Much Ado about NOTHING

General Motors declared bankruptcy today -- no surprise. I've been thinking about all the GM cars my father used to own. One of his insurance clients was a Chevrolet-Oldsmobile-Buick dealer, and he always felt he had to buy a GM product from him when it was time to get a new car.

He had a sporty Oldsmobile Cutlass at one time -- a two-door that became impractical as the family grew. We later had one of those enormous Chevy Caprice station wagons. I remember the Caprice was supposed to be a step up from the Impala. Funny how those micro-distinctions between Chevrolets, of all things, seemed to matter at one time.

My father did buy a Ford at one point, after agonizing over what his customer would think -- but the guy later said he really didn't care what kind of car we had. The last car my father owned was another GM product, though, a Buick Century that my mother still drives. It seems like a dinosaur to me, as different from my little Mazda as a wood-cabinet hi-fi is from an iPod.

(That's a picture I took at Graceland of one of Elvis's Cadillacs. Click it for the larger version if you're into bumper titties.)