip
Funny, but probably incorrect. snip

Most assuredly. I know this for a fact, as I'm reminded every time
the subject comes up about the repayment of those student loans.
Still, all in all, they were quite a bargain. The fly in the ointment
came with Ronnie RayGun tried to start "calling in" Federally
dispensed student loans early. He was rebuffed by Congress, and by
the time the issue came up again in his second term, he was well into
senility.

soon realized we had been hoodwinked by crappy Limey cars that would not
start,
that completely stupid engine???) and anything made by Lucas, Prince
of Darkness.
Having said that, I should mention I was at an auction this past
summer that had several old Vauxhalls sitting behind a barn up for auction.
I think the one had a plate from the 70s on it and a tree growing out of the
engine compartment. They hooked a battery up to it and the thing fired up
and purred like a kitten. Course it was summertime, but still...sitting for
thirty years - not bad.

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:37:23 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

soon realized we had been hoodwinked by crappy Limey cars that would not
start,
that completely stupid engine???) and anything made by Lucas, Prince
of Darkness.
Having said that, I should mention I was at an auction this past
summer that had several old Vauxhalls sitting behind a barn up for auction.
I think the one had a plate from the 70s on it and a tree growing out of the
engine compartment. They hooked a battery up to it and the thing fired up
and purred like a kitten. Course it was summertime, but still...sitting for
thirty years - not bad. snip

Ah yes...the ones made to look sort of like a miniature Buick Special.

I still have a post card, issued circa 1960, from the then-local
Buick/Vauxhall dealer with a picture of one of them spanking new.
Against all odds, there actually were quite a few of them running
around southern California, as the GM dealers, stuck with only the
Corvair to compete against Ford's intensely successful Falcon, touted
them as "economy cars". (That'd be a Frontenac up there, eh.)

them as "economy cars". (That'd be a Frontenac up there, eh.)
For this first few years and then they dropped all the silly names
and odd looking grills.

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:55:39 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

them as "economy cars". (That'd be a Frontenac up there, eh.)
For this first few years and then they dropped all the silly names
and odd looking grills. snip

My first trip to Canada was in '67 for l'Expo in Montréal. Many
Mercury trucks and Meteor cars were still to be found everywhere,
along with Acadians (Chevy IIs) and other odd birds. The most popular
car by far in Montréal (and in le cité du Quebèc) were
"Chevrolacs"...US Pontiac bodies outfitted with Chevrolet drive
trains. The Laurentian seemed the equivalent of the US Catalina, and
the ritzy (by comparison) Parisienne was obviously a dupe of the
Bonneville, but the make's name was definitely Pontiac, and used the
same logo. There was also a "bare bones" Pontiac that would've been
the twin of the by-then demoted Star Chief, but I don't remember what
it was called. I do remember it as looking quite stripped and had a
Chevy 6 for power.

All these cars had the inferior small block Chevrolet engines and
PowerSlide or Saginaw 3 speed transmissions, and had somewhat more
Spartan appointments. A 327 was about as big as one could get, it
seemed, in an "Chevrolac." Full wheel covers, a necessary appointment
on the West Coast at the time, were even more non-existent than they
were in the Northeast, as were white ringed tires (tyres?). A quick
look at the underhood of an Acadian showed it to be an exact copy of
the US version of Chevy II, using the obsolete 235 "Blue Flu" 6 and
manual Saginaw gearbox. The Frontenac was also, aside from name and
funny Pontiac-style grille, a dead ringer for the 144" 6 and 3 speed
found all over the US in the '60s. I don't know if Ford Canada even
offered the larger 170" 6 up there at that time. Many Meteors were
still using old Y-block engines in '60s Canadian cars, after the
Y-block had be superceded by the FE engine in 1959 down below. Oddly,
the Meteor that showed up in the US in '62 never appeared in Canada.
It was the intermediate Fairlane twin, while the northern cousin was
the full sized Merc.

There was some sort of trade agreement back around that time that, for
some reason, obviated the chicanery with the funny names and funnier
grille treatments on most cars, but I do remember the miserable Chevy
Vega was sold as a Pontiac Astre up there and had a similarly horrid
track record. It seems that after the late '70s, though, what was
available down here was also available up there to a point. Chrysler
products were never segregated; what models were up there were also
down here, probably since Chrysler had been building engines and cars
in Canada since the '50s. In the '80s, Oldsmobiles seemed big sellers
in Ontario, as I recall. Prior to that time, Oldsmobiles were
unavailable in Canada, but, after Smith had "cookie cuttered" every GM
product, one brand was the same as any other except for little
"glued-on" accoutrements.

When Roger Smith set about destroying Al Sloan's GM, he dissolved the
various pseudo-independent divisions as separate entities and started
"badge engineering" all GM cars except Cadillac, which still did
manufacture their own engines and only shared body shells with the
most senior Buick and Olds models until 1986. Both Chevrolet and
Pontiac marques then wound up in the "GM-Canada business unit."
Chevrolet cars built in California at the old Van Nuys plant, where my
wife's '92 Camaro came from as did all the "Chevrolac" Fireturds, was
a GM-Canada operation, as were all the combined Chevy and Pontiac
plants by that time. Probably a tax dodge or some other corporate
nonsense, but here we had a GM car, built in California, that stated
it was built by the "GM-Canada Division of General Motors." When Van
Nuys was shut down and the "new" Camaro/Fireturds started being built
at GM's Youngstown, OH, plant, the product was still a "GM-Canada"
product, although most parts along with final assembly all happened in
the US.

GM's current demise was precipitated by Roger Smith, as was AT&T final
demise perpetrated by Bob Allen. Both are scurrilous scumbags of
American corporate stupidity and lack of awareness, let alone
"vision." Ford under Caldwell was doing a lot better at that time,
but the Ford family did their best to hamstring any moves by Caldwell
to modernize or do anything ground breaking. The coup de grace for
Ford came with the family installed "Billy" Ford as chairman, and the
whirlpool of destruction started in short order. His chairmanship was
probably best heralded by the horrendous explosion of the 1919 vintage
steam power plant at the Rouge plant, caused by deferred maintenance
and staff cutbacks ordered by "Billy."

One humorous memory of Montréal...the gendarmes were using Renault
Dauphines as their patrol vehicles, surely out of some misguided
allegiance to the "homeland." On a hot summer day in July of '67,
broken down Renault cop cars would be found littering all the streets
of the city all day long. Also in high numbers there were
Citroëns....both moderne DS, and the ubiquitous CV-2. If one were to
explore the oddities of Gallic thinking, a thorough investigation of
the DS would do nicely. One lasting impression of Montréal at night
was the beautifully lit, massive Jacques Cartier bridge, as well as
the teenage French-Canuck girls on le Métro at night.