Pete J.

After 15 years of getting up at 3 am to get to Sears, to work a 12 hour shift with all the black Friday loony's, I am finally free to enjoy the holiday with my family and friends. Those who hate the holidays probably work in retail and it gets worse every year. This year at the mall, most of the stores are opening at 6 pm on Thanksgiving day. If all these people have to work on Thanksgiving and the day after until they drop, why have a holiday. I truly feel sorry for them. I may go in with some cookies just for my old coworkers. Try to brighten the day a little. Perhaps I could encourage some of you to go out on Black Friday just for a few random acts of kindness to those who have to suffer because of their jobs. As to decorations, well, yes I do. Simple but I think tasteful. No blow up snow men, no Santa's on the roof. Just a simple nod to the cold icicles where I grew up. We don't have such things in SoCal. I know it is early, but Merry Christmas!

Some time ago one of the late night talk show hosts would go to some place where people should know, and would ask a question. One of my favorites occurred just after a graduation ceremony at a prestigious college. The question was, "How many moons does the earth have?" Answers ranged from four to "I don't know. I'm not an astronomy major." You can not over estimate the ignorance of your fellow humans!

Ok, since we have gotten off topic to "Just stupid things people told you" I was at the deli counter in a grocery store and my wife had asked me to pick up some sliced salami. As those of you who are wise in matters of gourmet Italian sausages know there are a plethora of sizes, shapes and cure methods. I am not as well schooled in such things but I noticed that one of the salamis that had a much smaller diameter had a higher price than one that was of larger diameter. I asked the counter person(I will not call her the airhead running the show) why that was. She came out from behind the counter looked seriously at both of them for a moment and said,..............wait for it.............. Because you get more in a pound with the small one.

Way back in the 70's I was transferred from Merced Ca,(Castle AFB) To Michigan(Wurtsmith AFB) and has just purchased a new metallic green Porsche 911. On pulling into a gas station just out side of base in Michigan, the attendant(yes they still had them back then) came out and the first words out of his mouth were, "Wow, that is really nice! Volkswagen?" I knew I had landed in the wrong part of the country. Oh, and yea dumb car things people say? "Porsh" instead of "Porsha". It is a German family name and the e is not silent.

Pulled up to the drive up at the bank. Two lanes to use. It is Sunday, so there are only two cars ahead of me, one in each lane. The first lane had a blue hair in a huge white Cadillac. Little old lady is punching the buttons on the ATM with reckless abandon and cursing the thing for not doing what she wanted. The guy in the other lane is too stupid to get close enough to the machine to reach it, so he is half in and half out of the car trying to conduct a transition in that awkward position. So which line should I get in. After 5 minutes, I gave up and went to a different location. Come on folk! Either learn to use the machines or wait until Monday and go into the bank. The rest of us are waiting.

I was following the storm system on the aviation weather site and it is one serious fall storm moving across the Midwest. Duck Harry, Duck!

Boy, and I thought I was one of the few who knew about Papillio! Glad others are using it. One word of advise. It comes in standard 8 1/2" X 11" sheets. What I did was cut it to 4"X 5" and run it in my photo paper tray. To me this means less waste. I run smaller layouts and I do several.

Here is the company that I get mine through. It is very thin and works well and it is far cheaper than any of the stuff you buy that is from a modeling company. http://www.texascraft.com/hps/Inkjet-Waterslide-Decal-Paper/

No, but I play one on TV!

Actually, there is a scenario in which you could have more then 100% and it is a technicality. This year, I have acquired 1 model and built it. I also had a friend/customer come buy and give me a kit to build for him. Technically, I never owned or acquired the model, but I built 2 kits thus, 200% completion rate.

Kind of interesting how some people are proud of how many models they build each year or how many they own or some other number. Then they are inclined to make a comment about how the other side is in some manner strange as if it makes them somehow a better modeler. None of this matters! It is nice to put it out here, but as long as someone is having fun with the hobby, it doesn't matter. I have lots of kits but to classify me as a hoarder is not right. I plan on building every one them if I have to live to 175. I am lucky to get a couple of models done each year. I love taking my time with a model and detailing the heck out of it. I love creating some minuscule part that no one but I will see. I still like the thrill of picking up a new kit that is special to me in some way. I like going to shows, but am not so much into competition any more, though I was when I was younger. I like chatting with my friends on this board and others. A appreciate other genera's of building, but don't always like the subject matter. F1 and LeMans are my preferences, and Nascar and lowriders don't mean anything to me though I appreciate one well built. I am a modeler. Please don't try to limit who is a "good" modeler based on numbers or categories or some other esoteric definition. Just accept it for what it is. A great hobby that just about anyone can participate in.

Manage the stash????? Are you kidding me!!! That is like managing a drug addiction. For every one I get done, three more show up! Some from raffles, others from friends(read enablers) others from somebody going out of business or what ever. I got what I got and I will build them when I get darned good and ready! Yea, I'm well stocked but could always use a couple of more.

Losers? Well not really. These are the basic transportation, grocery getters, get you to work, drive the wheels off it, unglamorous, point A to point B set of wheels. They didn't inspire passion except maybe with the Birkenstock set. They didn't get the ol juices flowing unless you were in an accident. They just got you there. They were cheap transportation. The real issue with most of them is that they were trying to compete with the corollas, civics, 510s and beetles of the day. Those cars were about the same price or less with better fit and finish, better durability and some of them were actually fun to drive. The big three were really getting their feet wet in the international market and for the first time had serious completion on their own turf. The cars were subpar to what was coming into the country at the time. Unfortunately for American Manufactures it introduced Americans to Japanese cars and many of us(myself included) have never gone back. So Losers. Not really but definitely game changers.

You considered adding the Horizon. While you are at it, don't for get the Gremlin! All of these cars were attempts by the Big 3 to tackle the Japanese invasion by Toyota, Honda and Nissan(or Datsun as it was known at the time). I guess they were "losers" because the quality just couldn't come up to the standard that the Japanese cars set. A friend had a Cosworth Vega in Northern Michigan when I lived there. It was a good car for about two years and then it just seemed to collapse. Rust holes and engine problems. Not pretty!

I understand you guys up north getting cranky about tinted windows, but here in the southland it is almost a necessity. A car sitting in the sun for eight hours without some protection is just lethal to get into and interiors will just disintegrate after a short time. Personally, I have a car cover, but I understand tinting.

Art, Good point but again, I will refer you to the web site I mentioned in my earlier, post. Most of the stuff that we use is lacquer paint. By itself it is flammable. Just spraying it creates a hazardous situation both from in inhalation and fire stand point. What has been argued here is having a can explode. The expert data seems to indicate that exploding cans are highly unlikely. The internal temperature has to get to about 190 degrees for the can to deform and much higher to fail. Since all the food dehydrators I have researched are not capable of producing a temperature of more that 120 degrees even if everything inside fails, I am quite comfortable heating them in this fashion. In fact this is a temperature that would be within a few degrees of putting the can in a sunny window on a hot day. The main failure and most dangerous failure seems to be dropping the can on a sharp object such as a corner of piece of angle iron or other similar object and you have an uncontrolled release of the contents along with some nearby ignition source. Short of doing something really stupid like putting it on a stove top or near a fire, failure of this type is quite unlikely. Judging from the fact the aerosol cans are still around in abundance, would indicate to me that the number of injuries that occur are very low or they would be gone as a result of litigation. No, you don't want to throw one in a fire or heat it in an uncontrolled fashion, but a little common sense is all that is needed to have a safe situation. I like my chances with a very limited heat source like a food dehydrator. The use of hot water is in my mind potentially more hazardous as most people are not real good at judging temperature and the boiling point of water(@sea level) is at or above the failure point of the can. Even then, the cans do not fail buy bursting. The failure is progressive and only becomes explosive when a ignition source is provided. Again, I restate that common sense is needed to use a tool correctly. Heating a can in a controlled environment, free of ignition sources can be safe. I would be more concerned about using rattle cans for the purpose intended but in any enclosed environment with any ignition source(in a garage or basement in the presents of a water heater comes to mind) is far more likely and dangerous than simply heating the can.

Ok, but heating the can by any method is equally safe/unsafe. A food dehydrator is no more dangerous in than doing it in water. Food dehydrators heat to a far lower temperature than the safety limit of aerosol paint can. The danger comes from sudden release of the propellant and paint. That danger is much higher when you accidently puncture the can than it is from the can bursting from excess heat. Lastly the danger is primarily from having an ignition source nearby not the bursting can. Read this web site. It will not change your mind about the inherent danger of a rattle can, but it will give you a better idea about the true dangers associated with rattle cans and how to use them safely. http://www.chemaxx.com/aerosol8.htm

Please explain why you feel this is a dangerous process and your is safer.

Thought with all the talk about top secret loads and such, some of you might like to see a confirmed real deal top secret load on a truck. This is a photo of an A-12, the predecessor of the SR-71 black bird on the way from the Skunk works to what I presume was area 51/dreamland for testing. This is from a web site on transporting the SR and I have seen it in a book that chronicles project Oxcart.

Jim, I did not say all bike riders. I would never paint that large of a swath with any group. I pretty much limited it to the young bikers with no sense and more bike than they should have. I got my first bike in 1966 and I had my share of close calls because of the way I rode it. The day doesn't seem to go by out here in So Cal that I don't see some young jerk go blasting down the freeway and splitting lanes or popping a wheelie on the freeway at 5 pm in dense traffic. This is much more common than young idiots in fast car,s though they are out there too. The bikers doing that just seem to be more prevalent on the freeways of SoCal. There are certainly a large number of well mannered people on motorcycles out there being unobtrusive and riding well.

The only good part about bad drivers is that they eventually wind up as winners of a posthumous Darwin Award. Bikers seem to be more prone to this activity than the general population. I suspect a large part of this has to do with the majority of the group being populated by young males awash in testosterone.

Good point! One thing I like about Mecham auctions is that frequently you hear them saying " You couldn't restore that car for what it is selling for." There are a handful of restorer/ resomoders out there who can make money at it, but most often a great car is a result of someone who was a dog. That is they had unconditional love for the car and would spend whatever it took to make it right, whether it was money, time or both. They never figure on getting back what they put into it.

If you follow the markets, the guys who do the best, buy the cars because they are passionate about them. That means they buy something they really like and because of that they tend to hold onto them for a very long time. If you heard the story behind the Ferrari NART spyder that just sold for 27 million it illustrates this point well. The owner of the car picked it up in Marinello along with Luigi Chinetti and they drove around Europe before they brought the cars to the U.S. He owned many other Ferraris over the years, but this was his favorite and he drove it frequently. He didn't buy it or keep it as an investment, he just loved the car.

Oh, that is good! I have at times had to use handicapped placards due to injuries, etc and would confront people who used those spaces illegally. Most common reply was, " I am only going to be a moment" and a fowl look when I said, "It doesn't say short term parking". People are just rude!

People who think it is cool, or makes them look more intelligent or who knows what by mispronouncing a word. My current peeve is integral. The emphasis is on the first syllable not the second. The origin of the word is from mathematical word integer. I have never heard anyone pronounce integer with emphasis on the second syllable. Why do they have to do that with integral.