Lorelei

I can't help myself - I must post these.  Yes, I am a proud Father and infinitely thankful to my wife for our baby girl.  She is about seven months old in the pictures.  Click for a larger view.

Think - Do

In theory I am much more a thinker than a doer.
In reality I do much more than I think.

Mass Transit Link

Q: What makes the United States look like a third world country? 
A: Our lack of national and regional mass transit. 
Some metro areas should be acknowledged for their success: San Francisco, New York City and Washington D.C.  It is a pitty that people keep protesting against mass transit.  In Europe it is possible to get to almost every corner of a nation by using mass transit.

Article: Mass transit can change lives
http://dailyreporter.com/blog/2009/09/14/report-mass-transit-can-change-lives/

Note: Some third world countries do have mass transit.

Remember that not all Americans are physically and financially fit enough to own a well maintained automobile.  There also many Americans that will feel financially liberated if they could sell their car and live car free.  I remember my first visit to San Francisco and asking the hotel what parking accomodations they had.  Their response was "none" and he proceeded to tell me that I should not rent a car because it is a big hassle and easier to use the city's transit system.  I thank him for the advise (and cost saving) as we had no problem getting around, including going out to the wine country.

Lorelei says...

General Motors will suffer! They hired this guy named Fritz "Big Ed (the Texan)" Henderson and you know one of the first things he tells the press is that he doesn't know anything about cars. Well my daddy got a good laugh out of that! Cause my daddy knows cars, all kinds of them and he even knows how to fix them and sell them too. After all that's how he paid to get through college. Now my daddy says we need to get the U.S. great cars with the little turbo diesel engines that get 50 to 60 miles to the gallon and pollute a tiny little bit - he said they use low sulfur fuel too like his turbo diesel car.

But now that Big Ed is running the show there is no talk of that kind of good stuff. Instead he's just released the new Camaro which isn't a family sized fuel sipper and now my daddy's read that Big Ed is going to redesign the Chevy Suburban and some other trucks (also called crossovers and formerly SUV's, ed.). You know how big the 'Burb is? It's big enough to fit 100 babies like me! Oh, and let me tell you! He read this article in the British magazine Car that tested that new Chevy Cruze which Big Ed says is "gonna turn around GM!". My daddy said the magazine said it was worse than its Korean made competitors and they said a better alternative would be public transport. And from what my daddy's heard the car is designed by Korean car company Daewoo and will be made in North America (that could be the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Haiti, etc., ed.). Funny thing - Big Ed says it will be a premium compact car for the U.S. capable of competing with Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen. But I am confused because in the European market the critics say it is not as good as a Hyundai or a Kia. Hmmmm, I got a lot to learn in the next eighteen years!

Oh and by the way, Big Ed's resume includes being the executive that is responsible for the merger of AT&T and Bell South. From what my daddy says, AT&T was a good company with great costumer service before that and Bell South was a great company with low rates. Now my daddy keeps complaining about how bad the customer service is and that the phone service is not cheap. Is this the success we can hope for from Big Ed the Texan when he achieves something significant at GM?

I just want to tell Big Ed this: put the trolley cars back on the streets! You know, back in the 1950's, the ones that GM bought from all the major cities and scrapped.

Definition: Cul-de-Sac or Cul de Sac

Cul-de-Sac - kul*de*sak; Arbitrary residential street, placed in well marketted residential subdivision (a.k.a. Community), that leads to nowhere often lined on both sides with garages and their attached homes; dead end street generally without sidewalks; confusion alley. Used in sentenance: ex. A: Where the f^*k is your sister's d*mn house, I know it is down one these stupid motherf$%*ing cul-de-sacs. ex. B: I'm sorry I got the fire truck stuck in this cul-de-sac, I know, I see the fire is in the next cul-de-sac and I'm sorry ma'm but were trying to get there as fast as possible - now let me repeat, you are Highland Court North not Highland Lane East? Synomymns: unfreindly, suburban nightmare, inefficient, huge infrastructure and maintenance expense, suburban sprawl. Opposites: Walkable Community, Urban Flow, feeder street, efficiency.

Cute little trees, where are the rest of them?