Okay, so there I was, sitting in front of my computer this morning, throwing words at the screen in the -- possibly vain -- hope that they will metamorphose into a vignette, when I realised that I had some questions. I hope someone / several someones out there will be able to help.

1) Can anyone refresh my memory as to how, exactly, the exchange in Ordinary People went that led to Lois and Clark striking their deal about his not using superpowers for the time they were to be away?

2) Can you buy Nissan Micra's in the US? If so, were they around in the 1990s? If not, can anyone recommend to me a really small, cramped car that might be available from a rental agency? A foreign import would be best, if possible. (I want something that Lois would complain about.)

3) In the first of the various Tempus / Wells episodes -- Tempus Fugitive? -- what was the name of the area close to Smallville where Lois ended up throwing away the kryptonite?

Thanks.

Chris

Well, I can do 2 out of 3:

1 - Exchange from Ordinary People. Lois tells Clark the fruit basket he just crushed was a promotion from a resort that Perry wants them to go to.
L - I told him I'm too busy.
C - Yeah, well work would be a lot safer than spending an uninterrupted weekend with me.
L - Hold it, hold it. I'm not the one leaping off tall buildings at every distant SOS.
C - Wait. Wait. What are you saying?
L - I'm saying I don't think you could let the world get by on its own for 2 whole days.
C - Oh, and you'd rather write about other people's lives because it's less dangerous than living one of your own.
Clark gets "the look".
L - Someone want you?
C - No. (pause) Yes.
L - Go.
C - You know, I could do it, if you could.
L - Wanna bet?
C - Bet.

2 - Sorry. I know nothing about cars.

3 - Rocky Cove. (Clark's dad says he saw 2 stange men, and that they were headed up towards Rocky Cove, on foot. That's were Lois and Clark go to find Wells and Tempus, with baby Clark.)

- Vicki

Okay, since the first one is covered and I know nothing about cars either, I can't answer the first two.

But I thought Clark was found in Shuster's Field - I can't recall a mention of Rovky Cove...

Julie

Julie,

To be honest, I didn't remember any mention of Rocky Cove, either. I was actually going to say Shuster's Field, but I thought I'd better go re-watch my tape of the show, just to be sure.

Clark's parents *did* find him in Shuster's Field. But when Clark & Lois go there, they discover the ship has already landed, and the baby is gone. So they go to Clark's parent's house, and that's where Clark's dad tells them about the strange men walking towards Rocky Cove. At Rocky Cove, they find the baby, and Lois throws away the kryptonite that Tempus had put around him to kill him. Clark then flies the baby back to Shuster's Field, where his parents find him.

- Vicki

no, i'm fairly sure the nissan micra is not available in the US. we do have the maxima... far more US style.

standards have changed in the last 5-10 years (we're starting to get used to smaller cars), but i still couldn't help but laugh when someone showed me a car with a v-4 engine. in the 80's, gallagher (a US commedian) talked about those wimpy imports, saying, "you could have had a v8!"

v8s are kind of rare now (ford/lincoln still uses them for their largest models, but that's about it), but i'm pretty sure they were still around in the mid-90's.

anyway, rental companies around here have different classes, based on car size. the range goes something like this, though the details vary a bit from company to company. from smallest & cheapest:

compact
mid-size
standard
full-size
premium/luxury

and then there are minivans and SUVs, which have their own pricing.

on the surface, you're asking about a compact, but the trick is that if you rent a compact, you know you're getting one. you've chosen to go for a tiny little clown car because you wanted to save the extra couple of bucks it would take to go up a class or two (or maybe because you actually care about the extra few miles per gallon).

otoh, if you get a standard or mid-size, you'll still get a fairly small, cheap, import. if you go up from mid-size to standard, you'll get a few frills and a slightly larger trunk.

those are the cars you'll complain about. mom and i tried getting a mid-size a while back. don't remember the exact model we got, but we didn't have much confidence in the engine, there were no power seats, no power windows... heck, not even power mirrors. we laughed at the thing, but ultimately ended up taking it back in because the brakes seemed to be acting funny. when we did, we found out that we could get a real car for about 5 dollars more. so, that was the end of that.

what's more, there's that bit of a shock you get when you ask for a mid-size or standard car, and find out that you're getting this dinky little thing. when you hear "standard" car, you think of something a bit more like what you get for "full size" because that's about the middle of the market when you're looking to buy a car. the rental agencies, looking to keep costs down, basically bump everything down a notch.

anyway, you can see a bit more of what i'm talking about by checking out the webpages of some of the rental companies. for example, here's the listing of avialable cars at enterprise. unfortunately, they're only listing american cars as their examples.

looking around at a few other websites, most of the companies seem to want to list the american models as their examples for the classes. they have imports, but i guess they don't want to put that image first.

looking at nissan\'s US vehicle lineup it seems that the sentra is their smallest US car. you might want to consider an altima, tho, at a higher rental class. "we paid for a standard, and we got this?" up to you.

sorry i can't help more. the right names just aren't coming to mind.

Paul

Geo. Nobody likes geos. I think we rented one once; my parents said "never again."

Actually, 'compact' cars are what we in the UK would call medium-sized cars! The Nissan Micra is a very small car, not much bigger than a Mini and smaller than a VW Beetle.

Chris, doing some web searching for sub-compact cars (which is the class you're actually looking for) turned up a website which allowed me to search by certain years, and here\'s a guide to sub-compact cars in 1995.

Even that is open to interpretation, since I would by no stretch of the imagination call a Honda Civic a very small car! In fact, all the cars on that list would be considered medium or small-medium in the UK.

This one might do at a pinch; it's just a two-door Nissan. Or this Acura (Acura is a division of Honda) might as an alternative.


Wendy

I know these aren't foriegn cars -- they are American cars -- but horrible -- small and very bad.

The Plymouth Horizen -- it's a car from the '80's, a hatch back 4-seater, but my mom had it when we were kids, and we couldn't really all fit in the back seat.

And the Plymouth Reliant K -- my dad had this in the '90's. I think it was the updated version of the horizen.

My parents have this strange loyalty to Plymouth!

I don't know if Nissan is a big brand in the US. I don't see many of them around on the roads, and i only know of one dealership. I always thought Acura was a luxury car, but I might be wrong. The major cars I see on the road are Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagon.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Mary -- definitely Geo. Those are just about the worst cars ever made! The Geo Metro really might fit your purpose, Chris.

- Laura (a proud Toyota driver )

re: the car question

on a recent ski trip my friends and i decided to rent a "mid-size" car - what we got was a Toyota corolla with a tiny little engine that sputtered up the mountains. let's just say that there was a little bit of complaining on that trip

The Geo Metro was teeny tiny by US standards. It only had 3 cylinders, even, so very low powered. But it got great gas mileage, so I did know a couple of single people who had them -- didn't need a lot of room for extra people.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a Yugo, though! LOL, same deal ... very small, very cheap. Kind of a joke car.

Kathy

You want to see some really small cars? Even smaller than your Geo Metro?

Here's the Nissan Micra, which is a very popular small car in Europe:



And the Toyota Yaris:



There's also the Ford Ka:



And the smallest of the all: the Smart Car:




Wendy

Thanks to everybody that answered! You help is much appreciated!

I've enjoyed following the debate about the cars. The ironic thing, however, is that I've managed to avoid the issue entirely in the fic! (Mind you, it seems a shame to waste the info entirely, so I might have Lois make a one-liner, throw away comment. We'll see.)

Thanks again,

Chris <trying to write. Yeah, right.>

LOL! It's fun seeing the different attitudes to car sizes from both sides of the Atlantic. I'm pretty certain my friend and I rented a Geo on a US fly-drive trip a few yeras back and found it completely satisfactory. Seem to remember we christened it Supermouse, in fact . Conversely, the worst car I ever had in the States was also the biggest. I can't remember the model, but it had absolutely no guts - you'd put your foot down, and around 10 minutes later you might be cruising at 50 if you were lucky <g>. That was back in around '86, of course, when I think there was a 50 mile-an-hour limit on a lot of US freeways. These days, we tend to rent sub-compacts or compacts and happily drive around the countryside and cities in complete comfort. I've also noticed recently that US rental agencies have stopped trying to persuade us Brits that we've booked an awfully small car and wouldn't we like to upgrade. I guess they got bored of hearing the same answer again and again <g>.

Yvonne

Someone mentioned small cramped car……..
VW Beetle immediately sprung to mind.





Post edited to fix your picture link, KB - you need a link ending in .jpg or .gif for it to show on the site. What you posted was actually a web page. If you right-click on the photograph, the link you want is what appears under 'properties'.

Wendy

Actually, I'd heard Beetles are quite roomy on the inside. At least, the newer ones. We checked out one out at a local dealership when looking at cars, and my 6'6" husband didn't feel cramped in it at all!

There is a lot less room in one of the older models VW Beetle.
You also have the Fiat uno, which my mum usually refers to as the disposable car……… . It’s a small car, not a lot of room in it………
(The first and second series of the Fiat uno, was Produced between 1983-1995.) That's the model my mum thinks about when she say disposable

I take your Fiat Uno and give you the Fiat 126:



AKA: The Ma&#322;y Fiat (that's pronounced 'maowy') - The little Fiat

You find them occasionally in the UK, but if you ever go to Poland you will find they are everywhere.

I think that almost half the cars in Poland are ma&#322;y Fiat's... and you find them in every colour under the sun, and even souped up versions:



They are one of my lasting memories of Poland (I lived there for a while) was of the lady who sold flowers on the market. When she was done for the day she'd pack all the unsold flowers into her ma&#322;y Fiat (it was orange), piling them up inside as high as the ceiling, and tying them three pallets deep onto the roof. Then off she'd drive, window rolled down, cigarette in hand, leaving a trail of exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke, and petals behind her.

Whenever I see a ma&#322;y Fiat, I'm taken right back.

Helga