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Write to us at startingpoint@globe.com. To subscribe, sign up here. I recently purchased a used car. And as is my curse, I made it complicated. If I just kept looking, I lied to myself, I would find the hole in the matrix, an affordable low-mileage car that had everything I needed and nothing I did not. I am sorry to report that this vehicle no longer exists. And that is due to the painful fact that cars have become too nice. They are loaded with electronic features nobody asked for, and every slick salesperson who thought he was impressing me when he pushed a button to activate the in-dash espresso machine was instead helping develop a mantra in my brain, which kept repeating in each car I sat in: “All this crap is just going to break.” If you are of a certain age, you remember a “good car” was one that did not break down before you arrived. Getting from A to B was a victory. There’s a reason that the no-frills, workhorse Toyota Corolla was America’s best-selling car for two decades. But it lost that title a few years ago to the Tesla Model Y, and with that came the new age of driving: “Why drive a car when you can drive a computer?” Welcome to the “Nobody asked for this” era of vehicle features. I can vividly remember when my first friend got a Tesla, standing outside his barn in Rehoboth, watching him push a button on his phone that made the car come out of the barn and drive to us. “That’s amazing,” I said. “Why do we need that? Isn’t that just going to break?” Ever get in a well-built older car, like an O.J. Simpson-era Ford Bronco, and just feel like it’s going to outlast you? Instead, today’s cars are guaranteed to lead to the eight most dreaded words in vehicle ownership: “You need to take it to the dealer.” My own car search has been a community event, because my previous car was totaled by a drunk driver who came barrel-rolling through my neighbor’s yard in the middle of the night and landed upside down on the roof of my Jeep Grand Cherokee. I live in a small town, so this accident was extensively covered by neighborhood gossip channels, which meant many people offered the same unsolicited three-word advice on my replacement car: My friend Troy gave me a shouting tour of his sedan — “It has 200 computers in it!” — while walking me through the many thousand-dollar bills he’d absorbed fixing things he never needed. If I sound like an old guy shouting “Get off my lawn,” you have never seen my lawn. But while there was really only one “must” on my list — the ability to tow the stupid boat I should never have bought — I admit there are some old-guy features that were definitely in the “like to have” category. Such as heated seats, which are kinda nice, and a backup camera, which is inarguably safer. Plus that little beep-beep noise when you’re getting close to the car behind you has come in handy as my parallel parking skills have rusted since moving from Southie to the suburbs. My car was a 2019, and I can truly say it had everything I needed. We could have stopped there. So, ultimately, I did, and basically bought the same car I’d had before. It’s a year newer, and has fewer miles. Unfortunately, this one has a button that will raise the ride height to “off-road,” making the frame pop up like I’m in one of those old Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre videos. I’ve only hit it once, and quickly lowered it back to the normal height, hoping it would get there and then just rust in place. Still, the moment I got in to test drive it, I knew it was my car, because immediately a warning popped up on the dash informing me the Stop/Start system was unavailable and needed to be serviced. That’s the thing that makes the car turn off when you stop at a light to save gas, which is in theory a good thing, but if you grew up in the A to B era, you will never not have a sinking feeling each time that happens. “The previous owner probably disabled it,” the salesman said. “If you want it fixed, you need to take it to a dealer.” 🧩 9 Across: Bogus | 🎃 61° A dry, breezy, spooky night Veteran axed: WBZ-TV laid off Jon Keller, a longtime political analyst, and four other employees. WBZ is an affiliate of CBS News, which a right-leaning opinion journalist now leads. CBS’s corporate owner, fresh off a merger, is also cutting thousands of other jobs. Next week’s elections: With Mayor Michelle Wu now running unopposed, the race for four at-large City Council seats has become Boston’s highest-profile election on Tuesday. But without a competitive mayoral race, how many voters will show up? And Californians will vote on a ballot initiative that could boost Democrats’ fortunes in next year’s midterm. Shoplifting: A rash of incidents in Boston is worrying small business owners who say hiring security and tagging merchandise would strain already-thin profit margins. City officials acknowledge the problem but say they’re making progress. Another Market Basket attack: Police arrested a woman this week after she allegedly assaulted Tewksbury store employees. Later, police say, she intentionally clogged the toilet in her holding cell. Prince no more: King Charles III of the UK stripped his younger brother Prince Andrew of his title and mansion over Andrew’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew associated for years with Epstein but denies a now-deceased accuser’s claims that they had sex when she was 17. Lessons of history: Rhode Island’s Smithfield High School reinstated five football players suspended over an antisemitic hazing incident just one day after a women whose mother survived Auschwitz spoke to the team. She says the reinstatement “sends a terrible message.” A snowless fall: It’s slowly becoming a reality in New England. Rising sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine explains why, the Globe’s Ken Mahan writes. Mass deportation: Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois asked the Trump administration to suspend ICE raids for Halloween, saying children should feel safe while trick or treating. The administration refused. And ICE mistakenly deported Alejandro Juarez, a onetime Trump golf club employee, to Mexico without a hearing. Now it’s scrambling to get him back. (NYT 🎁) New nuclear age: Trump told the Pentagon to resume testing nuclear weapons, something the US hasn’t done in decades, and agreed to help South Korea build nuclear-powered submarines. (USA Today) Louvre heist: French authorities arrested five more people they say helped steal crown jewels from the famed museum this month. But the jewels they allegedly took are still missing. (AP) Overkill: Pumpkins and cobwebs for Halloween are one thing. But when did hanging corpses, open graves, and other violent decor become the stuff of neighborhood merriment? Jeff Jacoby asks. Mental illness: Deaths at the hands of people having psychotic episodes are tragedies. But so are the lives of the perpetrators, who are sick and deserve to be healthy, writes Madeline Lambert. Nature red in claw: As lobsters migrate north, fleeing warming waters, the future of the fickle crustaceans in New England looks more uncertain than ever, says Greg Mercer. By David Beard 🇨🇦 O, Canada? It’s an upside-down world when our neighbor to the north can’t take a Stanley Cup but is on the brink of winning the World Series. For Red Sox fans still devoted to now-Dodgers Dave Roberts and Mookie Betts, tonight could be the last stand. It’s a familiar feeling for longtime Sox fans — does a postseason appearance just extend the suffering? The Globe’s Peter Abraham sets the plate for the Game 6 showdown. 👻 Spooky sounds: This weekend’s Boston Pops events include the Halloween accompaniment to “Hocus Pocus,” followed by Saturday’s Día de los Muertos tour through the music of Mexican legend Juan Gabriel. Local stage events include the scary “Misery” and “The Dybbuk.” 🎥 Beyond ‘Hocus Pocus’: On this crisp weekend, here are 99 other great Halloween-ready movies streaming, for families or fright-night fans. 🍫 Last minute-Halloween candy? It’s all gone up in price, with chocolate more than others. If you’re aiming for treats instead of tricks, you may have to settle for this weird stuff. 👹 Parenting: “10 things that terrify me about Halloween 2025.” 👾 When human isn’t good enough: Hoping to take advantage of the AI bubble, Grammarly is changing its name to Superhuman. What could go wrong? (TechCrunch) 💗 Enough about Halloween: Time for love — and a blind date with a winning start: “We actually didn’t talk a lot about work, which was honestly refreshing.” Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by David Beard. ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at startingpoint@globe.com. ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can sign up for your own copy. 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday.
