Sunday, highway driving, it all looks about the same

[austin_dern]

One little dangling piece about reading 1939: The Lost World Of The Fair that I should have mentioned. One early chapter throws up a challenge to the reader. Part of the Futurama exhibit had cars on a track going past exhibits and each row of seats gets an audio description of whatever that row was passing, with the note that each seat was seeing something different and the audio had to match that lie's position wherever it was. The challenge was how would you design such an audio system and implement it with what was commercially responsible for the late 1930s. I'm happy to say that the design I worked up matched in its fundamentals how the `Polyrhetor' was actually done. That'd be a triumph for my sorry level of engineering talent or perhaps I've just got used to the typical gimmicks they would use. The key, as was so popular in the 1930s, was electrical contacts and appropriate timing.

I'm able now with the repaired car to start getting books back to the library. I've had too many for my comfort out lately, partly because I had decided to load up on books from the headquarters branch rather than commit to more frequent trips down there. But then with the recent set of car problems disrupting my schedule and some days of snowy weather suggesting I should stay in rather than go out even for good reason, well, do you know how fast library fines can pile up when you have too many things out? I didn't either and somehow managed to rack up a bill of $5.50 without knowing it. (Some of that is that audio books get a higher charge, though.)

Meanwhile my father reminded me, several times, that a Saturn dealership near my brother and his wife was closing down and was offering Really Fantastic Deals on everything. And my brother called and asked me to call back so as to make sure I knew about this. When my brother was told I had just got my car repaired he figured it was pointless since I was putting so much money in the old car, although my father still reminded me four times the first ten minutes I was home that I should call my brother. (And I'd note that I would have to get the radiator and struts repaired in any case; assuming I were to sell the car, I couldn't in good faith sell it without repair.)

Trivia: In 1878 the Boston Red Caps played the entire National League season --- and won the pennant --- with only ten players. The team's sub, Harry Schafer, got into only two games. Source: The Rules of Baseball: An Anecdotal Look at the Rules of Baseball and How They Came To Be, David Nemec.

Currently Reading: The Adventures Of Amos 'N' Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon, Melvin Patrick Ely.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh, one can certainly sell a car in good faith without performing too many repairs; there just ought to be adequate disclosure. "Well, I was going to fix the problem of ducks living in the back seat, but I'm offering it at a lower price because of that, and you can get that taken care of at any duck-removal shop."

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends what the exact needed repairs are. Things that're essential to normal operation like the radiator keeping any coolant inside have to be fixed; things that're just those little nagging quirks that give a car `personality' in the sense of being aggravating can be let go with a warning note ``rear view mirrors don't actually move when you press the button for them''.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Actually, my Mom is attempting to sell a car with almost exactly the first problem, which is why it's being sold with the caveat that "It needs Repair X which will cost $Y." She's got a few interested parties even with the need to repair it before consistent operation.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be comfortable with that at all, even granting that customers would know what they were getting into beforehand. (Among other things I'd want to have the car be usable and comfortable for myself up to the point it was sold.)