Bull balls, fangs, what’s next?

In “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,” the late sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein has a scene in which his human hero is trying to teach a computer about jokes, especially practical jokes. Most practical jokes, he says, are at best a “once funny.” Repeat performances not only lose whatever humor they held, but also tend to make the target a tad irked.“Once funny” is what I think about fangs on truck

New Jersey, the Jackboot State?

Maybe there’s some job requirement in New Jersey that requires cops or other government people with authority to be uninformed, uneducated, unacquainted and totally in the dark on the Freedom of Speech in our country.“So you want to work for the government. Have you ever heard of the First Amendment?“No.”“OK, you’re hired.”How else do you rationalize seven cops arresting a couple citizens from a

Don’t let the dream die

As an elementary school student in the 1960s I lived through turbulent times, watching local, state, national and world events from the wide-eyed perspective of childhood but also with the curiosity of a born reporter.My natural curiosity and never-ending thirst for information, coupled with the fact that I hung out more with adults than my age group, often resulted in my being over-prepared for

I agree with Pearl P. Baker!

From time to time, a topic or news story will send some of us in the office here looking through old editions of Land Line Magazine.Besides enjoying old pictures of the Land Line editors and OOIDA leaders, you find stories about many of the same topics, albeit with a few slight changes.Recently a hospital in New York made headlines after a lawsuit revealed that the hospital allegedly forced a man

If the shoe doesn’t fit

The things you see in the road these days. It makes one think, as we travel the highways, what goes through a person’s mind to make them discard, at will, items they no longer wish to keep inside the vehicle.Granted, it’s pretty obvious when you see a baseball cap on the roadside, it is because the previous owner had the window down too far. Or, perhaps they were riding in a convertible with the

So long, road scrapers?

It was flurrying this week in Nashville and, if you have ever driven through Nashville when it’s snowing, you know that panic grips the motoring public. This light flurry was enough to bring three interstates to a crawl, spawning multiple wrecks as amateurs tried to get their 4WD Humvees and SUVs home before the going got … tweachawous, as Frau Blücher from “Young Frankenstein” might put it.As I

You’ve got mail – and an overloaded muffler

I got a pedometer one time with my $5 salad from McDonald’s.I know – it’s the ultimate contradiction – kind of like having a bachelor’s party at Showbiz Pizza.Anyway, this pedometer would tick off daily footsteps no matter where you went, adding up to thousands of steps each day.But there was a chink in the armor.I found the pedometer would tick off footsteps if I tapped my foot, or turned in my

Where’s the beef?

I am sure all of you who grew up in the 1980s remember the “Where’s the beef” commercial.For the past few weeks I have been covering a story regarding the theft of a refrigerated trailer in Fort Worth, TX, which was loaded with more than 14,000 pounds of ground beef product.What’s the most disturbing in this case is that some of that product had tested positive for E.coli bacteria earlier on the

Where you gonna put the teeth?

For those of you who have been on pins and needles waiting for the unveiling of the latest and greatest International truck – the cat is officially out of the bag.TruckNet member “Giddy_Up_Go” pulled off a coup that probably has corporate spies within the trucking industry OEM community green with envy.The long and short of the story is that while getting his Cornbinder serviced in Fort Wayne, IN

So much for the homebrew

A month ago I was in the market for a quality used automobile, and for a brief time my wife became increasingly sure I was about to go insane.I began my search online, and before long I was sizing up fuel economy and experiencing the usual hubbub surrounding a vehicle purchase.For a brief time, I was sure I wanted to buy a vehicle that runs on diesel fuel, but this is where I was forced to go on

Truckin’ Marines

Justifiably, much has been said about American truckers who streamed into Iraq as contractors to help support the early years of the long “War on Terrorism.” They went through hell, often without adequate armor or other protection, and none came home unscathed.Recently, the U.S. Marine Corps news site begins a three-part series on Marines who now carry out the vital supply functions and, when

The real cost of oil remains to be seen

The price of crude oil surpassing $100 per barrel has broken a major psychological barrier, and some oil traders believe the price will only go up from there.Hundred-dollar oil is a hurdle few of us were thinking about a few years ago, but the weary world jumped over it on the second day of January and somehow landed on its feet.Some traders in oil futures believe that crude could hit $200 per

Never having to sleep? I say, where’s the money?

I read, with great relish (hold the pickles and mayo), Brother Bill Hudgins’ blog about Orexin A, the mind-stimulating drug that could eliminate the need for sleep.Considering the possibilities of how it could be used – or misused and abused – in our industry, quite honestly I am scared. Scholars are trying to find ways to wring more work out my already overtaxed body.Comparing the results of

How would never having to sleep change your life?

Scientists at UCLA are experimenting with a naturally occurring brain chemical that could turn into a “sleep replacement” drug. Click here to read about it.The chemical, called Orexin A, appears to eliminate the effects of sleep deprivation without any other impact on the brain. This has been tried only on monkeys so far, so one has to wonder if our allegedly more complex brains would be