Day: April 18, 2025
04/18/25
Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #197
Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY
04/18/25
Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
Tell us what you love.It looks like paying high taxes and spending half the year in cold darkness is a recipe for happiness: Finland is the world’s happiest country for the 9th year in a row and its Scandinavian neighbors all made the top-10. Meanwhile, the scores dropped again among the large English-speaking countries. Researchers are blaming that, in part, on too much social media scrolling, especially among the young. The apps that are really social (like WhatsApp and Facebook) have the least impact though, while the most problematic platforms are those heavy on visuals, with algorithmic feeds (like Instagram and TikTok). See the details here.
If you’re in a non-electric rental car and need to fill up, you can see which side of the car the tank is on by looking at the fuel indicator on the dashboard. It seems to be standard among all manufacturers now that there will be a left arrow or a right arrow beside the icon. So you know which side of the pump to pull up to without getting out to look.
If you make a regular flight from the UK each month or get to travel that often for fun, Wizz Air has a subscription plan for you. “After a one-time First-Month fee, Multipass subscribers pay a fixed monthly amount for the remaining 11 months, providing certainty over travel costs.” After that first month’s fee, it’s 55 pounds sterling one way, 110 return for any destination, plus a set price for baggage if you choose to add it. See the full details at the Wizz website.
If you want to avoid the current government-inflicted airport woes in the United States, you might want to drive to a smaller market. In this survey where travelers rated their favorite airports, small and medium market ones scored the wins. Rhode Island, Portland (OR), and Indianapolis snagged the top three spots and I was happy to see Tampa at number eight since I got through security in five minutes on Monday. (The Starbucks line was a different story…)
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
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