- The joys of working in D.C. as a legislator | Al Franken added: ”You know how Truman said, ‘If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog?’ Well, these guys couldn’t have a dog because they couldn’t take care of it. But they have each other.” via
- How General Motors ruined Pontiac
- Apparently Barack Obama came to Canada recently
- This is pretty funny
A weblog about urbanism, technology, & culture.
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This is a weblog about urban issues, technology, & culture published by Jordon Cooper since 2001. You can read about me and the site here and if you are looking for one of my columns in The StarPhoenix, you can find them here. If you've got questions, concerns, or an interesting link for me, let me know
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> The joys of working in D.C. as a legislator
I chuckle when I hear stories of the D street house. Many times, I had a remote job, that was not far enough away to set up as a full apartment, but far enough that spending every other night was preferable to a long commute. I would split with another guy, and we had a ‘gentleman’s agreement” that one got odd nights and the other evens. But we could sleep both nights if we wanted.
Just a TV, maybe a bottle of Pepsi, no food. We called them “caves”, they were close to work, and quiet. We scoped out a few, to avoid the late night hassles, which meant we found a good landlord who had already done our homework. But five minutes from work, not an hour (or two). For 200 bucks a month, I saved 30 hours of commuting, gas, etc.
Lots of guys (and a few gals) had caves, and some of those tales sound familiar!
A friend of mine read this and we were chatting about his work at a refinery years ago. He saw your comment and said, “Pepsi?! He must have been living the high life. All we ever had in our cave was RC Cola!”
> How General Motors ruined Pontiac
GM seems to dance around a marketing paradigm – what sells, what’s the niche left inthe marketplace between Ford and Chrysler brands. And seems to dance around what they can build.
I remember GM designing the Panther, and Ford reworked the Comet Caliente into the Mustang and stole that market niche. GM defensively reworked the Panther into the Camaro, most of the redesign allowed it to be made on underused Corvair production lines. GM’s Assembly Division has a lot of clout. But then they did rework the Panther again, making the Firebird.
BOP (Buick Oldsmobile Pontiac) always had marketing nimbleness, and would push back Assembly more than Chevy and Caddy. And they had bigger profit margins than Chevy, and bigger volume than Caddy. Olds is gone, but Buicks could be morphed into Oldsmobile wannabe brands. And Buick could make a Firebird (and call it “Wildcat II”?)
Times are tough, brands are going to die. Buick is the “middle of the middle” market, it’s the one to lead that segment.
Out here, anything made in Fremont (Nummi) gets noticed. Vibes are popular, since they are really a Toyota. They are a real bargain, especially used.
I love the Vibe. The officers at the Centre have them and they are really nice cars. It’s sad that Pontiac may be phased out because for me of all of the General Motors brands, it is the one that I prefer the most.
What I can’t understand is the dilution of the Pontiac Brand. The Pontiac Sunfire becomes the cheaper Chevy Cavalier with a new front end. The Pontiac Solstice becomes the Saturn Sky with a new logo. Everything that Pontiac does is given away to another platform and is often sold for less money.
I still think there is a market for an affordable performance vehicle as the Mustang has shown for many years.
My cave was near Northrop in Hawthorne. The plant had a cafeteria that was both excellent, and ran with a two-shift staff from about 6 AM to 7 PM (most plant cafeterias run til about 3 PM). So we had a pretty good food supply, and about the only time we did takeout at local places is when we went to a store right after work, and got hungry on the way back. As a result, food and containers didn’t build up.
We did have one of those gas station mini-marts, – an Arco AM-PM – which often had a special on two liter Pepsi products for a buck? I think. So Pepsi and Mountain Dew – a techie staple – were popular. RC did invent diet cola – Diet Rite – but in brand savvy (or brand addicted LA), it only occasionally appeared in the grocery stores.
We only used our cave at night – it was pretty much a tool to max out our overtime, since one less hour commuting meant one more hour working. Plus, as contractors, we had to put up with a little more scrutiny/bigotry/scamming than a direct worker. We did get a few requests to rent it by the day, or the hour, and a few planned a bachelor party and wanted a place after a trip to the Wild Goo…, er, “Hughes Building H-69″:) only three miles away.