The end of the 'hot rod' guru

Posted at 7:22 AM on February 28, 2008 by Bob Collins

I find this morning that reality TV series have given us a "connection" to people we never would have had a connection with otherwise.

Boyd Coddington is dead.

I can't change the oil on the News Cutmobile in under 4 hours, and yet I was riveted by American Hot Rod, not so much for what I learned about hot rods, but by the realization that other workplaces are as -- how do I put this and still be able to write in this space tomorrow? -- "occasionally dysfunctional" as the ones I've worked in.

Coddington was the poster boy for the "Stressed out bosses of America" club. And yet, like a drag race out on the edge of town, we couldn't turn away, even though we knew the end could be bad.

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