Just as no one raindrop believes itself responsible for the flood, none of the tidbits that follow can comprise an entire blog post. But when they get organized, like rain, they can.
- Following up on the post about The Subscription Model (https://innoparticularorder.blog/2021/12/13/the-subscription-model/) there are now increasing indications that carmakers will be increasingly looking to make cars, and the features contained therein, a eternal revenue model, the purchase that keeps giving (to them). In the linked article (https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/car-companies-stand-billions-charging-131000075.html) the author posits a few questions that provide a glimpse into car sort-of-kinda-ownership. $5/month for the remote key fob to work? $10 / month for heated seats? Count me out.
- NASCAR, about which I am very opinionated and write about frequently, did something kinda-sorta-different this past weekend with their Clash race inside the Los Angeles Coliseum. For all the people clamoring for more short-track racing, this made-for-TV event must have seemed Heaven-sent, with a couple dozen cars racing their way into the feature via heats into a feature race where caution laps didn’t count and the opportunity to fix your car during the feature was extremely limited. NASCAR of course congratulated itself, even before the event, with a letter from president Steve Phelps noting the enormity of this occasion. My reply to Steve: Well, good job, but you did know that there are many thousands of us across America doing the Exact.Same.Thing, right?
- Now, letting the previous thought continue, I sorta-kinda count myself in that same crowd doing the exact same thing. Not very well, but I do the practice/heat/feature thing mentioned above whenever life and mechanical catastrophes allow. Since my racing, and the race at the Coliseum, seem to have similarities, I will point out a couple of significant differences that Steve might seem useful:
– we don’t stop the race at the halfway point for singers to do their thing
– we don’t invite a bunch of Hollywood-types to show up and, well, be seen (but we do make them buy a ticket; support your local short track, please)
-on a local level, we have dispatched the ghost of Brian France, and his unending quest to make NASCAR like the NFL. NASCAR (and yes, I know the N stands for National) would you please do the same? Having the race in a football stadium, and spending a million or so bucks on pavement to do it, is a slap in the face to the countless local paved tracks that have supported your sanction for decades and will never see the luxury of annual pavement. Make the teaser race an annual road trip and bring it to a short track that epitomizes your roots. And halftime? Please. Just stop.
- Quote that caught my eye and, like this blog, references no one in particular: ‘Politicians who lack the maturity or the backbone to deal with criticism or opposing viewpoints should leave public office altogether, instead of trying to rig the game in order to make their jobs more comfortable.’
In no particular order 