By Anthony “Mario” Crea = My disdain – okay, hatred – of cats is well documented. When the last of my wife’s cats had to be put down, I had all the old cat items out of the house within 48 hours, or was it 24 hours? Doesn’t matter because I was determined to erase any and all evidence we had cats in the first place. My kids have asked from time to time ever since; and as for my wife, she has tried to see if I’m open to changing my mind, but to no avail.

By Anthony “Mario” Crea

By Anthony “Mario” Crea The middle class. The term has been a bastion of hope for untold numbers of oppressed humans ranging from 18th century Europeans all the way to postwar Americans. Unfortunately, this dream of being considered more in life than a plebeian or peon is fading. Indeed, the middle class is shrinking and weakening; at the very least, being able to live comfortably is more difficult than it has ever been, and it doesn’t take someone with an MBA to realize this. This isn’t an imaginary issue… Such sentiment was recently addressed in April, 2019 by columnist Brett

By Anthony “Mario” Crea Homer (the poet, not the Simpson) was right all along… There is no substitute for the original. Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, knew this throughout The Odyssey. She resisted suitor after suitor until her true love reclaimed his home.

By Anthony “Mario” Crea As motorsports enthusiasts and all-around car gurus, it should come as no surprise that we “traditionalists” are vehemently opposed to the advent of autonomous cars, special circumstances notwithstanding. I’m so opposed to the idea that I digressed into a G.O.M. (Grumpy Old Man) and wrote about this very topic last year.

By Anthony “Mario” Crea Anyone who knows my dad knows that he’d classify as a “beast” in today’s millennial vernacular. He was always just strong and he never needed to lift weights. Proof of this exists in the fact that when I was five (way back in 1979!), he dressed up like The Incredible Hulk for Halloween one year and proceeded to pick a car up on two wheels while visiting my cousin Craig at the gas station where he worked as a teenager. It was astounding! Alas, such feats of human strength eventually caught up to him as he

By Anthony “Mario” Crea Political strife. There’s been plenty of that in the good ‘ol U.S. of A lately, am I right? Or am I left? Dammit! See that? Even in an introductory sentence, there’s still a freaking political reference! It seems inescapable, but I’m here to help… All you need to do is go sit in your car with nothing on. Sorry, that came out the wrong way! Imagine explaining that one to your neighbors! “You see, Pete, this wise bearded man told me that it would help the country heal if I sat in my car butt naked… Umm,

When Being an Autocrosser Saved Me By Anthony “Mario” Crea   One of the things an autocrosser begins to learn at some point is that they need to look ahead while on course (see photo below of Shelly Monfort looking around the corner for the exit). When novices, many of them look no further than the hood of the vehicle. As their skill level increases, they may look one or two gates ahead. Should they receive instruction, either locally or via the Evolution Performance Driving School (EPDS), they will expand that to four gates or more. All this is done

By Anthony “Mario” Crea   Most of us remember reading Inferno, the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, at some point in our high school career. The story begins with the narrator (Dante) being lost in a dark wood where he is attacked by three beasts whom he cannot escape. Just when all seems lost, he is rescued by the Roman poet Virgil who is sent by a woman named Beatrice. Together, they descend into the underworld known as the 9 Circles of Hell.   Recently, I descended into my own personal Hades.   My journey there was similar, I

The makers of Cialis claim that “when the moment is right”, use one of their pills. As a man, every moment is right when it comes to that, am I right? While I understand what the pill is for, I find it funny that a pair of bathtubs, placed outdoors and overlooking the ocean, is needed to help get these couples in the mood for lovin’… Frankly, if some guy just popped one of these miracle pills, I’d think anywhere would qualify as the right moment. Movie theater? Supermarket? Burning building? They’re all good! To each his own, I suppose.