Alex Kwanten

@sportzagato

Still living the weird car life. ME at U.S. News Autos, also at Hagerty, ex-Forbes & other places. Owner at OldMotors / 🌈 PNW & Bronx / He/Him / Opinions are my own.

387 Siguiendo1222 Seguidores3608 Publicaciones

Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y sportzagato.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 18d

The airport was a mess this morning, but check out this ole' workhorse. #ToyotaTacoma #WeirdCarBS

A 2002 Toyota Tacoma work truck in American Airlines livery

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 19d

Chewie the kitten.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 19d

It was a good day for #Birds.

Mama crow is breaking up a shelled peanut to feed to two baby crows.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 19d

More from Woodpecker central, also starring this juvenile #HairyWoodpecker. #Birdsky

A young Hairy Woodpecker on a tree trunk.

A young Hairy Woodpecker hammering a tree trunk.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 19d

More of the pair. Hammer hammer hammer, feed feed feed. #Birdsky

Two Pileated Woodpeckers, an adult male and a juvenile, are in a tree as the older bird teaches the younger one how to find food. The younger one is preening while the older bird hammers away at the tree.

Two Pileated Woodpeckers, an adult male and a juvenile, are in a tree as the older bird teaches the younger one how to find food, and is putting food in the younger bird's beak.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 19d

Absolutely incredible #PileatedWoodpecker action at the park yesterday. Papa is teaching baby how to find grubs and insects in the tree. #Birdsky @gettoknownature.bsky.social

Two Pileated Woodpeckers, an adult male and a juvenile, are in a tree as the older bird teaches the younger one how to find food.

Two Pileated Woodpeckers, an adult male and a juvenile, are in a tree as the older bird teaches the younger one how to find food. They look like they are having a conversation.

Two Pileated Woodpeckers, an adult male and a juvenile, are in a tree as the older bird teaches the younger one how to find food. You can see wood chips flying off as the younger bird looks at the camera.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 21d

"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much, much better."

The audio screen in a Mercedes SUV playing Laurie Anderson's "Language Is a Virus" from her album "Home of the Brave."

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 22d

We liked the first one so much, we bought another!

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 25d

Marginal street under the Triboro Bridge, Harlem side, Summer 1989. (Photo: Joe DeMarco)

A picture of Marginal Street under the Triboro Bridge, in 1989. A lonely Cadillac sits under the span, surrounded by old utility poles and other detritus from the early 20th century. An overpass has since changed this view.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 27d

#WeirdCarBS is well represented at Radwood, even if Radwood is smaller than before.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· 28d

We were out getting Sushi and on the way we spied one of the rarest cars I've ever seen in the wild - a 1949 #Volkswagen Type 14A Hebmüller Cabriolet. Just 696 of these 2-seat Beetles were made from 1949 to 1953, later ones at Karmann, and fewer than 100 survive. #WeirdCarBS

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 14

"The shape of things that came and went," said one IG commenter. My favorite car from Saturday's #SeattleABFM, a Java Green 1976 Triumph #TR7 Coupe. They're very rare now thanks to the problems of the early TR7s. #WeirdCarBS

1976 Triumph TR7 in Java Green with decal badging

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 12

Ooh, where was this, Carlisle? Every time this car comes up I'm reminded that I befriended a North Carolina junkyard owner back in 2003 who owned it at the time after asking about a Simca he'd listed online. He's since passed away. Here it is in June of '03.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 11

QOTD: Post a photo you took of a car next to water. (Just one?)

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 11

The car getting the most attention at the Seattle ABFM? This 1962 #SunbeamAlpine Harrington LeMans Coupe, formerly owned by Ford GT40 engineer John Horsman and his daily during the GT40 era. The engine is a Ford 289 ... out of one of Team Shelby's Fairlane wagon support vehicles. #WeirdCarBS

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 11

Always check the parking lot at a good car show. Tasty extras at today's All British Field Meet. #WeirdCarBS

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 8

You've unlocked a second memory: www.smilinggoat.com/crackers1.html

An excerpt from "The Crackers," ©2005 Jane Hanstein Cunniffe

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 8

Fuckin' unbelievable ... but also totally believable. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Reading has come to seem extraneous even to some of the best-educated members of society. Margaret Rennix, Harvard’s assistant director for humanities and social-sciences support, told me she’d spoken with a student who was struggling to read a book written in Old English. The culprit: Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. (The student used ChatGPT to “translate” the book into easier language.) Not long ago, a Harvard sociology professor, troubled by course evaluations in which students said they resented the amount of dense reading they were assigned, asked Rennix to speak to his class in defense of reading. She had to explain—to students at America’s most elite university, taking a course in a discipline rooted in written observation, argumentation, and analysis—that excerpts and summaries cannot capture the depth and sophistication of a complete primary text. Rennix told me that some students now view reading as an unnecessarily burdensome way of acquiring knowledge. “By asking them to read,” she said, “professors are arbitrarily withholding information from students by forcing them to get it through this more difficult medium.”

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 7

Post a photo of an American car in a foreign land

1967 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible in Sweden

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 5

Dark-eyed "Oregon" Juncos, looking wistful except for the last one giving me the trademark Junco death stare. #Birds #Birdsky

A dark-eyed Oregon Junco perched on a mossy tree limb.

A dark-eyed Oregon Junco perched on a mossy tree limb looking wistful.

A dark-eyed Oregon Junco perched on a mossy tree limb and giving the photographer the trademark Junco death stare.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 5

Morning birds, including Gadwall drama and a Duckling. #Birds #BirdSky

A Gadwall hisses at another duck on a log in an algae-filled pond

A Gadwall stretches on a log in an algae-filled pond

A Mama Mallard and a duckling in an algae-filled pond

A Gadwall is about to nip at another duck on a log in an algae-filled pond

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 5

On the way to the park this morning we spied one of the few modern Mazdas that's rarer than the one I just sold: an MX-30. Journos will know, but just 605 were sold here before Mazda gave up. It had just 100 miles of range. #WeirdCarBS #MazdaMX30

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 4

Class.

A picture of an NA Mazda MX-5 Miata with the license plate "MYATA."

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jul 1

It's pretty funny to me that "we couldn't build anything like this here" when, in fact, we did build this right here. Not only did I get to see it being built on the line up close and personal, I also photographed its first flight on March 31, 2012. And here it was.

Boeing 747-8KB BBJ frame No. 37075, pictured in Washington State on March 31, 2012.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jun 29

Here are the two cars my parents had from the time I was born until I was five years old. Obviously, you know already how I got this way. #WeirdCarBS

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jun 28

This week's car. #BMWM5Touring

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jun 28

This weekend's l'il guys #Birds

A Golden Crowned Kinglet in a dark tree, taken from very far away

An incredulous Eagle on a telephone pole starting at a growling BMW.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jun 28

Mean machines.

1970 Ford Torino Type N/W with 2026 BMW M5 Touring

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jun 28

Somebody must have taken a box cutter to this pond, because look at all this algae.

Alex Kwanten@sportzagato· Jun 28

Last night I happened upon this 1970 #FordTorino Type N/W quite by chance. It's Grabber Green, but this was a regional PNW special cooked up by Oregon's Ford dealers, and they renamed it "Wilderness Green," and added the graphics and hood pins. 395 were supposedly delivered. #WeirdCarBS