Your Car Mattered in 2021

January 23, 2022

One last horrified look back at 2021

Everything we covered in 2021’s Tom Dwyer Newsletter….

Tom’s one directive for “Your Car Matters”, the Tom Dwyer Newsletter, is not to waste your time. He says to stay out of your spam box we have to give you more than auto repair every month, so we cover everything from health to humor, from shop gossip to science, from the important news to fascinating trivia. The best way to show you what’s to come is to show you what we’ve done, so please take a look back with us at what we covered in the Second Year of the Pandemic, 2021…

At the end of this article you’ll find links to every post from each of our monthly newsletters in 2021. That’s a lot to dive into, so we’ve highlighted some of our favorite Feature Articles and a few highlights from each of our Columns. If you’d like to go back and see anything we’ve ever published, check out our full, constantly-updated Newsletter Archive. So let’s dive into 2021 one last time before we thankfully leave it behind forever…

Our Favorite Features from 2021…

Our Monthly Columns from 2021…

Tom’s not shy about sharing his opinions, and Tom’s Tidbits is just one place to find them… you can also catch some of them at OpEdNews. Two of our favorites from this year were ‘Betrayed by Domestic Enemies’ in response to the Jan 6 insurrection, and ‘Hold on… are YOU a radical?’ in which he looks at some American priorities that don’t get much attention.

Shop Talk’s not one of our most-read columns, but aside from our Comment of the Month and current moneysaving offers, we do have some interesting things in store for you. For example, in 2021 we told you Who Gets Hurt By High Repair Prices, and you can count on us to keep you posted on all the construction coming to our section of Sellwood in 2022. Stay tuned!

In November 2021, Kyle finished his first year as Head Chef in Kyle’s Kitchen. To look back, here’s his very first recipe for Cranberry Apple Stuffed Pork Loin (which is really great, even if it’s from 2020) and his first ORIGINAL recipe for a Vegetable Medley

We can’t promise we’ve read EVERY book that falls in our Book Spotlight, but we’ve at least checked them out and tried to make sure they were worthwhile. Two good ones this year were “The Open Society and Its Enemies” by Karl Popper and “Underwater” by Ryan Dezember. And take a look at our Lobby Library next time you’re in… many of the Spotlight books are on our shelves!

It doesn’t matter if your vehicle is running great if YOU aren’t, so we bring you Health Notes each month to keep you in shape. Two of our favorites from 2021 were the announcement of 20/20 vision from an eyedrop and something we’d thought wouldn’t have needed to be said… “Just say ‘no’ to unknown injections from strangers in parks”

Our Department of Reality Studies is a look at the bleeding edge of the science world. For instance, did you know that DARPA and NASA accidentally created a real warp bubble? Have you heard that rechargeable concrete batteries could one day power cities? Check our Reality Studies to learn all about it!

Our Funny Page is the goto spot for everyone who values humor in their mechanic. The Funny Page actually takes a team of people to put together each month. Keith Tucker brings a special “WhatNow?!! Toon” each month, Jen Rombach creates a custom “More Or Less” Word Puzzle, and an anonymous staff labors in an isolated sweatshop scouring the Net for the best humor and even contribute a little ourselves. If you miss a month don’t worry! Our Funny Page really is one long page, and you’ll find everything at your fingertips whenever you want it.

Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door! Want a handful of Popcorn before you dive into a whole bucket? Then take a look at these samples, one from each month in 2021.

And if we’ve peaked your interest, here’s a full review of EVERYTHING we’ve done in 2021. If, somewhere out there, there’s a person who wants even more, our FULL ARCHIVE OF EVERY NEWSLETTER WE’VE EVER DONE is always available at our Newsletter Archive. Now dig in, and thanks for your interest!