Yeah. It was always on when I was growing up. This and Prairie Home Companion. I realized this just a couple of weeks ago, in one of those rare moments when I had to drive my students to an event instead of take the bus: someone just called in who had never driven, but his fiancee was getting tired of driving him around and he was wondering if he should get his license so he can drive too. I was like "oh they're gonna hang up, this isn't a car question" but instead they went on this long diatribe about how awesome public transportation COULD be if it was more like being in a fortress of solitude like a car, and spent a good 15 minutes with a kid who didn't even have a question about a car problem at all.

My graduate advisor hated this show because he felt that they gave bad advice, because it was practical and didn't involve rebuilding your engine every month like he felt like people should do.

I didn't know he had Alzheimer's and that's probably why they ended the show a few years ago. RIP.

There's Top Gear for some, and Car Talk for others. I always wanted to call in with my car problems. It was a 2004 Jetta I got for super cheap because of a hail storm (big midwest hail that destroys windshields) and because I'm a cheapskate I just waited for it to rain and covered it in dishwasher liquid. Because I'm an idiot. But I'll bet they would've at least seen the logic behind my thought process. :)

My favorite aspect of this show is that these guys were not gear snobs. No question was stupid or ignorant or ever picked on when I listened to the show. Hopefully this isn't another loss in a slow eventual extinction of the good public use of expertise.

It was Tom, and the show entered syndication in 2012.

*****

*sniff*