Feeling nostalgic? Here’s a Chevrolet safe driving video from 1954, featuring actress Gale Storm and her real-life husband and three sons taking what the video calls “that wonderful American institution of going new places and doing new things.” Assuming, I guess, that no one in other countries ever takes vacations.
Gale Storm, by the way, was a Texas girl. Born in Bloomington in Victoria County, the popular singer and actress starred in two television series in the 1950s, making her a contemporary of Lucille Ball.
There’s a lot in this short film that seems naive and nostalgic now — the utter lack of passenger safety, for example — but much of the travel advice is still useful to anyone making a road trip, either with or without the family.
At the very least, you’ll wish that today’s infomercials were this sweet.
A Rhode Island judge is making an example out of a 17-year-old driver.
Lyle Topa and two friends drove away from a party where they’d been drinking before Topa drove into a tree, totally his car and leaving one of his friends comatose for weeks.
Chief Magistrate William Guglietta of the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal handed down the stiffest decision possible: banning the 17-year-old from getting a Rhode Island drivers license in this lifetime.
At the time of the crash, Topa was driving with a suspended license for two previous offenses.
Bruce B said Glenn was “absolutely great,” and Dianna B said “Glenn was very professional and explained every chapter very well.”
Carlos W of Ft Worth called Glenn a “very good trainer, and his spirit and detailed explanations were excellent. His examples were very useful and make the explanations very clear. I will take this course next year and bring my son and daughter!”
Jennifer L of Crowley said “I enjoyed the class, and I am very glad that I signed up for this one.” Glenn Listman, she said, “kept it very interesting and made me laugh.”
But it was Tiffany C of Watauga who said what we hear from so many of our customers: “I would hope not to have to take this course again, but if I did I would use ComedyGuys again.”
Glenn teaches defensive driving classes at three Fort Worth locations: Zorro’s Buffet at Interstate 35 and E Seminary Dr, Denny’s Restaurant at Interstate 20 and Hulen, and Denny’s Restaurant at Interstate 35 and Western Center.
The Nevada legislature approved the concept last year, and now rules have been established for the slow introduction of driverless cars. Initially a business move to lure automakers to test the driverless vehicles in the state, these rules lay the ground work for self-driving cars to be made available to the public.
Admittedly, Comedy Guys Defensive Driving is something of a boy’s club. Our ratio of male employees to female is pretty overwhelming, and that’s even including that one “person” we’re not sure about.
So our attitude toward Valentine’s Day leans more toward mocking it than making it special.
And according to our @ComedyGuys Twitter feed, we’re not alone in this. For days now, Twitter has been the scene of all kinds of jokes about Valentine’s Day and everything that comes with it. We took some of the better jokes that were SFW enough to suit us and turned them into the second installment of our video series Meanwhile on Twitter.
Check them out here. If you’re a twit too, you may find some funny new accounts to follow.
Last week’s nationwide Amber Alert for a missing 11-year-old Ft Worth girl ended Sunday afternoon when New Mexico police found Jessica Smith and her mother near Carson National Forest.
The pair were found about 1 p.m. Sunday in their SUV nine miles south of Tres Piedras, in north-central New Mexico near Carson National Forest. Though Jessica was uninjured, both were found hungry and exhausted and then hospitalized in Taos.
I’m trying not to laugh at this, but I can’t help it.
The decals on the doors of Vermont State Police cars are printed by inmates at Northwest State Correctional Facility. The center of the decal includes a drawing of a cow and an evergreen tree in a green field, with snow-covered mountains in the distance.
In 2008, an inmated opened the computer file and redrew one of the spots on the cow to resemble a fat little pig. Then in 2009 the state ordered new decals for use on new cars or older car where one door had been repaired or replaced. The state estimates that 60 decals were printed, and some 30 state police cars drove around with the tiny bit of hidden sarcasm for a number of years before the pig was spotted.
Interstate highways are supposed to go from one state to the next.
That fact is in the very name: “inter” meaning between and “state” meaning. . . uh. . . state. So interstate highways should go between states. Sure, Texas drivers can drive on the interstate for hours without hitting a state border, but they’re original purpose was to make it possible for people to go from one state to another.
So this question comes up from time to time: Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
And usually it seems to be asked by some smart aleck who thinks he’s just thought of something really clever and original. (You know who you are.)
In truth, Hawaii does have three interstate highways — H1, H2, and H3 — all of which were built to connect important military facilities on the island of Oahu. So not only do they not connect to other states, they don’t even connect to the other eight major islands.
And that mention of military facilities is a big part of the explanation of why they’re called “interstate highways” even when they’re obviously not inter-state highways.
Following World War II and during the Cold War, the US government had been concerned about the ability to rapidly move military personnel and equipment rapidly across the country. President Eisenhower in particular had returned from Germany very impressed by the Autobahn system that Hitler’s National Socialist had created to move their army around. So a movement was begun to build a similar system in the USA, which led eventually to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. This act called for the construction of an enormous highway infrastructure to connect major cities and military facilities, even the three in Hawaii.
And that’s why Hawaii has three interstate highways, even if they’re not for travelling inter-state.
The Dallas – Fort Worth theater critics at John Garcia’s The Column has announced their choices for Best of Theatre 2011. And among the choices honored were two that included two of the comedian/actors that teach classes for Comedy Guys Defensive Driving.
Associate critic Mark-Brian Sonna chose A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, presented by the Contemporary Theatre of Dallas last April/May as “THE BEST production in DFW last year.” As we wrote last March, the Bountiful cast included Tom Lenaghen, a professional actor who also teaches defensive driving classes for Comedy Guys in Richardson and Garland.
Comic actor David Moore has been one of Comedy Guys’ defensive driving instructors for a few years now, and he is repeatedly one of the most popular with driving safety customers.
Kareem B. of Dallas complimented David on his “great enthusiasm” and “good interaction with students.”
Juliet J. – also from Dallas – was just as complimentary: “Mr. Dave is an excellent teacher and most humorous. I would definitely recommend this class to my friends.”
Alicia V. of Sachse agreed, saying “I really enjoyed the class and the instructor, and if I ever had to take this again I would take this class.” She even had good things to say about the Comedy Guys office staff: “They did a great job helping me because I had a problem on the Internet.” We love hearing comments like this: Comedy Guys Defensive Driving is one of the few companies left that has an actual office that is open every weekday and is staffed with trained employees who take good care of our customers.
We’re not worried though. At Comedy Guys Defensive Driving, we know that it’s the smart, entertaining, and friendly people that teach our live defensive driving classes that make us better than our competitors.
Today, comic actor John Belushi would have been 63 years old. Except that he’s not because he didn’t live that long. He died in March of 1982, at the age of 33. But instead of dwelling on his death, let’s just remember how funny he was.
With this sequence from THE BLUES BROTHERS, one cool movie that features two of the best chase scenes in movie history.
A Rhode Island judge is making an example out of a 17-year-old driver.
Interstate highways are supposed to go from one state to the next.
The Dallas – Fort Worth theater critics at 
