Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Go, Granny, Go.
The last time Rachel Veitch bought a car, gas cost 39 cents per gallon, Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House and "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" was a hit song on the radio.
Nearly 600,000 miles later, the 90-year-old Florida woman still drives her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente every day.
Veitch, of Orlando, credits her meticulous care and near-obsessive dedication to her car -- she calls it "Chariot" -- as the reason it's still turning over every morning, year after year after year. The retired nurse maintains an exhaustive collection of maintenance records and changes the oil every 3,000 miles.
"When I buy gas, I write down the mileage, the date and how many miles per gallon I got." "I've never been a destructive person and I've just taken care of everything, except my husbands."
Veitch, a mother of four, bought "Chariot" in February 1964 from a dealer in Sanford, Fla., for $3,289. The car has outlasted her three marriages and has gone through eight mufflers, at least 17 batteries and three sets of shocks. Its odometer recently clicked 559,000 miles.
"My Chariot has never lied to me or cheated on me and I can always depend on her," Veitch said. "My last husband and I divorced in 1975 and he took the 1972 Pontiac we had and I kept Chariot. I'll bet he's traded cars half a dozen times by now and I still have my Chariot, my faithful pal."
Veitch said the classic car — which boasts automatic transmission, frosty air conditioning and a "lousy" 15 miles per gallon — has been featured in several car shows across the country and took her all the way to Pennsylvania in 2007 for her 70th high school reunion. Classmates and neighbors alike are sick of the same old story, she said.
"People don't want to talk to me anymore," Veitch said. "They're tired of hearing about my Chariot."
Veitch's dream car saw its lone renovation about 12 years ago, after she got a speeding ticket for going 92 mph in a 55 mph zone.
"After that, I put in cruise control," she said. "You can't hold her down, she's a feisty old girl."
The car also survived a rear-end collision while Veitch drove along I-95 in Georgia in 1980. She was not injured.
Classic car experts say the 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente would likely sell for about $3,000 in mint condition, or up to $12,000 if it was restored to new. But Veitch says she'll never sell.
With any luck, Veitch said, "Chariot" will end up in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., a testament to a woman who cared for a single car for 45 years.
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British Teen Tricks Airline Execs Into Thinking He's a Tycoon
A British teen from Yorkshire succeeded in persuading British aviation executives that he was a tycoon about to launch his own airline. Using the pseudonym Adam Tait, the smooth-talking 17-year-old told airport and airline executives that he had a fleet of jets.
Tait, who said he was in his twenties, even flew to Jersey to attend a 1½-hour long meeting with the director of its airport. Their talks were considered promising enough for a further meeting to be arranged, which was due to be held next week.
Other air industry bosses found themselves dealing by telephone or e-mail with Tait’s fellow executives, David Rich and Anita Dash, who proposed to launch a cut-price Channel Islands-based airline servicing most of Europe.
What no one realized was that Tait, Rich and Dash were all the same person: an aircraft buff with the gift of the gab and an overactive imagination.
His exploits are reminiscent of those of Frank Abagnale Jr, who convinced the Pan Am airline that he was a pilot while still a teenager.
The Yorkshire teenager’s six-month-long ruse, which included placing articles in industry magazines, foundered only after one publication, Airliner World, became suspicious. It started to unravel the complex network that Tait had set up of fake websites, "virtual offices" complete with a real telephone receptionist and bogus names.
Last Monday he was questioned by Essex police while trying to gain access to a 93- seater jet at Southend airport, having convinced the plane’s marketing agent that his "company" wanted to lease it.
Tait, who said he was in his twenties, even flew to Jersey to attend a 1½-hour long meeting with the director of its airport. Their talks were considered promising enough for a further meeting to be arranged, which was due to be held next week.
Other air industry bosses found themselves dealing by telephone or e-mail with Tait’s fellow executives, David Rich and Anita Dash, who proposed to launch a cut-price Channel Islands-based airline servicing most of Europe.
What no one realized was that Tait, Rich and Dash were all the same person: an aircraft buff with the gift of the gab and an overactive imagination.
His exploits are reminiscent of those of Frank Abagnale Jr, who convinced the Pan Am airline that he was a pilot while still a teenager.
The Yorkshire teenager’s six-month-long ruse, which included placing articles in industry magazines, foundered only after one publication, Airliner World, became suspicious. It started to unravel the complex network that Tait had set up of fake websites, "virtual offices" complete with a real telephone receptionist and bogus names.
Last Monday he was questioned by Essex police while trying to gain access to a 93- seater jet at Southend airport, having convinced the plane’s marketing agent that his "company" wanted to lease it.
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Badger and Otter - best of friends
Two wildlife orphans that have been hand-reared at Secret World Wildlife Rescue in Somerset, England.
Secret World is the only 24/7 wildlife rescue center in the south-west of England, and annually cares for over 3000 wild animals. The otter cub in the video was an orphan that was placed in a group of badger orphans whilst being hand reared. Once the hand rearing had been finished, the group were split up so that the badgers could learn how to do badger things, and the otter could learn how to do otter things! All wildlife cared for at Secret World, including the orphans, are done so so with the end goal to release them back into the wild.
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Secret World is the only 24/7 wildlife rescue center in the south-west of England, and annually cares for over 3000 wild animals. The otter cub in the video was an orphan that was placed in a group of badger orphans whilst being hand reared. Once the hand rearing had been finished, the group were split up so that the badgers could learn how to do badger things, and the otter could learn how to do otter things! All wildlife cared for at Secret World, including the orphans, are done so so with the end goal to release them back into the wild.
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