Sunday, November 08, 2026

the Jeep commercial for the Avengers isn't likely to help sales

in 1974, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, aircraft designer and senior vice president of Lockheed, announced his retirement after 40+ years and countless contributions to some of the most original aircraft designs of the 20th century.



a couple of the cars from the new drifting movie by Sung Kang








the SEMA 2026 schwag haul...




 I decided to try ALL the air freshners that were being given away... 19 that I found. I'll keep you posted who had the best smelling one they gave away





there were a couple displays for air freshners.

5 decks of cards... well, not that I'm likely to play cards with them, but IF I get the notion to build a house of cards? I'll be able to

more microfiber cloths than usual were up for grabs!

And there at the top of this bottom photo are the two coolest things I was given as schwag! A bucket of  "Tub Of Towels" ( I've bought a couple BECAUSE of the free sample packs at SEMA... and now I was given a bucket of them? AWESOME!)

And the coolest thing? That issue of Hella's new magazine, Dusty Times! 



just one example of the great articles in it
The older issues are available online in Flipbooks by Issuu, on each issues page on Dustytimes.com

Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac’s personal Chiron was taken from outside his company’s campus in Croatia, because he left it with the key still inside! Thank you Doug!


 He jumped into his Porsche 911 and chased it across Slovenia until police finally stopped it in Austria.

Odd choice of actions to take when your Bugatti is stolen

Someone local came in looking for a job and decided that he would take the Chiron instead. People noticed, they contacted Mate, and he got the police involved. But like nearly every modern car, there's plenty of telemetry that can, among other things, share the car's location. Being the owner of the company, Mate was able to see where the car was (and how much gas was in it) and let Croatian police know.

Instead of letting the police handle things, he saw the car heading to Slovenia, so he jumped into his own Porsche 911 to give chase. He hoped to get the border closed in time, but Slovenia is only about 10 miles from Rimac's campus in Zagreb. From there, it's only about 100 miles to Austria and, since the thief had a one-hour head start (and a Chiron), they were in that third country before police could coordinate.

Mate wasn't able to catch up to the thief, at least until Austrian authorities got the car stopped. The Chiron was recovered, and Mate had to spend the night doing paperwork. Surprisingly, Rimac said he didn't want to press charges.

https://carbuzz.com/mate-rimac-chases-stolen-chiron-in-porsche-october-2026

Corvette Specialties of San Diego went out of business when the owner retired, and now, the assets are getting auctioned off


Why doesn't the "door close" button work on most elevators? (thank you Joe!) 80 percent of them are not wired, not connected. They do not function.


 it's even a trope in tv shows and movies, that the main characters desperately need the doors to close, but no matter how they smash the button, the doors won't close. 

Last week at SEMA I was reminded of the stupid door button. Yup, tested it every day when using the elevator, and the doors close with the same time delay no matter if you wait for them, or hit the door close button. 

So... why does Otis build their elevator with those stupid buttons?

Joe sent me a link to the transcript of a podcast that was discussing this, Patrick Carr is the manager/creator of an elevator museum in New York City:





https://radiolab.org/podcast/buttons-not-buttons/transcript

I forgot to mention that Dodge is returning to Nascar, with one team and two cars, in 2027

The team indicated that it will announce its 2027 driver lineup at this weekend's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8th, 2026, while the Dodge race car itself will be revealed at the Snowball Derby in Florida on December 4th.

Saturday, November 07, 2026

Diane Disney Miller at the Family Foundation’s headquarters opened the lid on the Lilly Belle caboose to peek inside the legendary caboose built by her father for his famous backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad.






Working late at his studio workbench, he had hand-built a miniature bunk bed complete with upholstered mattresses, tiny clothes lockers, and customized seating areas designed to flawlessly replicate a real conductor's resting space. 

Right next to that miniature bunk sat a fully functional, highly detailed miniature potbelly stove that Walt machined from scratch using his workshop lathe.




https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfDisneyHistoryAndScholarship/posts/pfbid038P6UrUuaVx1yvDPdEK6ND1Du26YCba3u4Q81NzsjW8R89jutPBJJMVhjfbZMamDLl

Cool booth podium base, and innovative pen holder




an award winning paint job on a cool old Econoline








great airbrushing on this trunk lid



Betty Boop never looked cuter, and Felix with Impala tail lights for eyes? Interesting

VW van with wheelie bars that have been put to the test