Month: October 2023

Not Concrete

Drive Time, Travels

When I first visited the U.S. of A. back in 1982 (honeymoon with Wife #1), I decided to do a LONG drive trip around the eastern U.S. — a four-day drive from NYfC to Boston and into New Hampshire and Maine, then back down to Manhattan for a day or two, and then carrying on down to New Orleans, then to Florida (Disney World), and back up the eastern seaboard to NYfC before flying home to the old Racist Republic.  The trip ended up taking us just under a month.

Bear in mind that I’d never driven on the right-hand side of the road, and there was no Wayze or GurgleMaps, just a Rand-McNally atlas.

That wasn’t a problem.  This was.

In South Africa, there are no concrete roads;  all are asphalt, and at least as far as the freeways are concerned, very smooth.  Imagine then my surprise when I got to the Greatest Country On Earth, set out on the interstate highways and had to endure three weeks of “ker-chunk-ker-chunk-ker-chunk” as the highway joints chattered away under the tires of the rented Dodge Aries, driving me to near-insanity.

WTF?  I’ve heard all the arguments in favor of concrete as a road surface, and none of them make up for the most unpleasant driving experience on Earth.  As for the “concrete lasts longer in extreme heat conditions than asphalt” argument, please note that in South Africa (where sweltering heat is not exactly an unknown weather condition) the asphalt roads bear up perfectly well.

Indeed, when I went back to Seffrica back in 2017, I had occasion to drive from Johannesburg to Pretoria and back (about 140-odd miles) on the N3/N1 motorways, which were in perfect condition AND being asphalt, there was no road noise.  (Ditto of course in Britishland, where I’d been likewise driving around Hardy Country in a Ford Focus.)

This was brought home to me quite recently when I discovered that Plano has started covering some of our concrete suburban roads with asphalt.  The change in the driving experience (and therefore my mood) has been dramatic.  My only gripe is that the process isn’t going fast enough, and to my dismay I notice that all the road repairs currently underway [20,000-word rant deleted]  are being made by re-laying concrete slabs, rather than just covering the affected areas with asphalt.

Whichever American first made the decision to go with a concrete road surface over asphalt should have been thrown into a revolving concrete mixer for a week.

News Roundup

Bad News

And speaking of evil bitches and their webs:


...it’s difficult to imagine anyone more “dark and dystopian” than this ghastly parody of a woman.

Great Moments of Jurisprudence:


...no shit, Sherlock yer honor.  Also:


...unless she’s skinny and likes to suck dick, I’m somewhat puzzled by this one. And lastly:


...but at least he didn’t call her a fat lesbian — even though in this case, the description fits perfectly.


...they have no Posse Comitatus law in Swedishland, but that seems to be a Good Thing in this instance.


...I’m thinking large amounts of cash, flowers and a roofie… wait, perhaps I misread the headline.


...well, maybe not everyone misses the blustering Green asshole cyclist.

From the Department Of Education:


...gives new meaning to the term “pupil support”, dunnit?


…

And the part you’ve all been waiting for, INSIGNIFICA:

           ...trust me, you don’t want to go there.  No man should.

Finally, some Showbiz News:


...I report, you decide:

And in daylight:

And that’s all the news that’s fit to mock.

Reader Recommendation

Entertainment

From Reader and Commenter ChaddInFl comes this:

I recently finished the first and only series of a German Netflix series called Kleo. It’s set in late ‘80s/early ‘90s Berlin. The title character is a young Stasi assassin who is denounced and imprisoned after completing an important assassination in West Berlin. She is released from her East German prison in 1990, during the time between the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification… and boy is she pissed. It turns out that all the GDR big wigs have taken their ill-gotten millions and fled for balmier climes.

It’s a well-produced and well-written show. The main character and her primary antagonist (a West German cop) are both relatable and well developed. I’ve recommended this to everyone in my daily life, so I thought I’d send it to the author of my favorite blog.

Thankee Chadd for the kind words.  As it happens, I’ve seen the show and it’s as good as he says it is.  Please note, however, that it is more of a black comedy (cf. Tarantino) than realistic, and often veers into near-fantasy, especially in the flashbacks.

And tell me that Jella Haase is not an inspired bit of casting as the assassin Kleo:

Dead eyes, if ever I’ve seen them.

3 Dubious Announcements

3 Inexplicable Things

Here they are:  worse even than INSIGNIFICA, these are announcements of things that should inspire fear, loathing or projectile vomiting rather than amusement or amazement:

Okay, the Freebird/Dolly thing struck me the same way as the collaboration between Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and Luciano Pavarotti:  “Why?”

The Kardashian coven:  as far as I recall, it all started with the “leak” of a video of Kim Kardashian fucking her boyfriend.  Once you’ve done that in front of a camera, all the rest is simple.

As for the Crocs announcement… I hear hoofbeats.

Dot-Mil Idiocy

Bad News, Military, The Gun Thing

I know, the title is somewhat redundant, but this beats them all (sent by Reader Tony M., thankee — I think):

After 123 years, the immortal Colt-Browning 1911 pistol has finally left U.S. military service.

The immortal 1911 really has no historical equal. It has been the longest-serving sidearm in U.S. military history. Almost every company in the business of manufacturing handguns today makes some variation of the 1911.

And yet, it’s no longer good enough for our troops?  To continue:

While nothing lasts forever, and while it’s easy to see the logistical advantage in a sidearm that uses the NATO-standard 9x19mm cartridge, it’s a sad day for gun aficionados, especially those of us with a fondness for John Browning’s 1911.

For those of little historical learning, I should point out that the reason that the U.S. Army adopted the Colt 1911 .45 ACP in the first place was that their .38 cartridges (similar to the 9x19mm) just weren’t killing savages efficiently.  But of course, people who make “logistical” choices are seldom the same ones who actually have to shoot people dead.

Never mind:  let our troops use three rounds of 9mm Europellet fired from their German-designed peashooters to do the same job as the .45 Automatic Colt Pistol bullet can do with one.

I’ll just continue to carry my 1911 and be glad of it.

Bah.