So why should you bother to read the Tom Dwyer Newsletter?
Our 2023 Feature articles
Just like those accountants’ articles about depreciation, our Feature Articles include articles about auto care. From protecting yourself from auto scams, to how we determine our advice, to mechanical basics you really oughta know, about a third of our Features are automotive.
A business should be more than just IN a community, it should be a PART of a community. You’re our neighbors, so we want you to know when we’re doing something like a recycling drive, when we meet amazing groups like TIPNW, or when some news affects friends-of-the-shop like XRAY.FM. Keep an eye out for our April Fools article; it’s the only way to keep up on events like George Santos’ recent visit to Sellwood!
Then there’s our ‘other’ articles, and you just never know where our editorial pen will point. This year we wrote about an election abomination that’s not getting enough eyes, updated our deep dive into cults, pulled back the veil of ignorance, and we were just getting started. Admittedly, when it comes to philosophy, politics, and sociology were excellent mechanics, but we still have interests beyond oil changes and we hope you find them interesting as well.
Our monthly columns
Features might be about anything, but we stay a little more on-topic with our Columns. One that we think is particularly worth a check in is our Funny Page. Each month Jen Rombach creates a new special-to-us Puzzle and Keith Tucker brings us a new only-seen-here Toon, plus we offer a smattering of our own memes and jokes, humor, cartoons, and memes from around the InterTubes. Here’s just a smattering of grins from 2023…
If you’re a fan of our old KPOJ ads, you’ll want to keep up on Tom’s Tidbits. It’s all the musings of the old days, but in a little longer form.
Tom’s Tidbits- What is there to hope for in 2024?
Greetings, With the Holiday Season comes a look back at last year and a look forward to next. 2023 seemed like the latest in a string of difficult years but it seems crass to dwell on the bad, so I’d…
Tom’s Tidbits- We’re moving! But we aren’t going anywhere at all.
Greetings, Since I’m taking a break from political news for a while, I’m not going to comment on its shortcomings. I’m not paying attention so I don’t see the problems, much like a huge chunk of citizens, there doesn’t seem…
Tom’s Tidbits- What’s wrong with billionaires? Maybe this…
Greetings, A fairly Libertarian friend of mine once asked me, in all seriousness, why I thought billionaires were a problem. As he said, we’ve always had rich people… why should the size of the wealth matter? Shouldn’t everyone be allowed…
Tom’s Tidbits- Like Capone, they’re going after the crimes that will put him in jail
Greetings, Al Capone operated an open criminal empire for years because he had politicians in his pocket and used violence on opponents. He’d been arrested on minor charges but there was never enough evidence to prove his major crimes in…
Tom’s Tidbits- Corporations ARE people… but it doesn’t matter
Corporations ARE people… but it doesn’t matter Greetings, Until 2009, the year before Citizens United v. FEC, groups like companies, churches, and nations had always been treated as people for the purposes of contracts, lawsuits, etc. They had some rights…
Tom’s Tidbits- The Debt Ceiling fiasco could be an off ramp for the sane
Tom’s Tidbits- The Debt Ceiling Fiasco could be an off-ramp for the sane Greetings, The Debt Ceiling pays for Congress’ PAST spending, not FUTURE spending, but once again the Reps are threatening a fiscal explosion over it. Speaker of the…
Tom’s Tidbits- An unprecedented act of justice
Greetings, This week, an unprecedented thing happened when an ex-president was indicted. I’ll admit to a little jubilation… OK, maybe more than a little, but I’m not proud of it. Donald Trump hasn’t paid any price for debasing democracy and…
Tom’s Tidbits- You could have been 50 trillion dollars richer
Greetings, Did you know 50 TRILLION DOLLARS was gutted from the bottom 90% by the top 10% in the last 40 years? Maybe it made a splash when the paper describing the theft was first published in 2020, but I… Tom’s Tidbits- The Domestic Enemies are winning
Greetings, It’s been over two years since Donald Trump and his allies attacked our Capitol. Hundreds of low-level footsoldiers and thugs have been arrested, tried, and convicted, but the traitors who organized the attack still run free. Worse, these Domestic…
Pull out a plate and dig in to Kyle’s Kitchen. From simple to epicurean, from old standards to Kyle’s originals, you’ll find something mouthwatering every month.
Kyle’s Kitchen- Antipasto Rollups
If you start by stacking Provolone, salami, pepperoni, roasted red peppers, and splashing it all with olive oil and pepperoncini spread, it’s hard to go wrong no matter what else you do. But add a puff pastry wrapper and you’re…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Tempting Treats of Terror
Kyle is a wizard in the kitchen, and Halloween is the time for wizards. This month we bring you his Deviled Eyeballs recipe, but the terror goes even further… Scroll on down to Kyle’s Assortment of Appalling Appetizers, then surf…
Kyle’s Original- Sausage and Kale Stew
Kyle’s Original- Sausage and Kale Stew Ingredients: 1 lb of Italian sausage (sweet or hot depending on your taste) 2 Russet potatoes peeled and diced into small pieces, and rinsed and patted dry (think potatoes O’Brien) 2 bunches of Italian…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Summer Peach Spinach Salad with Avocado, Toasted Almonds and Goat Cheese
Summer Peach Spinach Salad with Avocado, Toasted Almonds and Goat Cheese Salad Ingredients: 4-6 cups organic spinach 2 large peaches, sliced 1 avocado, diced 1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles 1/2 cup sliced toasted…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Mushroom recipes for our Mushroom winners
FOUR Mushroom recipes for our Mushroom winners! In one of our recent giveaways we offered winners a choice of their own Porcini, Blue Oyster, White Pearl, and Chicken of the Woods mushroom growing kits. It may be a while before…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Strawberry and feta salad with balsamic vinaigrette
The heat is on in Portland, and who wants to spend their Spring slaving over a stove? Kick back with a cool, cool salad! Salad Ingredients: 1 Package of baby spinach ½ – 1 pound of strawberries, washed, sliced or…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Burrata, Pea, & Prosciutto Tortellini
Burrata, Pea, & Prosciutto Tortellini Despite the arguments from the weather, Spring is just around the corner. You don’t want to spend your precious Spring days cooking, but you still want food worth drooling over… what to do?…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Irish Beef Stew with Guinness (Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker)
St. Patty’s Day is here, and there’s no better culture to appropriate from at this time of year than our Irish brethren. We’re staying away from the Jameson (though we recommend it) and heading straight for Guinness and Irish Beef…
Kyle’s Kitchen- Pasta Aglio e Olio (Pasta with Garlic & Oil)
“Aglio e Olio” translates to garlic and oil, and is a simple sauce usually served with pasta like spaghetti. This traditional Neapolitan pasta is popular for being inexpensive and using pantry ingredients, while being utterly delicious. Chef Roy Choi calls…
Healthy vehicles are useless without healthy drivers, and we do our best to maintain the smart and squishy part of your vehicle with Health Notes!
Health Notes- Matcha tea… have you heard?
Matcha tea… have you heard? We were listening to one of our radio faves, Thom Hartmann, when he began talking about Matcha Tea. It’s a green tea originating in China but mostly produced in Japan today. You’ll find matcha in…
Health Notes- Placebo Effect Revisited
Placebo Effect Revisited The New York Times and Ted Kaptchuk feed into more confusion about placebo effects. Steven Novella on Science-Based Medicine, Oct 2023 “In a recent editorial for The New York Times, researcher Ted J. Kaptchuk, who directs placebo…
Health Notes- What do rural areas do when their doctors leave?
Health Notes Just two doctors serve this small Alabama town. What’s next when they want to retire? By Arielle Zionts in KFF Health News, Sep 2023 LaFAYETTE, Ala. — Charity Hodge had mixed feelings when she spotted a Facebook post..
Health Notes- Heat Singes the Mind, Not Just the Body
Heat Singes the Mind, Not Just the Body Hot weather can destabilize mood, exacerbate mental health disorders and complicate drug treatment By Apoorva Mandavilli in the New York Times, Aug, 2023 If you find that the blistering, unrelenting heat is…
Health Notes- New generation of cancer-preventing vaccines could wipe out tumors before they form
New generation of cancer-preventing vaccines could wipe out tumors before they form Jocelyn Kaiser in Science magazine, Apr 2022 “Vaccines to prevent certain types of cancer already exist. They target viruses: hepatitis B virus, which can trigger liver cancer, and…
Health Notes- Doctors debunk 12 myths about sunscreen, sunburns, and tanning
Spring is here, so here’s a video from two dermatologists who’ll tell you the safe way to get brown this year… if there is one! Doctors debunk 12 myths about sunscreen, sunburns, and tanning, Michelle Yan Huang, Abby Tang, and…
Health Notes- Exercise can help your brain health at any age
Whether or not you have ever lifted a weight, you can protect your brain health now Madeline Holcombe on CNN, Feb 2023 Even if you’ve never been physically active, you can start moving now and see…
Health Notes- Why do we sleep under blankets, even on hot nights?
Why Do We Sleep Under Blankets, Even on the Hottest Nights? Who are you… the person who can’t sleep with anything more than a sheet even in the snow, or the person who needs 7 layers of down comforters even…
Health Notes- Moral injury is real, and we’ve all been exposed
Moral Injury Is an Invisible Epidemic That Affects Millions Moral Injury is a specific kind of trauma results when a person’s core principles are violated during wartime or a pandemic from Elizabeth Svoboda in Scientific American, Sep 2022…
When it comes to local reporting it doesn’t get more hyper-local than the goings on in our shop. Catch the important shop details along with Comment of the Month and NHTSA recalls and alerts.
Shop Talk- Was that special treatment?
Comment of the Month This month, Jon F. was a little confused … “I was fourth in line on a Tuesday morning but staying a Dwyer (vs. leaving.) Service was complete within an hour. Don’t know if this was typical…
Shop Talk- How do we know if you’re on track for service?
Comment of the Month- How do we know if you’re on track for service? This month, Seth W. asked if he was on track for his power steering flushes… Hi Seth, Just wanted to drop…
Shop Talk for Sept 2023– Congratulations, Jamie!
Congratulations, Jamie! We wanted to take a moment to offer our sincerest congratulations to Jamie Brooks, who recently took all 8 of the ASE Certification Tests needed to qualify as an ASE-Certified Master Automobile Technician. He…
Shop Talk- What’s the deal with remanufactured parts?
Comment of the Month We can’t give you exact wording for most of our Comment this month, because this Comment came in the form of a phone call. Neil H. was a client for many…
Shop Talk- Here’s when it’s too late to pickup your car
PLAN AHEAD for service in the Summer We hate it when we’re too busy to accept a service appointment, but it happens. In Summer, our busiest season, it can happen all too often. Our article “Planning Ahead Protects You Summer”…
Shop Talk- Who reads their service invoices? YOU should!
A Summer Word to the Wise We hate it when we’re too busy to accept a service appointment, but it happens. In Summer, our busiest season, it can happen all too often. Our Feature article this…
Shop Talk- Our 24/24 Warranty and our 10% Coupon
Comment of the Month Client Linda S. had nice things to say on one of our Comment Cards this month… “Thorough diagnosis and thanks for honoring the Warranty so professionally!” Thanks Linda, and thanks for the opportunity…
Shop Talk- Act now for 10% Off Labor Charges!
Comment of the Month We’re big and active fans of Quora. Like any site in the InterTubes there’s good and bad, but there’s a lot of good to be found on Quora if you look…
We also have a couple ongoing offers you might find valuable… Carbon Neutral Program– Our company’s commitment to the environment led us to partner with Bonneville Environmental Foundation to create our Carbon Neutral Program in 2007…
If you like our Lobby Library, you’ll love our Book Spotlight. These are the best book recommendations you’ll get from any auto repair shop in America!
Book Spotlight- “Means of Control” by Byron Tau
“Means of Control” by Byron Tau “That evening, I was given a glimpse inside a hidden world. . . . An entirely new kind of surveillance program–one designed to track everyone.” For the past five years—ever since a chance encounter…
Book Spotlight- Books to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Books to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by various authors The World’s attention turned yet again to the Middle East as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict burst into flame… yet again. If you’re like our ‘Your Car Matters’ staff you’re only vaguely aware…
Book Spotlight- “Billionaires- Reflections on the Upper Crust” by Darrell West
“Billionaires- Reflections on the Upper Crust” by Darrell West (Publisher’s Comments)- “The top one percent own about one-third of the assets in America and 40 percent of assets around the world. This concentration of financial resources in many countries gives…
Book Spotlight- “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements”
“The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements” by Eric Hoffer “Its theme is political fanaticism, with which it deals severely and brilliantly.” –New Yorker A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote…
Book Spotlight- “Stop Being Reasonable” by Eleanor Gordon-Smith
“Stop Being Reasonable” by Eleanor Gordon-Smith Publisher Comments “In Stop Being Reasonable, Eleanor Gordon-Smith weaves a narrative that illustrates the limits of human reason. She chronicles the lives of people who radically altered their beliefs about the things that matter…
Book Spotlight- “No Good Men Among The Living” by Anand Gopal
Our lobby Book & Bumper Sticker library is one of our most popular shop features. All the books, across a huge range of topics, are available to check out whenever you’re in. Client Shannon K. checked out “No Good Men…
Book Spotlight- “Post-Truth” by Lee McIntyre
Post-Truth by Lee McIntyre How we arrived in a post-truth era, when “alternative facts” replace actual facts, and feelings have more weight than evidence. Publisher Comments Are we living in a post-truth world, where “alternative facts” replace actual facts and…
Book Spotlight- “You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech” by Phillips and Milner
“You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape” by Phillips and Milner Synopsis by publisher- Our media environment is in crisis. Polarization is rampant. Polluted information floods social media…
Book Spotlight- Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them
Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them Tom Gerken, BBC News, Jul 2018 Do you have a habit of picking up books that you never quite get around to reading? If this sounds like you, you might…
From the unimaginable expanse of the multiverse to the quarks and leptons of the tiniest living beings, science is an adventure. Every month the “Department of Reality Studies” brings you three of the most cutting-edge Science stories we could find.
Portable, non-invasive, mind-reading AI turns thoughts into text, Univ. of Technology Sydney (UTS) Dec 2023
Asteroid pieces brought to Earth may offer clue to life’s origin, Washington Post, Dec 2023
How our Milky Way galaxy would look in gravitational waves (video), Space.com, Sep 2023
Rice-engineered material can reconnect severed nerves, Silvia Cernea Clark, Oct 2023
Toyota Inks Deal to Mass Produce Solid State EV Batteries With 932-Mile Range, PCMag, Oct 2023
Why the earliest galaxies are sparking drama and controversy among astronomers, Barber, Carlson, McCoy, and Ramirez on NPR
Nano rocket thruster can run on water, fit on a fingertip, Rizwan Choudhury in Interesting Engineering, Sep 2023
Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b, NASA TV, Sep 2023
A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years, Tod Perry on Upworthy, Sep 2023
Cornell University researchers break their record with stunning high-res photo of atoms, Jeremy Gray in Digital Photography Review
Scientist Unveils a Bold Plan to Turn an Asteroid Into a Space Station, Andy Tomaswick in Universe Today, Aug 2023
Could Solar Panel Arrays in Earth Orbit provide all the Clean Electricity We’d Ever Need? Juan Cole in Informed Comment, Jul 2023
Urbanization is driving evolution of plants globally, study finds, Kim Eckart in UW News, Mar 2022
Scientists create ‘synthetic human embryos’ from stem cells. Brandon Gage on AlterNet, Jun 2023
The Universe is disappearing, and we’re powerless to stop it, Ethan Siegel on Big Think, Jan 2022
Here’s what happens in your dog’s brain when you speak, Tess Joosse in Science, Apr 2022
Fake scientific papers are alarmingly common. Jeffrey Brainard in Science, May 2023
NASA Finds Perfectly Rectangular Iceberg In Antarctica As If It Was Deliberately Cut, Trevor Nace in Forbes, Oct 2018
NASA released more images of the rectangular iceberg, which you can see here.
Scientists grew living human skin around a robotic finger, Maria Temming in ScienceNews, Jun 2022
The Idea That Everything From Spoons to Stones is Conscious is Gaining Academic Credibility, Olivia Goldhill on Quartz,
Life: modern physics can’t explain it – but our new theory, which says time is fundamental, might, Sara Imari Walker, The Conversation, Apr 2023
Astronomers detect water molecules swirling around a star
Cephalopods Can Pass a Cognitive Test Designed For Human Children
‘Impossible’ new ring system discovered at the edge of the solar system, and scientists are baffled
Electrostatic Levitation: MIT Engineers Test an Idea for a New Hovering Moon Rover, Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology December 21, 2021
Finally, 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.
