Harry's Ruminations

Context: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/05/war-footing-toyota-ceo-unleashes-seven-samurai-bid-survival/#more-1625584 “With our rivals and the rules of competition also changing, a life-or-death battle has begun in a world of unknowns,” [Toyota CEO] Toyoda said during a fiscal update last week. “Cost reduction is crucial. It is a fight to restore our original strength.” Dear  Toyota USA I read the article below and it sickens me. You are a great company well on the way to being FCA if you take your eye off product and think only of Expense controls. Having worked for a company that cut expense for 17 straight years (when it wasn't spending $3 Billion to buy companies it had no idea what to do with), let me be the first to say, this will not work, and it will drive your talent away. It's not employees' fault that Tundra is a dead stick. Chevy makes oodles of cash off the Tahoe/Suburban line and you can't move the metal. Your hybrid strategy is a money-lo...

I've toyed with the idea of doing a video review of this car.  If you'd like one, leave a comment So, I've had a 10th Generation 2018 Honda Civic since April 24th.  I had a little car trouble  and found myself in need of a car. Crap.  Nothing like buying a car in the middle of Spring, when everyone else is buying a car thanks to Tax Refunds.   Middle of the model year.  No incentives.  Yaaaaay . My short list went like this: Ram 1500 GM half-ton with the 5.3 V8 Buick Lacrosse Lexus GS350 Honda Accord So basically: Truck or car? Practical or practical or practical. I needed something practical I could put my wife and girls in.  I was driving around in a sweet full size Chevy Impala, so I was feeling a car again, hence the Lacrosse being on the list. I 86'd the GM as it drove too big, and Whitney homed in on the Ram and the Buick as her top 2.  On April 23rd I took off work and we went driving during the morn...

As the lights go up after a comic book movie, there are reactions one expects: Awed silence; various onomatopoetic words like "Whoa!," or (in the DC Universe) grim reflections that it either did or didn't suck as much as expected. One does not  expect seething, shocked anger like the gentlemen next to me, "Well, I'm glad I never saw Black Panther," or the repeated, mindless exclamation of a teen across the auditorium. This movie BROKE ME.  This movie completely BROKE ME.  I am Broken. Truly, after Infinity War , I think none of us will be the same again.  Our happy childhood of origin stories and side quests is over.  The reality (stone?) of us dutifully hitting the bar in our rat cages marked "comic book movie" with our $$$ since 2007 is  coming to pass.  Or, as Master Mordo said in a (much better) comic book movie: "The bill comes due." (Note: I'll try to avoid spoilers) Too Many Sorcerers...er...Characters  The film...

Dear  Ford Motor Company , My 2010 Fusion Hybrid crashed today. No, I didn't smash into anything...the electric traction system in my car crashed in the computer sense as I was rolling towards a stop sign. I was left without power brakes. Thankfully this was at ~5 mph so just stomping really hard on the pedal yielded a stop. As I approached the stop sign in electric drive mode (engine off), my dashboard lit up light a Christmas tree, displaying warning lights I didn't kno w I even had. The display shouted 'SERVICE ADVANCE TRAC SYSTEM' and my brake pedal went almost to the floor. To fix this, I did the old IT trick: I turned it off and turned it back on. Problem "solved." This seems a rather serious failure mode, as without the engine running, there's no vacuum to power the brakes. As the car can run with the engine off up to 45 mph, I'd rather not imagine stopping from that speed sans a brake booster. Having been around embedded software, I...

Martin Lomasney, an old West End political boss from Boston, is best remembered for his warning to young politicians everywhere — “Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink”.

So yeah, let's spend 20 minutes flying around Pandora from Avatar but let's leave off the part that makes the plot work... "T here  is  such a thing as a  tesseract " -- Miss WhatsIt I'll never forget the day I read Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time  for the first (and thus far only) time.  I was in 4th grade--11 years old--and I was in my Aunt Norie's house in Highway 205.  My mom dropped me off, and I was alone for hours.   I can't remember the occasion exactly, and especially the reason for my solitude, but it didn't matter. I had a book.  I had the  book.  I had A Wrinkle in Time . Over the next six or so hours, I devoured the book.  I don't remember eating lunch or going to the bathroom.  L'Engle created not just a world, but a Universe, a story that spanned a galaxy and plumbed the depth of Love, Light, and Freedom.  I talked my poor mom's ear off about the book, then never ...

The following come to mind for being 39 years old ( I turn 40 in November ) "Killing yourself, one M&M at a time." Bonus points if you sing this to a "Fugees" tune and your coworker thinks you're having a stroke. "The Advil Years".  Significant things cause you to be sore the next day.  Like walking. "Remember when _____ didn't hurt all the time?"  Knees....how did these things pass design review? "Yep, that's me."  You not only recognize the face in the mirror, you come to accept him. "Remember when we didn't yell?"  Deafness.  Yep, that's what it is. Suuuure. (Before Noon) "Coffee fixes....everything."  (After 6pm) "Wine fixes...everything else." "Teenage me was so naive."  Well, he was. "Twentysomething me was so egotistical."  Yep. (Tech-specific) "Remember the first two times they invented this same thing?...