Social Media, The Cause And The Solution To So Many Problems: COTYD

I grew up in a time when connecting with a long-distance friend meant booting up a computer, listening to the glorious sounds of dial-up Internet, and clicking away on slow-loading forum pages.

Nowadays, you just whip out your pocket computer, pop open Facebook Messenger, and fire something off in seconds. You could also use social media to broadcast the opinions you should probably keep in your head, give strangers food recipes, or film something really stupid.

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I’m not sure where an outboard-powered Ford Ranger sits on that scale, but I’m happy it exists. Anoos hits it on the head:

With the help of social media, there is no limit to humanity’s backward progress.

David is getting married soon and he got one of the coolest rings I’ve ever seen. Sid Bridge has even come up with some marketing for it:

I know what you’re thinking. That big moment is coming. You’re going punctuate your love under the marriage canopy with the ring you will wear forever. You need to make sure it’s a true symbol of love. A simple gold band won’t do. You’re going to need something with heart. Something with sentimental value. Something that keeps contact with that finger in all weather conditions.

Sure, you can call Cartier or Tiffany, but at GoodYear, we know the truth. When it comes to all-weather traction, their rings absolutely SUCK. Love is eternal. And do you know what eternal means? It means during sunshine, rain, sleet, snow, mud, poorly maintained off-road trails that you’re traversing in a postal Jeep with rusted terrain.

Sure. Trust your marriage… your future… your life to David Yurman. Let us know how that goes. Or get a Duratec wedding ring and keep that finger on track no matter what God himself dares to throw at it.

GoodYear. When you see other people’s marriages crashed in a ditch waiting for a friendly Jeep to pull them out, you’ll thank us, dammit.

Finally, I wanted to highlight some kind words from a reader. The Autopian team loves deeply obscure things and sharing our finds with you. ADDvanced placed this wonderful comment in my piece about dealer-converted Dodge Dart diesels:

So I’ve been a Mopar nerd since… ever. I grew up watching the Dukes of Hazzard, and started subscribing to Mopar Action, Mopar Muscle, Mopar collectors guide when I was about 13 years old. I’d go to the local library and check out Haynes repair manuals for Chrysler B-Bodies and read them cover to cover, and priced out different builds of engines/parts combinations for different scenarios, because I couldn’t even drive yet.

When I turned 16, I channeled my inner Bo & Luke, and my first car wound up being a clapped out 68 Charger with a 383 and hurst 4spd. I’m rambling a bit but the point is, obscure Mopar stuff was pretty much all I thought about for quite a while (until I discovered fun FWD and AWD vehicles, anyway).

But… despite all this automotive OCD that used up a good 30% of my brain power at any given minute… I’ve never heard of this before. Ever.

You guys are doing a fantastic job. Instead of constantly showing us the highest performance, most expensive, & best restorations like magazines did for decades, you’re actively hunting the obscure, weird, and bizarre. It’s some strange mixture of taillight obsession, rust particles, and hot takes from actual engineers and designers that make this place so incredible.

Keep it up!

Have a great evening, everyone!

[Have a great DAY everyone. Apologies to Mercedes, I forgot to publish this last night. Cringe emoji! – Pete]