zBouillabaise Returns

I have a few random items floating around in my head that seem post-worthy but aren't substantial enough to warrant my typical overly-long treatment, so I'm doing another zbouillabaise post.

1. "Station Wagon" by Hector's Pets has been stuck in my head since I heard it on WFMU this weekend. I bought their lone album, "Pet-O-Feelia"--they're essentially a Ramones tribute band with a great fondness for doo-wop. The result is a lot of lo-fi garage rock with heavy guitar riffs and pulsating background vocals. It's fun.



2. Speaking of station wagons, there's some weird arbitrage going on at various Jaguar dealers. The XF Sportbrake is a 380 horsepower rocket sled masquerading as a station wagon. The MSRP starts at $71,000 and can balloon over $80,000 depending on how you option it up. There are a number of XF Sportbrakes available for at or under $60,000, including one for $53,000 in Houston and one for $58,000 in White Plains. I contacted the White Plains dealer about this one and two other Sportbrakes they had back in July. They still have two of the three on the lot. I'm not saying you should buy a Jaguar, but if you're like me and you like longroofs (looking at you Squeaky) and you're in the market for a new one, you can get a supercharged V6 Jaguar for the price of a turbocharged I4 Volvo V90. If not less--there is only one Caesium Blue XF Sportbrake for sale new in America right now (it's in Atlanta) and when I emailed the dealer for a price quote they responded within 4 minutes, then followed up 15 minutes later to remind me that the keys are out waiting for me to take a test drive. Simply put, no one wants these cars so you can find yourself some extremely good values and you might be able to gouge the dealers down even further. What this really means is that in two years the market for CPO Sportbrakes will be soft as hell. And who wouldn't want to get a good deal on this?

If only they made them in British Racing Green ...

3. Unrelated to station wagons, and perhaps the polar opposite of Hector's Pets, I've also been listing to Jungle's new album "For Ever." Unlike Hector's Pets' DIY sound, "For Ever" appears to have been Zaratsu polished to impossible smoothness. If I were a cynic I would say that the whole album is prefabricated for commercials advertising luxury goods and the closing credits of prestige TV. But I'm not so instead I'll say it sounds like a cross between electronica and Yacht Rock with some Lovage thrown in for good measure.



Maybe some Gnarls Barkley too.



4. You know those "Little Trees" air fresheners that you hang from the rear view mirror so your car don't smell? The company that makes those trees sued Bob Ross's estate for trademark infringement because they sell "Happy Trees" and "Happy Little Trees" air fresheners that allegedly look confusingly similar to the "Little Trees" air fresheners. I love Bob Ross as much as the next guy (well maybe not as much as Teedge) and I want to take his side but this is pretty egregious.

5. My beloved Buffalo Bills are on pace to score 184 points and to give up 624 points. That's a -440 point differential. Only seven teams have scored less than 184 points in 16 games. Only two teams have ever allowed more than 500 points (the 2008 Lions with 517 and the 1981 Colts with 533). So the Bills might be historically bad on both sides of the ball, and they're currently on pace to be the worst defense ever by 91 points. Since the merger, no team has had a point differential worse than -287 (the 1976 Buccaneers). A -440 point differential would be unfathomably bad. But we might have to fathom it--here's the rest of Buffalo's schedule: @MIN, @GB, TEN, @HOU, @IND, NE, CHI, @NYJ, BYE, JAX, @MIA, NYJ, DET, @NE, MIA. Not a lot of gimmes on that slate.

6. What part of the Constitutiom says that the President can’t appoint a Supreme Court Justice during an election year, but he or she can make such an appointment while being an unindicted co-conspirator for a federal crime?