You can't just order up a perfect day. A perfect day is a winged creature with a mind of its own.

Give me a car that zips while it sips.

There are almost 400 old letters in all, enough to fill a cardboard box as long as your arm.

Ever since Motor Trend magazine named the 2012 Range Rover Evoque its SUV of the year, I've been eager to slide behind the wheel of this British import.

This is a story for every parent who is struggling to pull a child with special needs out of the quicksand of low expectations.

Little boys love VW Beetles. On our drive to a Chattanooga Lookouts game last week, a spirited game of "slug bug" broke out in the back seat. I peeked in the rearview mirror, and it looked like Ali-Frazier III back there.

I write a column for the Saturday Business section called Test Drive. Every week I get to try out a shiny, new car, truck or SUV.

Mazda, the “Zoom Zoom” car company, is trying to corner the market on fun. While other automakers hope to be synonymous with reliability or prestige, Mazda wants to be the default nameplate for buyers who value an energetic driving experience.

My 5-year-old son is my banker. He is the baby of the family, and, as such, I owe him a special debt of attention that can only be paid in denominations of days, hours and minutes.

You've no doubt seen the new Hyundai Sonata, which has become as common on Chattanooga streets and highways as Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys.

A couple of weeks ago, the Times Free Press lunchroom was buzzing with lottery talk.

Last fall, Ford and Shell Oil issued a challenge to see who could coax the best gas mileage out of an F-150 pickup truck equipped with the company's groundbreaking EcoBoost V-6 engine.

Ken Harpe, of Signal Mountain, has a ritual. Like clockwork, the 64-year-old financial adviser snaps open his Times Free Press every morning and turns immediately to the death notices.

There are some cars that are, well, mood altering. The curvaceous Infiniti G convertible is one of those rides. On a sunny day earlier this week, we took a 2012 Infiniti G convertible from Kelly Infiniti on a spin by Chickamauga Lake. With the car's top down on a perfect spring day it was hard not to smile.

I have worked hard to raise my two boys, ages 10 and 5, in a safe, loving, Three Stooges-like environment.

Don't tell me a car can't smile. When I was down on one knee photographing this week's test car, a red Juke from Hunt Nissan, the car not only smiled at me, I think it winked, too.

Country music, stock-car racing, serpent handling and moonshining all flow from the same mother culture.

If the BMW 3-series sedan were an article of clothing, it would be a blue blazer. Cashmere. Two-button front.

There’s a revolution happening in retail. Store clerks are getting chatty.

fast facts Model: Chevrolet Silverado Extended Cab LT (2WD) Exterior color: Graystone Metallic Interior color: Light Titanium (leather) Engine: 5.3 liter, V-8 Horsepower: 315 Transmission: Six-speed automatic Fuel economy: 15 mpg city, 21 mpg highw

Fifty years ago, it was normal -- no, expected -- for people to get married by their early 20s.

Sometimes you sit in a new car and wonder where all the money went. Other times you grip a steering wheel at 10 and 2, lean back against soft-leather seats, plant your right foot on the accelerator, and think, “How in the heck can they build this much car at this low price?”

Randy Van Hooser, 52, is a big, barrel-chested guy who owns a Chattanooga taxi company.

Any discussion of the new 2012 Porsche 911 boils down to adjectives and numbers. First, the adjectives: Our Carrera S test car from Porsche of Chattanooga was classic, curvaceous and compelling.

I can't keep up with technology. Just the other day, my 10-year-old son was talking to a friend on the telephone -- only he wasn't using a telephone

Five minutes into my Interstate 75 test drive of the new iQ from Scion of Cleveland, the driver of an equally diminutive Fiat 500 with Atlanta license plates closed to within inches of my back bumper.

Back in February 1984, Tammy Elrod's baby was due on Valentine's Day. But little Joshua was too shy for a flashy debut, so he held on until the end of the month.

Wow, who knew everybody wants to be a cartoonist?

Get 'em while they're hot. The scorching new 2013 Lexus GS 350 has just landed at Lexus of Chattanooga on Brainerd Road. And, indeed, landed is the right word because the new GS looks like it could be the fuselage of a jet aircraft.

Best-case scenario, other people will think you are dull. At worst, they'll think you're sullen.

Twenty minutes into our test drive of the adorable new Fiat 500, two women literally waved me off the road near a Chickamaugua Lake marina.

Ron Baldwin, 43, of Trenton, Ga., doesn't celebrate Christmas or New Year's. Instead, Baldwin saves up all of his festive energy for Super Bowl Sunday.

When the Toyota Camry, the best-selling car in North America over the last decade, gets a major re-design, it's big news in the automotive world.

A book landed in my office mail last week called "Tennessee Tragedies," by Allen Coggins (University of Tennessee Press, $39.95, www.utpress.org).

Parked at the intersection of Value Street and Utility Avenue is the durable Honda CR-V small SUV. Small, of course, is a relative term since the CR-V has more than 100 cubic feet of passenger space.

Last Sunday, on our way to see Billy the Exterminator at the World of Wheels expo at the Chattanooga Convention Center, my two sons decided to play a game called "Stump Daddy."

For years, the Ford Focus has soldiered on with the same basic body style and mechanics, while other automakers zoomed ahead developing small cars for the fast lane.

Every year, my Sunday school class has a New Year's Eve party. It's a typical, suburban get-together. All the kids play upstairs while the grown-ups eat sausage balls and watch football.

I had a landlord years ago who drove home a new Audi sedan one day. As he was wiping down his new car with a chamois cloth, he told me one of his goals in life had been to own a piece of German engineering.

At my age, 53, standard portions of food no longer metabolize to produce a reliable weight. Like a jelly doughnut, I'm getting soft in the middle.

If you work in the media and you embarrass yourself in public, you will almost certainly wind up humiliated.

Adam McElhaney, 30, has designed a smart-phone video game you should know about. It's called "Heartland-Chattanooga," and it involves an air invasion of our city by Russia and China.

My 10-year-old son has decided he wants to play drums and shoot shotguns.

Natalie Jump, 11, of Rabun Gap, Ga., is the winner of the Times Free Press Wrapping Paper Design Contest for 2011.

For 33 years, Rick Bonine has kept a runner's log, carefully recording dates and distances.

At home, I have become the designated homework helper for our 10-year-old son.

My family recently took a four-night cruise on Disney Cruise Line's new Disney Dream ocean liner, and we felt a little star-struck, like the Beverly Hillbillies thrust aboard the QE2.

For much of his life, James Chauncey said, he tried not to talk about his near-death experience as a 7-year-old boy.

James Wilburn Chauncey does not think of himself as a prophet. In fact, he doesn't even consider himself deeply religious.

On a weeklong family vacation earlier this month, I put myself in time-out.