
Testing the Grave Digger Monster Truck (2010) - camtarn
https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/testing-the-grave-digger-monster-truck.html
======
bozopi
The mechanical aspects of monster trucks ARE interesting, but it's really
impossible for me to separate that from the fact that this is really PR for
Feld Entertainment.

They're a family-held corporation famously known for owning the (now defunct)
Ringling Brothers Circus... and for getting caught hiring a dirty ex-CIA
official to wiretap and harassing their critics. (Clair George, an interesting
guy. The highest ranking CIA official convicted - and pardoned by Poppy Bush -
in the Iran-Contra scandal, among other dubious achievements.) Salon did a
great series on this years back:

Part 1:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081012203919/http://archive.sa...](https://web.archive.org/web/20081012203919/http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/08/30/circus/print.html)

Part 2:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060203010938/http://archive.sa...](https://web.archive.org/web/20060203010938/http://archive.salon.com:80/news/feature/2001/08/31/circus/print.html)

tl;dr - the owners of Grave Digger and Monster Jam are Not Nice People.
(Posting as a throwaway because of this history.)

~~~
justtopost
I am decidedly not nice when you come after my family as well. This reads like
gossip, what is your personal beef?

~~~
PavlovsCat
That's not "not being nice". "Not being nice" is something like saying "hmm,
hi" rather than "Hey, so great to see you! You look fantastic!!" Being a thief
is being a thief, being a liar is being a liar, and so on, that such things
are "not nice" is a bonus, it doesn't replace what they actually are.

And unflattering truths isn't "coming after" anyone, either.

> _Over lunch, Smith recounted a campaign of surveillance and dirty tricks
> Feld had unleashed on her in the wake of her 1990 magazine piece in the now-
> defunct Regardie 's magazine. Feld, he said, had hired people to manipulate
> her whole life over the past eight years. Feld had spent a lot of money on
> it, he said. He may have even tried to destroy her marriage. In fact,
> Pottker would eventually learn of a massive dirty tricks operation,
> involving former CIA officials and operatives, that would target Ringling
> enemies such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other
> groups, not just Pottker._

[..]

> _The final paragraph of George 's affidavit was a stunner, too. It suggested
> Feld had set up a special unit, much like the Watergate "plumbers," to
> destroy anyone who threatened the image of the circus as wholesome fun for
> the whole family, not to mention a conscientious custodian of animals and
> circus children. It was headed by one Richard Froemming, one of Feld's
> executive vice presidents, George swore. His main target was People for the
> Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and similar groups that had annoyed
> Feld with charges that the Ringling Bros.' elephants were badly cared for._

If someone does that kind of stuff, and their family doesn't "come after them"
for it, it dissed itself harder, and more long-lastingly, than any author or
journalist could.

------
dang
Which is the best article? This one, or
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768630](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768630)
or
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768626](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768626)?

~~~
camtarn
They both present a slightly different perspective - one's about the human
element of the sport, and the other's about the mechanical. I actually thought
the mechanical might be more interesting for Hacker News, but it seems that
the personal one has got more traction. Happy for either to be killed to
provide more focus - I just went on a bit of a monster truck reading trip last
night and submitted the ones I found interesting :)

~~~
mirimir
Gotta love the language. For example:

> High-speed oversteer in a monster truck, so we're told, is about as easy to
> rein in as a night in Vegas with a sloshed Lindsay Lohan.

------
ablation
Loved the writing style in this. It pulled me along at a decent clip, kept me
interested right to the end - and that’s something I never thought I’d say
about monster trucks.

