HALL & OATES BACK FROM THE DEAD- Have you heard those Applebee’s commercials featuring H&O’s “You Make My Dreams Come True“?? You must have. They run it every five minutes. I guess I never appreciated them,  but that is the ONLY music coming out of the TV that sets my toes tappin’ and makes me dance in the kitchen. I must be getting old.

TRUMP’S SCREWY LAWYERS-  It’s no secret that with his reputation for not paying his bills Our Fake President has had trouble engaging legal counsel. The Covingtons and Burlings of the world are not interested in representing a deadbeat.  Trump had had to resort to using his real estate lawyers and characters like Jay Sukelov,  who advertises himself  as a Christian-rights attorney.  The star of Trump’s legal team is Ty Cobb, the genius who held a strategy meeting at the BLT on the sidewalk in front of Trump Tower in full view and hearing of a WAPO reporter who recorded everything.  It’s not going to get better.

THE PORT AUTHORITY BUS TERMINAL in NYC was in the news this morning because of a bombing. I will give a prize to the first person who identifies the person portrayed  in the statue in front of its entrance on the west side of 8th Ave midway between 40th and 41st Streets. You’ll say, “Oh, of course!”.

THE  BIG  4-0:  My car has now registered 40K miles, so I guess it’s not a new car anymore.  Hardly surprising  since it’s a 2007,  the last year they made the PT Cruiser. On the one hand I’ve only had one problem with it, a $300 one-time electrical thing.  On the other hand, I hardly drive it.  I need to get  a new mechanic because I won’t use Old Town Auto any more.  I was a faithful customer for ten years when Wally Cunningham was running it.  He’s send me a notice when I needed something and I blindly followed his advice. Never any problems and when it was electrical he’d refer me out to Dan’s. I knew things would be different when he retired but I didn’t realize HOW different. I blew out a tire and decided to replace all four.  Old Town wanted to sell me a $900 set of tires!! For a PT Cruiser!  The CAR is hardly worth $900! I found I could get perfectly good tires from COSTCO for $370 and from Gosselin’s for a couple of bucks more . Guess where I ended up?  Dan’s let me know they are available for non-electrical work and I just may go to them unless any of you have a better idea.

HIGH-SPEED RAIL –  is being built in China, and everywhere else in the civilized world while California  limps along  dodging lawsuits. In Florida they’re all ready to start testing their privately funded route between West Palm and Lauderdale. Even in pissy little Ireland, they’re building HSR between Cork and Dublin.  Read about the Florida deal HERE.

Do you ever read those ads from the Tractor Supply company?  They’re largely farm-related which means they’re very exotic to me, who has never spent one moment on a farm.  The one that came last week has an ad for a “Yardbird Chicken Plucker- Fully defeathers a bird in 15 seconds or less” for only $349.99.  It looks like a tripod with a perforated cylinder on the top and I don’t even want to know how it works. On the same page is a “$199.99 Shelterlogic Shed-In-A-Box 10 ft X 10 ft X 8ft Roundtop Storage Shed”.  It would need a floor and an end flap but, hey, these could solve the homeless crisis if you put them in the right place.

THE WINTER SUN- Does it bother you as much as it does me? Every year from December to February or so, I hate driving after about 2pm. The only wreck I ever caused was at the junction of Myrtle and Hall, near Redwood Acres.  I was trying to turn left, and couldn’t see a damn thing.  I ended up T-boning a Ford van.  My little Neon didn’t have a scratch on it but the van looked like it had been hit by a train. They are apparently made of cardboard.

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