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Andrew Tobias

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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Those Were the Days, My Friend

May 24, 2005March 2, 2017

REMEMBER PEZ?

If you’re over 50, do not fail to click here and scroll down once the music starts. Prepare to spend the rest of the day being . . . wistful.

MORE GOOGLE MAGIC

Pieter Lessing: ‘A handy Google feature is the ability to look up specially formatted ID numbers. Example: UPS, FedEx, and USPS Tracking numbers. Just enter the tracking number in the Google search box & it will be recognized. Other IDs than can be looked up in this fashion by number alone: VIN (Vehicle ID Numbers), UPC codes, telephone area codes, patent numbers (in this case you must preface the number with “patent”), and FAA airplane registration numbers.’

☞ Astounding. Your caller ID shows a call from area code 347 (Guam? Mars?) and, well – sure enough! Google tells you it’s ‘all NYC boroughs except Manhattan’ and offers to show you a map.

MORE HYBRID

Brad Hurley: ‘I’m a fan of hybrids, but here’s something to consider: The Toyota Echo gets nearly the same fuel economy that your reader reported with a hybrid Civic (41 mpg for the Echo vs 45 for the Civic), for roughly $10,000 less. I’ve been advising my friends who have enough dough to buy a hybrid to consider buying an Echo instead and donating the different in purchase price to an environmental organization (or, for that matter, the Democratic Party). That could give them a bigger environmental bang for their buck than buying a hybrid.’

☞ That is one good-looking cheap car. I know people who spend more than that on patio furniture. Great idea, Brad. But use $8,000 of the $10,000 saving to fund his-and-hers matching Roth IRAs. Then give me the rest.

Tom Roth: ‘How about turbo diesels? They are all over Europe. Rented a two-litre turbo diesel Citroen Xantia (4 door, stick, size of an Accord) a few years ago over there for a week. I drove their highways at 85+ and still got 35+ mpg (with AC on). Ran strongly, too. Didn’t feel like I was compromising on performance.’

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