OutdoorType

For only $19.99 this shirt can be yours.

Or this one. Or this one. Or any of these.

To paraphrase… Did all the adults leave for the evening? Was no one in charge?

I would have loved to be sitting in the corner of that conference room when they decided to “go with that t-shirt idea thing.”

Some exec who normally doesn’t have anything to do with the site design barges in, waving a piece of paper in the air (it’s a print off a Cafe Press site)…

“This is amazing. I have an amazing idea. What if cnn.com sold t-shirts? My daughter was showing me this site, this Cafe Press site thing, and I guess they will let you Print What Ever You Want!! WE could do that. WE should do that.

And then the exec left with these parting words:

I bought a new water bottle yesterday.

The girl ringing me up says she’s not convinced, says the bad plastic has been in baby bottles for years and we’re all ok, right?

I looked at her and said, “What if we’re not?”

She paused a moment, reflecting on my question. You could see her deflate a bit, then she simply answered, “Oh. Oh yeah.”

Recently Read:

Currently Reading:

Because I can’t help myself, I was perusing tonight the Threadless site and I saw this hilariously awesome design… (though I’m not buying it, not this time).

Consumer Reports has finished their annual auto tests and I just finished reading a quick summary of the Top 11 Worst Cars.

I gotta say that the write up for the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, the #1 Worst.Car.Ever. (2008), is amusing:

Highs: Off-road ability

Lows: Everything else… (Ride, handling, braking, noise, fuel economy, fit and finish, visibility, front seat comfort, access, reliability)

That’s quite the list. And also, have you seen these things out there on the road? Could they look any dumber all stretched out like that? It’s true, I’ve never been a Jeep Guy (or a Car Guy for that matter), but still… I know an aesthetically pleasing auto when I see one, and the Wrangler Unlimited is not it.

In the Shattering My Dreams Category comes #6, the Toyota FJ Cruiser. This is a cool looking car that I want to love. My neighbor has one and he parks it out front, often right next to my little Pathfinder, and boy does it make my car look shlumpy. Now, I know I just made a sort of bold statement by calling out the stretched aesthetics of what once was a classic vehicle design, but the FJ Cruiser looks cool in that same, weird sort of way that the Honda Element looks cool. They’re sexy-ugly.

Anyways, I want to like the FJ, but apparently there is much left to be desired…

Highs: Off-road ability, powertrain, reliability

Lows: Visibility, ride, handling, noise, fit and finish, premium fuel, access

Again with the high marks for off-road ability. If only Consumer Reports took that into account. Seems that not a lot of people require off-roading skills to drive to the Giant for milk. Shocking.

Now, I’m not sure why this car got to be #8. If you ask me I’d bump it up to the #1 spot. Why? Well, let’s see what they say about the Suzuki Forenza (base)…

Highs: Turning circle

Lows: Acceleration, fuel economy, ride, IIHS sidecrash result, ABS option hard to find

Ok, so it can turn in circles (and I’m assuming we mean tight circles here). Fantastic. Let’s skip down to some analysis on the low points. It won’t accelerate quickly so if you do need to get out of a problem you’re out of luck. Also, you’re going to get to pay a lot in fuel dollars for the privilege of driving an underpowered small car. And the ride will be crappy. And your anti-lock brakes option (a helpful tool for, you know, stopping and what not) is difficult to find. And then, what’s this about the “IIHS sidecrash result”? Hmmm…

The Forenza received a “Poor” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for side impact protection despite having head- and torso-protecting side airbags.

Even with extra air bags you’re still going to get totally F’d up in a crash!! The Jeep at least (one assumes) is going to let you live and/or walk away from an accident. Not so much with the Suzuki death trap. Awesome.

Now, to be fair and end on a positive note, here’s a link to the Top 10 Best Cars.

Rumor has it that REI might be coming to Columbia Heights. Unfortunately my inside source is in the wrong hemisphere right now and can’t confirm whether this is true or not…

If there could be only one, which one would I get?

Inside You

or…

Not a Crook

The “inside you” one is funny and colourful and subtle and from Threadless. Meanwhile, “crook” is lacking in design and the image of Nixon waving peace signs is a little over used, but, you have to love the use of an ancillary McDonaldland character.

Speaking of McDonaldland, the evolution of the Hamburglar is kind of interesting:

The Hamburglar character was another thief that dressed in a black-and-white striped shirt and pants, a red cape, and a wide-brimmed hat and whose primary object of theft was McDonalds hamburger from the Hamburger Patch.

The design of the character changed from the 1970s to 1980s from a more sinister to a more cartoonish face. The age of the character has also changed, as originally he was depicted as an older man, but was redrawn as a less sinister young boy.

Originally, his vocabulary consisted of nothing other than “Robble, robble, robble.” His vocabulary has been expanded; he later was shown speaking ordinary English, though he continued to use “robble robble” to occasionally punctuate his speech. Although he was a thief, he was still considered a friend of Ronald McDonald and the rest of the McDonaldland gang, who appeared to tolerate his kleptomania as an eccentricity.

I think I’ll always have a taste for McDonalds… Damn the evil McOpCo geniuses of the 1970s and their advertising ways.