· Our e-mail has been off and on (mostly off) for the better part of the last week. Seeing as most things that make it into this newspaper are delivered via e-mail--copy, photos, ads, cartoons, you name it--this created quite a problem. Fortunately, we had e-mail long enough to get most of the stuff we needed, and the rest was delivered by alternate methods. You should not notice any differences in this week's Weekly--I hope. Thanks to all who took an extra step to get us the things we needed, and the staffers who went out of their way to work around the outage. My apologies to everyone who has been inconvenienced by this. And if we haven't responded yet to an e-mail you sent us, you know why.
· While the e-mail was working, we got a large number of responses to our Rant Issue. A number of folks wrote to inform me about something I did not know concerning my rant, about emissions testing.
It turns out that many cars, including my Saturn, don't need the whole wand-in-tailpipe rigmarole these days. To quote the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Web site: "Used on 1996 and newer light duty vehicles only, engine operating data is accessed by connecting directly to a computer in the vehicle that continuously monitors engine emission control systems operation. The on-board diagnostic test can identify problems before they lead to engine damage and emissions system failure."
It is quite possible that when I was asked to get out of my car, the emissions tester plugged in the computer to my car. I apologize for my ignorance on this, and thank all of you who wrote in to kindly (and in a few cases, rudely) enlighten me.
