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Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies at 77

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Re: Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies at 77

#111

Post by pionar »

srcmap wrote: post #101
ceejayoz wrote: post #4

I hope Melissa "the Twerp" Peterson ( http://www.wnyc.org/story/1421-my-dog-hates-you-too/ ) does a eulogy for him. (Girl who wrote a letter complaining that the show sucked and that she had to listen because her parents did in the car... they had her on and she'd periodically call in for years) My all-time favorite was the episode where someone called in and said that their vehicle would run pretty well but with lot…

Melissa needs to write the eulogy in the back of twenty dollars bill and send them to: Car Talk Plaza Box 3500 Harvard Square Cambridge , MA 02238

>Car Talk Plaza Box 3500 Harvard Square Cambridge our fair city , MA 02238

FTFY. :)

Re: Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies at 77

#112

Post by rvbvcvn »

I didn't listen to this show often but when I did I always enjoyed it. Especially when there was a call about a woman's heater smelling like bacon and the hosts decided (after having no idea how to fix it) that it was not actually a problem and she should consider it a perk.

Re: Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies at 77

#113

Post by javaun »

astrocat wrote: post #89

The fact that this is at the top of HN and has been for hours is phenomenal. Despite the often insular nature of the HN crowd, it's things like this that reveal ta deep respect for the hacker in everyone. Imagine being so badass that you hosted a national tech-support call-in show and solved people's problems random computer problems: "Tom: Sounds like you've got corrupted memory... Ray: Don't listen to him, all his…

Agreed. I think it wasn't just his humor and his knowledge, but his approachability and willingness to share. I worked at NPR for 6 years. I never met either of the brothers, but we were all a gog the day Doug the Old Grey Mare came in to talk to pick our brains about web analytics, of all things. Here is this person who I think is an absolute genius, but can listen to us talk about a seemingly banal thing earnestly. They listened, they shared. They cared.

Re: Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies at 77

#114

Post by tomkarlo »

My first job in college involved helping them build the first Car Talk web site (it was around 1994). All of the graphics were drawn on paper and scanned in, and I spent hours converting their recordings into (IIRC) RealAudio format so people could livestream them. (Downsampling / compression at the time was far from real-time.)

They were both great guys to work with, who seemed genuinely surprised at their own fame and came to everything with genuine humor, warmth and without the slightest hint of ego. Out of all the notable MIT alumni, they're my favorite and I was really happy when they finally got invited to speak at commencement. (I'd also argue that the guys at Top Gear owe them some credit for pioneering a "show about cars" that's really just entertainment.)

It's a terrible loss, but at least Tom will live on for many years in the form of all those recorded hours of (somewhat auto-related) entertainment. The world is a little less happy and funny today without him, though.

Re: Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR's 'Car Talk,' Dies at 77

#116

Post by vivekian2 »

Every Saturday, I would step out to do grocery at 10:00am and tune into 88.5FM KQED which would be playing 'Car Talk'. I instantly warmed to the humor and banter the hosts expressed. They were top notch diagnostics as well. No doubt about it, Tom will be deeply missed. RIP.
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