u/ThaiNatas

​Hi everyone,

​help me verify a vivid memory from 50 years ago.

​On July 4, 1976, I saw a newspaper in a vending machine in or around Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was a thick Sunday edition, and the front page had a stunning, incredibly high-quality visual that has stuck with me ever since.

​The Layout:

​It was right on the main front page (above the fold), sitting directly under the newspaper's nameplate banner.

​It was a centered, straight head-on, close-up portrait of an attractive woman.

​She was wearing vibrant, patriotic red, white, and blue contact lenses that made her eyes completely pop off the page.

​The large photo was centered in the middle of the top half, flanked by a few text columns on the left and right sides.

​I suspect this was The Cedar Rapids Gazette or potentially the Des Moines Register Sunday Bicentennial issue. It was so colorful and high-quality for newspaper printing at the time that I remember being completely mesmerized by it.

​If anyone has a way to look up the front pages from that exact Sunday morning and could share a screenshot, you would be helping me resolve a lifelong mystery.

I’m in Thailand so I unfortunately can’t jus run Down to the library. Lol.

​

Hey everyone, I’ve been living in Thailand for the last 10 years daily driving a 6th-gen Honda Accord with the F23A engine. This generation was insanely popular here and there are still tons of them on the road, so parts availability should be easy, right? Nope.

As an old-school DIY guy I tried to do the normal preventative maintenance and replace the distributor cap + rotor right after buying the car. Tried again after a head job a few years later. Spent the last decade looking... and you literally cannot buy a new standalone aftermarket cap or rotor anywhere. Not at local shops, not on Lazada or Shopee (Thailand’s Amazon/eBay equivalents). Honda dealer has t em utb it costs a fortune. Ordering from RockAuto or back home? Shipping and Thai customs turn a $30 part into a $100+ nightmare, especially when I’m living on regular local wages like everyone else here.

The wild part is most similar Honda engines use the common TEC/Toyo Denso distributor and those caps are cheap and everywhere. But the F23A runs the taller Hitachi internal-coil design, so the aftermarket basically abandoned standalone caps in this country. Your only real option is a complete used “Chiang Kong” junkyard distributor from Japan for $35-40. Chinese sellers won’t even reply unless you’re buying bulk.

It gets even more annoying bought a set of plug wires and they’re a tiny bit too short because the Hitachi cap sits taller than the Denso ones. They work, but it’s not ideal.

Local mechanics just swap the whole distributor on any misfire, so the individual parts supply completely dried up. Nobody installs used spark plugs, but I’m supposed to trust a used cap with unknown history? Honda/Hitachi actually built these things like tanks (my original cap is still going strong), but it sucks not being able to freshen it up without drama or big expense.

You guys in the US can still walk into AutoZone/O’Reilly/Advance and grab a new Duralast or Standard cap for like $30. Does this supply chain insanity blow your mind too, or have any of you run into similar weird headaches on your F-series cars?

Hi everyone,

God, I wish I had a piece of real cheese right now. Or even a simple chocolate bar. The small things you take for granted in Europe are surprisingly hard and expensive to find here in Thailand.

I’m a happily married American guy who moved here over 10 years ago. I was teaching until recently but just quit, so I suddenly have free time. Living right next to Suvarnabhumi Airport, I was watching the planes go over while bored and hungry — which gave me this random idea:

If you’re coming from Europe soon and can grab a small sealed chunk of any cheese (cheddar, gouda, whatever) or a couple bars of chocolate (cheap is fine) at the grocery store before your flight, I’d happily give you a free, safe ride straight to your hotel in my car.

It’s perfect for first-timers, families, odd-hour arrivals, or anyone who wants to avoid taxi scams and hassle.

I know meeting someone from Reddit sounds unusual, but I’m a normal, harmless guy who thought this could be a fun way to meet people and help out. Happy to do a quick video call first so you feel comfortable. Totally flexible with times.

Low-pressure, one-off idea — first time trying something like this, so just message me what you’re eating right now (or what you might bring) if it clicks!

Cheers,

Paul