Latest news with #Subarus
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Former Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to selling stolen body parts across state lines
Cedric and Denise Lodge were indicted in New Hampshire in 2023 for selling body parts across the country for at least five years before they were both arrested, records show. The couple used Cedric Lodge's position at the Harvard morgue to divert organs and cadaver parts that had been donated to the Anatomical Gift Program and were supposed to be cremated and instead selling them to people in other states, according to court records and Prosecutors alleged that Cedric Lodge removed organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts from the cadavers after they were used as for teaching and research purposes. He and Denise Lodge then sold the remains and shipped or personally delivered them to buyers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, prosecutors said. Advertisement In 2023, the couple had two Subarus with vanity plates. One read 'DKSHDWS,' in homage to the gothic-horror show from the 1960s, and t In addition to the Lodges, several others have also pleaded guilty in cases related to the Harvard morgue scandal. Advertisement A Pennsylvania man, Joshua Taylor, pleaded guilty last week to a charge of interstate transport of stolen remains. Prosecutors said Taylor made 39 online payments to an account controlled by Denise Lodge. The payments, which totaled $37,000, sometimes had memos like 'head number 7″ and $200 for 'braiiiiiins,' according to court records. Denise Lodge and Taylor are still awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said in a statement Thursday. Many of the remains were resold at a profit, prosecutors said, including to Jeremy Pauley, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and transporting human remains across state lines. Candace Chapman-Scott, a former mortuary worker in Arkansas who was accused of selling body parts to Pauley, also pleaded guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, prosecutors said. A sentencing hearing for Lodge had not been scheduled in court records as of Thursday. Lodge's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Nick Stoico can be reached at
Spectator
30-04-2025
- Automotive
- Spectator
Is Subaru turning me into a lesbian?
I was recently lent the latest Subaru Forester to test drive, and I enjoyed its sturdiness, its space and the frugality of its 2.0 hybrid engine. But as my mileage progressed over the course of a week's bombing around the back roads of north Norfolk, I started to have a hankering for a nose ring, a tattoo of interlocking female glyphs, and to dye my hair pink and blue and wear dungarees. I put on a k.d. lang playlist, drove home, and watched Angelina Jolie in Gia. Was the Subaru turning me – a bloke, with no unusual pronouns – into a lesbian? Let me explain. In the 1990s, Subaru launched a calculated and groundbreaking advertising campaign on the US market. Rather than try to compete with their bigger rivals (Ford, Toyota etc) over the same white-bread suburban demographic, the Japanese company went after niche groups. Subaru built respectable but drab cars, yet they had a USP: their cars were all-wheel-drive, and the five groups that were identified as willing to pay a premium for AWD were teachers, healthcare professionals, IT professionals, outdoorsy types – and lesbians. Lesbians – ideally outdoorsy lesbians, who perhaps worked in computers, medicine or education – found Subarus' lack of flashiness appealing, and they liked that they could get a lot of stuff in the boot without it being as large as a pick-up. Lesbians were found to be four times more likely than the average consumer to buy a Subaru. So Subaru set to it, devising an ad campaign around lesbians' active and low-key lifestyles. They cultivated Subaru's image in such a way that it helped push gay and lesbian advertising from the fringes into the mainstream. Back in the mid-1990s, Don't Ask, Don't Tell was in full effect in the US military, the Defense of Marriage Act had just passed, and pop culture had yet to embrace the LGBTQ cause – so it was brave. And it worked. The image of Subarus in the USA is in marked contrast to here in the UK, where they're more likely to be driven by older wax-jacketed Tory-voting rural types or, in the suburbs, young men in tracksuits who like to leave tyre ribbons in supermarket car parks. The reason for this demographical schizophrenia is twofold: in the 1980s, when the brand first became established here, Subarus were sold through agricultural machine dealers, alongside fertiliser spreaders and seed drills. Then, in the 1990s, Colin McRae came along and drove a bright blue Subaru Impreza with gold wheels to glory in the World Rally Championship. Suddenly everyone in a baseball cap wanted to go sideways in a 'Scooby'. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the clientele was left-wing– and that's because Subaru of America hired an advertising agency called Mulryan/Nash that specialised in the LGBTQ community. One ad showed two Subarus, one with the registration plate CAMP OUT and the other XENA LVR, a reference to the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess, in which the female protagonists seemed to be lovers. There was another ad where the plate read P-TOWN, a reference to the popular gay vacation spot Provincetown, MA. There were taglines with double meanings plastered over billboards and magazine spreads: the image of an SUV or estate 4×4 tumbling over rocks with the words 'Get out. And stay out', or 'It's not a choice. It's the way we're built', or 'Entirely comfortable with its orientation'. Another read: 'It loves camping, dogs and long-term commitment. Too bad it's only a car'. Was the Subaru turning me – a bloke, with no unusual pronouns – into a lesbian?' Those that got it enjoyed decoding it. It was wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Those that didn't just saw a car with a bike rack and a kayak on the roof. Although 'Likes to be driven hard and put away wet', which took some prime real estate in a 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, was perhaps a less subtle effort. While a lot of straight people were blind to the subtexts of the adverts, Subaru did receive letters from a grassroots group that accused the car manufacturer of promoting homosexuality. Everyone who wrote said they'd never buy a Subaru again. But the marketing team quickly found out that none of those threatening a boycott had ever bought a Subaru before. Some of them even misspelt Subaru. Subaru wasn't the first company to create advertisements for gay and lesbian audiences, but it was the first in the United States to do so transparently and consistently. It's a campaign that has been studied in universities, and discussed in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Atlantic. Today, high concentrations of Subarus are to be found in the liberal meccas of San Francisco, Portland, Burlington in Vermont and Northampton, Massachusetts, and Subaru has donated millions of pounds to HIV/AIDS research and LGBTQ causes. All of which makes me feel very comfortable behind the wheel of my borrowed 2025 Forester. Now where can I buy some Birkenstocks…
Forbes
20-04-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Subaru's Greatest Ever Road Car Is The STI S210
The S210 is the brand's best handling car yet. The STI S210 could well be the last pure turbocharged, boxer-engined, gasoline powered sports sedan made by Subaru before the model is hybridized. The S210 is based on the WRX S4 sedan but employs upgrades and bespoke parts that elevate this car from ballsy to ballistic. But like all super high achievers, there are conditions—it will be limited to just 500 units, it has no 6-speed manual option, and all are destined for Japanese buyers only. For the present at least. And it also just happens to be one of the most expensive Subarus ever, setting buyers back some ¥8.6 million or around US$60,000. The most expensive was the WRX STI S209 launched in 2019, of which 209 units were sold in the US for $63,995 when new. One sold in October 2023 for $68,500. The S210 gets a massive rear wing. The S210 styling is more subtle than you'd expect with accentuated front bumper brake ducts, blacked out wheel arches, BBS wheels, red STI accents and a massive rear wing which generates downforce above 100 mph. The STI is powered by a 2.4-litre turbocharged boxer engine pumping out 296 hp and 277 lb-ft of torque. This time however, the high priced STI comes with a twist—no 6-speed manual option. Yee gads! That's a brave move from STI. This time the car is only offered with a continuously variable transmission which is a gearbox not that popular outside of Japan, especially on high performance models. According to Subaru, the reasoning for going all in for the CVT is to make the S210 a more refined, more mature, more track capable machine. And speaking of track compatibility, this car takes the base S4 sedan and throws the entire STI parts bin at the S210, a bin filled with race-tuned parts from the company's long competition and storied multiple category victories in Germany's famed Nurburgring 24-hour race. For greater cornering rigidity the S210 gets an STI front flexible draw tower bar and stiffeners, rear stabilizer bushes, bespoke ECU and transmission control unit, 6-piston Brembo brakes with drilled rotors and bespoke pads, an STI performance muffler and exhaust pipe, 19-inch Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, ZF electronically-controlled dampers and coil springs, and bespoke drive mode select. The cockpit employs Recaro sports seats. Inside it gets leather 8-way Recaro bucket seats that provide great leg and back support in corners, a bespoke S210 designed dash with red accents, seatbelts and STI badging and stitching, aluminum pedals and a red start/stop switch. It's not as luxurious as say an M3, but the materials used and the styling certainly elevates the cockpit to something approaching the BMW. As we mentioned above the S210 is based on the the STI S4 sedan. So you'd expect the new STI model to feel like a tweaked S4. Not so. At a brief S210 prototype test drive at Izu's Cycle Sport Center south of Tokyo recently, it became blatantly obvious that the new model is totally different. In fact it feels borderless now—it does not feel like a Japanese car. It feels a lot closer to a BMW M3 or an AMG C43 in terms of ride quality and cornering ability. But the S210's equivalent $60,000 is a lot cheaper than the M3's $77,000 or the C43's $67,000. Even though the test drive was held in semi-wet conditions, the S210 launched into corners and negotiated them better and with far greater stability than an M3 or C43 could. Indeed, STI claims the car has 296 hp, but when floored, the S210 feels like it has at least 320 hp or more as acceleration is impressive. The car's combination of superior 4-wheel traction thanks to its rally and race-proven AWD system and Michelin grip, improved twist and bend rigidity and massive Brembo brakes that wipe off speed instantly, the S210 tempts you to push harder in each corner. Critics may question the car's throttle response given its CVT-only offering. But thanks to a tuned ECU, tweaked transmission control unit and new sports exhaust system, turbo lag is basically non-existent, and throttle response is quick as the turbo spools up briskly. And the normally sluggish CVT has been tuned to deliver quicker changes that don't leave the driver wanting for more. The only question is how many hardcore Subaru fans are willing to fork over ¥8.6 million or around $60,000. With the current dollar-yen exchange rate that amount may not sound that much, but in real terms, an ¥8.6 million car feels more like an $80,000 to American buyers in terms of value. Who knows if they aren't able to sell them quickly in Japan, then they might offer the remaining stock to right-hard-drive countries like the UK or Australia.
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Boston Globe
Cedric Lodge, former manager of Harvard's morgue, to plead guilty to stealing human body parts from cadavers
A date for sentencing was not posted in US District Court in Scranton, Penn., where Lodge and several other people - including his wife, Denise - were prosecuted by federal authorities. Cedric and Denise Lodge lived in Goffstown, N.H., when they were indicted in 2023 for selling body parts across the country for at least five years before they were both arrested, records show. Advertisement The In 2023, the Globe reported, the couple had two Subarus with vanity plates. One read 'DKSHDWS,' in homage to the gothic-horror show from the 1960s. Advertisement Also agreeing to plead guilty to selling stolen body parts across state lines is Joshua Taylor, a Pennsylvania man, who made 39 online payments to an account controlled by Denise Lodge. The payments, which totaled $37,000, sometimes had memos like 'head number 7″ and $200 for 'braiiiiiins,' according to court records. A sentencing has not been set for Taylor, records show. Katrina Maclean, a Salem woman who used human remains obtained from Lodge in her art works sold at Kat's Creepy Creations in Peabody, is challenging her indictment for interstate transport of stolen property. On March 3, her attorney argued in court papers the charges should be dismissed because body parts are not legally property. 'Human remains are not, and have never been, deemed to constitute property or 'goods, wares, or merchandise' and therefore, fall outside the purview" of federal law, her attorney, Edward J. Rymsza, wrote. 'Even if human remains could constitute property or chattel, it must be commonly bought and sold to come within the statute. The Government fails to allege that the human remains are ordinarily a subject of commerce,' he wrote. The motion is pending. records show. John R. Ellement can be reached at
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Jerry Seinfeld Talks about His Love of Certain Subarus
Comedian is well known. Turns out he's also into Subarus. On podcast, he discussed owning a couple of special WRX STI variants, one of which he'd just re-bought. He notes the appeal as being a throwback to a time when cars from different countries felt like they embodied national heritage. If you're an automotive enthusiast, you know that Jerry Seinfeld is really into Porsches. If you're a Seinfeld fan, then you know that Jerry drives Saabs. And also, he really hates it when he reserves a mid-size and you give him the keys to a blue Ford Escort. But in real life, it turns out Jerry Seinfeld is a fan of pancake motors of a different sort. Speaking on 'The Smoking Tire' podcast this week, which is just about to hit its 1000th episode, Seinfeld surprised hosts Matt Farah and Zack Klapman by revealing his surprising affinity for hot Subarus. In fact, it turns out he'd just bought one last week, a WRX STI S209. The S209 is a pretty special car, especially considering that the STI is on hiatus at present, with Subaru offering its fans nothing more hardcore than the WRX tS. When new, the S209, which cost a staggering $65,000, was Subaru's tuning arm pulling out all the stops. Thanks to more boost for the 2.5-liter flat-four, it had a slightly laggy 341 horsepower and was festooned with aerodynamic extras from a huge rear wing to dive planes up front. For a guy who's into vintage 356s and has the wherewithal to buy the '99 911 Classic Club Coupe—a million-dollar one-off Porsche that's the most expensive 996-chassis 911 ever made—a huffed-up boostmobile seems an odd choice. But as Seinfeld explained in the podcast, it's the way Subaru was expressing Japan's character in automotive form with the S209, that brought him back to his first interest in cars in the 1970s. From test-driving an MG Midget to taking delivery of his first car, a 1973 Fiat 128 Sport L, Seinfeld's car history is pretty varied. But then, so were the cars: British cars were faintly tweedy, Italians flamboyant and emotional, Volvos stolid and Swedish. Country by country, cars used to be much more heterogeneous. In the modern sea of crossovers, there's less room for character. But a rally hero with anime aerodynamics and a chunky six-speed transmission? That's straight out of Initial D. Seinfeld told the Smoking Tire that he first bought a STI RA, then the S209, then sold the latter. He missed the S209 so much, he ended up buying it back. It's enough to make you reimagine the episode where George Costanza gets the big fur hat as one where he buys a flat-bill 555 baseball cap instead. Or where Kramer takes up vaping. But if Seinfeld's affinity for special performance versions from Subaru is surprising, it's also hugely relatable. We miss the STI too, Subaru. Can we maybe put in a reservation to get it back? You Might Also Like Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars through the Decades How to Buy or Lease a New Car Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!
