Following on from Part 1 (click for background explanation), here’s the second episode:
Till next time, in a month or so…
Month: May 2024
Wallpaper
Normally, I change the wallpaper on my laptop about every week. This one, from Alan Fearnley, has been there for nearly two because I find the whole tableau incredibly appealing: restful, old-fashioned, a beautiful car and a pretty lady… what more could one ask for?
Right-click to embiggen.
Best Of The Old, Best Of The New
I believe it was Longtime Reader and Car Nut GT3Ted who once stated that his car of desire would be a 1920s-era Bentley (“Blower”) 4.5-liter monster.
Me, I’d hate it because of the extreme hassle of getting the thing started — it was a routine of astonishing complexity and irritation.
However, as Iain Tyrrell demonstrates, there are alternatives. Sit back and enjoy watching a middle-aged man having his loins stirred by one of the greatest cars — and driving experiences — ever made by man.
As I said, I wouldn’t want one of the originals. But Bob Peterson’s rumbling and snorting 6.5-liter B80 monster, in Iain’s words a faithful resto-mod / homage / “slightly more modern” / “vintage-esque” Bentley with its military-grade Rolls-Royce straight-8?
In a racing heartbeat, baby.
It makes all the other exotica in Iain’s garage look like effete little toys; a manly 25-year-old single-malt Scotch compared to a girly cocktail with an umbrella and bits of fruit in it.
WANT.
Friday Night Listening
Not to everyone’s taste, mind you; but I LOVE the Dregs. Pure virtuosity.
Here They Go Again
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, from Britishland:
Supermarkets today urged against panic buying as the Government launched a ‘preppers’ website warning families to gather an ’emergency kit’ of tinned food, batteries and bottled water for use in a crisis. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will today advise people to make contingency plans for dealing with potential emergencies to help build ‘national resilience’ and ease pressure on emergency services.
Dowden wants to encourage families to stock up with enough food and water to survive for three days in the event of an emergency like a flood.
All very sensible.
Naturally, everybody should build up some kind of reserve supplies of food and so on, and I’m pretty sure that all my Murkin Readers have already done so, with the judicious addition of guns and ammo in place so as to protect said emergency supplies against predation from those who haven’t.
And speaking of Americans:
While British ministers believe it is wise for people to take precautions, they will be keen to avoid imitations of the elaborate preparations for ‘doomsday’ scenarios made by US survivalists.
Of course they will, because the whole concept of self-reliance is anathema to politicians — and especially so in Britishland. So while the BritGov encourages people to have some emergency supplies on hand (three days? FFS), they don’t want their peasants to have too much of a supply, because… actually, I don’t have the faintest idea why they wouldn’t, other than malevolence or spite.
Feel free to enlighten me.
For those who may have missed them, or who are recent visitors to this website, here are a few from the archives:
Proper Means
My response to this story should come as no surprise to anyone:
In a horrifying attack, Angeline Mahal, in her 50s, died after she was savaged by her [own] two XL bullies in east London yesterday. It was thought to be the first fatal attack by dogs exempted from the nationwide ban on the breed.
James Hare, a qualified dog trainer who teaches children how to behave around dogs, stresses that any dog has the ability to attack and we’re far more likely to get bitten by smaller breeds. But he adds that it is the size and strength of an XL Bully that gives them a stronger jaw lock and makes them more deadly.
…and then trots out all the usual useless bullshit about distracting it with food, etc. etc., when really all that’s necessary is
“Oh but Kim,” I hear, “we live in Britishland where, by law, we’re not allowed to own eeeevil guns or dangerous items like pepper spray! What can we do?”
Vote for politicians who will overturn those stupid laws. Otherwise, it looks as though you’ll just have to get used to being Alpo.