The cartalk.cars.com TIME KILL WEEKLY Special Pre-Confetti Edition ______________________________________________ Killing Time, Unencumbered by the Work Process ______________________________________________ Maury Maille, Editor
What's new at Car Talk Plaza? The Christmas presents are unwrapped at Car Talk Plaza, that's what. And the mood has turned ugly. Ray's gift? A carton of Ron Popeil's Spray-On Brunette Hair with Delectable Auburn Highlights. As for Tommy, he now has 52 one-week pill boxes -- complete with Gingko Biloba (for memory), Chamomile (for rant control) and an herbal beauty enhancement, which our lackeys purchased over the Internet -- from a reputable supplier in Guam. Both brothers are protesting the need for said gifts with a newfound vehemence. In the meantime, we wanted to simply take a second to thank you, our loyal Car Talk diaspora. Tom, Ray and all of us at Car Talk Plaza have had another fun year of shows, web site features, newspaper columns and sundry other exploits -- including... Another CD of classic moments from Car Talk, "Maternal Combustion: Calls About Moms and Cars." http://www.shamelesscommerce.com/ A vehicle donation program which, with your help, netted more than $700,000 dollars for NPR stations from Nome, Alaska to Waikiki, Hawaii. http://v-dac.com/cartalk/ A revisit from 60 Minutes... to see if the guys had gotten any smarter or better looking since the last time. (Answer: of course not!) And, of course, a year's worth of highly suspect car advice. As for Tom and Ray's New Year's resolutions? "To be more efficient at using our free time less productively." How they could accomplish that, we have no idea. But, rest assured, we'll keep you posted. Thank you for being a part of another year here at Car Talk Plaza... and here's a little something from all of us: http://cartalk.com/pressroom/images/Photo-sigs.jpg Wishing you a not-too-hung over January 1, and a great 2005, Maury Maille Staff Sentimentalist Car Talk Plaza P.S. Here's this week's Lame Joke Of The Week, courtesy of Bill Lenahan: According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers, and then there are educators. ******************* USEFUL INFORMATION ALERT: Tired of paying auto club dues to an outfit that lobbies against environmental causes? Check out Better World Club. They're an auto club with genuinely decent values-- unlike some others we could name... whose initials happen to be AAA. Better World Club cares about... *Your environmental interests--they give 1% of their revenue to environmental clean up and advocacy. *Your consumer interests. They even have discounts on hybrid rental cars. *And, they have the nation's only bicycle roadside assistance program. Dump your AAA membership and join Better World! If you join via the Car Talk web site, they'll even give you an extra month's membership. Check them out now at http://www.cartalk.com ******************** Got more time to kill? This past weekend's new, lousy Car Talk show is now on the web site, at http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/ ******************** Miss the puzzler? Losing sleep over it? Add your e mail to our Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network and we'll personally hand deliver Ray's new puzzler to your inbox every Monday. http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?puzzler_list=subscribe#psychic ******************* Embarrassed by having e mails from Car Talk in your inbox? Can't say that we blame you. Unsubscribe any time, via http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?mailing_list=subscribe
