“
When I was sixteen, I had just two things on my mind - girls and cars. I wasn't very good with girls. So I thought about cars. I thought about girls, too, but I had more luck with cars.
Let's say that when I turned sixteen, a genie had appeared to me. And that genie said, 'Warren, I'm going to give you the car of your choice. It'll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it's all yours.'
Having heard all the genie stories, I would say, 'What's the catch?' And the genie would answer, 'There's only one catch. This is the last car you're ever going to ge tin your life. So it's got to last a lifetime.'
If that had happened, I would have picked out that car. But, can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it?
I would read the manual about five times. I would always keep it garaged. If there was the least little dent or scratch, I'd have it fixed right away because I wouldn't want it rusting. I would baby that car, because it would have to last a lifetime.
That's exactly the position you are in concerning your mind and body. You only get one mind and one body. And it's got to last a lifetime. Now, it's very easy to let them ride for many years. But if you don't take care of that mind and that body, they'll be a wreck forty years later, just life the car would be.
It's what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.
”
”
Warren Buffett
“
He’d started the company to put a dent in the automotive industry and force people to rethink electric cars.
”
”
Ashlee Vance (Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future)
“
When I hear a politician has died in a car accident, I think, “How tragic! Even if the car suffered only a small dent, it makes me want to cry out to God in despair.
”
”
Jarod Kintz (Who Moved My Choose?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change by Deciding to Let Indecision Into Your Life)
“
Nooooooooooo!" Screaming the word, Amy and Dan moved as one.
Time slowed down, which, Dan knew from experience, often happened when you were in midair. By the time they leaped onto the hood of Fiske's car (oops, dents), and Dan had ripped off a windshield wiper to use as a weapon (probably not the best idea, but hey, he was improvising), Scarey Harley Dude had turned around.
He strode off in his motorcycle boots, moving swiftly to his bike without seeming to hurry. His helmet back on, sunglasses adjusted, he roared off straight into the road, weaving through the thick traffic like smoke.
Amy's face was squashed against the windshield. Dan held the wiper aloft like a club.
And Evan Tolliver stood on the sidewalk, blinking at them.
Dan waved the windshield wiper at him. "Hey, bro. We didn't want to miss our ride.
”
”
Jude Watson (Vespers Rising (The 39 Clues, #11))
“
Humming and singing my new song, I led them up and down the stairs, pressing my fingers against the wall like I was about to push it over; down to the lobby, where I stood in a pot plant; and finally into the alley behind the studio, where I jumped on top of the car that had brought us from the hotel, leaving dents in the roof so the car would remember me.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2))
“
Would you let me drive this?" I ask, surprised that I say the words out loud.
"Of course," Christian replies, smiling. "What's mine is yours. If you dent it, though, I will take you into the Red Room of Pain." He glances swiftly at me with a malicious grin.
"You're kidding. You'd punish me for denting your car? You love your car more than you love me?" I tease.
"It's close," he says and reaches across to squeeze my knee, "But she doesn't keep me warm at night."
"I'm sure it could be arranged. You could sleep in her," I snap.
Christian laughs. "We haven't been home one day and you're kicking me out already?" He seems delighted.
”
”
E.L. James (Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades, #3))
“
Our love was dangerous.
It was asking me to come with him.
It was "South it is, brown eyes."
It was dancing in the rain on the hood of his car.
It was making dents that only we knew.
It was living in the moment and making memories and deals.
It was being in love and having your heart ripped from your chest. Here you take it, I don't want it anymore. It was that kind of shit.
It was "Please don't do this, not here."
It was here now, listen to me.
It was waiting, I water, and we waited. Nothing.
It was remembering every detail, everything that made him Dylan Wade and remembering nothing at all.
”
”
Shey Stahl (Waiting for You (Waiting for You, #1))
“
For Jai and me, our dented cars became a statement in our marriage. Not everything needs to be fixed.
”
”
Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture)
“
Le parti national-socialiste avait fait un fameux cadeau à ces SS-là : ils pouvaient marcher au combat sans aucun risque physique, décrocher les honneurs sans avoir à entendre siffler les balles. L'impunité psychologique était plus difficile à atteindre. Tous les officiers SS avaient des camarades qui s'étaient suicidés. Le haut commandment avait pondu des circulaires pour dénoncer ces pertes futiles : il fallait être simple d'esprit pour croire que les juifs, parce qu'ils n'avaient pas de fusils, ne possédaient pas d'armes d'un autre calibre : des armes sociales, économiques et politiques. En fait, le juif était armé jusqu'aux dents. Trempez votre caractère dans l'acier, soulignaient les circulaires, car l'enfant juif est une bombe à retardement culturelle, la femme juive, un tissu biologique de toutes les trahisons, le mâle juif, un ennemi plus implacable encore qu'aucun Russe ne saurait l'être. (ch. 20)
”
”
Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List)
“
I got in my car and just drove. I drove and I drove and I drove. I wasn't sure where I was going and I didn't care. I didn't even plan on coming home to be totally honest...
I beat that sign until my fingernails bled and my umbrella was broken to pieces. I left a dent in it for every asshole who had treated me like shit, for every time I had been used, and for every time I had been wronged...
I drove as far as I could until there was no more road left to take.
”
”
Chris Colfer
“
Ren crossed his arms over his chest. "is it LoJacked?"
"Of course," Andy said indignantly. "That's my baby. I even have a kill switch on her."
"Then stop the engine."
Andy appeared downright horrified by Ren's suggestion. "Are you out of your mind? What if someone hits it for stalling? I had that thing on order for over a year. Custom hand built. The epitome of German engineering. I even paid extra for the paint on her. Ain't no way I'm going to chance someone denting my baby. Or, God forbid, totaling it."
Jess rolled his eyes at the boy's hissy fit. If he kept that up, he'd be putting Andy back in diapers.
He turned to Ren. "You take the air. I'll get a bike." Then he focused his attention on Andy again. "And you-"
Andy held his cell phone out to him. "Have an app. Track her down, get my car back, and beat the hell out of her...in that precise order.
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Retribution (Dark-Hunter, #19))
“
There was a low growling sound and the Munstermobile came gliding up out of the parking garage, dripping water from its gleaming surface like some lantern-eyed leviathan rising from the depths. There were still a few dents and dings in it, but the broken glass had all been replaced, and the engine sounded fine.
Okay, I'm not like a car fanatic or anything - but the guitar riff from "Bad to the Bone" started playing in my head.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Cold Days (The Dresden Files, #14))
“
Aiden what have you told this poor child? And let go of her arm, you'll pull it out of the socket like that." The woman admonished. Aiden immediately released her arm. Meryn eyed the woman with new respect, if she had Aiden hopping to, then maybe she could help her get out of here.
"She is a menace! She gave Colton a bloody lip, threw a lamp at me, knocked me unconscious with the back of my toilet, kicked me in the back of the head... twice and dented the roof of my trunk!" Meryn noticed that he roared the last grievance, trust a man to be more worried about his car than his possible concussion.
"And how did she dent the roof of your trunk?" Meryn heard the edge to the woman's voice and answered quickly hoping to garner sympathy for her situation.
"He threw me in the trunk of his car. I was kicking it from the inside trying to escape." She sniffed dramatically and glared at Aiden. She noticed that he had suddenly paled.
"Oh, son." The handsome older man covered his face with his hand and the woman stared at them in shock.
"You locked her in the trunk?!"
"She was kicking me." Aiden protested.
"She is human and half your size!"
"You don't understand, she is a terrorist!
”
”
Alanea Alder (My Commander (Bewitched and Bewildered, #1))
“
We left dents on each other. Mine was in her heart, and hers was on my car.
”
”
J.A. ANUM
“
Converting car parking to bike parking is one of the cheapest, easiest, and most effective ways for any city to make a sizeable dent in the bad economics of our current transportation system.
”
”
Elly Blue (Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save The Economy (Bicycle))
“
Put a note on your victim’s car that says “Sorry about the dent. Call me to swap insurance details”. Include a fake name and number. (Or, put a note on somebody else’s car and leave your victim’s phone number.)
”
”
Full Sea Books (The One Minute Prank Book! 250 Quick and Easy Pranks & Practical Jokes)
“
Ask subjects to estimate the likelihood of the same events again. Adults incorporate the feedback into the new estimates. Adolescents update their estimates as adults do for good news, but feedback about bad news barely makes a dent. (Researcher: “How likely are you to have a car accident if you’re driving while drunk?” Adolescent: “One chance in a gazillion.” Researcher: “Actually, the risk is about 50 percent; what do you think your own chances are now?” Adolescent: “Hey, we’re talking about me; one chance in a gazillion.”) We’ve just explained why adolescents have two to four times the rate of pathological gambling as do adults.
”
”
Robert M. Sapolsky (Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst)
“
Oh my god, Bella, what have you done?”
Bella jumped as she turned to face Nathan, seeing his wild eyes, his pale features, his hard, buff body stalking across the front yard, his chest slick with sweat, bits of the grass he had been cutting sticking to his jeans as he strode furiously to where her car met the back of his truck.
“It’s just a little dent, Nathan. I promise . . .” Her heart was in her throat. Not in hear. He would never hurt her. But he sure knew how to pout when he wanted to.
“A little dent.” He gripped her shoulders, moving her aside as he stared down at the crumpled fender as it sank into the bumper of his truck.
It was an accident. It was all his fault. If he hadn’t been wearing those butt-snug jeans and boots with no shirt as he cut the lawn, it would have never happened.
“You hit my truck.” Male pride and offended dignity filled his voice. “That’s my truck, Bella.”
Yes. It was. And he was very proud of the powerful, black four-by-four he babied worse than any woman would a child. She would be jealous if it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t actually bring it into the house.
”
”
Lora Leigh (Wild Card (Elite Ops, #1))
“
He got out of the car and headed up to the house. He looked on the sidewalk where once he had scratched his name on the wet cement, but it was no longer there. It was smooth, like when a wave washes away initials in a heart someone drew in the sand. Always more waves than words in hearts in the sand, it seemed.
”
”
David Duchovny (Bucky F*cking Dent)
“
Having seen several hundred lease agreements entered into by people I have counseled, my financial calculator confirms that the average interest rate is 14 percent. Shouldn’t you lease or rent things that go down in value? Not necessarily, and the math doesn’t work on a car, for sure. Follow me through this example: If you rent (lease) a car with a value of $22,000 for three years, and when you turn it in at the end of that three-year lease the car is worth $10,000, someone has to cover the $12,000 loss. You’re not stupid, so you know that General Motors, Ford, or any of the other auto giants aren’t going to put together a plan to lose money. Your fleece/lease payment is designed to cover the loss in value ($12,000 spread over 36 months is equal to $333 per month), plus provide profit (the interest you pay). Where did you get a deal in that? You didn’t! On top of that, there is the charge of 10 to 17 cents per mile for going over the allotted miles and the penalties everyone turning in a lease has experienced for “excessive wear and tear,” which takes into account every little nick, dent, carpet tear, smudge, or smell. You end up writing a large check just to walk away after renting your car. The whole idea of the back-end penalties is twofold: to get you to fleece/lease another one so you can painlessly roll the gotchas into the new lease, and to make sure the car company makes money.
”
”
Dave Ramsey (The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness)
“
Alfred: Are you alright?
Batman: I'm going to need a better car. Police are here. They'll pick up the others.
Alfred: And they'll probably be back on the streets by sunrise thanks to Harvey Dent. I know you don't want to hear it, but if you want to make Gotham a safer place we need to rethink how we're going to do that. You should come home now. Dinner's gonna get cold.
Batman: Don't tell me it's cottage pie again.
Alfred:...I'll order a pizza.
”
”
Geoff Johns (Batman: Earth One, Volume 2)
“
Seul, il ne saurait où fuir.
Que de fois déjà, las de lui-même est-il descendu, non pour demander secours à quelque autre, mais pour se perdre dans la rue, parc anonyme, mais le plus beau, se forçait-il à croire, de toutes les promesses. Il marchait, ne trouvait point ce rêve sans nom et sans visage en quoi il avait décidé de se perdre. Il marchait. Aucun regard ne retenait le sien. Sur le sol mouillé la plus faible lueur multipliait toute tristesse.
Il marchait et le froid se faisait maillot sous les vêtements, le linge. Ses dents claquaient. Son squelette souffrait seul et tout entier, car déjà ce squelette avait dévoré sa chair. Ce qui, de son corps, demeurait apte au bonheur se fanait. Dans ses poches, ses mains étaient des fleurs, sans sève, sans couleur. Alors il entrait n'importe où, non pour trouver quelque secours précis, humain, car s'il cherchait à retarder la débâcle c'était par d'étranges aides et il n'eût su que faire d'une peau habitée par un esprit semblable au sien.
”
”
René Crevel (Difficult Death (English and French Edition))
“
A massive ball of brown water, uprooted tree trunks, sheared rooftops, bloated horses, stiff dogs and cats, shattered church windows, broken pews, sodden Bibles, Memorial Day flags, busted brick walls, twisted train cars, splintered rail lines, bowed streetlamps, upturned carriages, naked dolls, bent tin soldiers, dented red wagons, books, black stoves, beds, tables, armchairs, mantels, photographs, love letters, wedding dresses, baby booties, and masses of drowned humanity careens straight for us. Neither Eugene Eggar nor I can move.
”
”
Mary Hogan (The Woman in the Photo)
“
One of my favorite Christian authors, Sheldon Vanauken, a friend of C. S. Lewis, said years ago that when you get a new car you should also get a hammer. Take that hammer and go out and put the first dent in the brand new car yourself. Then you’re not afraid to use it anymore. That way you don’t have to park at the end of the parking lot to protect from door dings, because you’ve already put the first dent in it yourself. Vanauken’s point was this: things are not to be loved, they’re to be used. The corollary to that is this: people are not to be used, they’re to be loved.
”
”
Randy Harris (Living Jesus: Doing What Jesus Says in the Sermon on the Mount)
“
Quant à nous, nous respectons çà et là et nous épargnons partout le passé, pourvu qu'il consente à être mort. S'il veut être vivant, nous l'attaquons, et nous tâchons de le tuer.
Superstition, bigotismes, cagotismes, préjugés, ces larves, toutes larves qu'elles sont, sont tenaces à la vie, elles ont des dents et des ongles dans leur fumée, et il faut les étreindre corps à corps, et leur faire la guerre, et la leur faire sans trêve, car c'est une des fatalités de l'humanité d'être condamnée à l'éternel combat des fantômes. L'ombre est difficile à prendre à la gorge et à terrasser.
”
”
Victor Hugo (Les Misérables)
“
Some think that money and what it can buy will make
them happy and so concentrate on earning it. But acquiring
a better car, a nicer house, a better position, or more
comfort will never satisfy them, for they are filled with the
desire to have more. For example, some people have a
passion for cars. It is very important that their car is a good
make and the latest model; it has to have good engineering
and a quality music system. They grow very emotionally
attached to their auto and do not want it to have the
slightest dent or scratch. But their satisfaction from driving
a nice car does not last long. Soon a new model comes
out, and theirs becomes an outdated model. It pains them
to read that a faster car with more accessories and more
advanced engineering is now on the market, and in an
instant moment they lose all the pleasure they had in their
once-coveted possession. Also, their wardrobe becomes a
major problem for ignorant people. Some people want to
follow the latest clothing fashions, even though they may
not have enough money to do so. They buy an outfit that
they like and find attractive, but stop liking it when it goes
out of style or they see it on someone they do not like or,
even worse, a rival. The outfit abruptly loses its appeal and
becomes a source of irritation. In much the same way, seeing
someone wearing nicer clothing than theirs makes
them quite miserable. No matter how nice their own outfits
are, they are worried that they are no more than ordinary,
which makes then unhappy. Their habits, social activities,
material means, or possessions will not make them happy,
and their constant search for more will make them even
more miserable. When they realize that they have really
consumed and wasted all of this life’s pleasures, they generally
get “angry at life.” Unwilling to solve their problems
through belief, they remain mired in confusion and unhappiness.
Therefore, in spite of all their efforts, they remain
confused and unhappy. However, if they practiced religious
morality, they would have a joy deeper than they
could imagine.
”
”
Harun Yahya (Those Who Exhaust All Their Pleasures In This Life)
“
We'd reached the parking lot. Alex stopped.
"You drive to school?" I demanded.
He gestured me ahead of him through the break in the chain fence. "We don't all live five blocks away," he shot back.
"It's eight, actually."
"Fine,eight. And sometimes I walk."
I pictured the stretch between Willing and Society Hill, where I knew he lived somewhere near Sadie. It was quite a distance, and not a particularly scenic one, especially at seven thirty in the morning. "Yeah? When was the last time?"
He didn't answer immediately, leading the way now between the parked cars. He passed a big Jeep that still had its dealer plates, a low-slung-two-door Lexus, and a sick black BMW that all looked like just the sort of cars he would own. "April of last year," he admitted finally. "But it pissed rain on me the whole time, so that's gotta count for something." He stopped by the dented passenger door of an old green Mustang. "Your carriage, my lady."
"Really? This is your car?"
The door made a very scary sound when he opened it. "It's clean," he snapped, and I realized he'd totally missed my point.
"It's amazing.
”
”
Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of Truth or Dare)
“
There’s an unexpected lull in the traffic about two-thirds of the way to Darmstadt, and I make the mistake of breathing a sigh of relief. The respite is short-lived. One moment I’m driving along a seemingly empty road, bouncing from side to side on the Smart’s town-car suspension as the hairdryersized engine howls its guts out beneath my buttocks, and the next instant the dashboard in front of me lights up like a flashbulb. I twitch spasmodically, jerking my head up so hard I nearly dent the thin plastic roof. Behind me the eyes of Hell are open, two blinding beacons like the landing lights on an off-course 747. Whoever they are, they’re standing on their brakes so hard they must be smoking. There’s a roar, and then a squat, red Audi sports coupe pulls out and squeezes past my flank close enough to touch, its blonde female driver gesticulating angrily at me. At least I think she’s blonde and female. It’s hard to tell because everything is gray, my heart is trying to exit through my rib cage, and I’m frantically wrestling with the steering wheel to keep the roller skate from toppling over. A fraction of a second later she’s gone, pulling back into the slow lane ahead of me to light off her afterburners. I swear I see red sparks shooting out of her two huge exhaust tubes as she vanishes into the distance, taking about ten years of my life with her.
”
”
Charles Stross (The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files, #2))
“
When I Have to Confess Something to My Husband Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. JAMES 5:16 THERE ARE TIMES in every wife’s life when she needs to confess something to her husband that will be hard for him to hear. For example, if she has dented the car, or spent too much money, or overdrawn the bank account, or accidentally given away his favorite football shirt—or something even worse—and she knows his reaction to what she has to tell him will not be good, she needs help from above. If this happens to you, the thing to do is pray before you speak. If you have something to tell your husband you know he will not approve of, ask God to help you break it to him in the best way possible. Don’t just blurt it out. Ask God to prepare your husband’s heart to hear hard things without having a bad reaction to them. Ask the Lord to give you the right words to say and the right time to say it. There may be occasions when your husband needs to confess something to you, and you will want to set a good example of calm and patience for him to want to emulate. If you feel your husband overreacts to things, pray that God will give him a compassionate and understanding heart and an even temper. Ask God to plant in him the desire to pray for you instead of criticize or lecture. After you seek your husband’s forgiveness, tell him how effective it would be to pray together about this so that it never happens again. My Prayer to God LORD, help me to speak to my husband about what I know I need to confess to him. Give me the words to say. Open his heart to receive what I need to tell him with a good and godly attitude. If it is something I know I did wrong, help me to not do it again. Give me the wisdom and discernment I need to avoid that in the future. Where it is something I did that I feel was not wrong, but I know he will not be happy about it, help us to talk calmly and peacefully about this issue. Enable us to come to an agreement regarding what should be done in the future. Give my husband and me compassionate attitudes that don’t resort to anger. Help us to talk peacefully and come to a mutual understanding so that we always exhibit respect for each other. Teach us to believe for the best in each other. When I have to confess something that is hard for him to hear, reign in both of our hearts so that our words glorify You. Where there are things that should be confessed to each other but have been hidden because of not wanting to stir up anything negative, I pray You would help us to get these things out in the open honestly. Your Word says that confessing our trespasses—both to You and to each other—can be a prelude to healing, not only of body and soul but also of our relationship and marriage. Enable us to freely confess and freely pray for each other so that we may find the healing we need. In Jesus’ name I pray.
”
”
Stormie Omartian (The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional)
“
Today Ramon defended the garbage bin by Plumpy’s back door, and I defended a shiny silver Mercedes because, according to Ramon, it represented the privileged white aristocracy of America trying to keep the Latino man down.
“Our duel,” Ramon said, spinning his broom like a bo staff, “will represent the struggle our nation’s currently engaged in.”
“Please, we both know you’re just going for home team advantage.”
“You wound me, Sam. I can’t help it if your crackerlike oppression gives me the better playing field.” He did a quick hamstring stretch. “Suck it up.”
“Fine,” I said, “then I get the handicap.”
“Sam, you’re Texas. Texas always gets the handicap.”
“I’m Team Texas again?”
He grinned, rolled his shoulders, and wiggled his arms, loosening them.
I gave up and nodded at the Mercedes. It looked old and expensive, especially in our parking lot. “Shiny.”
Ramon snorted. “Classic. Check out the gullwing doors.”
“Fine. Classic Shiny.”
Ramon tossed an empty Plumpy’s cup into the Dumpster. “Sometimes, Sammy, I question your manhood.”
“A car is to get you from place to place. That’s it.”
Ramon shook his head at my ignorance.
“Whatever. Just try not to dent the car, Team Mexico.”
“It’s Team South America,” he said.
“You do know that Mexico is in North America, right?”
“Yeah, but I have the whole continent behind me.” He held up his fist dramatically. “They support their cousin to the north.” I laughed and he dropped his hand back down. “And it’s that guy’s own fault for parking in our lot so he could sneak over to Eddie Bauer or Starbucks or whatever.
”
”
Lish McBride (Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (Necromancer, #1))
“
Yet at least he had believed in the cars. Maybe to excess: how could he not, seeing people poorer than him come in, Negro, Mexican, cracker, a parade seven days a week, bringing the most godawful of trade-ins: motorized, metal extensions of themselves, of their families and what their whole lives must be like, out there so naked for anybody, a stranger like himself, to look at, frame cockeyed, rusty underneath, fender repainted in a shade just off enough to depress the value, if not Mucho himself, inside smelling hopelessly of children, supermarket booze, two, sometimes three generations of cigarette smokers, or only of dust and when the cars were swept out you had to look at the actual residue of these lives, and there was no way of telling what things had been truly refused (when so little he supposed came by that out of fear most of it had to be taken and kept) and what had simply (perhaps tragically) been lost: clipped coupons promising savings of .05 or .10, trading stamps, pink flyers advertising specials at the markets, butts, tooth-shy combs, help-wanted ads, Yellow Pages torn from the phone book, rags of old underwear or dresses that already were period costumes, for wiping your own breath off the inside of a windshield with so you could see whatever it was, a movie, a woman or car you coveted, a cop who might pull you over just for drill, all the bits and pieces coated uniformly, like a salad of despair, in a gray dressing of ash, condensed exhaust, dust, body wastesit made him sick to look, but he had to look. If it had been an outright junkyard, probably he could have stuck things out, made a career: the violence that had caused each wreck being infrequent enough, far enough away from him, to be miraculous, as each death, up till the moment of our own, is miraculous. But the endless rituals of trade-in, week after week, never got as far as violence or blood, and so were too plausible for the impressionable Mucho to take for long. Even if enough exposure to the unvarying gray sickness had somehow managed to immunize him, he could still never accept the way each owner, each shadow, filed in only to exchange a dented, malfunctioning version of himself for another, just as futureless, automotive projection of somebody else's life. As if it were the most natural thing. To Mucho it was horrible. Endless, convoluted incest.
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49)
“
When Musk took delivery of his F1, CNN was there to cover it. “Just three years ago I was showering at the Y and sleeping on the office floor,” he told the camera sheepishly, “and now obviously, I’ve got a million-dollar car… it’s just a moment in my life.” While other McLaren F1 owners around the world—the sultan of Brunei, Wyclef Jean, and Jay Leno, among others—could comfortably afford it, Musk’s purchase had put a sizable dent in his bank account. And unlike other owners, Musk drove the car to work—and declined to insure it. As Musk drove Thiel up Sand Hill Road in the F1, the car was the subject of their chat. “It was like this Hitchcock movie,” Thiel remembered, “where we’re talking about the car for fifteen minutes. We’re supposed to be preparing for the meeting—and we’re talking about the car.” During their ride, Thiel looked at Musk and reportedly asked, “So, what can this thing do?” “Watch this,” Musk replied, flooring the accelerator and simultaneously initiating a lane change on Sand Hill Road. In retrospect, Musk admitted that he was outmatched by the F1. “I didn’t really know how to drive the car,” he recalled. “There’s no stability systems. No traction control. And the car gets so much power that you can break the wheels free at even fifty miles an hour.” Thiel recalls the car in front of them coming fast into view—then Musk swerving to avoid it. The McLaren hit an embankment, was tossed into the air—“like a discus,” Musk remembered——then slammed violently into the ground. “The people that saw it happen thought we were going to die,” he recalled. Thiel had not worn a seat belt, but astonishingly, neither he nor Musk were hurt. Musk’s “work of art” had not fared as well, having now taken a distinctly cubist turn. Post-near-death experience, Thiel dusted himself off on the side of the road and hitchhiked to the Sequoia offices, where he was joined by Musk a short while later. X.com’s CEO, Bill Harris, was also waiting at the Sequoia office, and he recalled that both Thiel and Musk were late but offered no explanation for their delay. “They never told me,” Harris said. “We just had the meeting.” Reflecting on it, Musk found humor in the experience: “I think it’s safe to say Peter wouldn’t be driving with me again.” Thiel wrung some levity out of the moment, too. “I’d achieved lift-off with Elon,” he joked, “but not in a rocket.
”
”
Jimmy Soni (The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley)
“
He moved his lips to my cheek, to my ear, back to my mouth. I had never been kissed like this in my life. Each time I thought I should protest because there were so many unsettled matters between us, Hunter kissed me harder, forcing those concerns out of my mind. The cold air heated up around us.
He unsnapped the top of my jacket and slipped his hand inside. His warm palm cupped my breast beneath my shirt.
Then he straightened, blinking at me, and pulled his hand away.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Okay,” he panted. “I’m going to kick myself for this in the morning, but I don’t want to do this while I’m drunk. And I don’t want to do it behind the stable. I want everything to be perfect between you and me.” He stroked my hair away from my face. “Are you mad?”
“Mad?” I squeaked. “No. Horny? Yes. Frustrated?”
“Yes.” He set his forehead against mine.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Mad? No.”
He watched me with serious eyes. His gaze fell to my chest. He fastened the snaps he’d unfastened a few moments before, then put his hands on my shoulders. “I’m just so thankful we’re finally together.”
“Me, too,” I whispered. I felt uncomfortable saying this. I wished I had a cell phone so I could call Summer for verification that I was not making a terrible mistake. But she would yell at me and tell me to stop being stupid. I did not need her permission to fall in love.
He kissed me on the forehead, then stood, holding out his hand to me. “I’ll walk you home.”
I took his hand and swung it as we rounded the stable again, back the way we’d come. “I’ll walk you home,” I said.
With his other hand he gestured toward the top of my grandmother’s mansion, just visible over the rise. “I’m not leaving you wandering around in the night with all these drunk people and, my God, Whitfield Farrell and his fucking bowl.”
I giggled. It made me insanely happy that he was jealous of Whitfield Farrell. “You’re drunk, though. You might stumble into the road and get hit by a car.”
“They will be sorry,” he said. “I will dent their car. I am strong like an ox.”
I burst into laughter, and he laughed with me. He was so handsome in the gentle starlight, and he looked so happy. I couldn’t remember ever being this happy myself. I was still nearly broke and my grandmother hated me and I had a history paper due Monday that I hadn’t started writing, but I could handle all of this with Hunter laughing beside me. I squeezed his warm hand.
“I’ll cross back through the pasture if it makes you feel better.” Dropping my hand, he draped his arm around me and pulled me close for another kiss on the forehead. He walked me all the way down to his house, backed me against the front door, and thoroughly kissed me good night.
”
”
Jennifer Echols (Love Story)
“
Wraiths see death in everything. They do not see things in the physical world as they appear, but as they someday will be. A person about to die might appear cadaverous, with hollow eyes and jaundiced skin; a car destined to crash will appear dented in advance. Much of the world seems decayed, a near collapse. Billboards are tattered, roads are potholed, pain is peeling, metal is rusting, buildings are crumpling. To the Restless, much of the world is already dead.
”
”
Mark Rein-Hagen (Wraith: The Oblivion)
“
Miss Vera has become one of the cars you see by the roadside—abandoned,dented and bloody. A mystery that only we have the answer to. But I don't feel as sad as I expected at her loss: We're still alive, and for all her beauty she is, after all, just an artfully arranged collection of wood and metal.
”
”
Sarah Lyons Fleming (All the Stars in the Sky (Until the End of the World, #3))
“
Oil Change instructions for Women:
1. Pull up to Dealership when the mileage reaches 5,000 miles since the last oil change.
2. Relax in the waiting room while enjoying a cup of coffee.
3. 15 minutes later, scan debit card and leave, driving a properly maintained vehicle.
Money spent:
Oil Change:$24.00
Coffee: Complementary
TOTAL: $24.00
Oil Change instructions for Men:
1. Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, and use your debit card for $50.00.
2. Stop to buy a case of beer, (debit $24), drive home.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack truck up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6.. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss.
12. Crawl out from under truck to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.
13. Have another beer while watching oil drain.
14. Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; crawl under truck and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.
16. Crawl out from under truck with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.
17. Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.
18. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
19. Remember drain plug from step 11.
20. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
21. Drink beer.
22. Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.
23. Get drain plug back in with only a minor spill. Drink beer.
24. Crawl under truck getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame removing any excess skin between knuckles and frame.
25. Begin cussing fit.
26. Throw stupid crescent wrench.
27. Cuss for additional 5 minutes because wrench hit truck and left dent.
28. Beer.
29. Clean up hands and bandage as required to stop blood flow.
30. Beer.
31. Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.
32. Beer.
33. Lower truck from jack stands.
34. Move truck back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during any missed steps.
35. Beer.
36. Test drive truck.
37. Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.
38. Truck gets impounded.
39. Call loving wife, make bail.
40. 12 hours later, get truck from impound yard.
Money spent:
Parts: $50.00
DUI: $2,500.00
Impound fee: $75.00
Bail: $1,500.00
Beer: $20.00
TOTAL: $4,145.00
But you know the job was done right!
”
”
James Hilton
“
Fort heureusement, même si la volonté accordée la naissance est faible, il est toujours possible de la renforcer. Il s'agit de la développer petit petit et cela peut prendre beaucoup de temps, ce qui est aussi le cas pour la force physique. Au début, on peut avoir l'impression que rien ne change. Le doute, la paresse, l'envie de tout abandonner peuvent alors commencer à se manifester. Mais il faut les combattre, serrer les dents et persévérer. Et au moment où on se dit que rien ne changera jamais, il se produit un événement qui nous fait découvrir qu'on est différent de celui qu'on était avant. On continue de faire des efforts, dans une succession de jours monotones, et soudain, on découvre que celui qu'on est devenu est encore différent de celui qu'on était jusqu'à maintenant, et ainsi de suite. Grand-mère s'interrompit quelques secondes. Mais la grande différence avec l'entraînement physique ou le développement d'autres compétences, c'est qu'il est plus facile d'échouer, car ce sont souvent ceux qui manquent de volonté qui veulent relever le défi, conclut-elle lentement.
”
”
Nashiki (Un'estate con la Strega dell'Ovest)
“
The Keeling Curve is a useful reality check, one that cuts through all the noise and confusion of the climate and energy debates. Unlike the slopes of the huge volcano on which it is measured, the initially gentle upward curve gets steeper the higher you go. That means that the rate of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere is steadily increasing, from roughly 1 ppm in the early years to about 2 ppm annually today. There is no visible slowdown, no sudden downwards blip, to mark the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, still less 2009’s Copenhagen ‘two degrees’ commitment or the landmark Paris Agreement of 2015. All those smiling heads of state shaking hands, the diplomats hugging on the podium after marathon sessions of all-night negotiating – none of that actually made any identifiable difference to the Keeling Curve, which is the only thing that actually matters to the planet’s temperature. All our solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, lithium-ion batteries, LED lightbulbs, nuclear plants, biogas digesters, press conferences, declarations, pieces of paper; all our shouting and arguing, weeping and marching, reporting and ignoring, decrying and denying; all our speeches, movies, websites, lectures and books; our announcements, carbon-neutral targets, moments of joy and despair; none of these to date have so much as made the slightest dent in the steepening upward slope of the Keeling Curve.
”
”
Mark Lynas (Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency)
“
A loser like Larry didn’t deserve a fine vintage car like Gloria. The Corvette Stingray had been lovingly restored by a jackass who named his car, yet treated his kids like afterthoughts.
I planned to lovingly tear the fucking thing apart.
“Have your fun then we’ll torch it and get a beer,” Vaughn said, yawning.
“Did anyone see you?” I asked just to annoy him.
My question worked like a charm and Vaughn squinted disgusted at me then walked over to a large rock where he sat down and looked at his phone.
Swinging the bat, I smashed out the taillight. As painful as it was to tear apart such a beautiful car, Lark needed vengeance. In my mind, I wasn’t hitting the Corvette. I was destroying every person who ever hurt my girl. Every stepfather who hit her, mocked her, and ignored her. I imagined the hung over fucker who let her little brother die. I even pictured her mother who chose the latest fuck over her own kids.
I hated them all for every tear Lark ever shed. If I couldn’t hunt them down, I’d destroyed the prized possession of the latest bastard to mistreat my muse.
Smashing the windows, the lights, denting the cherry red doors, I trashed the car until I was out of breath. Eventually, I grabbed a blade and tore the tires, just to finish off my rage.
“Wuss,” Vaughn said, standing over me as I leaned against the car. “Shame about Gloria. She was a beauty.”
“I haven’t been to the batting cage in awhile. I think I pulled something”
“Sure,” Vaughn muttered, yanking me to my feet. “Let’s light this little bitch up and get a beer.”
“I need to get home to Lark.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I steal this car for you and don’t even get to trash it and you won’t have a beer with me? What an asshole.”
“Please, don’t cry,” I said, patting his shoulder. “I don’t have the energy to hold you until your sobs turn to baby hiccups.”
Vaughn laughed. “I miss Judd. The guy knew how to drink a beer and he didn’t mind when I pissed myself weeping like a chick.”
“The guy is the epitome of patience,” I said, picking up the container of gas. “Or indifference. He always did seem a little bored when you two were talking.”
“You looking to have me use that bat on you, is that it?”
Grinning, I splashed gasoline on Gloria, careful not to have the liquid hit me. Once the car was thoroughly drenched, Vaughn lit a match.
”
”
Bijou Hunter (Damaged and the Cobra (Damaged, #3))
“
I must have fallen asleep on a rock. It’s digging into my shoulder blade. I scrunch up and start to roll over, but then freeze.
It’s not just a single rock. It’s a giant one. Like concrete.
I go numb as I realize what this means. It can’t be…I ease open my eye, and then in an instant I’m sitting upright and looking around. And all I see are cars. And people in blue jeans. And street signs. And I smell smog and I hear radios crackling in the passing cabs.
I close my eyes for at least ten seconds and then open them again, but it’s all still there.
The twenty-first century.
I can’t stop my face from falling. I’m back. Just when I’d realized I don’t want this at all, I’m back. My shopping bags are strewn around me. I’m wearing jeans. A T-shirt. My heels.
I glance back to realize the Prada shop is still a few yards behind me, just where I’d left it. I’m sitting in the exact spot I’d fallen down.
I never left at all.
I stay put for a few moments as a pounding headache fades.
Alex. Emily. Even Victoria.
They were all make-believe. Some figment of my banged-up brain. That means the kiss…God, I made it all up! Every single thing!
I want to lie back down, close my eyes, and go back. I want horrible soup and stiff corsets and lump mattresses. I’ll trade it all to see Alex again. To go to Emily’s wedding.
A man trips on my foot and then has the nerve to glare at me, even though he basically kicked me in the shin.
Yes, I’m definitely in the twenty-first century.
I scramble to my feet and wipe the dirt off my jeans and lean over to pick up my bags. And then I notice them.
My heels. My beautiful, damaged heels. I glance over my shoulder. Yes, the Prada shop is definitely still behind me. I’ve gone maybe four steps from the door. Nowhere near enough to ruin the heels like this. They’re scuffed, dented, and scratched.
I gather up the rest of my bags, my grin in full-force. It wasn’t fake. It wasn’t make-believe or a dream or anything.
It happened. As sure as the mud on the heels, it happened. There’s even a dent where the front door of Harksbury bounced off the toe.
I don’t know how or why or anything, but somehow, I was there. I danced with Alex and helped Emily. I played a piano for a duke and a countess, and I ate more exotic animals than I ever wanted to.
But it happened. I don’t understand it; I only know that the last month was real, and it was the best of my life.
I sling the bags over my shoulder and practically skip down the block. No matter what happens next, no matter what happens for the rest of my life, I have something no one else will ever have. An adventure to rival Indiana Jones. A crazy month that can never be replicated.
”
”
Mandy Hubbard (Prada & Prejudice)
“
the damage. It was hard to ignore. My car had dented
”
”
Ellen Lane (My Billionaire Collision)
“
But Musk had little interest in polishing up Tesla’s assets for the highest bidder. He’d started the company to put a dent in the automotive industry and force people to rethink electric cars.
”
”
Ashlee Vance (Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future)
“
The animals had filled the tidy new freight cars with the lingering smell of their sweat and waste, parasites infesting the cracks between the hoof-dented boards, the feeling of imminent slaughter staying with the train forever. Soon
”
”
Ian Kharitonov (The Russian Renaissance (Sokolov Saga Book 1))
“
While many of us admire nice things, materialism and suffering may share a connection. When we place a great deal of our happiness in material things, we run the great risk of losing our happiness when our material things become lost, old, or damaged. Toys break. Cars get dents. Clothes get ripped. Jewels get lost or stolen. Riches come and go.
If we collect moments rather than things, these are ours to keep. If we redefine wealth by the amount of love and kindness we afford ourselves to give to others, we can transform our lives.
”
”
Ann Brasco
“
Si le Mal veut te causer du tort, t’infliger de la souffrance, devance-le et porte-lui le coup fatal, de préférence quand il ne s’y attend pas. Si tu n’es pas parvenu à le prendre de court, si tu as été meurtri par le Mal, alors rends-lui la monnaie de sa pièce ! Tombe-lui dessus, de préférence quand il aura relâché sa vigilance et qu’il se sentira en sécurité. Fais-lui deux fois, trois fois plus de mal qu’il t’en a fait. Œil pour œil ? Non ! Les deux yeux pour un seul œil ! Dent pour dent ? Non ! Pour une dent toute la gueule ! Réclame vengeance ! Fais-le hurler de douleur, jusqu’à ce que ce hurlement fasse péter les globes de ses yeux. Et alors, en baissant les yeux vers le sol, tu pourras affirmer ouvertement et avec assurance : ce qui gît là ne meurtrira ni ne menacera plus personne. Car comment peut-il menacer quelqu’un s’il n’a plus ses yeux ? S’il n’a plus ses deux mains ? Comment peut-il meurtrir quelqu’un quand ses viscères sont répandus sur le sol et que son sang s’infiltre dans le sable ?
”
”
Andrzej Sapkowski (Wieża Jaskółki (Saga o Wiedźminie, #4))
“
One mild and ordinary work-morning in Chicago, Lew happened to find himself on a public conveyance, head and eyes inclined nowhere in particular, when he entered, all too briefly, a condition he had no memory of having sought, which he later came to think of as grace. Despite the sorry history of rapid transit in this city, the corporate neglect and high likelihood of collision, injury, and death, the weekday-morning overture blared along as usual. Men went on grooming mustaches with gray-gloved fingers. A rolled umbrella dented a bowler hat, words were exchanged. Girl amanuenses in little Leghorn straw hats and striped shirtwaists with huge shoulders that took up more room in the car than angels’ wings dreamed with contrary feelings of what awaited them on upper floors of brand-new steel-frame “skyscrapers.” The horses stepped along in their own time and space. Passengers snorted, scratched, and read the newspaper, sometimes all at once, while others imagined that they could get back to some kind of vertical sleep. Lew found himself surrounded by a luminosity new to him, not even observed in dreams, nor easily attributable to the smoke-inflected sun beginning to light Chicago. He understood that things were exactly what they were. It seemed more than he could bear. He
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (Against the Day)
“
One mild and ordinary work-morning in Chicago, Lew happened to find himself on a public conveyance, head and eyes inclined nowhere in particular, when he entered, all too briefly, a condition he had no memory of having sought, which he later came to think of as grace. Despite the sorry history of rapid transit in this city, the corporate neglect and high likelihood of collision, injury, and death, the weekday-morning overture blared along as usual. Men went on grooming mustaches with gray-gloved fingers. A rolled umbrella dented a bowler hat, words were exchanged. Girl amanuenses in little Leghorn straw hats and striped shirtwaists with huge shoulders that took up more room in the car than angels’ wings dreamed with contrary feelings of what awaited them on upper floors of brand-new steel-frame “skyscrapers.” The horses stepped along in their own time and space. Passengers snorted, scratched, and read the newspaper, sometimes all at once, while others imagined that they could get back to some kind of vertical sleep. Lew found himself surrounded by a luminosity new to him, not even observed in dreams, nor easily attributable to the smoke-inflected sun beginning to light Chicago. He understood that things were exactly what they were. It seemed more than he could
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (Against the Day)
“
Once in power, Zayed was an energized man. One of his first acts in office was to throw open the palace strongbox, giving away all the money that his brother had stockpiled. Zayed made an incredible announcement: Anyone in the seven Trucial States who needed cash for any reason should come see him. People streamed in from every corner of every sheikhdom, traveling to Abu Dhabi by camel, by car, by dhow, and on foot. They lined up outside the leader’s palace, waiting for their turn to ask, and receive. Zayed kept up the handouts until he emptied the coffers. 13 The big giveaway sounds like a crazy idea, especially coming as it did before the UAE emerged as an in de pen dent nation, so that most of the recipients were, essentially, foreigners. But Zayed’s gifts weren’t mislaid. Local Arabs considered such over-the-top generosity as the behavior of their kind of leader. The upstarts in Dubai couldn’t match the gesture, nor could the has-beens in Sharjah. Zayed’s giveaway went a long way toward welding disparate sheikhdoms into a nation—and toward positioning Zayed as the paternal über-sheikh who should rule. Sheikh Zayed didn’t disappoint. Each year for the rest of his reign, he made a splashy tour around the emirates, visiting even the dust bowl towns of Ajman and Umm Al-Quwain. People yelled, “The president is coming! The president is coming!” and lined up to greet the great sheikh. He would ask what they needed. “Anything you want, tell me,” Zayed would say. His subjects asked for houses, overseas medical treatment, or the release of a jailed brother. Some handed requests scribbled onto sheets of paper, lest the great sheikh forget. Zayed’s handlers from the diwan, his royal court, compiled names, phone numbers, and requests. Over the next few weeks, the diwan would send officials knocking at each door with cash, whether 10,000 dirhams or 100,000 dirhams. 14 It was a fantastic nation-building tool. Not just the handouts of cash, but the in-person availability of the national ruler, who would respond like a kind father to personal needs. How could anyone speak against the union if it put cash in your hand? “We used to think he was too generous, that
”
”
Jim Krane (Dubai: The Story of the World's Fastest City)
“
an instant, a simple swatch of light, then movement: the blond-haired executioner. She stood in a doorway just beyond the street corner, hiding, waiting, arms raised and weapon trained. The reflection in the car window saved Dewey from what would have been, in five feet or so, a warm bullet in the back of the head. Dewey stopped just before the corner, feet away from where the blond assassin lurked. He looked behind him, down the block he’d just run down, and saw a Laundromat. He dropped back and entered the Laundromat. He ran through the store, pushing his way past piles of laundry and women folding articles, to the back room, where a man sat, smoking a cigarette in front of a pile of papers. “Lo siento,” murmured Dewey as he charged through the office toward an alley entrance, gun in hand. The sirens became louder, multiple vehicles joining in the distance. Out the door and across the alley and through a dented steel door. Inside, stacks of bread loaves, other boxes of food, the smell of meat. He moved through the storage room and entered the back of a bodega. Colt .45 cocked in front of him, he passed a middle-aged woman who fainted as she saw the weapon in his hand. Catching the eye of the man at the cash register, Dewey held a finger to his lips. There, at the side of the entrance, her back to the store, stood the blond assassin. Suddenly another customer, an elderly woman, screamed as she saw Dewey with gun. The blonde turned abruptly, leveling what he now saw was an HK UMP compact machine gun with a six-inch suppressor on the end. A full auto hail of bullets crashed through the windows as she swept the weapon east-west. The elderly woman’s screams ended abruptly as a bullet ripped through her head and killed her. The assassin’s bullets shattered the storefront’s glass, but Dewey was already down and partially hidden by a chest freezer, which shielded him from the slugs. As soon as the blonde’s gun swept past him, Dewey had a clear sight. He fired twice, two quick shots into the assassin’s neck and chest, flinging her backward onto the brick sidewalk in a shower of blood and glass. Dewey ran
”
”
Ben Coes (Power Down (Dewey Andreas, #1))
“
Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
”
”
Car Body Repairs Colchester
“
Les économistes les plus coriaces se sont cassé les dents – même celles qui sont en or – sur l'épineuse question de la vie financière à Montaubout. Le premier os à ronger (non des moindres), demeure celui de la monnaie. Madame la Présidente a refusé de plier à la dure loi de la soumission aux monnaies existantes : dollar, livre sterling, euro, franc CFA… Les autorités économiques internationales ont toute reçu la même réponse d'une clarté aveuglante : « Inutile d'avoir une monnaie unique, car elles sont toutes iniques. » L'emploi de ce mot peu usité est d'abord passé pour une coquille journalistique ; puis pour une coquetterie langagière de madame la Présidente voulant exposer sa parfaite maîtrise de la langue française, mais au final, il s'est avéré que ce n'était ni l'un, ni l'autre, mais bel et bien un choix politique et économique fort.
(p. 35)
”
”
Thierry Moral (Dernières nouvelles de Montaubout)
“
Mendadent is a specialist car body repair shop in Greater Manchester, operating across Wigan, Bolton, Leigh, Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bolton. We provide quality SMART repair services, including alloy wheel repair, car scratch repair, car bumper repair, car dent removal and car detailing. We also offer mobile car body repairs for extra convenience. Whether you have been the victim of a road accident, vandalism or general wear and tear that has left your car with minor damage, our specialists are equipped to fix up any imperfections until your car has been restored to its former glory. We also offer SMART repair franchise opportunities to ambitious individuals who want to be their own boss. Visit our website for more information.
”
”
Mendadent Car Body Repairs Limited
“
Whether you're looking for a smaller scale repair, such as scuff or dent removal, or a full car body restoration, our team of autobody repair specialists are here to help. Providing our customers with an array of car body repairs within Barrow-in-Furness and the surrounding areas, we pride ourselves on our efficiency and excellent quality services. From spray painting and panel beating to alloy wheel refurbishment, shot blasting and everything in between, we have got you covered.
”
”
IRVS Autobody Repairs Limited
“
As far as real life goes, however, serial homicide no longer commands the kind of attention it once did. In the fall of 2018, a seventy-eight-year-old convict named Samuel Little, serving three life sentences for the murders of three Los Angeles women in the 1980s, admitted to police that he had committed more than ninety murders over a five-decade span, picking up “vulnerable women from bars, nightclubs and along streets and strangl[ing] them to death in the back seat of his car.”7 The claim—which authorities believed to be true—would make him the most prolific serial sex-killer in the annals of US crime. Though Little’s shocking revelation was certainly noted in the national press, it disappeared from the news within days and, from all available evidence, barely made a dent in public awareness—a radical difference from the days when, for example, the confessions of Henry Lee Lucas rocketed him to instant (and lasting) nationwide notoriety.
”
”
Harold Schechter (Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer)
“
The city had never been more corrupt, with local government by fiat and the threat of political violence never far away, and, strangely, it had never been more relevant. Under the watchful eye of Pendergast, Walt Disney opened Laugh-O-Gram Studios near Thirty-First and Troost Avenue. Cub reporter Ernest Hemingway wrote short, declarative sentences at The Kansas City Star (abiding by the paper’s house style). Nell Donnelly popularized gingham for American mothers and built a fashion empire. Baseball stars Paige and O’Neil turned the Kansas City Monarchs into a Negro Leagues powerhouse. Homer B. Roberts invested profits to open another car dealership in Chicago. Even Pendergast’s detractors fed off his power. During his reign, local boosters were crazy enough to talk about Kansas City becoming a city of one million people, more than double its size. It still felt like the city could turn into something great, following the trajectory of the many jazz musicians who passed through. Basie stuck around for nine years. Kansas City, in his eyes, was “a cracker town but a happy town.
”
”
Mark Dent (Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin' Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback)
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Squeeeeeeeak. Kay and I sit silently in the car as the garage door cranks open. She’s wearing her shrunken and purple-splashed Knowledge Maestros sweatshirt. I’m wearing my shrunken and purple-splashed button-down and breeches. “Well, at least we got all the bad luck out of our system early!” I say, trying to sound cheerful as Kay glowers from behind the steering wheel. “The day has to get better from here.” Crunch. Kay rolls over something. It’s my boots. Because of course I left them right behind the car so I wouldn’t forget them in the morning. Mission accomplished! “Okay, so it has to get better from here,” I say as I run back to grab the scuffed and dented boots and tug them onto my feet.
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Carrie Seim (Horse Girl)
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Voilà à quoi je pensais, tandis que je marchais pour rentrer chez moi, légèrement ivre, après avoir quitté L. devant le bar où nous avions bu un troisième verre. Nous avions bien ri, elle et moi, au fond de la salle, car finalement la conversation avait dévié sur nos passions adolescentes, avant Barthes et toute la clique, à l’époque où nous accrochions des posters dans notre chambre.
J'avais raconté à L. les deux années durant lesquelles, vers l'âge de seize ans, j'avais contracté puis developpé une cristallisation spectaculaire sur la personne d'Ivan Lendl, un joueur de tennis tchécoslovaque au physique ingrat dont je percevais la beauté obscure et saisissante, au point que je m'étais abonnée à Tennis Magazine (moi que je n'avais jamais touché une raquette de ma vie) et avais passé des heures devant les retransmissions televisées du tournoi de Roland Garros et Wimbledon au lieu de réviser mon bac. L. étais sidérée. Elle aussi l'avait adoré! C'était bien la première fois que je rencontrais quelqu'un qui avait aimé Ivan Lendl, l'un des joueurs les plus detestés de l'histoire du tennis, sans doute à cause de son visage austère que rien ne pouvait dérider, et de son jeu de fond de court, méthodique et rébarbatif. Selon toute vraisemblance, c'est d'ailleurs pour ces raisons, parce qu'il était si grand, maigre et incompris, que je l'ai tant aimé. À la même époque, oui, exactement, L. avait suivi tous les matchs d'Ivan Lendl, elle s'en souvenait parfaitement, notamment de cette fameuse finale de Roland Garros jouée contre John McEnroe, que Lendl avait gagné à l'issue d'un combat d'une rare intensité dramatique. Les images l'avaient alors montré victorieux, défiguré pour l'épuisement, et pour la première fois le monde entier avait découvert son sourire. L. était incollable, se souvenait de tous les détails de la vie et de la carrière d'Ivan Lendl que j'avais pour ma part oubliés. C'était incroyable, plus de vingt ans après, de nous imaginer toutes les deux hypnotisées devant nos postes de télevision, elle en banlieue parisienne et mois dans un village de Normandie, souhaitant l'une et l'autre avec la même ardeur le sacre de l'homme de l'Est. L. savait auusi ce qu’Ivan Lendl était devenu, elle avait suivi tout cela de très près, sa carrière comme sa vie privée. Ivan Lendl était marié et père de quatre enfants, vivait aux Ètats-Unis, entraînait de jeunes joueurs de tennis et s’était fait refaire les dents. L. déplorait ce dernier point, la disparition du sourire tchécoslovaque (dents rangées de manière inégale dont on devinait le chevauchement) au profit d’un sourire américain (dents fausses parfaitement alignées, d’un blanc éclatant), selon elle, il y avait perdu tout son charme, je n’avais qu’à vérifier sur Internet si je ne la croyais pas.
C’était un drôle de coïncidence. Un point commun parmi d’autres, qui nous rapprochait.
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Delphine de Vigan (D'après une histoire vraie)
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First time fucking driving and I fucking crash,” I muttered.
"Good thing is, it’s a minor dent,” piped the helpful back seat, “Mum probably won’t even notice it, her eyes as they are and all.”
“Thanks man. Makes me feel good about myself, taking advantage of your blind mom.
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Finn Eccleston (The Community: A Funny and Disturbing Conspiracy Mystery Novel (Project M Book 1))
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Trusted mobile dent repair for your convenience - PAINTLESS DENT REMOVAL SPECIALISTS.
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Car Dent Repair Lancashire UK
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Affordable dent removal services in Lancashire. We offer paintless dent removal, car dent repair, and more. Contact us for a free quote. Mobile Paintless Dent Removal, also known as PDR, is a method used to repair and remove damage on vehicles. This can range from small dents, to creases, to considerable sized accident damage. Using PDR is an excellent way to restore your vehicle back to its factory finish and keep its value up.
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Dent Repairs Lancashire
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there was no profession in the state of Texas with worse job security than that of high school football coach. Coaches were fired all the time for poor records. Sometimes it happened with the efficiency of a bloodless coup—one day the coach was there at the office decorated in the school colors and the next day he was gone, as if he had never existed. But sometimes he was paraded before school board meetings to be torn apart by the public in a scene like something out of the Salem witch trials, or had several thousands of dollars’ worth of damage done to his car by rocks thrown by irate fans, or responded to a knock on the door to find someone with a shotgun who wasn’t there to fire him but to complain about his son’s lack of playing time. When Gaines himself went home that Friday night at about two in the morning he found seven FOR SALE signs planted in his lawn. The next night, someone had also smashed a pumpkin into his car, causing a dent. It didn’t bother him. He was the coach. He got paid for what he did and he was tough enough to take it. But he did get upset when he heard that several FOR SALE signs had also been punched into Chavez’s lawn. Brian was just a player, a senior in high school, but that didn’t seem to matter. “That’s sick to me,” said Gaines. “I just can’t understand it.
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H.G. Bissinger (Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream)
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in his car and drove off. “Hey,” Eric said and pointed to a cab at the end of the line. It had a large dent in its hood. “The thief may be in one of the other smashed cars.” Cam looked at the cab with the dented hood. Then she saw another cab stop. A man got out. He was carrying a small suitcase. Cam looked at the front of the line. A woman and a small child got into a cab while the driver loaded two large suitcases into the trunk. Cam’s grandparents and the two police officers returned to the curb. Eric and Cam’s parents watched them look at each of the cabs. Cam didn’t. She closed her eyes and said, “Click!” As a cab at the front of the line drove off, all the others moved up. Others kept joining the end of the line.
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David A. Adler (The Birthday Mystery (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #20))
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There are only two audible words on the entire tape from this man and you think he’s the pope?” He asks me this as if he’s a father questioning me, his teenage daughter, about the dent in the family car. Do men see these power relationships in the same way? Do other women? I put that question on the side burner.
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Andrew Mayne (Name of the Devil (Jessica Blackwood #2))
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Most any wrecked car can still be useful, even if the outside looks like it's been through hell. If only people were that resilient. Now, I told you all that so I could explain the exception - sometimes, a car's been through enough. It's too old, too rusty, too dented to pound back into shape. Every good piece stripped off, sold to the highest bidder. Obsolete to the point that nobody will ever come looking for its parts again. That's a sad thought, right? The day will come when nobody will ever ask about you, ever again.
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David Reed (Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting)
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The Pontiac dented and rust-flecked meant it was 1974, since cars are the way working-class people of the deep south truly mark their time. Listen to them sometime, when they’re roping for a memory – they will find it next to a yellow Oldsmobile.
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Rick Bragg (The Prince of Frogtown)
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Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
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Dent Removal Colchester
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Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
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Accident Repairs Colchester
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Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
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Fleet Vehicle Maintenance
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Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
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Dent Removal Sudbury
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Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
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Car Body Repair Sudbury
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High quality autobody repair services throughout barrow and the surrounding areas. Whether you're looking for a smaller scale repair, such as scuff or dent removal, or a full car body restoration, our team of autobody repair specialists are here to help with all jobs, big or small. Providing our customers with an array of car body repairs within Barrow-in-Furness and the surrounding areas, we pride ourselves on our efficiency and excellent quality services. From spray painting and panel beating to alloy wheel refurbishment, shot blasting and everything in between, we have got you covered.
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Autobody Repairs Barrow
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Welcome to our one-stop body repair shop. Whether you've been involved in an accident or require work done on your treasured classic car we offer a full range of vehicle body repair services. From classic car servicing to motorhome repairs and dent removals to respraying, we have the skills and experience in a wide range of vehicle repairs to deliver you the high quality service you require.
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Car Body Shop Sudbury
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Ah, qu'elle fut bien la reine des Iles, du Labyrinthe et du Moulin à vent!
Ce qui était royal, c'était son rire.
C'était une grande fille souriante qui avait l'air tendre, intelligent, ironique et grave des Françaises. Elle sentait la pipe, la lavande, l'eau de Javel et l'herbe mouillée. Et on aimait ce mélange dès qu'on approchait d'elle.
Je n'oublierai jamais non plus ses mains trop longues, ses cheveux lourds et ses dents blanches. Mais on ne la connaissait pas tant qu'on ne l'avait pas entendue rire. Car son rire ne lui ressemblait pas, du moins se le figurait-on la première fois qu'on l'entendait. Parce qu'elle avait l'air d'un maigre adolescent, on s'attendait à un rire âpre, aigu, ou même méchant, ou ironique tout au moins, qui eût senti, comme ses mains, le chlore et la lavande. Et c'était tout le contraire. Il s'épanouissait comme des grappes de lilas, et quand il éclatait en plein c'était comme un jardin de juin, de pivoines, de roses, de fleurs rouges, avec des timbres d'instruments, dorés, ambrés, des cuivres et des cordes, un carillon et un reposoir de Fête-Dieu, un rire de reine, je ne sais comment dire. Si bien que son corps de plante grimpante, son menton de chat, ses yeux de félin, tout ce qu'il y avait en elle de pâle et d'anguleux, son regard vert, son teint d'aquarelle, n'avaient plus l'air que de l'alibi de la femme inattendue qui se cachait en elle, - et qui devait être la vraie, car le rire est une chose sérieuse, - et que l'harmonie du tout rappelait celle d'une eau verte qui reflète le grand soleil (il fallait de l'eau pour l'expliquer, sa fluidité, ses contrastes).
Si son fiancé avait fait d'elle, je ne sais trop pourquoi, la reine des Choses qui Volent, elle ne m'est jamais apparue que comme la reine des Choses Liquides, celles qui coulent et qui s'enfuient, - mais qui reflètent les châteaux et les villes, - la reine des brumes, des eaux, des algues. Et son rire, au milieu de cet océan vert, était comme une île de corail.
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Alexandre Vialatte (Les Fruits du Congo)
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CoaterZ in Palm Harbor is Pinellas County's One-Stop Shop for premium auto and boat restoration and customization needs. Specializing in ceramic coating, paint protection film (PPF), car window tinting, car wraps, auto detailing, auto paint correction, paintless dent repair, and more. Our services will not only protect your car or boat but will also enhance it's appearance. CoaterZ also offers wheels, tires, and truck accessories.
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CoaterZ LLC
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Mendadent is a specialist car body repair shop in Greater Manchester, providing quality SMART repair services, including: Alloy wheel repair, car scratch repair, car bumper repair, car dent removal, car detailing. We also offer a mobile repair service, enabling us to work at a time and place that suits you. Based in Leigh, Mendadent offer car body repair services to customers in Leigh, Manchester, Wigan, Bolton, Salford, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, and the surrounding Greater Manchester area.
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Mendadent Repair Centre
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Our team of specialists is well trained, certified and highly skilled to fix your auto body repair and remove any car dent you may have. With over 30 years of experience providing car collision repair, car detailing, used car inspections, or any car body repair services necessary, we guarantee our workmanship will make your car look good as new as quickly as possible.
Another procedure which we are skilled at is paintless dent removal. It is a cost effective way to repair minor dents and dings in which the car paint or metal have not been stretched. The reason it is so cost effective is because there is no need for filling or painting the car. It takes an experienced hand to do paintless dent repair, because in the wrong hands it can create more dents and scratches to the car.
We have built a reputation and trust with our clients in Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza and countless Orange County families and car fleets. For this reason, we have earned their repeat business and referrals of clients, friends and families. As a result, we reward our clients with incentives to say thank you for their continued support.
So don’t drive around in a damaged car. Let Mission Viejo Auto Collision do what we do best and restore your car to its mint condition in no time. Contact us at (949) 951-7503 for your next auto body repair in Orange County.
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Mission Viejo Auto Collision
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The trip here had been rough going—Juliet drove with a focused aggression that made most road-rage incidents seem like brief, contemplative interludes, and she punished the sleek, overpowered sports car as though it had done her some terrible harm—but it didn’t seem to have dented her appetite at all.
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Mike Carey (Dead Men's Boots (Felix Castor, #3))
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barns. Hinged on their sides and latched in the center, the old garage doors swung open into the alley. No electric door openers, no remote controls. Drivers parked in the alley, got out and opened the swinging doors, then returned to their cars to pull inside. Beside each garage were garbage cans, waiting for the garbage trucks that still rumbled down the cinder alleys. Molded plastic garbage cans, some with small plastic wheels, had replaced the dented sheet metal cans that our parents had used. The plastic cans lasted longer, and they didn’t rust, but you lost
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Tom Robertson (Burying Father Tim)
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Keep the car. What I’m pissed about is the missing ass-shaped dent in the middle of that hood. Let me know when you’re ready to put it back.
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Emmerson Hoyt (Summer Sparrow (Jackals and Vipers Duet #2))