If one uses just two digits to represent the year, then–of course–the sum of the month and today’s date equals the year: 12/12/24. I have always fessed up to being an OCD-addled math nerd. I yam what I yam…
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Today’s post will have no references to serious topics as I am burned out from thinking and writing about them. On this day in 1916 ground was broken on a new production plant for Studebaker automobiles in South Bend, Indiana. Until the plant was completed most Studebaker cars were produced in Detroit; the wagons and carriages were built in South Bend. Of course, by 1916 that business line was declining. For not the first time, here are photos of my two favorite Studebakers, both built as the company was in its last years as an automobile manufacturer.
The top photo shows a Gran Turismo Hawk, which was built for the 1962, 1963 and part of the 1964 model years. The bottom photo shows an Avanti, manufactured for 1963 and part of 1964. Including exports, just 15,736 Gran Turismo Hawks and 4,643 Avantis were built. As a comparison, Studebaker built more than 168,000 4-door sedans in model year 1950 alone.
Of course, production of both of these cars ended when Studebaker closed the South Bend factory in December, 1963. As most of you know, production of the Avanti was resurrected and continued in South Bend, under the ownership of two former Studebaker dealers–Nate Altman and Leo Newman, for quite some time. After being purchased by John Cafaro, the Avanti company moved to Youngstown, Ohio in 1987. After the company changed hands a few more times, the last Avanti–at least for now–was built in Mexico in 2006.
Here is a photo of an Avanti II, built by Altman’s and Newman’s company, that I took yesterday during an enjoyable visit to a local auto museum with three friends.
Given the ugly front bumper guards I would guess this is an early 1970s model. The Avanti was one of my first car crushes, from the first time I saw this rendering in The Golden Guide To Sports Cars in 1968.
I have had the sickness for a long time, although the illness had a long period of remission. Going off on a total stream of “consciousness” thread…the car mostly responsible for bringing back the sickness was this one:
This is the 2002 Corvette I bought in March, 2004 as it looked in the showroom of the dealer where I purchased the car. I don’t think I have ever published this photo in the blog before, but if I have it was a long time ago. Well, I guess the sickness had returned somewhat before the purchase as I never would have considered buying a Corvette otherwise.
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On this day 65 years ago (1959 for those of you who are math-challenged) one of the biggest hits in the modern era of music was at the top of the Billboard chart. “Mack The Knife” by Bobby Darin spent nine weeks at Number One although not all consecutively.
On this day in 1959 I sort of existed as I was born a few months later. Anyway…the song was originally written in 1928 for a “music drama” called “The Threepenny Opera” or Die Dreigroschenoper in its original language of German.
Dick Clark had advised Darin against recording the song at all because he thought its origin in an opera would take away its appeal to a rock and roll audience. The fallibility of humans…
Sadly, Darin suffered from heart trouble caused by rheumatic fever he had contracted at the age of 8 and died of complications from his condition in 1973 at the age of 37. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
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As WordPress has still NOT fixed the issues with the blog stats display or “Pelated Rosts” here are links to three posts as picked by yours truly. Please feel free to click on any or all of these links so you can read them again or for the first time.
Throwback Thursday: End Of An Era
#CalendarMath