The cartalk.com TIME KILL WEEKLY Special "Fell Off the Ugly Tree and Landed in Showroom" Edition ______________________________________________ Killing Time, Unencumbered by the Work Process ______________________________________________ Maury Maille, Editor
What's new at Car Talk Plaza? Ugliness, that's what. We're finally addressing the "ugly" issue. No, not visages of our esteemed hosts. We mean the ugly car issue. There seems to be a veritable rash of damned unsightly new cars in the showroom. What we're trying to decide is what's the ugliest new car going? We need your vote, right now, at http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/uglycar/index.html to help us crown a King of Ugly. Some of our favorite comments thus far? "Looks like a milk truck for a Shriners' parade" (about the Scion Xb); "a rollover would improve its looks" (the Honda Element); the "automotive equivalent of Aunt Bertha" (Hummer H2); and, about the Pontiac Aztek, it "looks the way Montezuma's revenge feels." In other news, we'd like to call upon you, our faithful Time Kill Weekly readers, to test a new web-based car advice service we're contemplating for the Car Talk web site. We think it holds potential as a new way to get quick, decent answers to your car questions. How's it work? You'll just have to see for yourself. You can check it out right now at http://demo.wondir.com/CarTalk When you're done playing around, we want to know what you think. Did it work for you? Was it intuitive? Did you find the answers to be useful? E-mail our Senior Web Lackey Doug Mayer right now via Virtual Box 3500 at http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html Yours in celebrating ugliness in all its forms, Maury Maille Ugliness Czar Car Talk Plaza P.S. Here's this week's Lame Joke Of The Week, courtesy of Bob Grove: A guy walks into a bar and is soon in conversation with a pretty woman. It becomes evident that she's looking for, how do I put this delicately? A "professional relationship." The guy, happy for the company, keeps on chatting. Finally, she says, "Look, things have been kind of slow lately and I'll do anything you ask for a hundred bucks. There's just one condition: You'll have to tell it to me in three words." The guy says he'll think about it, so she goes back to her table. Finally, after several minutes he walks slowly over to her table. His eyes are lowered. He puts five twenties on the table. Their eyes meet. In a low voice, he says, "Paint my house." ******************* 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 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 Yours in weekly puzzler torment, Maury Maille Puzzler Dissemination Specialist Car talk plaza ******************* Useful information alert: Tired of paying auto club dues to an outfit that lobbies against environmental causes? Check out Better World Club-and in the process get a Car Talk booklet for free! Better World is 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 -- it gives 1% of its revenue to environmental clean up and advocacy. *Your consumer interests -- it even offers discounts on hybrid rental cars. *And it has 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 now, you'll get a copy of our booklet, 10 Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car without Even Knowing It. Check out Better World Club 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/ ******************** Help Ray lose the night sweats he's been getting, trying to come up with a decent puzzler each week. E-mail him your suggestion any time, via http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html ******************** Puzzled out? You can unsubscribe to the car talk puzzler psychic friends network anytime at http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?Puzzler_list=subscribe#psychic We'll forgive you.
