"Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know." - Cullen Hightower

In a throwback move, I wrote out my sermon outline longhand yesterday, ink pen on a yellow pad. Went old school. Today I keyed it into the laptop for printing.
Come to find out, a yellow tablet doesn't have that thing where misspelled words get underlined as you type. Wow.

We've enjoyed highs in the upper 90's all week but that's coming to an end. Back into triple digits for all of next week with overnight lows correspondingly higher. And doesn't autumn start next week?

VW has just announced the availability of the third generation Beetle. Pre-release announcements referred to it as the "New Beetle" but they've dropped the adjective. They stopped making the previous model a year ago because sales were disappointing. Seems it was perceived as a chick car and that market isn't big enough to sustain profitability.

This new Beetle is supposed to be more guy-friendly in styling. If you notice a similarity to the Audi TT it's because they have the same parent company and, from what I've read, also share some components. It does look more aggressive, wider and lower, and doesn't come with a flower vase on the dash. The base model has a 150 hp front mounted engine with rear wheel drive and the turbo version puts out 200 hp.

What makes a vehicle a chick car? The late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said, about pornography, "I don't know how to define it but I know it when I see it." Same thing with a chick car. The previous Beetle certainly was and so is the Mazda Miata. Same for the Dodge Neon. Real guys don't drive chick cars.

At the other end of the spectrum is the chick magnet car. I did some remodeling work four years ago for a guy in his 30's who drove a Mercedes SLK. I wiped my drool off the hood. I asked him if it was, indeed a chick magnet and he said yes. "You'd be surprised just how shallow most women are." What made it particularly ironic - he was gay.

I like cars. Always have. And God has been gracious to give me several great cars to drive. Over the years we've had a Karmen Ghia (total beater), a '72 VW Bus (lots of fun for a death trap) and two '67 Beetles, one early in our marriage and Gerta more recently. I bought a '59 Olds two-door hardtop for $1, fixed it up and turned heads everywhere I went in So. Cal. I paid $1700 for a '63 Impala 4-door post, drove it for three years and sold it for twice that price. (He turned it into a 'hood ride.) The Olds and the Chevy would both get me thumbs-up gestures from (mostly older) guys and compliments in parking lots.

So methinks there are at least three categories of cars. There's the chick car that women are drawn to and real guys don't buy. There are chick magnet cars that earn the attention of hot young gold diggers. And then there are guy cars - the cars guys drive and other guys admire but don't have any cache with the ladies. This latter category includes classics, muscle cars and hot rods.

So, into which category do we put a '62 Beetle?