Every year, it seems like some sort of tornado, flood, wildfire, or hurricane devastates a region of America. The stories coming from those regions are tragic, and communities may spend years rebuilding. Helping out can be easier than you think.
Typically, after a major disaster, local and national news publications will write about charities, aid organizations, and similar entities to which you can donate food, essentials, clothing, or money. Jason wrote about spending some time in western North Carolina, which had been hammered by Hurricane Helene in the fall of 2024. There, Jason spent his money at local businesses, pumping at least some dough into the local economy. Reader Joe The Drummer confirms this is an underrated way to help out an area:
Multi decade veteran of hurricane country here. The single most underrated yet impactful form of storm recovery that anyone can contribute to is going into storm damaged areas and spending your money in the local economy. Seriously. You don’t even have to break a sweat. Just go spend a buck or two in a place that could use your bucks.
Speaking of spending money, Brian Silvestro just bought a 216,000-mile Range Rover, which will probably need a catalytic converter, among other things. Canopysaurus:
If it does need a cat, I hear David has a couple of SUV compliant cats he might sell you.
Jason wrote about how someone writing a letter to Byte magazine in the 1980s made a great point about how early cars had basically no real standards for controls. Sid Bridge:
Henry Ford: The gear shift pedal needs to be on the floor and the spark advance on the steering wheel, with a hand-brake and a foot brake!
William Murphy (Apparently there’s no Steve Cadillac): Gas/Brake/Clutch on the floor and we’re done, fellas.
Andre Citroen: Let go with a brake bladder and stick some controls in the ceiling. By the way, we should have a wheel lift itself.
Dodge Bros: Who the hell let him in here?
In other news, Chris Tsui told the story about how Universal Pictures didn’t have faith in The Fast And The Furious until it tested really well. Now it’s a classic. A. Barth:
I think it gets a lifetime achievement award just for giving us “Warning!!! Danger to Manifold” and “I live my life a quarter-mile at a time”.
Ishkabibbel:
I like the tuna here.
StillPlaysWithCars:
Bullshit, nobody likes the tuna here.
Ishkabibbel:
Yeah, well I do.
Thomas The Tank Engine:
DANGER TO MANIFOLD!
Spyrius Robot:
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that Hector is going to be running three Honda Civics with Spoon engines, and on top of that, he just went into Harry’s and bought three T66 turbos with NOS, and a Motec exhaust system.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Topshot: Jason Torchinsky
An old Vice President at a company I worked at, had a similar attitude about this. He’d take his whole family (kids, their spouses, grandkids…) on massive annual vacations to places like Gambia or the Solomon Islands, and then just spend like crazy. He always claimed it cost less than taking everyone to Disney World, and did good in the world. I think he was at least partially right.
The flip side?
Just take a look at what happened to the money contributed to “Fire Aid” to supposedly help the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. It all just… vanished.
But that guy who runs that taco stand who lost his home sure does remember that 10 bucks worth of tacos you bought from him, because it helped him so, so much.
Disney (CA and FL) is so unbelievably and horrendously expensive.
It’s cheaper, if you’re in North America, to fly to paris, spend the week in Paris and see Euro Disney than a week in Disneyland. Sure, it’s not anywhere as big, but the queues are reasonable, the people are far more polite, and you can stay in the city of Paris, have baguettes for breakfast from a local bakery, and then for 2€ take the train to Disney, then back to the city for a lovely dinner. If you’re going because you have kids that want to check the box: this gives you a bit of an adulting trip as well (that they’ll probably yawn at).
Or, just go to Six Flags over Georgia in Atlanta instead, or if you want to go to Florida, do Busch Gardens in Tampa.
Speaking as Florida Man, you can trust me on this.
Wow, what an honor!
I’d like to thank the members of the Autopian Academy for this humbling award.
F&f is a gift. So much bad dialog. The only movies more quotable involve Lucas and Spielberg
I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Mel Brooks gives both of them a run for their money.
Only one man would dare give me the Raspberry!