sweasel.com

Skeletons are allowed to drive in America? What a country!

Nah. That’s Reese Witheringspoon now that she’s gone totally vegetarian. She has hasn’t she?

“Witheringspoon”? Isn’t that a character from the next Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Utensil of Nasalsnort?

Oh dear – The “I Haz a Bucket” seal has died.

Some unnamed jerk left a racist comment somewhere here on Weasel’s site, and it shows up in the Recent Comments section on the right hand side of the screen. I did NOT write that, and I’ve emailed Stoaty about it.

Looks like the Stoaterator cleaned up the racism spill. Thnx, O Mighty Mistress!

The thing I can’t figure out is why this was considered such a lousy car. What was wrong with it?

🙁 poor seal he seemed so happy with the bucket.

From what I recall, the Edsel was pretty innovative, with push-button transmission, etc. I think it was more a marketing disaster than anything else. It was doomed by a kind of “the callous sophisticates laughed at Judy’s tiny head” sort of momentum.

I never worked out what was wrong with the Edsel, either. Looking at it from the other side of the Atlantic, it seemed to me just another deeply cool American car. Indeed, I saw one at a vintage car rally here last summer and thought it looked good enough to steal.

I chickened out, though.

“…I’ll set this to autopost Monday morning…” -Weasel-

— I AM HARI SELDON – ER, I MEAN STOATY WEASEL! —

So Weas is gonna pull a Hari Seldon on us and has left us messages in the future. Cool.

jw – when I saw your comment about a racist comment (which I missed, dammit) it scared the snot out of me ’cause of the comment I made over at your place. It were just in jest!

Well, the linked articles go into it a bit <ahem>. The consensus among people who like the car is that it was grossly overhyped in the press, so people were naturally a bit disappointed when it was, after all, just a car. Plus, the stupid name. Plus, it was kind of weird looking.

And then, three years in, Ford dropped it. Orphaned it completely. I mean, to this day they refuse to have anything at all to do with the Edsel clubs or anything. So that made it a famous mistake, like New Coke.

Uh oh. The drive-by with the racist comment isn’t anyone who’s been here before, but he was calling in from the Elk Island Catholic Schools in Canada.

DUDE. YOU TOTALLY MADE THE VIRGIN MARY CRY. YOU ARE SO GOING TO HELL.

It’s that damned Canadian backbacon, I tell ya. It rots the cerebrum.

Naw, wasn’t your comment over at PB, Steam. I figured you were kidding, and Italians have a sense of humor, last time I checked. Course, they have cement blocks, clothes line, and boats, too.

Yep. Looks like its a Canook mackerel-snapper. Who’d a thunk it? Probably blitzed outa his gourd on Canadian Fosters.

The Edsel failed for a combination of reasons that perhaps aren’t so obvious looking back.

First, it was the answer to a question that no one had asked. It was above Ford in the model line up but below Lincoln; sort of an extra Mercury. So to the market place it was a distinction without a difference.

Second it had been hyped to the max, but the (as the attached article states) had quality problems at the launch. So high expectations were followed by bad reviews and word-of-mouth. Always bad…..

Next, it was launched at a bad time – during a recession when nothing was selling. So the poor sales were self re-enforcing.

The obvious points- that it’s ugly and has a weird name – well – That puts you in the “what do you say when your neighbors ask why you bought an ugly unreliable car with a weird name dilemma.” They start whispering “He couldn’t afford the Lincoln”.

The Pontiac Aztek is a current example of much the same scenario. It was built by GM in response to the success of the PT Cruiser – a car that went from show car design to market very quickly. A GM executive asked “Why can’t we do that?” So, it was done. The Aztek show car wasn’t bad looking http://www.autoworld.com/news/Pontiac/Aztek.htm but when it got through the bean counters it didn’t quite look like the concept any more. http://www6.autonet.ca/Spotlight/TestDrives/story.cfm?story=/Spotlight/TestDrives/2000/12/04/623776.html

Holy shit, Lokki! It’s like the swallows coming back to Capistrano, you and that filter. You do know I’m going away and won’t be able to fish you out for a couple of weeks? I wonder if URLs without the http:// would sneak past Akismet.

I see your Aztek, and raise you a Ka.

Oooooooh… it’s got Ka-Ligraphy. Kewl!

Maybe the Edsel needed something like that.

Well, lets find out!

http://www.autoworld.com/news/Pontiac/Aztek.htm

and the second one:

www6.autonet.ca/Spotlight/TestDrives/story.cfm?story=/Spotlight/TestDrives/2000/12/04/623776.html

Lets see –
deck o’ cards – check,
bottled water – check
taser – check
condoms – check
pepper spray – check
small kitten – check
russian rubles – check
silk stockings – check
rubber hose – check

Ok! Here we go…

I made it through! Yeee-haaa!

No – wait! Something is rotten about that post. lets try a mod version:

http://www.autoworld.com/news/Pontiac/Aztek.htm

and the second one:

http://www.autonet.ca/Spotlight/TestDrives/story.cfm?story=/Spotlight/TestDrives/2000/12/04/623776.html

notice that I deleted the 6 in the www thingy in the second link.

Hey! It worked too! Both links are underlined, so wordpress still recognises them as link-like things (I guess), but it made it thru! And they both work. Good.

This calls for a drink.

A couple of weeks? Ooooooohhhh, who will be
sweeping up the dustbunnies and feeding the
dead squirrels whilst you’re gone?

Naw, NB, I’ll be able to check in every couple of days and take out the rubbish. And I’ve got two weeks worth of crappy auto-posts lined up! Woohoo!

McGoo, that’s brilliant! If it continues to work, I’ll change the disclaimer (see below).

I’m guessing Akismet still quarantines Lokki, though. That’s just the way it is…

It was your idea, O’ Mighty Weasel.

Of course the spammers might figure it out, too. Then you’ll be butt-deep in weiner extensions.

Your last comment, Steamboat, provokes a mental image with which I am not entirely comfortable.

As whats-his-face said in Heart of Darkness:

“The horror. The horror.”

Ya know, its a pity H.P. Lovecraft was so victorian. He could have done a lot with a roomful of weiner extensions.

“The Wanker Out of Space”, or “The Dunwich Winky” come to mind. And – of course – “Pickman’s Johnson”.

Steamboat! Stop! I’ll wet my pants!

I take that as an “uncle!”. I count coup!

I was very with that Pickman comment. If you know the story, its….apt…in an odd way.

How ’bout “I was PLEASED…”

I meant to delete ‘very’ and, um, missed.

I uncount coup!

’twill serve, Steamboat: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

My humour is neither deep as a well nor as wide as a church door, but will suffice; twill serve.

G’night.

A plagiarism o’ both your houses!

Good Night Gentlemen

“A plagiarism on both your houses.”

That’s good.

Have y’all seen this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGuPpYYXIUo&eurl=

TI: heh. He’s a left-hander, you’ll notice. It’s truly remarkable how many in my profession are. I’m not, but my two opposite numbers at work are.

What? Ya’ll can’t sleep either?

I’m going to go out and bark at my neighbor’s dog.

Incidentally sweasel there’s a strong correlation between left-handedness and homosexuality in men. The correlation totally falls apart when applied to women. Coincidentally, most homsexuality “indicators” only work for men. Makes you wonder how different female and male homosexuality might be.

The left side of the body is also controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain. Right-brain people tend to be the artsy type. Not sure if there’s any evidence of direct correlation, but it would make sense.

BTW, I absolutely love that y’all don’t mind when I drop useless tidbits in here. 🙂

The useless tidbits are my favorites.

I’ve noticed a correlation between short hair, flannel shirts, Doc Martens, and lesbianism, myself.