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@@DebraMoses-r2l yep he is living and breathing.

I think Willy Wonka is a very complicated character, with many layers. He is a genius, an inventor, and an Einstein for himself, but with candy. I think it’s great that he is portrayed as being eccentric, but very intelligent, while also having normal human emotions. But, yes, I believe that the character of Willy Wonka has the autism spectrum, in both the Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp portrayals. I see a lot of myself in him. His attitude and intelligence level, and his somewhat lack of social skills, comes across to me as symptoms of autism. The thing about people with high-functioning autism is, they are and can be really friendly people. They still, however, have negative emotions. Just like Willy Wonka…who is also a human like everyone. In the end, we’re all human, autism or not. You have to be careful with neurodivergent people because it can take a lot of stress to make someone like me angry beyond reason. People on the autism spectrum often hide their emotions until they unleash like a volcano. That’s partly why I think Willy has autism - he takes so much crap from his guests that he’s trying to entertain. Even though he remains as composed as possible for the majority of the movie, it’s the fact that he hides the emotions growing in him…while giving subtle hints that he is getting increasingly angry…that can capture attention. Like the tunnel part. In the scene, Willy Wonka is enjoying the ride nonchalantly and can see Charlie and Grandpa Joe loving every bit of it. But when the others (Except for Charlie and Grandpa Joe.) start complaining, Wonka says with a somewhat frustrated voice, “You’re right, I can’t.” What he is indirectly saying is, “Come on, I’m giving you a fun ride for your entertainment with MY resources being spent. You know darn well that all these images, although uncomfortable, are not real and cannot be real. Please relax and enjoy the show.” And then when the two girls argue about having more gobstoppers than the other, Willy Wonka sort of has a half-annoyed and half-smile with an eye-roll expression, before saying that everyone can only have one. He is indirectly saying that he is getting tired of the unnecessary drama that the winners are creating and will not tolerate any greed for items that HE owns, under the law, until he is giving them as souvenirs to the children. And don’t forget the “I told you not to, silly boy,” line. He warned them, “No touching, no tasting, no telling. No telling what you see…so DON’T touch a thing.” And no matter what, they ignored his warnings. Then, when Veruca has her rage-destructing musical number, you can see Willy Wonka sighing, rolling his eyes, and even putting his hand over his face in frustration as the Oompa Loompas try their all to control the situation, but knowing they cannot stop her. Once she and her father are gone, Wonka uses very harsh language for a nice man like himself - “There’s going to be a lot of garbage today.” - another hint that he is getting more frustrated. Wonka also seems despondent when he speaks with Charlie a few times between the egg room and the conclusion of the tour - indirectly implying that he knows what Charlie and his grandpa got themselves into. After the Wonka-Mobile ride, Wonka seems resigned to the fact that that the response is, "You're paying my cleaning bill, Mr. Wonka!" rather than, "That was a cool ride! I'm amazed at your work!" Wonka seems to be, at that point, just ready to be done with the tour…especially with the indifferent and deadpan “Stop, don’t, come back…” warning when Mike Teavee shrinks himself. With his deadpan request for Mike to not touch his television equipment, Willy Wonka is basically saying, “This won’t make any difference, but I’m going to give the bare minimum amount of effort required to prevent this disaster from happening.” Then, we know what happened at the very end. There have been moments where I have felt the way Wonka felt - unappreciated, frustrated, and disappointed when I sometimes don't get congratulated or appreciated for the work I do for others. And when I try to legitimately help others in the only way I can, I can relate to Wonka saying, "Stop, don't, come back," knowing that in a lot of situational things, it won't make a difference. But at least I TRIED. Aside from that, people on the autism spectrum have grown up to become absolute geniuses. We all must learn from neurodivergent people. So, yeah, Willy Wonka has some traits that imply autism. I think he has it. And I, for one, can relate to Wonka’s feelings during the movie.

Columbine High School should never be torn down, if it ever closes, in my opinion. If Columbine ever does go out of business, they should turn it into a museum that commemorates the victims, information about the mass-murder, the two perpetrators, and use it as a cautionary tale. Any funds should go towards the museum and research for mental health and education on how to properly control your emotions. But this is just my opinion. Whatever happens to it, if it happens, is all their decision. But I personally would not tear it down, if it were my choice.

Ron claimed in a 2014 article that he stopped racing in NASCAR because of a sponsor conflict with his JR Motorsports contract. Chase Elliott was joining the team, NAPA Auto Parts was joining JR Motorsports after walking away from Michael Waltrip, and Ron’s longtime sponsorship was with Canadian Tire. Because both companies are involved in the same type of industry - selling auto parts - it wasn’t going to be good. Ron had to either give up his Canadian roots, his Canadian sponsors, and his reputation in Canada to join a company that he had no relationship with and would be operated differently as an American company…or stick with the people that helped him heavily in his career and preserve the friendships that came out of it. Ron ultimately stuck with his Canadian buddies, and it meant that his NASCAR career ended, as no other team wanted him aside from Rick Hendrick and Dale Junior. Ron became an executive at Canadian Tire Motorsport park, and it was just a good time to walk away when he did. But I presume that he sometimes stays awake at night about not getting that elusive Cup win.

I believe that Roger Mears ran some IndyCar races in the early-80’s. He didn’t make it big-time in that type of racing. But he did run some IndyCar races and a couple of Indianapolis 500s for a team that was backed heavily by Roger Penske. I think Penske - if I remember right - was the listed owner of the 1982 Union Machinists IndyCar that Roger drove at Indy, but it was run out of the UM shop. There’s a non-zero chance that Rick had something to do with Penske supporting Roger Mears. But, Roger Mears, from what I read, was better off in off-road racing.

@@r-urelentlessandunstoppable Oh yeah, you met Penske. I remember that when you mentioned his name. What a guy!

@@raulmysore1659 Oh yeeeah!!! Roger Penske has always hired winners for his team and is all about drivers who can or will win championships for Team Penske. He is very loyal to who drives for him. However, he has hired some drivers who weren’t able to win for him, sometimes even out of generosity. He helped Bill Alsup - an unknown Colorado-based driver from Hawaii - in starting up his self-owned operation and fielded a car for Alsup at Indianapolis in 1981. He and Bill parted ways at the end of 1981 but remained friends until Alsup died. Penske hired Kevin Cogan - a second-year driver - to replace Bobby Unser in 1982, but it didn’t work out, most likely because of the first-lap crash at the 1982 Indianapolis 500, and Cogan was given the boot at year’s end. He bounced around from teams, lucky enough to win one IndyCar race, until he retired in 1993, and since then, nobody, from what I understand, has heard from Kevin Cogan much anymore. I was made aware earlier this year that he is still living and breathing, but very reclusive. He rarely goes back to Indianapolis because of the bad image from the public that he carries involuntary. Anyway, Roger Penske then hired Danny Ongais to drive a few races for him in 1987 when Danny was wrapping up his career. Ongais lost out on a chance at winning Indy because of a head injury sustained from a crash, allowing the Cinderella story of Al Unser Sr. winning Indianapolis for the fourth time. Penske then had some drivers that you wouldn’t hear about these days such as Gonzalo Rodriguez, Andre Ribeiro, Jeremy Mayfield and Mike Wallace. Mike Wallace almost won at Phoenix in 2001 for Penske, narrowly losing out to Jeff Burton. And Jeremy Mayfield won a few races with Penske before his Evernham Motorsports stint. So, yeah, Penske has always impacted many people as a team owner.

The closest that PJ Jones came to winning a Cup race was Watkins Glen in 2002. He finished 4th, driving for AJ Foyt. I believe he ran as high as second. But no one had a chance for Tony Stewart that day. PJ was driving for AJ Foyt’s team at the time. PJ also finished in the top-ten at the same race in 1993, but he was driving for a team that was on its’ last leg, and the car wasn’t as good as the 2002 one. PJ also drove in Trucks a handful of times, picking up a top-ten at Homestead in 2003.

@@r-urelentlessandunstoppable Nice. What was PJ's best NASCAR opportunity?

@@raulmysore1659 His best opportunity, by far, was when Richard Childress had PJ drive the #21 AutoZone Chevrolet at Mexico City in 2007. PJ had to start last because of an adjustment after his qualifying lap, but found his way into the top-ten, before dropping back to 24th. Even with his good decent speed, I can’t picture him having a chance at having beat Juan Montoya and Scott Pruett - they were the class of the field that day.

@@r-urelentlessandunstoppable I believe PJ had a somewhat good showing with Michael Waltrip, didn't he?

@@raulmysore1659 Yes. PJ finished 12th at Sonoma for Michael Waltrip’s team in 2007. That was his best finish after 2002 and the best finish for the #00 Toyota that year. Even though it wouldn’t mean much for a normal racecar driver, it meant a whole lot to PJ and to the Waltrip team. The Michael Waltrip team sucked heavily that year. They almost went out of business after their maiden season until Waltrip - according to his biography - was going through a divorce with his wife, reflected on some personal stuff and realized that he couldn’t fix things on his own. Michael sought a business partner - Rob Kauffman - whose financial guidance and ownership stake saved the team from shutting down. PJ was a big help for both MWR, and even Robby Gordon’s small team - he was quickly on hand to drive the #7 car when NASCAR suspended Robby from competing at Pocono for his actions in Canada.

I think the best scene of all is the Wonkavator scene. That is such a beautiful scene that it makes me cry when I later read in articles that Gene Wilder and Peter Ostrum, despite being very close during production, never saw each other again. I'm 100% positive, however, that Gene followed Peter's career as a veterinarian, or heard about it at some point, and was still proud of him. Other scenes I think were great were these: 1. The computer scientist unsuccessfully proposing to investors, the invention of a machine that can locate golden tickets, and it talks back to him...followed by the investors being somewhat amused and heavily unimpressed, as the scientist desperately continues pushing the buttons while having a crazy look in his eye. 2. A psychologist criticizing his patient for believing in his dreams, and then throwing his medical knowledge out the window when he finds out that his patient dreamed about an angel telling him the location of a golden ticket. 3. The FBI scene. 4. Veruca's musical number - which was shot on her birthday and acted out so beautifully. 5. The Queen of England bidding on a case of Wonka bars. As for Grandpa Joe...I don't get into the beliefs that he is the monster he is now portrayed as. But I agree that it's hypocritical and somewhat cruel for him to stay in bed, allowing his family to live in poverty, and make excuses for not working...but then getting up and dancing in a whole musical number when he finds out about Willy Wonka and the golden ticket find. Along with him criticizing the other kids, while letting himself and Charlie succumb to temptation. But, since I am imperfect too, I will say he's a sinner, not a monster.

He finished second at Watkins Glen in 1999 and 2004 - his best finish in Cup. But his best race before the 2003 Sonoma race was the same race in 2001. Ron Fellows qualified mid-pack in Joe Nemechek’s car. He drove up to the front early on and dominated, leading a very large number of laps. With about thirty laps to go, final pit stops were made and Ron got shuffled, I believe, to 5th place. Robby Gordon was lucky enough to take the lead afterwards. Ron tried his hardest to regain the lead, but Robby was in control, until he got into his own way of winning. Robby held off Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart while battling a lapped rookie in Kevin Harvick. Ron Fellows was right behind them in fourth, but got tagged from behind by Bill Elliott, crashing into a barrier. That caused the final caution that gave Tony Stewart the chance to pass Harvick and Robby Gordon, securing himself the win. Ron, meanwhile, finished 38th. That was a near-miss, but Ron’s 2003 performance at Sonoma was far better and that was certainly the one that got away from him. A side note…at Watkins Glen in 2001, he had a strong car and got to the lead by lap 30. He led a few laps until an axle broke. We will never know if that was the day for him, but his car was fast that race too, and far faster than the June 2001 Sonoma car he drove. Ron was a great driver - it’s a wonder why no one gave him a full-time deal.

I was quite disappointed that he didn’t run more races after 2013. He had so much skill even up in his 50’s. He almost won Road America three times, and would have won at least one race there, if a caution had come out just one second later than it did. He was flat-out beat by Carl Edwards in 2010, barely lost to Reed Sorenson in 2011, and finished third in 2012. The one he should have won, by far, was 2011. Ron was about to pass a slowing Reed Sorenson for second place - before the then-leader Justin Allgaier ran out of fuel - and would have won if the caution had come out one second later, or if the race went green the rest of the final lap. I really wish Ron would have won that one. He’s very humble and a great ambassador for the sport. He would have been a fabulous winner that day. I mean, nothing against Reed Sorenson, I don’t know him, but I heard from racing folks for many years that he had some behind-the-scenes issues that led to sponsors walking away from him, an estrangement with his teammates (Including Allgaier), all of which led to his dismissal from Turner despite being third in the championship standings with only a handful of races left. He was also fired by Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of 2008, despite running decent for the team…something that rarely happened, if ever, at Chip Ganassi Racing. He only lasted one season with Richard Petty and RPM. And he didn’t rebound from those - he closed up his driving career driving for Jay Robinson, and doesn’t have enough support, at this moment, to get back into a top-level team as a driver. Don’t take me 100% on that as I don’t know the full story, but rumors in the racing industry almost always come true, despite original denial. But, again, Reed won the race under the rules, so that’s it.

I think Ron Fellows was great for NASCAR. He brought so much hope to road racers that they could compete and win in NASCAR. I think the biggest reason why Ron didn’t win in Cup was that the road courses were only twice during each season, and they were almost always won by either Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, with an occasional new winner (like Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, etc.). If things had played out perfectly for Ron, he should have at least 5 Cup wins on his record. But, if not for four of them, he definitely should have had Sonoma in 2003 and arguably in 2001 as well.

Couldn't agree more!

He was great and fast that day. I don’t think anyone had anything for Tony however.

@@fredjones4588 no, Tony, Ricky Rudd, and Jeff Gordon were the strongest ones.

Thanks. I cannot give anyone a definite answer, obviously. But this is the most accurate answer that I can imagine/theorize. I believe that, either way, Dylan and Eric had so much evil going in their head that, in truthfulness, they were clueless and so mentally confused. It was far too late for them to get the help they needed. In any event, they wanted to be free of the pain within them and thought that killing students was the answer to their personal problems. I think they unleashed everything within the first several minutes of it, and after the library shooting, they slowed down because, they realized that none of it did anything to lower their pain. They were then stuck trying to find themselves out of the situation that they couldn’t take back. They knew that, either way, their lives were over - they would either get life in prison, be institutionalized forever, or be executed. In that predicament, the boys decided on the thing that they thought was the only possible option for them - they would go out on their own terms, rather than be the subject of a globally-watched trial, having to address their crimes to the survivors and the deceased's' loved ones...followed by the inevitable life-lasting punishments handed to them by their crimes, through the hands of the people they wrongly blamed for their pain. Mentally ill, they were, but it would have been 99% impossible to get an acquittal for any reason based on what was discovered. Under both Colorado and US law, Dylan and Eric were only insane if they didn't know that what they were doing was wrong. Their diaries, their creation of bombs, their buying of their guns, and their aggressive home videos, showed that they knew fully what they were doing, and went into that school with malice for the exact things that happened. If they faced trial and if they got any sentence other than death…they would have the pain of the very harsh truth added to their shoulders, when they would hear that the majority of the world had the opinion that they were spared the fate of lying on the table with drugs going through their arms, while their victims would perish and leave behind heartbroken loved ones. In any event, as I’ve mentioned before, they couldn’t let go of their hate, and in the end, it destroyed them. And sadly, we lost a teacher, lost 15 lives, and 24 others were wounded, with some being paralyzed permanently in the process. A very sad and tragic day.

Yeah, seriously. That was a very terrifying moment and a black eye for America.

I think Roger Mears is a decent driver and a good person. He is obviously not as well-known as his brother, but Roger seems cool. We don’t know each other, but I do know he lives in Arizona - I hope we will meet up one day. I’d love to know him more and about his racing. I’ve heard he was really good at off-road competition while Rick was winning all those IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 wins.

Thanks for your interest. I can imagine three scenarios. In my first scenario: Willy Wonka would dismiss Charlie and Grandpa Joe. Since Charlie was noble enough, if he and Joe left the factory, he would not have permitted his grandfather to sell his Everlasting Gobstopper to anyone. He got his wish in meeting Wonka and seeing the factory and he was very humble to accept his lack-of-money upbringing. And once Mr. Wilkinson came back to Wonka and let him know that Charlie did not sell him out, he would do some reflecting. He would eventually realize that, in all fairness to Charlie, he himself has tested the drinks many times and thought it was fun to float and it was good, somewhat, that there were some people to test the drinks on that volunteered, although without his permission. He probably couldn’t blame them for wanting to float and fly. He would think that maybe he could have done a better job at evading what would have been a tragic disaster by putting the ceiling fan in a position where the person/s would not fly into it after consuming the drinks and floating upward. He would recognize that, compared to the other kids, Charlie was not disrespectful, and just made a poor choice and, unlike the other children, found his way out of the problem. You need to pay attention to a lot of scenes in the movie. If you notice closely, part of the reason why Wonka’s anger built up was not just because the kids violated the contract, had impacted his factory’s production with their behavior, tried to sell him out, and had to be eliminated from the tour. It was because they - along with their parents - were really disrespectful, condescending, sarcastic, and rude to the amazing stuff that Wonka had created, hoping to inspire them and make the world a fun place to be in. Back in those days, it was socially inappropriate for guests to insult their hosts, and that’s a social rule that is still in place in many cultures today. Willy Wonka didn’t feel appreciated by anyone but Charlie after he worked so feverishly hard to make enough chocolate to create a global contest for five lucky people to tour his off-limits facilities and refineries. In any event, after a few days, I think Wonka would have found his way - maybe in a hooded outfit - to Charlie’s home where he would apologize for his outburst and give him the factory. In scenario 2, it would be the same, but Willy Wonka would reduce Charlie’s punishment. Like maybe giving him only the lifetime supply of chocolate and not the factory. Or, if Wonka still wanted to keep the factory prize hidden, he would have reduced the punishment to ten years’ worth of chocolate rather than a lifetime supply. And he would immediately get to work afterwards in starting another Wonka-Mania contest to find his heir…thus repeating the cycle. In scenario three, it would be the same as well, but with Wonka upholding his decision to not give the prize to him. I think Wonka would tell Charlie, “I’m sorry for my outburst against you and Grandpa Joe. Regardless of what we agreed in the contract, there’s no excuse for my reaction. You were the best-behaved child. I got heavily upset, hurt, mad, and exhausted by day’s end because the other kids got themselves into serious trouble, with the parents supporting their bad choices, then turning on me and playing the victim card, despite me warning them to not touch, taste, nor tell anyone what they saw. And once they find out that the Slugworth that spoke to them was my worker, they’ll bring everything to the papers without telling the other half of the story. Those four children and parents were a process for me. I’m too old to be put in a spot of playing multiple roles of a factory owner, a businessman, an inventor, a tour guide, a caretaker of the Oompa Loompas and an involuntary symbolic single parent for five kids and for five lazy parents that are not of my blood. But that’s no excuse for my outburst, that’s just what was in my head when I lashed out at you two. I’m sorry. But I thank you for showing me the respect that I needed, and I heavily respect you for having no intent in selling me out to anyone. However, because of the illegal sampling of my drinks, I cannot give you the grand prize under the contractual terms we agreed on. But the fact that you, Charlie, owned up to your actions, kept the Gobstopper, and still look up to me…well, as my workers say…if you don’t have that greed, which you don’t, you will go far in life. You have proven yourself worthy in my eyes, so I wish you and your family the best and, if you or your relatives ever need help with finding better work down the track, you can come to me for a reference or recommendation for good places to work at. I will gladly reference you. Goodbye, and good luck.” … Followed by him rushing to create another Wonka-Mania contest and making sure that no golden tickets end up in the five hands of the original winners, again…along with the Paraguayan gambler that tried to cheat into his entrance.

At the time it was reported that Kyle wanted to set things right. And the past had shown it was a good way to do so - when Robby Gordon took out Marcos Ambrose while Ambrose was on the path to a sure-win in Montreal, he was suspended from Pocono by NASCAR. At the next road course, Robby offered Marcos his #77 Cup car, and Ambrose accepted the offer although rain caused a DNQ. Ron claimed to have appreciated the offer but chose to stay with Chevrolet. Ronnie testified that it was also mostly because Ron Jr. wanted to see actions speak since it wasn’t the first time Kyle had gotten into trouble. Kevin claimed that Kyle gave the offer hoping that Ron, in return, would advocate for NASCAR to not pull his license for the remainder of the season. But at the time, Kevin and Kyle hated each other and when you dislike someone, it’s very easy to tell only 10/100 of the truth. But we’ll never know for sure on that end. I do know that the majority of the drivers did not like what happened. It was a huge margin of opinion that Kyle got too lenient of a punishment. But that’s not my call to make. 😊

But in all fairness to Kyle, he tried his best to do the right thing. Earlier in the season he offered Kevin a handshake and words of encouragement at Sonoma, but Harvick was understandably skeptical since his relationship with Kyle was heavily strained. Although it took the Hornaday incident to get to Kyle for good, he was trying hard to be better even though he still had ego in him. It was really the Homestead deal in 2010 that sparked everything as, from what I saw, Kyle and Kevin got along fine from 2005 until then. In 2010, there was a photo captured of Kevin and Kyle sharing laughs alongside a racecar, and when Kyle had beaten Kevin in an Xfinity race, Kevin was heavily congratulative and gracious. I presume that when Kyle became a team owner and hired away some KHI members, including Ron’s crew chief, it had caused some resentment that wasn’t known by either driver until the 2010 Homestead race. Then we all know what happened. Afterwards it took a while to rebuild that respect. I think both of them becoming Dads helped and had got them to realize that the feud wasn’t worth it since it delayed their chances of winning a championship.

@@r-urelentlessandunstoppable but didn’t Kevin have issues with Kurt too during those years?

@@crissmasshughes3175 yes. Kevin and Kurt had a rivalry too but I think it was different. Kyle was known as aggressive but talented the minute he entered the sport and didn’t really earn his “bad boy” image until the late-odds. He was heavily respected. Kurt, on the other hand, earned his villain status the minute he entered the sport. Kevin had his own issues with bad boy status, but Kurt had problems to the point where even Kevin recognized them. Kurt mellowed out and he and Kevin now are fine. They were teammates at one point. Kyle had his own growth he had to go through. He left Hendrick Motorsports, the best team at the time, at the end of 2007 and there are claims - but never verified by either side - that their relationship became toxic. From then on, up until 2011, Kyle got into many incidents and while some were not his fault, he lost almost all respect from the drivers, veterans, and fans. For example, with Todd Bodine. He and Kyle tangled at Kentucky in a simple racing accident that no one was at fault for. Todd, after coming back and winning, publicly thanked him for alleged dirty driving. Kyle was confused and confronted Todd afterwards pretty much asking, “Todd, it was an honest racing accident. Why’d you call me dirty?”. Todd acknowledged that Busch had done nothing wrong, but stood behind his message to him from victory lane. It took Kyle some time to understand Todd’s message better. I completely understood, right away, what Todd was trying to explain to Kyle. In Todd’s view, it was beyond that particular incident. He was trying to help the young talented driver understand that there is more to the sport of racing than black-and-white thinking, winning all of the time, and aggressive driving…Kyle had to do a better job of respecting the value of the sport and the competitors if he wanted to be a champion and a true champion. Once he self-grew, he won 2 titles - 2015 and 2019. I think Todd is one of the people to thank for that.