car talk

Sad news today: Tom Magliozzi, one of Cambridge Massachusetts greatest gifts to public radio (and Cambridge has given a LOT of gifts to public radio) died today. Car talk was, verily, one of the best things ever. I have one Car Talk story and this is as good a time as any to tell it. It might be the only link between Sean Connery and The Tappet Brothers. Look at the picture above. It is Harvard Square. Remember the movie Just Cause, starring Sean Connery and some other people? One of the first scenes in the movie has the mother of a young black man wrongfully accused of murder taking…

First: Car Talk is awesome. I wish I could come up with some class activities that help students become as good at trouble shooting and critical thinking as Tom and Ray are. Anyway, they are quite entertaining. So, my Dad called and told me he heard a discussion on Car Talk about the effect DC to AC converters and accessories plugged in to it and how they would effect gas mileage. I skimmed through the last Car Talk podcast, but couldn't find it. He must have heard a re-run on the radio or something (he doesn't really believe in podcasts). Let me calculate the effect a number of things…