BUZZURRO

Today Buzzurro and I started our search for a used car.
We want a nice car….nothing fancy…but nothing that is falling apart either.
We met all sorts of sleazy characters on our way and there will be more to come in the future since we haven’t found our nice car yet.

So far we’ve met:
1. The aggressive pushy salesman who wants you to sign on the dotted line for a new car within the instant or else the price increases 50 percent.
2. The beggar who calls 24/7 and asks you to buy a “special ” car. if you are dumb enough to give him your cellphone number (like I was).
3. People who don’t speak English. Now I have nothing against people who don’t speak English. In fact as a former English teacher I earmed a few pennies off of them, but I really don’t think that non-English speakers should become car salesmen in the United States where most people do speak English.

We’ve had some unusual experiences.
At the first dealer we went to the salesmen who rode in the backseat when we test drove the car was overweight.
That’s not a big deal in itself as I’ve seen larger, more overweight people getting into the backseat of smaller cars.
He was having problems breathing.
He was gasping and wheezing the whole time we went for our test drive.
All I could think of was “My CPR card is expired. What if he dies? ”
To make a long story short, he didn’t, but it was scary.
Too bad they don’t sell used cars with portable defbrillators in them.
Anyway, I was so busy thinking about the salesman’s health, or lack of it, I didn’t even concentrate on the car.
Lucky for me (and him) Buzzurro didn’t like the car and cut our test drive short.

At the next dealer we went to from afar we saw a beautiful white car.
We got closer.
There were scratches on the rear bumper, but other than that from the outside it looked perfect.
A salesman there gave us the keys for a test drive and then told us that with a photocopy of our driver license we could take the car for a test drive by ourselves.
We gave him the documents, he gave us the car keys and we hopped inside.
Inside we noticed the cracked upholstery of the car.
We also noticed that the air conditioner did not work.
We started the car and noticed that a whole bunch of other things on the car didn’t work either.
Miraculously we survived our test drive and returned to he lot in one piece, but we both swore that we would never buy the car, not even if the dealer sold it for one shiny penny.
After we brought the car back we told the salesman that the car has a lot of mechanical problems, the air conditioning not working being one of them.
“Oh yeah” he said “Only the fan works. HA HA HA. ”
Personally I fail to see the humor in trying to sell someone a car when you know something doesn’t work without telling them, but perhaps it is me.
Then he told us “I have a great car for you to see” and showed us a car with many holes and chipped paint on the front hood that really didn’t look any better then the other ugly broken down cars on his lot.
“Was this car in a shoot out?” I asked him while pointing to some of the damage.
“No” he replied.
“Those marks prove that this is a good car. All these holes and chips were caused by flying rocks on the highway. It’s a very good sign. It means the car was used in highway driving and since that’s better for the car then you can tell that the engine is sound.”
I didn’t answer but I have never, ever even of thought of chipped paint on the hood of a car as a good sign.
This guy was just talking a load of crap and it kept getting deeper so Buzzurro and I just left.

We went to another dealer and saw a fair car.
It was plain and nothing to write home about, but it looked acceptable for our needs.
On closer inspection I saw that the windshield was cracked from the passenger side all the way to the driver side.
I said to Buzzurro “Look at the windshield. It’s cracked and will need to be replaced.”
“Oh No.” said the salesman who overheard me.
He went on, “All the drivers in this town drive with a cracked windshield” whereupon Buzzurro said “I’ve been living here for 1 year and never had one, or even saw anyone else with one” and then the salesman went on to describe how on his wife’s car the windshield is cracked and has been like that for over one year.
What he and his wife do with a cracked windshield is between them of course, but he is wrong.
Even in this town cracked windshields ARE fixed and we didn’t want to buy a car with one..

After that Buzzurro and I decided to call it a day.
I went home only to receive a call from another dealer about his ‘Special Prices”, but when I asked what they were he just changed the subject.
Repeatedly.
He just wouldn’t answer my simple question of “What are the prices?”
AHHH.
What’s a girl to do in circumstances like these?
Yes, I made an appointment.
I’m going there tomorrow.
We just want a nice used car.

Yesterday I received a phone call asking for my phone number.
I turned to Buzzurro and told him that I received a phone call asking for my phone number.
How did she call me on the phone in the first place if she didn’t have it ? Sheesh.
I said to Buzzurro: “Before you know it, I’ll start receiving emails asking for my email address !” and we laughed about that possibility.
I spoke too soon.
Today I did receive an email asking for my email address.

ANYBODY but Bush…..

How about Ahmeninejad of Iran ? Or the Wahabist rulers of Saudi Arabia ? What do you think they’d do with your non-islamic uncovered headed butt when you wear short sleeve shirts in public like you were in your car ?
(it was a female driver)

Is this a frivolous lawsuit ?

I’m not a lawyer, but I’d have to say “Yes”. It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. An AIDS group is suing Pfizer over Viagra saying that their ads promote sexual diseases.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major U.S. AIDS treatment group plans to file a lawsuit on Monday that accuses drug giant Pfizer Inc. of illegally promoting recreational use of its blockbuster impotence pill Viagra.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) told Reuters it wants Pfizer to be barred from marketing Viagra as a lifestyle or sexual enhancement drug. The nonprofit organization said Pfizer’s actions had led to risky behavior by men and an increase in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

I agree with the AHF that Viagra is a sexual enhancement drug but unless you are a nun living in a convent I don’t see why a drug that enhances or creates sexual function harms society.
Why the lawsuit ?
It’s unprotected sex that causes sexual diseases and a raise in the spread of HIV anyway, not whether the man uses a pill to get an erection or not.
If anything they should sue everybody, man or woman who ever had sex.
Shouldn’t AHF try to prevent all sexual behavior because that might lead to sexual diseases ?
No, of course not, no one is arguing that they should, so why penalize the men that can’t get an erection naturally but need to do it with pills ?

According to the lawsuit brought by the AHF, the men in the Viagra advertisements are younger then the average user of Viagra.
Yes, most of the men using Viagra are probably older, but why would a commercial using younger men be an action worth suing over ?
In all industries, especially clothing, the models are thin and beautiful and not like the majority of consumers, yet I’ve never heard of a lawsuit against Giorgio Armani because the models he uses are thinner and more handsome than the normal men who buy his clothes.

Besides some of the men who might need Viagra are indeed young men who have prostate cancer and can’t achieve an erection during or shortly after their prostate cancer treatment.
They might be more likely to buy a product that advertises with people closer to their own age group.
Using younger models to advertise a product is certainly not a crime, nor is a matter to have a lawsuit over.

Also in the article is this statement:

Studies show evidence of recreational Viagra use among men who have sex with men, sometimes to overcome the erection-inhibiting effects of alcohol or street drugs such as ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine, AHF said.

And so what !
Viagra is mis-used by an illegal segment of our society (drug users) So are hypodermic needles.
So are little straws.
Yet I don’t see any movements to sue the manufacturers of hypodermic needles or little straws because there is evidence that they increase drug use.

I’ll finish this post by saying that I am not a lawyer or legal expert in anything, but I really don’t agree with this lawsuit against Pfizer.
It is frivolous and to offset their costs of legal fees, Pfizer might raise the prices of their other medicines.
That would effect many people, and not just the Viagra users or people with AIDS.

I dedicate this Pino Daniele’s song to Buzzurro and he dedicates it to me, J.Doe for it’s title alone… Pigro (lazy) HA HA HA.
Actually it’s very romantic.

The chorus starts:

Ho bisogno di te
Ho maledetto bisogno di te
per riempere il mio cuore….

and the translation:
I have a need for you
I have a damn need for you
for filling my heart…

My translation as you can see, sucks. Sounds like a song of a wife beater, not a lover. Oh well, it really is a romantic song.

Wouldn’t it be a better world if all advertising in the world were true ?

I’m really tired of all the advertisements that say for example “Buy Tide because it’s the best you’ll ever get!” and then the same company comes out and says “Buy Tide New and Improved version because it’s really the best you’ll ever get! ” as if to say that their original product stinks.

I also hate when a restaurant advertises “a buffet lunch every day” only to find out that Saturday and Sunday are not included.
Are Saturday and Sunday not considered days? How sad for them. Maybe the advertisement should be changed to say “buffet lunch every weekday” but I guess that takes too much effort.

I’m also not impressed by the various sleep aid medications that list drowsiness as a possible side effect.
Shouldn’t drowsiness be the main principle effect ? I mean that’s why a consumer would want to buy a sleep aid product in the first place - for it’s drowsiness causing effects and instead the manufacturer is saying that it only might possibly work and cause drowsiness. Why buy it ?

Or how about the cable company that advertises how you should choose them because they are fast and such a good bargain when they hold a monopoly in the area and you either choose them or choose them if you want cable.
Why pretend that there is a choice ? Why not say “You clients are stuck with us so we can charge whatever we want and give you slow and crappy service because you can’t do anything about it.”

A few years ago while living in Southern California I was in an infomercial for a car wax product.
They made outrageous claims and then used trick photography to make it look like those claims were true.
Of course they weren’t. One claim was that it was fireproof as they showed a car with that was waxed with this product that didn’t burn.
That could be very dangerous if someone were to see it and think they could wax their car with it and drive through fires unscorched.
I was so disgusted that I almost walked off the set.
Truth means nothing to an advertiser.
Then a crew member set me straight. He said to me “Well, a company can’t exactly say to a potential consumer, “Buy our product. It’s OK. In fact it’s just as good as the other products on the market. The companies HAVE to make these outrageous claims to get consumers to buy their products.Nobody really believes these claims anyway”. And with that I finished the shoot.

But still, honesty in advertising would be nice.