Quality Weenie

Number 10,000

I just hit my 10,000 visitor!

And joy upon joy it's a family member!

Sissy of And What's Next was the 10,000 visitor to the Quality Weenie abode.

Yea!

I've Moved I'm a moving

I've Moved

I'm a moving on up, to the top, to that deluxe hosting munivian. Ya moving on up ...

So head on over to my new site and don't forget to change your bookmarks!

http://qualityweenie.mu.nu/
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Today In Automotive History

1904 Stranger Than Friction

Byron J. Carter received a U.S. patent for his "friction-drive" mechanism. The friction-drive replaced the conventional transmission to provide more precise control of a car's speed. A newspaper at the time of the device's release explained that the friction-drive mechanism "used friction discs, instead of gears, so arranged as to be instantly changed to any desired speed. The discs also change to forward or backward movement, and can be used as a brake to stop the machine by reversing the lever." Carter's friction drive never really caught on, however. Conventional transmissions served their purpose adequately, and the friction discs proved to be susceptible to poor road conditions. Carter's ingenious design did, however, attract the attention of William Durant, General Motor's megalomaniac expansionist leader. He bought the Carter-car design thinking it might turn into something big; it never did. The technology involved in the friction-drive is, however, related to today's disc brakes.

Happy Freaking Birthday To Me

Happy Freaking Birthday To Me

What a birthday:

My hubby forgets it's my birthday this morning, no Happy Birthday yet.

I almost slam into and was almost slammed into myself when the stupid person in front me doesn't know what a freaking green arrow means on left turn and decides to stop while everyone else thinks they are going to flow through it. After much slamming of breaks and screching of tires everyone stopped.

I have 4 meetings today

Had to be in to work at 6:30am

And it's suppose to rain this weekend. All.weekend. That means I am in pain, much pain.

Someone pass me some cheese.
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Today in Automotive History 1927

Today in Automotive History

1927 The People's Car

Production of the Ford Model T officially ended after 15,007,033 units had been built. The Model T sold more units than any other car model in history, until the Volkswagen Beetle eclipsed its record in the 1970s.

That a car produced domestically in the first three decades of the century could compete in production numbers with a car first produced in the '60s and distributed worldwide is testament to the dramatic genius of the Model T.

Before the introduction of the "Tin Lizzie," no car was reliable or affordable enough to be any good to the average man. In 1908, the Model T had a price tag of $850 and sold 6,389 units. In 1910, the price had dropped to $690 and the Tin Lizzie sold 34,528 units. By 1915, the price tag of Ford's "people's car" had reached an astounding $350 and sold, accordingly, 472,350 units.


Henry Ford's mass-production miracle even exceeded his own prophetic expectations. The Model T may have accomplished what the Monroe Doctrine only proposed. Here is Henry Ford's vision: "I will build a motor car for the great multitude, constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise ... so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one--and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.
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Which Bad Example Family Member

Which Bad Example Family Member Did This Search?

You people are just Sic, but there is Hope but not for Harvey.
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Doggie Cuteness More pictures of

Doggie Cuteness

More pictures of the cutest dog in the world, Lance.

Petsmart had a photographer there 2 weekends ago and being the totally hung up on our dog people that we are we had to have his picture taken.

The picture on the left is his true color, the one on the right shows him being much darker than he really is.

Isn't he just the cutest!

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Today in Automotive History 1937

Today in Automotive History

1937 The Battle Of The Overpass

Union leaders and Ford Service Department men clashed in a violent confrontation on the Miller Road Overpass outside Gate 4 of the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.

The clash came three months after the UAW achieved its first landmark victory at Ford, when they had forced the company to negotiate a policy toward organized labor by staging a lengthy sit-down strike at the Rouge complex. The sit-down strike had succeeded largely because of the support of Michigan Governor Frank Murphy, who protected the strikers' right to bargain collectively. However, the labor agreement did little in the way of changing the day-to-day life of Ford workers.

At the time of the victory, the UAW was still a relatively small, well-organized group. Legally, Henry Ford was forced to give ground, but he did not relinquish his opposition to organized laborers. Instead, he allowed Harry Bennett, head of the Ford Service Department, to build an increasingly muscular force of Ford officials charged with the job of maintaining discipline in the workplace. Bennett had, in the past, used what amounted to thug tactics to intimidate workers.

After the sit-down strike, tensions ran high between employees and labor officials. On this day in 1937, UAW organizers Walter Reuther, Bob Kanter, J.J. Kennedy, and Richard Frankensteen were distributing leaflets among the workers at the Rouge complex when they were approached by a gang of Bennett's men. The Ford Servicemen brutally beat the four unionists while many other union sympathizers, including 11 women, were injured in the resulting melee. The attack was no surprise to Ford employees. One man summed up the tone at the Rouge factory: "I was glad to have a job but scared to go to work."

One of the Ford servicemen involved in the incident was Elmer Janovski, a 26-year-old ex-bootlegger who had been personally hired by Bennett. "We were told there was trouble--Reuther and Frankensteen were passing out flyers," said Janovski. "I started fighting with them. I didn't poke Reuther, but I poked the others, including the newspaper cameraman." The newspaper camera operator in question was what made the Battle of the Overpass an extraordinary event. The day after the struggle, all of America was witness to the primitive tactics with which Henry Ford subdued organized laborers who had the law on their side. The publicity didn't end Ford's opposition to organized labor, but it certainly made his eventual acquiescence inevitable. Reuther later recalled the event. He said that anti-union thugs "surrounded us and started to beat us up.... The men picked me up about eight different times and threw me down on my back on the concrete and while I was on the ground, they kicked me in the face and head and other parts of my body."

Ironically, Janovski was fired from Ford and bounced between a number of low-paying jobs at automobile factories before he, too, joined the union. Some time later, he ran into Reuther at a labor rally in Detroit. "I told him that I was one of the guys on the other side at the Overpass," he said. "Reuther told me, 'It's all forgotten... we're all happy now... we're all brothers.' "

Today, a reported 5,000 of River Rouge's 13,000 employees cross the Miller Overpass on the way to work. The landmark is a physical reminder of the suffering undertaken by brave workers who strove for a better quality of life.
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Today in Automotive History 1898

Today in Automotive History

1898 Haynes-Apperson Company

Elwood Haynes and Elmer Apperson organized the Haynes-Apperson Company in Kokomo, Indiana. Credited with having built America's first gas-powered car for much of his lifetime, Elwood Haynes was one of the most brilliant inventors in the early car industry. The Haynes-Apperson Company was his first foray into the mass production of cars. Together, the pair expected to manufacture 50 cars per year. Most famous as a metallurgist, Haynes was the first man to outfit his cars with all-aluminum engines, and to build his car bodies of nickel-plated steel. Haynes and Apperson shocked the world when they fulfilled the terms of a buyer's agreement by delivering their car from Kokomo to New York City. It was the first 1,000-mile car trip undertaken in the United States.
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Yahoo Search Referral Of The

Yahoo Search Referral Of The Week

Such innocent posts, gets me such scary search results.
Ack.
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Bad Example Family Mascot?!

Bad Example Family Mascot?!

Bad Example Family Is A

Bad Example Family Is A Bad Influence

So today I'm standing in my bosses office talking to him. He is telling me that the guy that is coming in on Thursday for a Pre-Production run is sending a minion ahead today to make sure everything is running fine and set for his appearance on Thursday.

Out of my mouth, without thinking, came "so is she like his fluffer?"

Even my boss blushed at that one, then roared with laughter. When I walked out of his office grinning from ear to ear everyone in the office wanted to know what I had said.

I wouldn't tell, but I know when my boss walks into the meeting with the fluffer today that is the first thing he will think of.
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Hey, I'm Agile! What military

Hey, I'm Agile!

Stolen from blogmom Tammi

Today in Automotive History 1899

Today in Automotive History

1899 Park It Right Here

The first public parking garage in the United States was established in Boston, Massachusetts by W.T. McCullough as the Back Bay Cycle and Motor Company. McCullough advertised the garage's opening as a "stable for renting, sale, storage, and repair of motor vehicles."
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If Blogpop Harvey Can Do

If Blogpop Harvey Can Do It

So Can I

I turn *coughcough38coughhackweezecough* this Friday (May 27th).

I am giving you a whole week to find the perfect gift for me, size doesn't matter (wink,wink)
Not sure what to get me, I don't think you need a hint but for the absent minded here's one.

I like men in work boots.

I want pictures of men in work boots.

So make my birthday and feed my obsession with work boots, trackback or email me your best pictures!

I'll post the pictures after the holiday and tell the tale of how much I enjoyed them over the weekend.
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Whoring For Help - Part

Whoring For Help - Part II

Ok, I have to be doing something wrong.

In what template am I suppose to be putting the code for the pull down comments?

Can somebody actually take a look at my templates and see what I am doing wrong with adding site meter to it cause it ain't working for me (going on 15 tries now).

And how to get the sidebar all even, the munu list is sticking out and bugging the hell out of me.
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Today in Automotive History 1934

Today in Automotive History

1934 Bonnie And Clyde

Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police officers as they attempted to escape apprehension in a stolen 1934 Ford V-8 near Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Bonnie and Clyde met in Texas in 1930 when the 19-year-old Bonnie was tending bar. At the time, Bonnie was married to an imprisoned murderer. Soon after the two met, Clyde was arrested for burglary and sent to prison. Bonnie smuggled a pistol into the prison, and Clyde broke out.

Over the course of their crime spree together, Bonnie and Clyde were believed to have committed 13 murders and several robberies and burglaries. For over two years, the couple evaded local police officers in rural counties of Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Not until the FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, became involved in the case did law-enforcement officials gain ground on Bonnie and Clyde.

The Bureau of Investigation, curiously enough, could only investigate the two on the grounds of the National Motor Vehicle Act, which stipulated that federal agents had jurisdiction to pursue suspects accused of interstate transportation of a stolen automobile. Investigators initially traced a stolen vehicle to the house of Clyde Barrow's aunt.

As officers stepped up the pressure to catch Bonnie and Clyde, the well-armed couple went about adding to their own firepower. They were joined by Clyde's brother, Buck Barrow, along with his wife. Later they were joined by escaped murderer Raymond Hamilton. In the spring of 1934, following tireless investigations, federal agents traced the gang to a remote county in Southwest Louisiana. A certain Methvin family was said to have been aiding and abetting the Bonnie-and-Clyde gang for over a year.

It was learned that Bonnie and Clyde, along with some of the Methvins, had staged a party at Black Lake, Louisiana, on the night of May 21. Two days later, just before dawn, a posse of police officers from Texas and Louisiana, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, laid an ambush for Bonnie and Clyde along the highway near Sailes, Louisiana.

In the early morning, Bonnie and Clyde appeared in their automobile. The officers reported that the couple attempted to flee, but more likely, owing to the fact that Bonnie and Clyde had killed five policemen, the posse opened fire without warning. For two minutes, deputies showered the car with bullets. Both Bonnie and Clyde were killed in the barrage. Their bullet-riddled 1934 Ford later became a valuable collectible.

Bonnie and Clyde gained a place in popular mythology as dustbowl Robin Hoods. The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie, portrayed a charming and irreverent pair who took their game too far. Examination of the couple's past, as well as an examination of their victims, shows that Bonnie and Clyde were more likely carefree killers. Their popularity owed to the mistrust of the authorities of the Dustbowl during the Depression era, and to the couple's uncanny ability to elude the police for over two years.
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Friday Doggie Blogging I have

Friday Doggie Blogging

I have such a cute puppy don't I?!

Whoring For Help* Ok, Ogre

Whoring For Help*

Ok, Ogre I think I'm in love with you. Your such a sweetie and a lot of help.

I did everything you suggested in my cry out for help with getting my munu site up.

Except:

I added the scripts for the pull-down comments but they just go to my comments page and don't pull back up.

I fixed the Munu pull-down list, but now it sticks our futher in my sidebar than everything else. How do I get the side bar to stretch out so everything is even?

I can not get sitemeter to add, I have tried the instructions they give 7 times now and it just won't take. It keeps telling me it can't find my "site meter" template.

So I am whoring myself again for help.

*Got that phrase from blogsis Sissy, just love that line.
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I'm Pretty Conservative?! Your Political

I'm Pretty Conservative?!

Your Political Profile
Overall: 70% Conservative, 30% Liberal
Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal
Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal
Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

Stolen from Blogsis Bou at Boudicca's Voice
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Today in Automotive History 1961

Today in Automotive History

1961 Sweet Chariot

The Ford Motor Company completed a highly modified stretch Lincoln Continental convertible sedan for the U.S. Secret Service to be used as a presidential limousine. The limo, later known as the SS-100-X, carried President John F. Kennedy down Elm Street in Dallas, Texas, when he was assassinated in 1963.

The videotapes and the forensic reports of the assassination have become an American obsession in the years since President Kennedy's death. It is now readily believed that the government withheld information necessary to a proper investigation, though it is as yet unclear whether this interference actually led to a botched conclusion on the part of the Warren Commission.

The 1961 Continental has played a major role in countless re-creations of the event. Since the recent release of Abraham Zapruder's "Z-tapes," even more detailed recreations have been undertaken. Gary Mack, a documentary cameraman, took part in one of these re-creations. In comparing his film with that of the original tape of the assassination, he noticed that the replica 1961 Continental used in the re-creation of the assassination actually sat higher than did the SS-100-X. He also noted that in the replica '61 Lincoln, a console separated the two "jump seats" in the car's back seat. No such obstacle existed when Governor Connally slid across the car to protect President Kennedy.

The process of re-creating, down to the last detail, the forensic evidence at hand on the day of the assassination is daunting, if not futile. In order to determine the number of shots fired and the angles from which they were fired, investigators need to be sure--down to the millimeter--of the position of certain key players. Taking into account that over the course of 30 years the buildings have sunk imperceptibly, the people involved have shrunken slightly, and the trees have grown, it's no wonder that the only answer to the Kennedy mystery is that it is mysterious.

P.S. - The Lincoln that Kennedy was shot in is at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
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The Perfect Game A perfectly

The Perfect Game

A perfectly pitched game has only happened 19 times in major league baseball, this should tell you how hard it is to do this.

Katie Brownell is in a Little League all her own. The 11-year-old — the
only girl playing in the Oakfield-Alabama Little League program — pitched a
perfect game Saturday for her Dodgers. She struck out all 18 batters she
faced in the six-inning, 11-0 victory over the Yankees.

Oakfield-Alabama officials said they can't remember anybody ever
throwing a perfect game in this western New York league between Buffalo and
Rochester.

The Truth Comes Out You

The Truth Comes Out

You Are 45% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

Today in Automotive History 1991

Today in Automotive History

1991 Racing Against Racism

In a sport not known for embracing diversity, racer Willy T. Ribbs became the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indy 500 on this date in 1991.

Ribbs, a Californian, objects to the obstacles placed in front of African-American racers: "Here we are, moving into a new millennium, and auto racing still looks like 1939 baseball." Ribbs's achievement at Indy is especially remarkable, as the cost of running at Indy normally deters racers who don't have powerful corporate sponsors.

While stock-car racing is more accessible financially, the sport hasn't fared any better in attracting African-American participants. NASCAR officials, however, don't feel the lack of African-American racers is a reflection of racism within the sport. Longtime President Bill France explained his case: "America is what America is today. Anybody can be anything, regardless of your race or your national origin. You can't cast a wand and make everything happen that somebody wants to happen."

In the 50 years of NASCAR history, only six African-American drivers have made it to the Winston Cup, stock car's top category; only Wendell Scott ever won a race. One explanation for the dearth of African-American racers is that car racing is a hereditary sport. Most racers come from racing families.

By that criterion, however, the Scott family could have continued racing. Wendell Scott, using secondhand equipment, set the sport on fire 25 years ago with his fearless attitude and abundant talent. "Had the sport offered more help to the Scotts, others would have been inspired by us in another generation," said Wendell Scott Jr. "They nipped us in the bud."

An example: In 1963, Scott won a race in Jacksonville, and the race officials, fearing a reaction from the crowd, presented the trophy to another driver. They gave Scott the trophy after the crowd had left. Ribbs also believes that corporations are reluctant to offer sponsorship to African-American drivers, because they don't believe these racers will be financially beneficial to their brands. Even the NASCAR team owned by former NFL running-back Joe Washington and former NBA legend Julius Erving cannot guarantee an African-American driver behind the wheel of its car. Washington and Erving started the first wholly minority-owned team since Scott and his sons left competition over 25 years ago. Kathy Thompson, a representative for the team, explained their predicament: "To get into a Winston Cup car is dangerous. I wouldn't want to race against Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon without experience. That's suicide. I wouldn't want that on my conscience, somebody getting out there who wasn't ready."

The fact remains that large African-American communities exist in the regions where NASCAR's fan base is strongest. It wouldn't take much for NASCAR to foster a more openly encouraging attitude toward minorities in racing--and who knows, maybe the sport will be rewarded with a great champion. Baseball came a long way after 1939.
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Munu Help I need some

Munu Help

I need some help with my munu blog. I have it almost set-up and ready to go but have some questions on how to do things that I just can not figure out how to do.

Here's the list:

Munu blogroll pulldown list - I added it just like the instructions said but I don't get the pull down menu, I get the whole list

Site Meter - again I added it just like they said to but it keeps giving me an error saying it can't find my "site meter" template

How to add TTLB

How to get the Black to the left Quality Weenie off the blog

The description is suppose to be monotype corsiva, but at home it comes out as something else.

How do I put my comments picture on the munu comments area?

How do I get the pull down comments?

I think that is all.

Can someone please help me, pretty please, with sugar on top?!
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Today in Automotive History 1958

Today in Automotive History

1958 Lotus Flowers

The Lotus made its Formula One debut at the Monaco Grand Prix with Cliff Allison finishing in fifth place. The Lotus Engineering Company was founded by Colin Chapman in 1952 as a result of Chapman's great success in building and racing trial cars. Located in Norfolk, England, Lotus has become over the last few decades one of racing's most dominant teams. Currently limited to Formula One competition, Lotus was initially a diverse racing team. Lotus dominated Le Mans in the '50s. The mid-1960s saw the Golden Age of Lotus racing as its British drivers Jim Clark and Graham Hill enjoyed great success. Jim Clark won the first World Driver's Championship for Lotus in 1963. Lotus has in recent years been represented by such virtuoso drivers as Emmerson Fittipaldi and Alessandro Zanardi.
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Corn Flakes, Not Just For

Corn Flakes, Not Just For The Breakfast Table Anymore

Driving to work this morning I get behind this asshat going 10 miles under the speed limit and not able to drive between the yellows. I'm thinking he's talking on the phone.

Nope, and your not going to believe this one. I had to slow down for this one to double check.

I went to pass and look over and he's eating a bowl of cereal while driving.

I did have fleeting thoughts of pulling in front of him and slamming on the brakes.

Hee hee hee!
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Today in Automotive History 1890

Today in Automotive History

1890 Marriage Made In Business Heaven

Emile Levassor married Louise Sarazin, the widow of Edouard Sarazin and the French distributor of Daimler engines. The marriage set the stage for Levassor's business venture, Panhard et Levassor, which would use Daimler engines in its cars. Emile, France's premier car racer before the turn of the century, set an early record by driving from Paris to Bordeaux and back at an average of 14.9mph in 1895. His cutting-edge Panhard had a 2.4 liter engine and produced only 4hp. Just two years later, Levassor's Daimler engine was capable of pushing the lightweight, wood-framed Panhard to over 70mph. Imagine driving at that speed on bumpy, dusty roads, sitting on a wooden plank bolted to a frame with no suspension.
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Otherwise Known As Quality Weenie

Otherwise Known As

My barfly name sounds like a strippers name.

Stolen from Grau's Place
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Tips For The New Guy

Tips For The New Guy

Tammi at Tammi's world, also my favoritists blogmom wrote about her first week at work and mentioned this about her first week:

I got a lot of "little lady's" and "we'll just take it slow til you get
the hang of things." Hee.....if they only knew. I'm playing it very low key. I
ask lots of questions and just sit at my desk learning my accounts and my
plants.

My Vomit Story It seems

My Vomit Story

It seems that everyone is telling their vomit story, so I figure mine was a pretty good one so I would share too.

It's Devil's Night, 2003. Future hubby and I went out for Chinese and then were going *cough,cough* to get romantic for the first time together.

Since we both lived with our parents he had rented a motel room for the night and made it all romantic and stuff.

We ate and then went back to the room, both nervous but me extra nervous. Don't know why I was so nervous, I wasn't a virginian.

We started getting *cough, cough* romantic and all of a sudden I get up, run to the bathroom and puked dinner up. I was in there for half an hour.

After that I was fine and we started getting *cough, cough* romantic again. Come to think of it, I didn't even brush my teeth. Talk about true love!
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Today in Automotive History 1956

Today in Automotive History

1956 House Of Style

General Motors (GM) dedicated its brand-new, $125 million GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. The Center, or at least its breathtaking style and dimension, was the product of Alfred Sloan and GM stylist Harley Earl.

Born to Hollywood affluence, Earl never lost his movie-star flair. He is famous for being the automotive industry's first "stylist." In reality, he was a car architect. He achieved fame for his design of GM's 1927 LaSalle.

The LaSalle was the first production car to offer a sleek, long and rounded look to its buyers. By later standards, the LaSalle still looks, in its designer's words, "top-heavy and stiff-shouldered," but at the time of its unveiling, it was enough to make Earls' career. He was brought to GM by Alfred Sloan, the company's almighty president.

Sloan created a new department for Earl, at the head of which Earl would oversee the styling for all GM cars. Earl began his incremental quest for longer, lower cars. Why? Said Earl, "Because my sense of proportion tells me that oblongs are more attractive than squares, just as a ranch house is more attractive than a three-story, flat-roofed house or a greyhound is more graceful than an English bulldog." Earl's sense of proportion never exactly fit with the other vice presidents at GM.

First of all, he stood six feet, four inches tall. The well-tanned Earl kept identical suits in his office so that he would never wrinkle over the course of a workday. This stylish approach to life rubbed many of Detroit's staunch executives the wrong way. Earl's major conflicts came with the GM body division, headed by the Fisher Brothers.

The Body Division was in charge of turning Earl's artwork into roadworthy realities. Earl was often dissatisfied with their product, and he showed open contempt for the Fisher Brothers, whom he dubbed "the Seven Dwarves." The Fishers, in turn, weren't sure Earl was as practical as he could have been.

Earl remains a larger-than-life figure in the pantheon of automotive history. Often credited with breakthroughs that he managed to promote better than the ideas' originators, Earl can be viewed in hindsight as a showman. But his artistic sense cannot be denied, nor can his impact on the artistic leanings of the automotive industry.

Earl, as much as anyone, was responsible for the glorious aesthetic renaissance of 1950s Detroit. When Alfred Sloan suggested that GM should build a compound to house the company's research activities, it was Earl who urged him to create a structure that was architecturally and aesthetically distinctive. Ignoring his peers' pleas for practicality, Sloan allowed Earl to enlist the architectural skills of Eliel and Eero Saarinen.

Today, the GM Technical Center is one of the landmarks of twentieth-century architecture. The aluminum-sheathed dome that houses its stylish auditorium stands a fitting monument to Harley Earl's legacy.
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Today in Automotive History 1980

Today in Automotive History

1980 Union On The Board

Douglas A. Fraser, president of the UAW, was named to the Chrysler Corporation Board of Directors, becoming the first union representative ever to sit on the board of a major U.S. corporation.

Born in 1916 in Glasgow, Scotland, to a Socialist father, Fraser was brought up to the tune of organized labor. He dropped out of high school and began work at a Dodge plant as a metal polisher. Fraser soon moved to the DeSoto plant in Detroit, where he began his career in labor activism.

Rising through the ranks of his local UAW chapter, Fraser eventually caught the eye of powerful UAW figure Walter Reuther(ed note: remember this communist from the other day). Reuther's similar immigrant and Socialist background meant that the two men shared ideas in common. Fraser worked as Reuther's administrative assistant through the groundbreaking years of the 1950s, during which the UAW solidified policies on retirement pensions and medical care for its members. Like Reuther, Fraser believed that to achieve its goals the UAW needed to be willing to make reasonable compromises. It wasn't until 1977 that Fraser was elected president of the UAW.

He inherited the title as the automotive industry suffered its greatest recession since the Depression. Fraser is credited with having led the UAW through the uncertain years of the globalization of the automotive industry. As it became evident that the Big Three could build their cars wherever they wanted, Fraser fought to make sure that the union stayed flexible in its negotiations with industry executives. His detractors sometimes accused Fraser of pandering, but those who knew him described him as a stern proponent of international labor causes. His flexibility owed to his desire to keep the union an open-minded and competitive organization.

The New York Times described Fraser as "an extremely tough-minded unionist, like most who rise through the ferocious fighting that can characterize union politics." In 1973, Fraser helped to solidify the industry's "thirty and out" policy. During his presidency, Fraser attempted to address the less tangible hardships facing autoworkers. Gone were the days of unfair hours and dangerous conditions, but the monotony that faced the average autoworker was still a cross to bear.

In 1982, Fraser enacted his most daring and visionary maneuver as UAW president. Faced with Chrysler's imminent collapse, Fraser negotiated away millions of dollars already guaranteed to his union in order to help save a company with valuable jobs. In return, Chrysler traded stock options to the union. The resurgence of Chrysler bore out Fraser's unpopular decision. Respected by his adversaries, Fraser received the unprecedented accolade of being named to Chrysler's board. "His word is enough for us," one Chrysler executive explained. "He gets into plant problems like no other union leader I know." Conceding that his position on Chrysler's board was largely symbolic, Fraser nevertheless strove to bring the issues of the laborer into the boardroom. It is one thing to vote to close a plant on paper and quite another to vote after hearing in detail the hardship the decision will cause. Douglas Fraser was a proud and unselfish leader who must be remembered for maintaining his ideals, even after his prosperity made them unnecessary.
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I'm Moving to Mu Nu

I'm Moving to Mu Nu - Eventually

Yep, that's right. I was accepted into the folds of the Mu Nu family. So someday I will be changing my blogsite.

But until then I will be right here.

I have some questions though about fixing up my new site. Like how do you get the cool backgrounds like Bou has on her blog?

Are there any other sites that I can go to for adding cool backgrounds and buttons and the like?
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Today in Automotive History 1957

Today in Automotive History

1957 The Fabulous Foyt

A.J. Foyt won his first major race, a midget car race in Kansas City, Missouri. The tough Texan raced everything from midget cars to stock cars before he finally settled on Indy Car racing.

Foyt would go on to become one of the greatest Indy Car racers of all time, winning a record 67 championship races and seven championship series titles. He is one of only three men to have won four Indianapolis 500s, winning in 1961, 1964, 1967, and 1977. In Foyt's first championship, a late-fuel stop nearly cost him the race he had worked so hard to win. Fortunately, competitor Eddie Sachs, who had taken the lead from Foyt during the fuel stop, had to a make a fluke tire change in the last few laps of the race, giving Foyt his first Indy 500 crown.

Foyt was so overwhelmed by the post-race excitement that he sneaked out for a burger. "We had so many people congratulatin' us, talkin' and all that," he recalled. "Hell, I was hungry, so I just pulled over to White Castle. Hamburgers, I think, were 10¢ or 12¢ apiece." His 1964 victory was marred by the tragic deaths of fellow racers Eddie Sachs and Dave McDonalds. The 1967 Indy 500 saw Foyt drive a Coyote of his own design to victory. His father, Tony, was chief mechanic. "What really made me feel good," said Foyt, "is I built my own car, drove my own car, and my father was chief mechanic."

Perhaps Foyt's greatest achievement was his 1977 victory, when Foyt became the first man to win the Indy four times in front of track owner Tony Hulman. Hulman had acted as a mentor to Foyt, and he rode a victory lap with Foyt after the 1977 race.

A.J. Foyt now runs A.J. Foyt Enterprises from his home city of Houston, Texas. He founded the Foyt Race Team in 1965. His multifarious business interests include car dealerships, funeral service businesses, oil investments, and thoroughbred racehorses.
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My CoolText New Logo See

My CoolText New Logo

See my new logo?

Isn't is pertty?

Thanks to CoolText and their Logo generator I gots me a cool new logo.

I heart CoolText!

Go on over and generate yourself something, they even do buttons.
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Today in Automotive History 1916

Today in Automotive History

1916 Delco And GM

Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds agreed to sell their Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco) to the United Motors Corporation, a holding company founded by William C. Durant in his attempt to regain control of General Motors (GM).

Deeds and Kettering both left the National Cash Register Company--where Kettering had invented the motor that made the electric cash register possible--in order to start Delco. Originally a research and development company, Delco began manufacturing in order to meet the demand for the self-starter that Kettering invented for Durant's Cadillac Corporation. Despite the fact that Durant had spurred on Kettering to invent the self-starter, Delco would sell self-starters to anyone who ordered them.

After Durant regained control of GM in the spring of 1916, he moved to make certain that GM would have primary availability to Delco's parts. In a dramatic restructuring which pulled together some of GM's most vital part suppliers, Durant integrated five previously independent companies under the name of the United Motors Corporation. All of these companies would later fall under the GM name. Kettering went on to play a vital role in GM's research and development over the next two decades.
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Today in Automotive History 1922

Today in Automotive History

1922 Captain Eddie's Car Company

The 1,000th Rickenbacker car was produced. Named after the company co-founder, American World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, the Rickenbacker Car Company took off in 1922.

Rickenbacker, a national darling for his dogfighting exploits, passed on offers from the aviation industry in Washington and from the movie studios in Hollywood in order to start his own car company. In January of 1922, the Rickenbacker car debuted at the New York Auto Show.

Priced at $1,500 and equipped with a powerful V-6 and a flywheel at both ends of the crankshaft to reduce the teeth-chattering vibration to which consumers had become accustomed, the Rickenbacker sold 1,500 units on its first day. In two years the company climbed from 83rd in the industry to 19th. "The Car Worthy of the Name," as it was called, was also the first model to introduce four-wheel braking into the economy car class.

The 1925 Rickenbacker came with a V-8 and the snappy "hat in the ring" emblem that Rickenbacker's squadron had painted on their planes. In 1926, Rickenbacker marketed the Super Sport as "America's Fastest and Most Beautiful Stock Car." But Rickenbacker resigned in September of that year, and four months later his company was dead.

The rapid demise of Rickenbacker owes partly to the public's mistrust of the company's early introduction of front-wheel breaking, but more to the fragile ego of its war-hero founder. During a period of cutthroat price wars, Rickenbacker came under heavy personal criticism at the hands of automobile dealers, who taunted him, "You're a hero today and a bum tomorrow." Rickenbacker could not separate his company's policies from his person and, injured, he resigned. The company was grounded without its captain's name.
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Evil Glenn In San Fransico?

Evil Glenn In San Fransico?

Has Evil Glenn been in San Fransico lately?

I just read this story:

Chlamydia strikes San Francisco penguin colony

"We suspect it could have something to do with
the gulls and their droppings but it could have
been something (ed note: or someone??)else," zoo spokeswoman
Nancy Chan said.

Today in Automotive History 1970

Today in Automotive History

1970 Remembering Walter

Walter Reuther, president of the UAW since 1946, died in an airplane crash at age 62.
Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, to German immigrants, Reuther's socialist leanings were fostered by his father, Valentine.

A master brewer, Valentine had left Germany to escape the repressive Lutheran authorities there, and to avoid what he viewed as the increasing militarization of his homeland. He imbued his three sons, Walter, Victor, and Roy, with the values of labor organization and social equality.

Walter dropped out of high school to become an apprentice die maker at the Wheeling Steel Company. Before he could finish his training, he moved to Detroit during the heavy production years of the Model T, and talked his way into a job as a die maker in a Ford factory.

Reuther returned to high school while working at the Ford plant, and he maintained his interest in Socialism and organized labor. During the Depression, he and his brothers traveled to Germany to visit their relatives.

The trip proved formative as the totalitarian conditions in Germany, and the bitter split between the National Socialists and the Left, disappointed the brothers terribly. They even briefly ran pamphlets for the Socialist underground there. They continued on to Russia, where Walter employed his skill as a die maker in Russian auto plants that had purchased Ford machinery. They remained in Gorki from 1933 to 1935. Reuther was greatly moved by the camaraderie of the autoworkers there. "To a Ford employee especially," he said, "[the social and cultural life] was absorbing."

Reuther returned to Detroit, and began his career as an activist and labor organizer. At first considered a radical and a Communist, Reuther worked his way up the ranks of the UAW as the union became a more and more legitimate force. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal reached out to the leftist elements of the labor movement, and in response Reuther's left moved center to meet the Democratic Party.

Reuther played vital roles in the formation of the UAW and in the merger of the AFL-CIO. He championed integrationist policies when few other labor organizers cared, "The UAW-CIO will tell any worker that refused to work with a colored worker that he could leave the plant because he did not belong there." During Reuther's benevolent reign atop the ranks of the UAW, autoworkers became members of the middle class, as measured by earnings, employment security, medical care, and retirement pensions.

(italized are editors emphasis)

Yes, One of Detroit's most beloved "sons", leader of the UAW, has a freeway in Detroit named after him was a communist. Gotta love it.
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Love At First Sight It

Love At First Sight

It was September 25th,1993 one month after my dad had died, and my sister came home with her boyfriend (her unknown at the time future husband) and they both dragged me out to go moonlight bowling(1) with them. They said I needed to get out of the house.

So off we go to the bowling alley, we get our lane assignment and find the 2 guys on our lanes that will be joining us.

We bowled, we drank and we talked to the guys that were on our lanes with us. They were real nice and cute. I noticed the one guy had a real cute butt and worked at Ford, so I started talking to him about working at Ford as at the time I was working at Ford in the Customer Service division. We talked, we drank, we talked and by the end of the night the cute butt guy asked me to come up bowling again next week with him.

Next week my sister, her boyfriend and I go upto the bowling alley again for moonlight bowling and meet the same guys for bowling. The first thing I noticed was the cute butt guy didn't pay for my bowling. I was a little mad as he asked me to come up and bowl and I thought what a cheapskate.

We bowled, we talked, we drank, we finished bowling, we sat and talked until 3am and he drove me home, dropped me off and asked me out to dinner during the week. I said yes, kissed him and went into the house.

That Tuesday my truck was rear-ended while parked on the street at work, he happened to call that night and was very concerned. I was thinking, gee he doesn't even know me that well and he was concerned, what a great guy!. Since my truck was out of commision (it was close to totaled but they fixed it anyway)

Thursday we go out to dinner at TGIFridays. I meet him at his house and we drive in his truck to the restuarant. He asked who's truck I was driving cause it was older and it obviously wasn't a rental. I told him it was my dad's truck with no more information more then that. He asked well what is your dad driving then? It took me a couple minutes to answer as I was choking up as it would be the first time I had to say those words. I finally told him my dad had died only a month ago so I was using the truck until mine was fixed and then we would sell his truck.
Now remember we were going on our first offical date but it was the 3rd time we meet in person, but we had talked on the phone daily though.

His response was:

"Don't worry I will always be here for you"

It was at that moment in time that I knew, just knew that I was going to marry him someday. I also believe that my dad had a hand in bringing us together somehow because he is someone my dad would have loved, someone he would have approved of very much.

That was the beginning of October, in mid-November he brought up the marriage talk, by Christmas I had my ring picked out and on June 20th, 1994, while on vacation in Myrtle Beach visiting his mom, he proposed to me on the Atlantic shoreline while a big bright moon was shining down on us.

We were married at 2:30pm on May 6th, 1995

Today we are celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

We have gone through many ups and downs. Stayed strong for each other through health issues, family deaths, job losses and many differences of opinions.

We celebrated in each others joys of buying a new house, graduating from college, marriages of siblings, becoming aunts and uncles, graduating from an apprentice program and finally becoming furparents.

My husband, my life, my soulmate, my heartbeat, my lover, my bestfriend.

Thank-you for all that you have done and for all that you will do. I look forward to what the next 50 or so years will bring us.

I Love You!
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Friday Doggie Blogging What better

Friday Doggie Blogging

What better way to start the weekend than looking at my cute puppy!

My Blog Momma Moved As

My Blog Momma Moved

As almost everyone should know by now, blogmomma Tammi of Road Warrior Survival fame is starting a new chapter in her life.

So as this new chapter starts she decided to change her blog also, Road Warrior she is no more.

So welcome to Tammi's World

Go check her out, cause she's the bestest blogmomma ever. And I'm not just saying that to earn brownie points either.
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Today in Automotive History 1928

Today in Automotive History

1928 DeSoto Also Rises

Chrysler introduced the DeSoto as the corporation's new brand. The DeSoto Six was Chrysler's answer to the market demand for a car that fit between its large cars and its popular four-cylinder models.

Marketed in the moderate price class, the DeSoto offered features that no car within comparable price range had ever offered, such as improved insulation, a reinforced frame, and chrome alloy steel transmission gears. Introduced not long after Chrysler purchased Dodge, the DeSoto label sold 80,000 cars its first year, forcing Chrysler to increase its production facilities.

In the fall of 1936, after having moved between various Chrysler plants, DeSoto moved to a production facility of its own on the west side of Detroit. The new state-of-the-art facility became one of Detroit's showcases for automobile production and one of the city's most heavily visited tourist sites. The interest in the DeSoto plant was partially a response to the company's innovative 1934 release, the DeSoto Airflow.

The Airflow created a new standard for weight distribution in the automotive industry, reducing vibration to a frequency that, for the first time, was comfortable for passengers. Engineers moved the DeSoto's engine forward over the front axle and increased the gauge of the front springs. Moving the engine forward allowed the designers to move the back seat in front of the rear axle, thereby reducing the shock inflicted on passengers sitting there. The Airflow was also equipped with smaller wheels that used larger tires, and a unibody design that made the car safer and stronger.
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Doggie Zen

Doggie Zen

I Survived the Worm Infested

I Survived the Worm Infested Waters Called Work

Our work server caught some sort of worm, which we got from a customer damn them, and took down everything for almost 4 days.

Our computers were basically paperweights.

The ironic side, the stupid customer that gave us the worm kept calling asking for information. Umm, duh???
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Today in Automotive History 1914

Today in Automotive History

1914 Cannonball's Run

Erwin "Cannonball" Baker began the cross-continental motorcycle trip that would influence the way Americans would think of the "big bike" forever more.

Big, strong, and lanky, Baker discovered after buying his first motorcycle that he possessed something like superhuman endurance for riding. In 1912, he began training for his long-distance odyssey by arranging for a number of smaller feats. He rode across Cuba, Jamaica, and Panama before taking a steamer to California, where he trained until 1914.

At that time, the state of the country's roads was inconsistent; while roads could be decent in stretches surrounding cities, rural routes were almost uniformly dismal. Baker began a letter-writing campaign from California, pleading for individuals from across the country to help him plot a contiguous course across our continent. He had to devise a way of getting gasoline during the stretches of road where it wasn't readily available. Baker's entreaties were received by an enthusiastic public, who offered to pack gasoline to him by burro if need be.

On this day in 1914, just three months shy of the First World War, Cannonball Baker, wearing leather riding trousers and carrying a one-gallon canteen, mounted his V-twin 1000cc Stutz Indian motorcycle and headed east toward Yuma, Arizona, with a raging sandstorm at his back. To combat thirst, Cannonball used the old Native American method of carrying a small pebble under his tongue. On the second day of his trip Baker ran out of gas just a few miles short of Agua Caliente, Arizona, and was forced to push his bike in the 119-degree desert heat. Equipped with a Smith & Wesson .38, Baker fought off a pack of dogs in Fort Apache. Dogs continued to hamper his trip; in Ellsworth, Kansas, a shepherd dog attacked his bike. "This dog seemed to have a great desire for the Goodyear rubber of my front tire," explained Baker. "The dog took a fall out of me which put me in bad shape, as I slid along the road on my elbows and knees. I kept the tire and the dog lost his life."

In all, Cannonball traveled 3,379 miles across the U.S. Due to the poor roads and primitive "cradle-spring" shock absorption of his bike, he rode most of the way standing up. His feat made him a hero. Without a doubt, Cannonball's run reshaped the future of American motorcyclists. While Europe still clings to tight-handling sport bikes, Americans want nothing more than to hop on a big Harley and cruise the wide roads that stretch from sea to shining sea.
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