Word: dragster
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...hint of Frank Perdue. His uniform tends to be white or blue button-down shirts with collars that efficiently snap rather than button down. Also khakis. You get the feeling that if he wore a tie (he doesn't), it would fly behind him like the parachute behind a dragster. Even now, as he's supposedly being led on a tour of the warehouse, he's at the front of the line, sailing down a narrow corridor that doglegs and decants into a huge room...
Vintage scooterists scorn the strictly practical Hondas and Yamahas--and dub them "Tupperware." Possessing more cachet are new bikes that boast classic style but modern components, like ItalJet's Velocifero and Dragster models, favorites of Michael Stipe and Martha Stewart. ("Vintage without the repairs," says ItalJet USA's Joel Sacher.) Even these don't cut it with diehards like New York lawyer Tom Giordano. "Finding a charming, rusted-out relic and turning it into a jewel," he says, "that's a big part of the love affair...
Right now cars competing in a "Gambler's Race." One car will spot the other a head start, then play catch-up. A long, narrow, rocket-like dragster, the kind that often has to spit out a parachute to slow down, lines up beside a red Camaro. "Now this guy's going to give the Camaro a huge lead, but he's got a 400 to 500 cc engine there putting out about 2,000 horsepower. He'll still win." We don't get the chance to find out; jittery Mr. Camaro takes off too early and is disqualified...
...marketing director, explains that not every night is amateur night. "The International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) is the sanctioning body, and we have world class racing here. A lot of the pros come here. We set a lot of world records this year. We reset the top fuel dragster record." Things get a little a hairier those nights, "the cars get up to 300 miles per hour and sometimes we have fire problems explosions, but everyone's wearing fire suits and helmets." Evidently, that's what the crowds like to see; often upwards of 20,000 people pack the stands...
...pays such a stingy dividend that the yield, which is the dividend divided by the stock price, is less than 2%--a payout so low it had been considered imponderable for most of this century. Yet here it is, another landmark racing past the windshield of this bull-market dragster. Should you care if the typical stock now yields a paltry 1 point something? After all, it's not as though your baby sitter were paging you at the opera. But yes, you should. For a lot of reasons, this is worrisome...