* Into the "Grand Theft Auto" video game series? Salivating over "Grand Theft Auto IV"? Bad news: It's no longer coming out this year. Try October 2008.
* An article in the Chicago Daily Herald reminded us that Illinois is the only state that takes away your driver's license if you're caught speeding.
The Poelease Get A Diesel Wrangler
Take your jacket off and get out of the force, Chrysler 300! The car that served Australia's Victorian police at special events has been replaced for the next six months by a Wrangler Unlimited CRD as part of the winter campaign for snow safety. It will appear in Victoria as well as Melbourne and other ski spots.
What We're Talking About Around the Office
* Pete gets two to nine hours of sleep each night. Hazel averages four and a half. Cappa doesn't know his number; he wakes up automatically between 6 and 6:30. That's a.m., we think, but some days it's hard to tell.
* Hazel's worst four-wheeling carnage was when he destroyed every component in his Dodge's Dana 44 at once-except for the ring-and-pinion. He did not, however, roll an aftermarket company's vehicle seven times.
* If you need a wiring expert or someone fluent in the interchangeability of body parts among the last 30 years of short-wheelbase Jeeps, Pete's your man. Ladies?
* What if someone gave you $50,000? What if they told you it had to be used on a vehicle or vehicles? What would you buy? Around here, it was CJ-8s, a 5-ton military truck, a stock MB or GPW, a '74-'75 shortbed J-Truck with aV-8 and T-18 manual, and a 11/42-ton Cummins diesel Dodge when they come out. Except for the staffer who wanted the $49,907 '08 Mercedes-Benz E320 Sport with iPod integration. Shouldn't he be written up?
* Someone on staff is ambidextrous. The rest of us got vaccinated just in case.
* One staffer was not a team player when it came time to set up a photo shoot for the upcoming cop-car to Jeep engine-swap story. He requested a realistic photo of being arrested-then refused to realistically be tasered, shot with beanbag shotgun rounds in the face and groin area, have his trousers packed with hot dogs as the staff yelled random words at Chopper until he would sic balls, nor take two cans of pepper spray to the face followed by a beating from a billy club. Shouldn't he be written up?
The Pentastar Is Back
New old company, new old look. The Chrysler Group-sorry, The New Chrysler, as it prefers to now be called-has relaunched itself with a familiar corporate logo, the Pentastar, which originally debuted in 1962 and had gone into storage for the past nine years. The new advertising campaign is "Get Ready for the Next Hundred Years," which we are assuming will be void of mentions of prepping for senility, a bladder we don't quite have a handle on, arthritis, and early bird specials. The corporate Web site is now www.chryslerllc.com. Bookmark it or don't.