"Yo, Finland. Imma let you Finnish." - Kayne West

Seemed appropriate for the occasion.

Which is NOT to say my friends in the Midwest don't have my full sympathies. I remember the misery of massive and endless snowfalls. Our last MI home didn't have a garage because the man who built the house in 1906 didn't like those new-fangled automobiles. We had a carriage porch, but no garage. Shovel off the cars, plow the driveway, repeat.
Hang in there, guys. Warm weather arrives in another four months.

The before, sans back up lights:
And below the after, with ... OK, you probably think the addition of the lights between the bumper and the "towel bars" (overriders) on each side isn't much of a change. But they are one of the distinguishing marks of a '67. Prior to this year VW's didn't have backup lights, but the Feds mandated them beginning in 1967. By 1968 VW had integrated them into the tail lights as is the case today. They also went to an ugly wrap-around bumper to satisfy the govt. requirement for a 5 mph bumper. So having the correct backup lights inside this style bumper is a distinguishing mark of what many consider the most desirable year Bettle.

The early consensus among the pundits is that Pres. Obama blew it. By not calling on Mubarak to resign he gives the Egyptian masses the sense that the U.S. backs him. Because Mubarak's future is already a given - he won't last in office until September - the President appears to other friendly world leaders as loyal but at the expense of alienating the Egyptian populus.

Only the British could come up with an expression like "stand down."

I spent most of the morning writing. I enjoy that discipline. It requires that thoughts be organized, arranged logically, checked for accuracy and expressed precisely. I'm trying to work on efficiency, saying it in as few words as possible.
When I write these blog posts it's pretty much stream of consciousness writing. Sometimes I go back later and read a published post and shake my head at the typographical and grammatical errors. I don't proof blog posts. Getting a piece of writing as good as I can is work, but enjoyable work.

I heard today that one in five NFL jerseys sold is actually a fake, a counterfeit.
Who besides the NFL front office cares? They get a kick-back... er, ... licensing fee on authorized merchandise, which is why a knockoff sells for a fraction of the cost. So assuming the jersey is still of reasonable quality, what exactly is the buyer losing out on when he buys that counterfeit? It's not like a guy's friends are going to inspect the stitching on the side seams and rag on him for being suckered into a fake. None of them cares.

Which is why I've long thought couples should quietly agree on a cubic zirconium engagement ring. You understand I would never advocate that a guy do this without full disclosure to his intended. But if she's cool with it, why not spend 10% of the cost of a diamond to get something no one will ever know about. He can get something that doesn't require a microscope to see and they can still have money left over for a month's worth of Top Ramen to get their marriage off to a good start.