Toyota - The Rest Of The Story...

PS. I told the appointment person at Toyota that since the sudden acceleration recall involves a matter of safety the May 24 date was unacceptable and that I wanted to speak to the boss. She said she would connect me, put me on hold and after about five minutes (with her coming back on line twice to apologize for keeping me on hold for so long) she got back on the line and said "Can you bring the car in on Monday?" I said "Sure, thanks, see you then, and added, "by the way, my passenger side mirror is broken can you replace it at the same time?" Thirty minutes later I got a call from someone else in the Service Department confirming my appointment, saying they have ordered the mirror and asking me to be there between 7:00 AM and 10:00 AM on Monday.

Not sure whether all this means the stock of Toyota is a "short" or whether my experience is actually a "buy" signal. (I could argue it both ways).

One last thought. I have a feeling Toyota is getting a bit of a raw deal with this accelerator problem. I have no way of really knowing what is going on but here's a nutty thought for you - that guy who says his car was stuck on the LA freeway going 94 MPH because his Prius accelerated out of control? Would not surprise me (nothing surprises me anymore) if he is one of those deranged, 15-minutes-of-fame-and-scheme-to-get-rich-quick-people like the recent boy in the balloon case. Maybe he faked the whole thing.

Finally, and changing the subject, I recently met a Jewish woman (Hasidic) who asked me what my Jewish name was and when I told her Zvi Ben Eli (Eli being my Dad, Lawrence) she said the Hasid naming tradition is to name after the mother adding that "when you davin (dovin?), you davin to the mother". She also asked me if I believe in the Messiah and when I said "no" she got a pained look on her face, said that unless I believe I will not be saved and added that she would pray for me. I thanked her and said I guess it can't hurt (choosing not to delve into the ways that faith, taken to its seemingly there-since-inception extreme and laced with its idiopathic corollary - prejudice, can, in fact, hurt (e.g. 9/11 being just one example, the Crusades being another, Salem Witch Trials, my Dad, Lawrence, being called a "kike" by an irate customer in 1979, leading to Lawrence's yelling at and maybe pushing the customer in anger (the exact details are lost in history), leading to his being fired (Lawrence, not the customer) etc. etc.) and that, given the historical incidence of violence in the name of holiness, net, net one could argue (hopefully without being a wiseguy or insensitive to people's private prerogatives and truly better aspirations and desire to make sense of it all and to impart to future generations a moral sensibility grounded in meaningful tradition) that the world, taken as a whole, over all time, is way worse off due to religion than it would have been if we had never invented it.