MSMarty Smith

1. Article · Aug 2, 2026 · By Marty Smith

   Is the Barking of Cars With Obnoxiously Loud Exhausts Legal? (opens the original)

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   Now that I’m getting old enough to be cranky without raising eyebrows, I find myself fixated on the tooting, barking, roaring, and crackling of cars with obnoxiously loud exhausts. Is this legal? Doesn’t DEQ get a crack at these things every few years? —Eric E. There’s an old saying: “My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.” No one is sure who first said this or when (according to Fox News, it was Mitch McConnell, just yesterday), but it shows how every argument has tw

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2. Article · Jul 26, 2026 · By Marty Smith

   Does Pricing Stuff at $3.99 Really Still Work on the Modern Consumer? (opens the original)

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   Does pricing stuff at $3.99 instead of $4.00 (or whatever) really still work on the modern consumer? Isn’t the jaded 21st century shopper too sophisticated to be taken in by such an obvious trick? —Penny Dreadful I dunno, Penny—I feel like any time you start a rhetorical question with some form of “isn’t the general public too smart to do x,” you’re asking for trouble. In any case, jaded sophistication is no match for “charm” pricing (so called because it sounds better than “

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3. Article · Jul 18, 2026 · By Marty Smith

   What’s Up With All Those Crudely Hand-Lettered Home Sale Signs? (opens the original)

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   What’s up with all those crudely hand-lettered signs saying stuff like “Off-Market Fixer, $249,000” and a phone number? I assume it’s somebody trying to sell a house, but isn’t this a pretty amateurish way to go about it? —Surreal Estate I can certainly understand how this presentation might set off your internal scam-o-meter, Surreal. The purchase of a home is the weightiest financial transaction of most people’s lives; it’s a bit jarring to see it marketed with techniques more

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4. Article · Jul 13, 2026 · By Marty Smith

   Why Doesn’t the Oregon Coast Have More Islands? (opens the original)

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   I am a West Coaster for life; never lived anywhere else. When I talk to people from the East Coast, I hear about all these islands there that sound like great vacation spots and places to live. So how come we Pacific dwellers don’t seem to have anything similar? —Kayak Kevin Our neighbors to the north might beg to differ with your bleak assessment, Kevin—after all, Puget Sound is lousy with islands. An old college friend of mine who went to the dark side and became a Washington lobbyist* a

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5. Article · Jul 4, 2026 · By Marty Smith

   What’s the Deal With Grapefruit and Drug Interactions? (opens the original)

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   What’s the deal with grapefruit and drug interactions? A friend who takes some unnamed medication recently told me, rather dramatically, “If I eat grapefruit, I’ll die.” Another friend says grapefruit juice “makes your molly hit harder.” Is this yet more MAHA misinformation, or is there something to it? And do all citrus fruits do this, or is grapefruit special somehow? —Pummeled by Pomelo Given the current information environment, Pummeled, I can’t blame you for being suspicious

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