Continuous Transportation: CMBA Blogathon On Trains, Planes, And Automobiles

Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige

picture: cmba


The Classic Movie Blog Association (CMBA)  has just finished another blogathon on classic films having Transport as an important part of the story, if not the main theme itself.
http://clamba.blogspot.com/2015/10/its-time-for-cmba-fall-blogathon-trains.html

For example, the blog Outspoken and Freckled did a post on the James Cagney film Taxi (1932).
http://kelleepratt.com/2015/10/24/cmbas-planes-trains-and-automobiles-blogathon-taxi-1932/

All the participants are members of the CMBA and the entries are good introductions to the films cited, or serve as great focus on areas of the cinematic group effort that we may have overlooked.
And example comes from the post on Taxi mentioned above:

...Funny duo Stone and Bennett as Skeet and Ruby are a quirky pair that provide witty breaks throughout. Dry cynicism with a nasal dead-pan Bennett especially, as she’s given generous latitude of lines to ramble on nonsensically, yet it delivers. Ruby to Skeet: “C’mon I feel like being bored and you can do the job better than anybody I know.”

I wish I had said that line.

picture: cmba

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Continuous Transportation: Cuban Chrome

Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige

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Continuous Transportation: De Chirico et le Pneu Crevé

Un État de Transport Continu
inspiré par le film Transperceneige

Giorgio De Chirico Has A Flat Tire On His Chrysler PT Cruiser

While Motoring Through the Italian Countryside

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Into The Future

My favorite set of wheels is not a DeLorean...

Rather, it is a DeLuisean...

and

"It starts right up."

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The Day The Earth Stalled

...so Muhammad (which actually happens to be the name of my mechanic...no lampooning of holy figures here.) gets the Old Blue Terra Cruiser down from the hoist, and walks towards me, wiping the oil off his hands, drying the ocean spray on his hair, and getting the Saharan sand off his Mr. Goodwrench shirt. He is shaking his head in a manner that I have come to associate with bad news.  
Well, I got some good news and some bad news. Which do ya wanna hear first?

Masha'allah, I said, rolling my eyes.  

What model do you got? The 2 billion year old one, or the one that's got just over 6,000 years on her?

Man ya'rif? I said, shrugging. Who knows?  

Ya know, some people bought into the younger model, the Bishop Ussher model, the T four-oh-oh-four. Some got the older model.

I said I thought it was the older model. It had certainly been acting as if it were. (Bishop Ussher was the bloke who said the Earth was created in 4004 B.C.) 

Then there's the designer: was your designer the Big Guy or that Intellygent Designer that's all the rage these days?

While he said this, he did "majnoun" motions; i.e., finger points to temple and implies that some of us were not too tightly wrapped..." mad as hatters" nicely sums it up.

I said I thought it was the Big Lebowski...I don't know why. I mean, there isn't much holy about Jeff Bridges as The Big Lebowski. Or is there? Anyway, long story short, it was going to be flush the system for the next 1,000 years at some phenomenal figure per flush, or...get a new model.

So I'm getting the system flush. It gives me the shivers, sounding way too much like eternal colon cleansing, but she'll be running like new in no time.

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reprint

Automobile Makers 1899

According to Seeger and Guernsey's Cyclopaedia 

of the Manufactures and Products of the United States

Google Books

http://books.google.com/books?id=u0FgyWc_xcAC&pg=PR11&dq=automobiles+Seeger&hl=en&sa=X&ei=176YUf3bKcHB4AO1toGgBQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=automobiles%20Seeger&f=false

PAGE 968

J. C. Blevney, Newark, N. J.

Bramwell-Robinson Co., Hyde Park, Mass.

Canda Mfg. Co., Carteret, N. J.          

Cleveland Machine Screw Co., Cleveland, O.

Crouch Automobile Mfg. Co., Baltimore, Md.

Daimler Mfg. Co., 169 Broadway, New York.

Dovetail Co., Crawfordsville, Ind.

Duryea Wagon Co., Springfield, Mass.

Eaton Motor Carriage Co., Portland, Me.

Elgin Automobile Co., Elgin, 111.

J. Frank Duryea, Springfield, Mass.

Electric Carriage & Battery Co., Cleveland, O.

Electric Vehicle Co., 100 Broadway, New York.

Frantz Body Mfg. Co., Akron, O.

General Electric Co., Lynn, Mass.

Geneva Wagon Co., Geneva, N. Y.

Graef Motor Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Holyoke Motor Carriage Co., Holyoke, Mass.

Holyoke Motor Works, Holyoke, Mass.

Lewis Motor Vehicle Co., Philadelphia, Pa.

Liquid Air Power & Automobile Co., Boston, Mass.

Marsh Motor Carriage Co., Brockton, Mass.

W. ,T. McCullough, 122 Massachusetts Av., Boston, Mass.

Mississippi Valley Automobile Trans. Co., E. St. Louis, Mo.

Mobile Co. of America, Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y.

National Motor Co., Stamford, Conn.

Niagara Automobile Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y.

Olds Gasoline Engine Works, Lansing, Mich.

Olds Motor Carriage Co., Detroit, Mich.

Olds Motor Vehicle Co., Lansing, Mich.

Overman Wheel Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass.

Patton Motor Co., Chicago, 111.

Phila. Motor Wagon Co., Camden, N. J.

Pittsburg Motor Vehicle Co., Pittsburg, Pa.

Poste Bros. Buggy Co., Columbus, O.

Rhode Island Automobile Co., Providence, R. I.

Rochester Electric Vehicle Co., Rochester, N. Y.

C. H. Sieg Mfg. Co., Kenosha, Wis.

St. Louis Gasoline Motor Co., 115 S. nth St., St. Louis, Mo.

C. M. Spencer, Windsor, Conn.

Standard Novelty Co., Port Huron, Mich.

Still Motor Co., Toronto, Can.

Strathmore Automobile Co., Albion Bldg., Boston, Mass.

U. S. Automobile Co., Pawtucket, R. I.

U. S. Motor Carriage Co., Andover, Mass.

U. S. Motor Co. of Pittsburg & Allegheny, Pittsburg, Pa.

Whitney Steam Carriage Works, East Boston, Mass.

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Holiday Shopping

Buy locally, and check to see where the things you are buying are made.
We did not do so for the longest time, and things surprised us.

It reminds me of the time 20 years ago (during the Savings and Loan debacle) when I was at a bank and I enquired about FDIC insurance, and the banker sort of laughed, saying that yeah, it was there.... but not like we would ever have a need for it...
or like the Ford salesman 12 years ago who laughed at my question about fuel efficiency; it was a different time.
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Benoit

I stopped cursing other drivers for a while. It makes driving so much easier. However, I have encountered so many odd ones, I have started up again.
I have exhausted all the old epithets and references to hygiene products and erotic paraphenalia, and I startled myself with a new one that popped up:  Benoit!

So I yell the name "Benoit!" at people, as if I am addicted to fractal geometry and scream "Benoit" in memory of Benoit Mandelbrot. If I am in a Jewish neighborhood, I yell "Baruch!" and if I am around Roman Catholics, I call out "Benedict!" or "Sons of Benedict!" or whatever.

The point of all this is the original "Benoit!" or "Chiens de Benoit!" ("Dogs of Benoit!" in French). One has to know how the name "Benoit" is pronounced. Baruch and Benedict are variations on the name Benoit, but only "Benoit" has the right sound.
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ps.
I shall not explain this further!
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The US Auto Sales Industry

My 1931 Reo

What is the problem with US auto dealers? For 3 weeks, I have been going into dealerships: Saturn, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, and trying to purchase or lease a car. So far, nothing.

I have dealt with Saturn salespeople who disappear the next day, having spent a happy afternoon with me test driving 3 cars, only to be terminated the next morning. Then when I start over again with a new sales person, I am informed that even though I am ready, willing, and able to pay cash right now for a new care, I am not as desirable a prospect as some coming off a lease, either with GM or even Chrysler; they get the extra discount, I do not. We part.
There are no follow up phone calls. Neither side cares anymore. The Ford dealer was distant and professorial, treating me like some callow student who required a great deal of explanation. Illogically as it may be, this did not lead to new, crisp print-outs of quotes on the 2009 Fusion SE, but rather a hodge-podge of pencil marks and scribbling on scraps of paper. I stuck them all in my pockets and left.
I was about to commit myself this Monday past, when the House of Representatives voted down the bail-out, the Dow Jones declined 777 points, and I said why bother. I could get a cab to the soup kitchen. I did e-mail the Ford dealer for some further information. So far, no response.

Chrysler new cars heard my price range and abruptly moved me to Chrysler Previously Owned cars. The man was very good and responsive. However, I do have another Chrysler product, and they have some parts quality issues. They need not act so snobbish to their old customers. The GM man was also good. I looked at an HHR. Previously, I had considered the HHR to look like a hearse in a Popeye cartoon, but She-who-must-be-obeyed took a fancy to it, so there I was. Nice car. Nice people. But, once again the economic uncertainties held me back.
Thus, for new American cars, I have 1 out of 4 satisfactory experiences. I actually begged Saturn to take my money, we could pretend I was coming of a lease, but they laughed pleasantly and indicated the direction of the exit.

Things You Gotta Do 1

Go to Washington D.C. and have a vehicle inspection.

I have been awake for awhile this morning.
My daughter called at 5:20 A.M. to let me know she had arrived at the Washington D.C. vehicle inspection station. The line of waiting cars was 2 to 3 blocks long. The facility opens at 6:00 A.M. She called me later at 5:40 to let me know the expressions of people arriving and discovering how long the line was.

I had gone through this with her 2 years ago. It took 3 hours. People become enraged at their helplessness in the face of this virtual prison of governments.

There were loose dogs wandering around. Some of them sort of staggered a bit, looking like that rabid dog in To Kill A Mockingbird that the sheriff, Heck, has to ask Atticus to shoot down. There were people selling bottles of water. There was a doll in a flashy dress...
Oh, and they only let you know that you could not use a credit card to pay until after you had sat in line and gone through the test! That explained why we saw so many people hightailing it across the street to the US Post Office: they had to get a money order.

Have a vehicle inspect at D.C.

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