Thursday miscellanea #344

We lost Buddy Baker to lung cancer early this week. He was the first guy to drive 200 mph on a closed course (Talladega!), and is one of the drivers from “the old days” with whom I actually got to exchange a word once or twice. (Startled you how tall he was the first time you saw him in person.) When he left his broadcasting job last month, he said “Do not shed a tear. Give a smile when you say my name.” Farewell and godspeed to a ceaselessly gracious guy who embodied the sport as much as anyone did in my childhood. RIP.
My mobile phone, the particularly-well-regarded-by-me Lumia 830, has reached “end of life” status, a mere ten months after its release. Microsoft, a lot of us are surprised you’ve stayed in this space this long (and I do still dig the platform). Please begin immediately telling a coherent mobile story, longly and loudly.
I always dug the Ferrari 400. It carried a lot of the Pininfarina styling cues that were also on the 308/328, but was a proper, four-place grand tourer. About ten years ago when I explored the question, you could get a driver in decent shape for $25K or so. Still not cheap, but definitely dreamable, right? I thought that right up to when I started looking into parts and service costs. They’re astronomical. I’d have had to budget a quarter to a third what I paid for the car every single year to afford to keep it on the road. I see a fairly ratty 308 around Madison sometimes and wonder why the guy bothers. Maybe he’s talented and knowledgeable enough to work on it himself.
Sucker-punching the starting quarterback and breaking his jaw (apparently over $600) gets you tossed from the team. What a maroon.
I saw a young lady admonished by her Publix supervisor tonight, though it was vague and quick enough that I couldn’t discern any details. She looked me in the eye, spoke in complete sentences, and hadn’t maimed herself with any gauged piercings that I could see, so she scored points with me. Hope it ended well.
There is a 9200-square-foot home on Monte Sano listed for sale for $6.5 million. It’s lovely, but definitely not what I’d do with that much money for a domicile. There would be a lot more land, a lot further out. And inside, there would be a lot more steel, glass, and black leather.
Three weeks from the day after tomorrow. Hint of cool in the air. You feel it?

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