1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae]

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

LA basically doesn't have winter. Even her time at Stanford would rarely have seen a day reach freezing. She'd have the ski gear she got for trips to Lake Tahoe (a ~4 hour drive from Stanford), and probably very little else.

She doesn't have her 'winter wear' for California. She bought it upon learning that her first duty assignment as a Special Agent of the FBI was in Maine. She bought some additional stuff in Bangor upon learning that Maine was even colder than she had assumed and yet more when her boss told her they were going to the northernmost part of Aroostook County and there was more than a foot of snow on the ground and no sign of it stopping soon.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

For 80s flavor, she'd have a few sweaters -- a fuzzy one "too magical to touch", as per the J. Geils Band; let's call upon Rebecca de Mornay here, because you can't get more iconic than "Risky Business". Also, a cardigan or two to go with the button-down Oxford prep shirts and Izod polos, even though wearing them actually for warmth wasn't the thing. Long-sleeved sweatshirts, though she might have left behind the one with the artfully-ripped neck a la Flashdance in favor of her Stanford sweats and/or hoodie.

Pink earwarmers? Well, look no further than Brooke Shields, also famously the model for Calvin Klein jeans as well as kindly appearing to model the cardigan in the link above. (Inspirational looks on that page with Brooke, but alas, few if any brand names. Piece-by-piece examples here.)

Very nice. Thank you for all of these.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

North Face seems a likely brand, having been founded in San Francisco. Patagonia was also around and doing neon colors in the 80s. Both of them had reputations as expensive yuppie stuff (not as junk, though, just that you're paying for the logo). Frank Corelli has stuff at least as good at half the price.

Well, naturally he does.

And when the storm warning came in, Corelli took his two fellow agents to a small camping store in town and made them buy some items of proper outdoors wear to add to their woefully inadequate wardropes.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Icelander

She doesn't have her 'winter wear' for California. She bought it upon learning that her first duty assignment as a Special Agent of the FBI was in Maine.

Oh, good. Val fashion is one thing, val ditzy another...

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Oh, good. Val fashion is one thing, val ditzy another...

Indeed.

Despite appearances, Agent Estevez is quite competent. It's true that her law enforcement skills are newly acquired and not tested in the field, but she was top of her class at Quantico, just as she has excelled at everything else. Well, everything but making friends and having fun, as being the best at, well, more or less everything, didn't leave her much time for a social life.

Ironically for a Very Beautiful character with Charisma 3, her weakness is social manipulation. It isn't that she's shy, but rather that her attempts at manipulation are laughably obvious (Easy to Read, Misfit Anti-Talent 2 and Oblivious). So far, everyone has liked her anyway, as she usually relies on Reaction Rolls.

I guess the PCs don't really have a Face character, but rather split the capabilities of that role between them. Agent Estevez relies on good Reaction Rolls. Agent Corelli relies on gravitas and forceful presence, usually eschewing falsehood in favour of inexorable reasonableness (Diplomacy), until it is clear that sweet reason is knocking at the wrong door, at which point he's merely inexorable (Intimidation).

Agent Ledoux is the most traditional Face character, he simply oozes charm and will lie without compunction, but his Reaction bonuses are lower than Estevez's and his Diplomacy and Intimidation inferior to Corelli's. And his Dishonest Face Quirk puts him at a disadvantage when he approaches law-abiding people in his offical capacity as FBI agent.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

I was almost thirty in 1988; ended a government job that year & was living in the DC suburbs. Don't remember wonderfully, but will try.

Originally Posted by Icelander

. . .
I would like to keep everything period accurate, not to mention featuring some characterisation and atmosphere in the form of actual brand names, real technological and social factors, etc. {&} a few things relevant to adventurers.

Accordingly, I thought I'd request assistance from forumites. . . focused on things that would be common/available/popular in northern Maine, but I'd rather get answers about broader areas, i.e. Maine/New England/East Coast/US/North America in general, than receive no answers.

Had a cousin who spent a lot of time in the Maine woods in that era. Hope some of it I can remember.

I'm after all sorts of details, even if they have no game mechanical application. Even if a military-issue Colt M16 made in 1967 and a sporting weapon from Bushmaster made in 1988 may have the same game stats apart from ROF, it can make a major difference to characterisation or even clues in the game, where and when a gun was made.

Cars

1) What would be a 1986-1988 equivalent of a luxury Hummer civilian vehicle, i.e. something a spoiled college boy from a rich family owns in order to drive off-road and over bad roads without sacrificing comfort, performance on better roads and the ability to tell chicks how rich he is without having to state it outright?

SUVs have been around since the Jeep in 1952, but weren't called SUVs. That was a product of the early Reagan years. Congress had put in mileage requirements for the auto industry's car production in the late 1970s (Dem President Carter, Dem House & Senate) and these requirements kicked in the early 1980s. According to these requirements the car production per year of any particular manufacturer had to average 22 miles per gallon (for example), then two years later 24 miles per gallon, and so on. But "commercial" light trucks, pickups did not count against this average. The argument was that various small business men would suffer from having to use teeny-weeny commercial vehicles with low-powered, but gas-economical engines.

Only a DC bureaucrat would have been surprised at what happened next. Since lots of Americans loved big iron on the roads the auto companies "civilized" their commercial vehicles and cranked out the "sport-utility" vehicles to answer this need. So we got the "suburban" gas-hog 4WD vehicles that never went off pavement and got about 9 miles per gallon.

2) What is a high-quality luxury SUV made before 1989 that a mature wealthy man who lives and works where he must occasionally go off-road might own? Assume that the man enjoys nice things, powerful engines, reliable performance and comfortable interiors, but is not insecure enough to need to flash his wealth in quite the vulgar fashion his son does. American-made by preference, but will import if a foreign-made vehicle is clearly better for the purpose.
Edit: Background.

3) What are some popular four-wheel drive vehicles within a comfortable middle-class budget in the period?

Don't remember the exact models but all the major auto companies were doing the SUVs. GMC, Chevrolet Blazer (IIRC), Ford Bronco & Bronco II were all appropriate models. Rather than a totally different model of car rich people would buy high-end comfort & style option packages for standard vehicles. See also Toyota Land Cruiser J 60.

4) What are the best economy vehicles made in the 1970s and 1980s to use in the northwest part of Aroostook County, Maine, assuming that the ability to drive in snow and over bad roads is sometimes required?

Friend of my mother's in western Minnesota in that era drove an American Motors Eagle. First front-wheel drive "street" car {vs. Jeeps or other SUVs}produced in the US. Not good on gas mileage but cheaper than a full-size SUV and good in bad weather/slippery roads.

Rest in next installment -- too long.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Continued:

Originally Posted by Icelander

Guns

5) What were good options for sights or mounted optics on deer rifles . . .
--5a) What were good top-of-the-line scopes for deer hunting in the late 80s?

6) What are some 1980s hunting rifle brands and models that mark the owner as having good taste, some degree of knowledge and enough means to indulge when it comes to hobbies?

Pre-64 Winchester Model 70 was a kind of "cachet" item. Remington 700 was sort of standard for bolt-action rifles. IIRC Winchester had been sold to some conglomerate in the mid-1960s and their products were then seen as not really wonderful. (Changed in late '80s/early 90s when re-sold.) Scopes: you just started getting into the big variable-power scope craze in the mid-1980s. However the shooters I talked to then saw these fancy new scopes as flimsy and liable to change their zero even without mistreatment. Lots favored old fixed-power scopes for durability & holding zero. Makes: you had the Japanese brands such as Tasco which were not then highly regarded but then inexpensive and apparently worked fine. US makes -- Bausch & Lomb, Redfield. Zeiss had high cool factor.

--6a) If an upper-middle-class hunter from Massachusetts, with a cabin in northern Maine, were buying several fancy new guns for hogs, deer, elk and bear at the end of 1988, what would he be likely to be buying?

Remember that much of New England is "shotgun-only" for hunting -- less long range so less chance to kill some kid in school with a wild shot. I'd say a Remington 1100 slug gun would be a "cool" item -- perhaps an Ithaca bolt-action 10 gauge. Thing looked like an anti-tank rifle without the bipod. Might also go for a lever-action Savage 99 for "cool" factor.

--6b) What kind of hunting gun bought in 1986-1988 would mark a man who had more money than sense?

Weatherby's were excellent guns but they & their ammo very pricey -- corridor talk was "great weapons but no real improvement on a Remington for normal shooting in the US." If you were going on safari it might make sense but for most hunting . . .

--5b) Were night-vision scopes sold commercially in any numbers before the arrival of vast quantities of surplus Soviet gear in the 1990s?

Not that I can remember -- IIRC such night gear was pretty much a military/police item until some years after the 1991 Gulf War. If you had a connection with such organizations you might be able to get some -- but I think that such was restricted.

7) When did American police departments, specifically the FBI, but data on others would also be nice, begin to pack slugs along with buckshot as standard if they had shotguns in their cars?
[I know that slugs have been used for special purposes by the FBI almost from the first days of the Bureau, that FBI training videos from 1972 teach their use and in 1992, a police spokesman speaking about shotgun slugs referred to them as 'commonly used by the FBI'. I also known that modern FBI shotguns are often packed along with both slugs and buckshot shells. But I don't know when this started and in the 1986 Miami Shootout, no FBI agent involved used slugs.]

From the articles I've seen on this gunfight the FBI guys just didn't have time to reload slugs. Also inside a major urban area (Miami) there'd be overrange & overpenetration issues.

8) What models were Bushmaster Firearms making in Bangor, Maine (1973-1976) and Windham, Maine (1976-1988)?
--8a) When did they stop manufacturing the Bushmaster 'First Generation' rifles?
--8b) When did they start copying AR-15 designs? Was it before 1990?
--8c) What would be the most 'Tacti-Cool' Bushmaster model available in 1988?

Can't help here.

Gadgets

9) What are nice complicated 80s gadgets for a young female FBI agent from California to own in order to characterise her as 'modern', 'rich' and lacking in real-world experience?
--9a) I'd like some sort of bizarre 80s multitool, preferably with electric components and far too big for the intended purpose, but including a lot of nifty things that a geek might enjoy having on them at all times. It can be something for a purse, not a pocket, if necessary.

Leatherman was available from early 1980s. For books on tape or entertainment various forms of Sony Walkman were common in mid-1980s.

--9b) Would there be any consumer electronics that might be given to a young woman leaving home to become an FBI agent (or received as gifts after leaving, as her parents continue to treat her warmly, indulge her and wait for her 'rebellious phase' to blow over)?
[She's from a very rich family, her father is the founder/CEO of a fast-growing defence contractor who makes guidance chips for missiles and she had every advantage growing up. She is a total wunderkind, baby ballerina, music recitals, gymnastics and straight As in everything, but no time for friends or normal socialisation, only organised extra-curricular activities. Computer Science degree from Stanford. Is now suffering from late-onset teen rebellion which is expressed on one hand through seeking a 'lowly' government job and on the other, through her trying to develop a 'hip', 'street' demeanour, mostly from MTV.]

10) What communication equipment would FBI agents have access to in their daily jobs?
--10a) What model radios are in their cars and how do they work?
--10b) Do they have some form of mobile phones in the cars and if so, how do these work?
--10c) How far outside a large city can they go and still have pagers function? Can they use their pagers in the St. John's Valley of Aroostook County, Maine, if they are 2-3 hours from the large towns in that county and the nearest town has around 4,000 people (30 miles away)?

Can't help with these.

11) How are records of things like criminal convictions, arrests and gun ownership likely to be stored in Maine at the end of 1988? Paper? Microfiche? Early computers?

Government files were computerized fast & early -- big mainframes in the 1960s, smaller nets of PC's probably by the early 1980s.

--11a) How long does it take for someone at the Maine State Police to look up what guns are registered to a certain individual in the state? What about criminal records?

There was then, and I think not now, a national central file of gun registrations in the US. Such records were kept at the individual gun stores. Only a few states, and those "anti-gun", such as California, kept a state central count of gun registrations. Criminal records were, of course, centralized by state & federal offenses in DC. IIRC it would be about a day, day and a half for such look-ups, depending less on electronic limits than on the demands on records' staff time. i.e., there would be no access to such records outside the state Dept./Justice records center, even in government offices (for security reasons). The use of computers in police cars for such look ups is a product of the mid-1990s.

So if a police officer wanted to look up someone's criminal record, they would send in a call to the police department with identifiers (name, possible aliases, SSN, state driver's license number, etc.) with a request to send that information request over to the records division. Then when the records clerks got to the computers they could look it up PDQ, but there might be a delay of hours or days before they got to any particular request.

--11b) What is the chance that records from the late 1950s and early 1960s would still be in paper form? Assuming that those chances are good, what are the odds that those records are mostly haphazardly arranged in a way that made sense to the Sheriff and/or Lieutenant of State Police at that time and extremely difficult to sort through for anyone else?

Very high. Remember that scanner technology was new & not too reliable then -- lots of poor and garbled scans.

So if you were going to turn your old paper files into electronic format someone would have to sit down & physically type the things into the machine. Expensive and not a lot of small departments could hire skilled data-entrists to do so. So an idiosyncratic records system for old files in Bug Tussle County was not at all unlikely.

Consumer Goods

12) What is the most popular soft drink in northern Maine at this time?
--12a) Are the PCs more likely to find Coke or Pepsi for sale in diners and gas stations?

Pretty much either one -- you might have some Tab (former Coke corporation diet drink) or Mr. Pibb.

--12b) Is there some local soft drink which is really common in Maine, but not elsewhere?

13) Are there any types of candy, delicacies, soft drink, bubblegum, cigarettes or other consumer goods that are characteric of 1980s America, New England or Maine?

14) What are characteristic Canadian (New Brunswick or Quebec) consumer goods that might be imported?

15) What are the popular local beers?
--15a) Are there noteworthy brands which make a statement about a character who drinks it?

Can't help.

16) What strong liquour do locals drink?
--16a) What is the bourbon of choice?
--16b) What do middle-class and over 'cultured' men drink?

Bourbon that had some cachet (over the counter) might include Wild Turkey and Jack Daniel's (latter officially "sour-mash" whiskey as not made in Bourbon County.) There are fancier bourbons but those tend to be limited editions. Irish -- Bushmill's. Scotch -- Johnnie Walker Black & there's another that slips my mind.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I thought LL Bean was 'Preppie Central' in the 80s?

Was the store that the former sniper character, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), in 'No Country for Old Men' bought some clothes and a shotgun he sawed off an LL Bean's?


Today, at least, Levi's are name-brand jeans which I think are acceptable to cool teenagers. Were they sufficiently no-nonsense, honest working pants in 1988?

Where does an FBI agent who wears suits as a work uniform stereotypically buy his?


Agent Corelli is indeed a Winchester man, at least if the guns are made before 1964. He uses his grandfather's Winchester 1894, .30-30, for most of his hunting, taking a Winchester 70, .30-06, that he bought in his youth if after larger game or if there's a chance of a shot at longer range.


Which BSA would that be? Boy Scouts? British-made firearms? Motorcycles?

Are Leatherman or Gerber viewed as 'serious' multitools? Which one better suits a man who knows how to fix stuff?

The Leatherman PST came out in 1983. Did Gerber make a multi tool before that or did they add a multi tool to their knife-line to compete with Leatherman?


Apart from looks and brand names, I'm also trying to figure out how much of the TL8 stuff from High-Tech that is useful for survival situations is available with unchanged stats in the 80s. A lot of the TL8 stuff we take for granted hadn't been invented, wasn't in common use or was available only in clunky, less capable versions.

What did a commercially available rescue beacon sold in the mid-80s look like and how did it's capabilities and stats compare to a modern one?

What about typical survival flashlights? How heavy was a typical one? And who made survival flashlights? Would he use a Maglite or other police flashlight brand or were there lighter survival models made by other companies that made more sense if you weren't looking for a dual-use club? Were there add-on filters or other devices for signalling? IR filter clip-ons?

What about car radios and handheld radios? What kind of radio did FBI agents have in their cars by 1988 and how did they work? What were the ranges like? High-Tech has a TL7 medium radio that appears to be outdated by the 70s and a TL8 one which seems to be at about 2000s level of weight and capability. Closer in performance to which of these would 1980s vintage radios be?

Was there any point to a car phone for survival purposes, like NMT phones were used here in northwestern Europe? Even if there was, would it be affordable to a regular joe?

Were there any useful and affordable devices like a portable electronic or fuel heater that would make sense to have in the car? Would these be pointless additions to a car heaters or useful supplements to it if they have to wait out a storm in the car? What about these hot water bottles that old people use on skiing trips? Would self-heating ones be worth carrying?

How would one make coffee in a survival situation? Assuming that Corelli wanted to be able to make enough for four, possibly over several days. What's the most practical, effective device for that in the 80s?

Well to be honest I am not a fashion geek and even then did not care enough to commit it to memory.

Yes the BSA is the Boy Scouts of America. Sorry. They did have a multitool stamped with their brand in any case. And probably still do.

"Preppie central" is hardly how I would imagine LL Bean and none of the book copies I ever had looked like something a preppie would own. They were used copies so you maybe that was the problem but preppie central did not seem to be their market. If I was to be asked to give what I would imagine preppie central to look like, I would have thought more a James Bond sort of look. They seemed to give a "salty old man" air more to them.

There is no accounting for teenagers today-I rather think they are deliberately trying to look like orcs many times with all that weird stuff about deliberately ripping holes in their clothes. But Levis has long had an "honest working man" air to them and it may be that teenagers are simply trying to steel the show like the kind of people who wear Highland garb but haven't gone on a cattle raid in their entire lives. In any case the Levis I remember are tough, stand a lot of beating and are good for a fairly basic sort of work pants. Obviously they are not Hazmat wear but if you want something for chopping wood it'll do you well.

Plaid woolens are another possibility and will work well for Maine.

I haven't the slightest idea how all those Men In Black get their black suits. Clearly plain clothes G-men have no interest in standing out in real life.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Icelander

My latest game is set in northwest Aroostook County, Maine at the end of December 1988. GoogleDrive folder.


Consumer Goods

12) What is the most popular soft drink in northern Maine at this time?
--12a) Are the PCs more likely to find Coke or Pepsi for sale in diners and gas stations?
--12b) Is there some local soft drink which is really common in Maine, but not elsewhere?

13) Are there any types of candy, delicacies, soft drink, bubblegum, cigarettes or other consumer goods that are characteric of 1980s America, New England or Maine?

14) What are characteristic Canadian (New Brunswick or Quebec) consumer goods that might be imported?

15) What are the popular local beers?
--15a) Are there noteworthy brands which make a statement about a character who drinks it?

16) What strong liquour do locals drink?
--16a) What is the bourbon of choice?
--16b) What do middle-class and over 'cultured' men drink?

17) What goods are highly taxed on the Canada-side of the border, but lightly taxed in Maine (or within driving distance in New England)?

18) What goods, if any, are subject to strict regulation or high taxes in Maine or the US, but are easily available and cheap in Canada?

See this post for questions 19-20, about outdoors/hunting clothes and accessories.

The only beer I remember is Hamm's because it had that great ad. That was mostly the age of soft drink though. At least the standard I remember was coca-cola and pepsi fighting like Hector and Achiles. They had a number of variations and usually had a small soda fountain of about half a dozen or so types in every restaurant-this still is often done by the way. Coffee was fairly generic, and attempting to make what might be called "coffee cocktails" or Europeanized brands was just being introduced if it existed at all. In point of fact it was a rather boring era for American cuisine and a lot of the stuff that was available should be classed more as "people fuel" rather then as food or drink. It wasn't all that bad but not all that good either. There was also a lot less concern for health notions, though that did exist. Possibly your man's man FBI agent will dine at greasy spoons which I don't have much experience of. The only fare I remember that I would associate specifically with travel was quite a bit better then that. They would be from places that are better called tourist shacks then greasy spoons.

One thing that you might do is that almost every establishment worth going to except the generic stomach-fillers and even some of those had a self-serving salad bar of some kind at least in Oregon. That continues to this day. I certainly remember that.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

I was almost thirty in 1988; ended a government job that year & was living in the DC suburbs. Don't remember wonderfully, but will try.

Had a cousin who spent a lot of time in the Maine woods in that era. Hope some of it I can remember.

Everything you can remember is a help.

SUVs have been around since the Jeep in 1952, but weren't called SUVs. That was a product of the early Reagan years. [...] So we got the "suburban" gas-hog 4WD vehicles that never went off pavement and got about 9 miles per gallon. [/QUOTE]
Those are the ones I'm looking for, whether called 'SUV' or not.

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Don't remember the exact models but all the major auto companies were doing the SUVs. GMC, Chevrolet Blazer (IIRC), Ford Bronco & Bronco II were all appropriate models. Rather than a totally different model of car rich people would buy high-end comfort & style option packages for standard vehicles. See also Toyota Land Cruiser J 60.

I have little understanding of the various numbers that describe different car numbers, but is the Toyota Land Cruiser a lot more useful off-road than the various American Jeeps/SUVs? Or is it something about price and availability that makes Toyota vehicles prefered in places from Afghanistan through Africa to Australia, for driving off-road and on roads that might as well not be roads?

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Friend of my mother's in western Minnesota in that era drove an American Motors Eagle. First front-wheel drive "street" car {vs. Jeeps or other SUVs}produced in the US. Not good on gas mileage but cheaper than a full-size SUV and good in bad weather/slippery roads.

In 12" of snow, how would an AMC Eagle perform relative to a Chevrolet Grand Wagoneer?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Well to be honest I am not a fashion geek and even then did not care enough to commit it to memory.

It's amazing the sort of thing that will stick in one's memory.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Yes the BSA is the Boy Scouts of America. Sorry. They did have a multitool stamped with their brand in any case. And probably still do.

Do you remember when you first saw the Boy Scout multi tool? From my quick Googling, it seems that Leatherman is the only real manufacturer out there making multitools in the 80s, with the first competitor emerging in 1988 and Gerber not beginning their line until the 90s.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

"Preppie central" is hardly how I would imagine LL Bean and none of the book copies I ever had looked like something a preppie would own. They were used copies so you maybe that was the problem but preppie central did not seem to be their market. If I was to be asked to give what I would imagine preppie central to look like, I would have thought more a James Bond sort of look. They seemed to give a "salty old man" air more to them.

I was thinking about the 1980 bestseller The Official Preppy Handbook, which describes L.L. Bean as 'nothing less than Prep mecca'. Apparently, when the word 'preppy' was coined (and still in my understanding of the term), the true preppy should appear as if they are setting out an outdoorsy excursion at all times, whether that be a cruise or a fox hunt.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Plaid woolens are another possibility and will work well for Maine.

That they do.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I haven't the slightest idea how all those Men In Black get their black suits. Clearly plain clothes G-men have no interest in standing out in real life.

It has long been a fictional trope that anyone with real dress sense could spot a G-Man by their unsightly off-the-rack suits and out-of-style conservative haircuts. As with all fictional tropes, it might not actually be true, but if any FBI agent ever fit that stereotype, it probably should be Special Agent Frank Corelli. Not only does he have no interest in sartorial matters, but he is also as old-fashioned as it is possible to be without actually inhabiting a time capsule.

He has the Low TL disadvantage (he's not up on all the new TL8 technology just coming into use) and the Chauvinism and Nostalgic Quirks. He also has antiquated disadvantages like Code of Honour (Officer's), modified to suit an FBI job, Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) and a strong sense of patriotism manifested as Sense of Duty (America).

All that results in the Quirks Distinctive Features (Former Military, G-Man) and Epitome (Conservative Lawman). Agent Corelli makes for a very bad undercover man, because everyone who sees him immediately fingers him for a former military man who works for the Federal government.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by acrosome

There's always the Army way- stick a canteen cup full of water on the engine manifold for a while while it''s running. That'll heat it. Then Folgers instant coffee.

You can cook fish that way, too, wrapped in aluminum foil.

Don't you have to be outside the cab of the truck to do this? Or is there a place in a Ford F-150 where you can reach something hot enough in the engine from the closed passanger cab?

Originally Posted by acrosome

How about an Esbit tab stove? When you're done you just blow them out like a candle. Use the cut-off bottom of a soda can as the stove, with a little wire stand to set the metal cup upon. Set the stove on a disposable aluminum pie plate so as not to set the car on fire. Maybe a bit of plywood would work better- better insulator?

Or a Sterno can?

Frankly, to just make a up of coffee a candle stub will work.

That all sounds wonderful. Especially if Corelli has used his Machinist and Mechanic (Automobile) to rig up something inside the cab which allows the (relatively) safe use of a paraffin, Sterno or Esbit tablet stove inside the car for emergencies. Which would mean the least risk of CO poisoning, paraffin, Sterno or Esbit tablet?

Originally Posted by acrosome

Speaking of getting laid- I know that in Iceland there is little stigma to single motherhood. Keep in mind that it ain't like that in the US. In fact we tend to have many more unhealthy sexual hangups than the rest of the non-Muslim world. And it sounds like your setting is in the midst of the AIDS hysteria, so that will be a common item of discussion and scary HIV-related stories will dominate the evening news shows. And there will still be people who call it "the gay cancer." There will be a fair amount of teenage celibacy just because they can't get condoms, especially in small towns- it's hard to buy them when the lady on the other side of the counter goes to your church.

American media has done, I believe, an excellent job educating the rest of the world about your national hang-ups with sex. :-)

Hmmm... it sounds as though I should incorporate AIDS hysteria into the media frenzy about the 'Werewolf of the Village', the NYC serial killer who appears to have cut off pieces of his victims like a butcher and even bit them. There certainly was enough blood involved.

The PCs immediately wondered whether the suspect in custody for the murders might be homosexual, as he had no visible means of support for at least two or three years of living in NYC and he is a young man of effeminate appearance. Add to that no confirmed girlfriends when he was growing up, apart from one short-term one while he briefly attended the University of Chicago.

The PCs believe that it is much more likely that he had a 'sugar daddy' or worked as a male prostitute than he was sponging of rich widows or married women.