In a message dated 7/28/00 8:30:56 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
wolzphoto@worldnet.att.net writes:

<<
 This is a male-dominated list, and probably a pretty good number of us are
 middle-aged or so.  We probably are reacting more strongly because the folks
 at Parts Place are taking advantage of our (projected) wives and daughters.
  >>
Karl, I'm 55 and I agree with you  My knee still jerks when a woman gets the
shaft in an automobile deal of any kind and Melissa's case seems particularly
calloused. But in the old days before the internet I don't think we men would
give another man much sympathy in a similar circumstance. We ourselves would
probably learn to be cautious or to avoid the PartsPlace and would expect the
male victim to shutup, quit whining, or take it to court. With the internet
however these gender related attitudes seem to finally be taking a back seat
to the facts and issues at hand. This is good. Chivalry, on the other hand,
as romantic as it is to us older guys, lost out temporarily to equality
sometime in the 60's. This is good also. As a professor, Melissa probably
makes closer to equal pay as her male peers and has the same opportunity to
gain or lose from the decisions she makes. Like us men, she should in
hindsight have consulted the list, didn't, and like us, suffered the
consequences.
As far as the alleged "piracy" of the PartsPlace, I've sailed with a couple
of these ships and when they take "fire" it's the crew that gets flogged and
short rationed. The Captain stays well fed and always has a lifeboat.
Hopefully the internet is changing this too.

Ken Hunter
82 Westy 1.9D
84 Jetta 1.5D
89 Mitsubishi van