My first car was a 4-wheel drive AMC Eagle hatchback.

The original crossover SUV, long before they were cool.

Well, it was quite old by the time I got it. Absolutely no acceleration or agility. I remember at one point "racing" a friend of mine one night on this windy road down by the beach in it and losing badly. Finally I just stopped, kicked in the 4WD and turned all the curves into straights, much to the amusement of my friend riding shotgun.

It was a hell of a downgrade after my driving my parents' 88' Jeep Cherokee, though. (Which itself had been 6 years old before I was knocked off the road and totalled it. My first ever car accident and it was a doozy. I've been in 3 accidents in my life and none of them have been simple fender benders.)

Other nations are frustrated because they can't send help:

10:35 A.M. - WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many countries say they want to help, but that their Hurricane Katrina offers have gone unanswered. A top Indian official says his country has a plane "parked at the airport" loaded with medicine and food, but the U-S hasn't given a destination.

Taiwan says it's waiting for the U-S to decide where the island nation's two (m) million-dollar donation should be sent. South Korea has promised 30 (m) million dollars and had said it would sent 40 rescue workers and 100 tons of blankets, diapers, wheelchairs and the like by this weekend. But now a Foreign Ministry official says the delivery will be delayed until next week because "preparations are not going well."

A State Department spokesman says "any offers of support that could potentially benefit" the U-S have been accepted.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I'm getting Thai food for lunch and Lebanese for dinner, so the day is all multicultural. I just hope 27 is a good year -- I like the number, anyhow (It's a cube! And it has seven in it! I take an almost Nilly-esque delight in these things.)

Also thanks for the hurricane links. I have a whole new set of things to be outraged by now.

Back in the late '70s, my brother had a green Pinto for his high school transport--he used to cram five people in that car on a regular basis! He was in an accident that crumpled the front end of his car, and his buddy (whose dad owned a body shop) and he disassembled the front half of the car and reattached another Pinto's front half to the back of his old car, and painted it blue. Finally, in his last year of college, he was hit by a Mercedes while making a cookie ingredient run for Mom on Christmas Eve, so he replaced it with a new Jeep (a very nice one, too). Sad to see the old Pinto go, though.

ETA Birthday wishes for LJ!!

Hey, did we know they were making an Aeon Flux movie? With Charlize Theron? And by we I mean.... anybody, I guess.

I would seriously love to have a mid-70s Civic.

DON'T GET A '75!

Actually, I don't know if you could find a running one. Blew head gaskets like crazy. I still see others, from a few years later, around. Well, not around here, but in places without road salt.

Hey, did we know they were making an Aeon Flux movie? With Charlize Theron? And by we I mean.... anybody, I guess.

We did. It looks very pretty, but I do not remain hopeful that it will live up to the animation.

A friend of mine had a Chevette. It was killed by a canadian goose. The goose survived.

My first car was a Chevette. I loved that thing.

It got totalled when I had a head-on (at low speed, but around a blind curve) with a Plymouth (?) Satellite. Those things are BEASTS. The Satellite sustained literally no damage, and my Chevette crumpled like tissue paper.

My first car was a Chevette.

Same here. A 1978 Chevette, IIRC. My sister drove it from Alabama to Denver with no oil in it and tore up the engine. My parents gave it to me to drive until it died. I drove it about 6 months before a dramatic and smokey ending. My dad sold it for $50 for scrap metal.