Bourjaily: YouTube Advice

I am not mechanically inclined when it comes to cars, but both my brothers-in-law are. When I need vehicle advice, I call Chuck or Roger. Last week, the battery on my wife’s PT Cruiser died. I opened the hood only to discover that on some modern cars, the battery is tucked away where you can’t see it. I called Roger and asked him what to do.

“What year is your Cruiser?” he asked.

“2002.”

“The battery is up front, under the air intake,” he said after a brief pause.

I looked, but couldn’t see anything.

“There are two clips on the side of the intake. Pop those and can move it out of the way.”

I found the clips and moved the intake. Lo and behold, there was the battery.

“Roger, how do you know this stuff?” I asked.

“Simple: I searched “2002 PT Cruiser Battery Removal” on Youtube,” he said. “I’m watching the video right now.”

I should have known. There is a video on Youtube for almost any human endeavor involving taking things apart, including guns. With very popular models like the 870 or the 10/22, you can find videos that will show you how to take almost any subassembly of the gun down to the molecular level , then put it back together again. It really is a valuable source of information, if, say, like me, you take your 10/22 magazine apart for the first time without paying close attention to where all the parts go. All you do is find the appropriate video on youtube, follow along, and put everything back in working order. There are untold thousands of these videos to choose among. I like this one, with the classical music in the background. It’s almost like an episode of Masterpiece Theater with a cast of gun parts.