Monday Musings...
We're starting off another week sort of right where we left off the last week regarding celebrity deaths, and although we might not think of these three people as celebs, they were in their own right, and in their own time.
** Billy Mays, famed pitchman of (at least) the last decade passed away at his home in Florida yesterday at the age of 50.
Coroner results are pending as to the cause of death.
Here's the WIKI link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays
He was a fellow Pennsylvanian (born In McKees Rocks, PA in 1958) and got his start hawking "as seen on TV" items on Atlantic City's famed Boardwalk (where I probably walked right past him in a time long ago).
Maybe getting that Oxi-Clean wouldn't have been such a bad idea, in retrospect.
I actually bought a few of the products he pitched over the years, and they weren't all that bad...they worked as advertised.
It would have been nice if he could have "pitched" a better solution to the economic crisis in America...seeing him in Congress, or even the Oval Office would have been worth the price of admission!
Now...he's "God's Pitchman".
That ought to be very interesting.
** Gale Storm, noted TV star of the 1950s passed away at the age of 87.
She starred in shows like My Little Margie, and The Gale Storm show.
And she wasn't bad on Dad's eyes...(or mine).
Not bad for a little girl from Texas, hmm?
Here's the WIKI link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_Storm
** Lastly, the father of screen and Broadway actor Tony Roberts, Ken Roberts has passed away at the age of 99.
If you're as old as I am, you probably heard him as the announcer on grandma's soap opera shows (when they used to air in fifteen-minute segments, instead of half hour shows).
And here's a link to the story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702344.html
Think of him like you would Gary Owens (Laugh-in), or a Don LaFontaine (did all those movie trailers and a Geico commercial).
** Now, with ALL this stuff out of the way, let's take a look in your GAS TANK, shall we?
(WTF did he just say?)
That's right...I said GAS TANK, as in the receptacle that holds the fuel for whatever you are driving these days.
(Source article):
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090628/BIZ/306289953
Betcha didn't know that whatever you are putting in there (as far as gasoline goes) is TEN PERCENT ETHANOL...didja?
The oil companies aren't stopping THERE, either. They PLAN to add another FIVE PERCENT, basically making what we call "gasoline" something more akin (read exactly) like the "E-85" pumps we're beginning to see. E-15 will be the new pump at the station.
Some states (other than Indiana) have a "custom-blend it yourself" mish-mosh of gas/ethanol...so you can "pick your poison", as it were.
Now before you go and start proclaiming to the world that you've been driving a "hybrid" vehicle (for years) and want a "rebate" from someone in Washington, D.C., put the car in PARK, catch your breath, and calm down.
Most NON-hybrid cars will "run" on "E-15"..but not as well as they were designed to run (oops, someone didn't tell us THAT, did they?) simply because the engine is set up (and computer-controlled) to run on GASOLINE.
And with a higher "E", the situation only gets worse.
Now that damn onboard computer will "try" to accommodate by attempting to run "normally" on E-15, and maybe you won't feel much of a difference...(now).
The problem will come when you turn the vehicle OFF...and it wants to KEEP RUNNING, shaking all over (like the song used to say). That's a little something we called PRE-IGNITION. It happens when the combustion chamber has a "hot spot", or a piece of carbon that re-ignites the fuel/air mixture even without a spark.
You car might also "knock" under acceleration, like someone is taking a piston and whacking it against the firewall.
You can thank ETHANOL for those issues, folks!
Ethanol burns HOTTER, ergo, it causes a whole new set of problems with COMPUTER-CONTROLLED vehicles. Now back in the OLD days, all YOU had to do was tinker with the carburetor by adjusting the fuel mixture, the air mixture, and the idle speeds, and you were pretty much good to go.
Henry Ford knew AS MUCH when he designed the old MODEL T.
That bugger would run on ANYTHING from kerosene to moonshine...AS WELL AS GASOLINE (when it was available due to the lack of pumps across the nation...and the lack of highways too).
But today, it's a lot different. And we're paying the price somewhere, trust me.
If you look at the ETHANOL usage versus production...BOTH have pretty much plateaued over the last few years, although overall U.S. production has increased. Some ethanol plants have even SHUT DOWN, because of market saturation (as I predicted they would).
Now this isn't to say that Ethanol will go away (unfortunately).
It won't, and that's too bad.
Ethanol just isn't AS efficient a fuel source as gasoline...sorry, folks.
Sure, it burns HOTTER, but it burns FASTER, too.
That means more fill ups at the pumps to get the same MPG you USED to get with plain old gasoline.
The overall efficiency rating of ethanol is about 75% of gasoline.
Now, hold on...we're not quite DONE yet, people.
Ethanol is ALSO a lot more CORROSIVE to certain items under the hood of your vehicle...like all those RUBBER COMPOUND "thingys" such as FUEL LINES. Ethanol is also corrosive to certain metals, plastics and nylon compounds. Alcohol and these things don't get along all that well, it seems.
Now, I don't know about YOU, but "greening up the old planet" by turning MY vehicle into some sort of (potential) poster child for Fire Prevention Week by dumping some E-15 in my tank, isn't MY idea of saving the Earth, right?
In other words..."Fuel leaks under the hood....are BAD, M'kay?"
I "suppose" retro kits can be made available for older vehicles, but that STILL doesn't address the problem of inefficiency with ethanol consumption (except to make a few folks running the show VERY wealthy).
Weird thing about ALL of this, is that the DOE (Dept. of Energy), the car makers AND the EPA haven't REALLY tested the problems I mentioned in any depth yet (but they're rolling out ethanol hand-over-fist).
They're pretty much "winging it" and crying "Havoc", while letting slip the "dogs of war", as it were.
I guess "they" want to see "if" WE buy into this BS, turning our older cars and trucks into rolling tiki torches...OR whether we'll speak the hell up and demand some real ACTION regarding all this crap.
Ethanol is another band-aid on a much more severe broken leg, and we'd best start paying attention to ALL that's being said about it, good AND bad. Ethanol might be all well and good in some INDY cars racing at 220+ MPH around a track, getting about TWO MPG along the way, but that sure as hell isn't helping the soccer moms and other regular citizens who DEPEND on their vehicles to get them from *A* to *B* one damn bit.
Time to speak up and have these companies and the politicians supporting them, to give us THE FACTS...ALL of them.
Your vehicle is going to be your SECOND-LARGEST investment (unlike you're like the wife and I who have moved our COMPUTERS to that coveted # 2 spot with all the glitches we encounter on a regular basis...but that's another post for another day) after your house, and it's up to every one of you to make your voices heard.
All we, the people, are asking for is the TRUTH.
Don't lie to us.
Don't assume we're ALL dumber than a bag of rocks.
Don't think YOU know what's best for every one of us.
Don't insult our intelligence.
After all, THEY (companies and politicians) answer to US...and not the other way around.
So, wherever you drive, and whatever station you fill up at...
Stay safe out there, America.