The Mornin' Mail is published every weekday except major holidays
Thursday, July 2, 2009 Volume XVIII, Number 10

did ya know?

Did Ya Know?... The Carthage Chamber of Commerce will be closed July 3rd for the 4th of July holiday.

Did Ya Know?... On July 4th there will be a Flag Salute by the Carthage Boy Scout Troup #9 at Carthage Municipal Park starting at 7:45 PM.

Did Ya Know?... On July 4th at Carthage Munipal Park, there will be a Heartland Concert Band Performance starting at 8:00 PM.

Did Ya Know?... Jam Session Saturday, doors open @ 4:00 p.m., music starts @ 5:00 p.m. All acoustic instruments welcome! Salem Country Church, Red Oak II, Carthage MO., 417-237-0885.
today's laugh

A lecture about English

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his English class one day. "In English," he said, "A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."

- Cutler Webster’s Law: There are two sides to every argument, unless a person is personally involved, in which case there is only one.

- The solving of a problem lies in finding the solvers.

1908
INTERESTING MELANGE.
A Chronological Record of Events as they have Transpired in the City and County since our last Issue.

To Advertise Carthage.

W.T. Williams, agent for the Frisco Line Magazine, is in the city with a proposition that the Commercial Club Directors will consider tonight at a special meeting to be held at 8 o ‘clock in Howard Gray’s office.

Mr. Williams proposes to print a two-page article descriptive of Carthage each month in the Frisco Line Magazine and circulate 5,000 copies for $100 a year. The articles are to be contributed by Carthage people. Mr. Williams leaves the city in morning, hence the special meeting of the directors tonight.

Neosho, Monett, and Eureka Springs have already gone into the scheme, and the articles are quite attractively illustrated.

President J.J. Wells interviewed a member of the business men on the proposition today and is of the opinion that the scheme will be readily accepted provided no additional cost shall be added.

  Today's Feature

Cash For Clunkers.

President Obama signed into law a program National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) is calling the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS). This is a government program that helps consumers purchase a new, more fuel efficient vehicle when they trade in a less fuel efficient vehicle. (See Mornin' Mail pdf for more details.)

While the CARS Act makes transactions on and after July 1 potentially eligible for credits under the CARS program, interested dealers and consumers may want to wait until all of the detailed issues that must be addressed in the implementing regulations are resolved and the final rule is issued. Issuance will occur around July 23.

If all of the conditions of eligibility are met, NHTSA would make an electronic payment to the dealer equal to the amount of the credit after the dealer provides NHTSA with sufficient documentation relating to the transaction. The vehicle that was traded in would then be disposed of (i.e., crushed or shredded) in a manner that ensures it would never be used again, although parts of the vehicle, other than the engine blockand drive train, may be sold prior to disposal.

Important Things to Know

• Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date

• Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify

• Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)

• Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in

• You don’t need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase

• Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.

• The vehicle that you are trading in is required to be destroyed. Therefore, the value you negotiate with the dealer for your trade in is not likely to exceed its scrap value. The law requires the dealer to disclose to you and estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in vehicle.

 
Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

I know you don’t think I know you’re doin’ it, but I know.

It’s hard to not notice the occasional pop of those fire crackers goin’ off down the street. ‘Course bein’ illegal to shoot fire crackers in City limits prob’ly just makes the temptation a little harder to resist. Sittin’ there starin’ at that pack of Black Cats.

When I was of fire cracker poppin’ age, we blew the dickens out of ever’thing. Ant hills, June bugs, tried to blow up fence posts and model cars. There were those times when the fingers stung from the miscalculation of how quick that fuse would actually burn. I know a little about the temptation you’re fightin,’ but believe me, the joy of hearin’ a string of lady fingers rattle off goes away after a while. It was fun while it lasted.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’
Sponsored by Metcalf Auto Supply

Sponsored by Curry Automotive

 Weekly Columns

CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

Last week, I was cleaning the interior of my ‘04 Ford Escape. To reach a part of the console between the two front seats, I had to raise the emergency-brake lever. Stupidly, I forgot that I had done so, and drove the car about five miles. How much damage did I do to my brake linings? I must not have had the emergency brake fully engaged, because I was not aware of any braking sensation as I was driving. - Jim

TOM: Don’t worry, Jim. You’re certainly not the first moron to have done this.

RAY: My brother may have been the first.

TOM: You probably did no damage at all, Jim. You must have had the parking brake loosely applied. If it had been really engaged, one of two things would have happened:

RAY: One, you would have felt resistance when you tried to drive. It would have felt like ... well, like the brakes were on. Or two, you would have smelled the brakes burning after a mile or two. And you noticed neither.

TOM: I guess you didn’t notice the big, red light on the dashboard that said "Brake!" either, huh?

RAY: My guess is that, in five miles with the brake loosely applied, you hardly did anything. You wore a little bit of surface off the parking-brake drum. On this car, it’s a seperate unit from the regular brakes, so it would have no effect on your normal stopping.

TOM: To give yourself peace of mind, next time you’re on a hill, put the car in neutral and apply the parking brake so it’s fully on. Then see if the car rolls. If it does, you can ask your dealer to have a look. If not, forget all about it.

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Sponsored by Curry Automotive

Childress Teams Struggling

LONG POND, Pa. -- In addition to being owner of a four-car Sprint Cup team, as well as a Nationwide Series operation, Richard Childress owns a winery and a museum near his Welcome, N.C., shop.

An avid hunter, Childress also was recently elected to the board of directors of the National Rifle Association.

Childress’s race team has recently fallen on hard times. Three of his drivers -- Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick -- made the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year, but only Burton is currently in the top 12. In the past eight races, Bowyer has fallen from second to 16th in the rankings, and Harvick from 10th to 26th.

In April, Childress responded by switching the crew chiefs of Harvick and Casey Mears, the fourth driver he added this year to his Cup stable. So far, the results have been discouraging.

"We just need to fix all of our race teams, and this is the first step," said Childress. "I’m not above making more changes if that’s what it takes. I’m going to be looking hard at everything. We don’t have a choice. We have to be competitive."

Dale Earnhardt won six of his seven championships driving Childress’s Chevrolets. Childress hasn’t used No. 3 since Earnhardt’s death in a Daytona 500 crash in 2001. This year he added No. 33 for Bowyer, moving Mears to No. 07.

"I had a meeting with our whole organization," said Childress. "Everybody that works on the four race teams was there, and I explained to them that we would make more changes if we had to, and we were going to do what it took to make these cars competitive."

Childress, originally from Winston-Salem, N.C., was once a Cup driver himself. Now 63, Childress never won in 285 Cup starts, but finished six times in the top five. His best career finish was a third in Nashville, Tenn., in 1978.

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