On today's date in 1789, Congress founded the U.S. Treasury.
Today also marks a milestone in American automotive history. On this day in 1959, Ford Motor Company introduced the Falcon, America's answer to imported cars. I have some hood time with this model, it was solid, well built, and easy to work on. Those that came with the 289 c.i. engine were particularly peppy. IMO, the Falcon pre-filled the niche that the venerable Mustang would later occupy.
And speaking of Mustangs, Dear Santa Claus, I've been a very good Boy this year...
Which reminds me. If you're of a certain age and worked on cars, you can remember when most engines were designed with the distributor at the rear of the block. When you did a tune-up, you spent some time in the uncomfortable position of leaning into the engine compartment installing and adjusting the points.
It's some sort of cruel engineering joke that most modern cars have the distributor on the front of the engine in a very accessible position from which to perform maintenance. There's just one thing: no maintenance is required. Go figure.
Anywho, it's been a wild week. They're still cleaning up after Irene, which thankfully fizzled out and wasn't too big. The biggest political news was Obama scheduling his speech to a joint session of Congress on the night of a Republican presidential candidate debate that had been planned for months.
The British would call that "bad form."
Heh. The twelve NASCAR Chase drivers from last year have been invited to the White House to be honored. Five have scheduling conflicts and won't make it. BackwardsGal is tickled that her favorite driver, Carl Edwards, is among them.
Man steals tractor and drives it drunk. The next day, the tractor was unavailable for comments, as it was nursing a hangover. I'm here all week, try the veal.
Alcohol and politics rarely mix. Pennsylvania's wine kiosks have lost over $1 million taxpayer dollars. "It has shown that, with the aid of modern technology, the government can lose money while selling a highly popular product over which it has a monopoly."
Aging superheroes. (h/t to David Thompson)
Some good news about our current situation. It's in response to Mark Steyn's new book, After America: Get Ready for Armageddon, which Steyn notes as a caution, not a certainty, America is not the Titanic.
And finally, laser pointers aren't just for kittehs anymore...
Y'all have a good Labor Day weekend, y'all.
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