Here’s something to help you laugh off that Monday feeling:
Still on the topic of family relations:
Finally, one of my eyeworms:
Now go and take care of Monday.
Month: June 2024
Classic Beauty: Mitzi Gaynor
I have no idea why I’ve never featured the lovely dancer and actress Mitzi Gaynor before on these pages, but let me make up for that egregious omission right away:
And then, of course, there are those legendary dancer’s legs:
I think I’ll save the color pics for another day.
Inescapable Comparison
“Oh good grief, here’s Kim grinding on about old stuff again.”
Yeah, guilty as charged.
Watch Jay Leno’s glorious love affair with his 1940 Lagonda 4.5-liter V12. His is a direct, faithful copy of the cars which were taken straight off the street and raced at Le Mans in 1939 — and placed 3rd and 4th, the very first time they were entered.
After watching that, tell me you don’t want to smack him over the head and take his car. And if you feel a little intimidated by the size and manual strength needed to drive the thing, you need to take some double-strength manly pills. Me, I’d do it all in a flash.
Now watch Henry Chan shooting what is, to me, the firearm’s equivalent of that Lagonda: the Mauser K98 bolt-action rifle. (For background, here’s Ian McCollum.)
Same idea, same technique, same principle for both: outstanding performance, infallible reliability and guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time you take it out for a spin.
Like the one on Jay’s face.
I need to get back out to TDSA and shoot my K98, because I want to get that same smile. (And I use a rubber recoil pad, just like old hickok45 does.)
I don’t have a Lagonda, though. Bummer.
Top Guy
We’ve had many conversations, sitting around the firepit on this my back porch, listening to the screams of socialists as they turn on the spit… where was I?
Oh yeah, that’s right: conversations about quality, technology and so on. I, of course, am a neo-Luddite when it comes to climbing up the quality / cost curve because as much as I may enjoy the quality or immense technology behind some geegaw (Purdey shotguns, Patek Philippe watches and Bentleys, to name but some), I just can’t justify to myself the horrendous costs involved in scaling the peak or reaching the very end of the curve, so to speak.
To give but one example, when I see the intricacy of a watch like this IWC Portuguese Tourblllon:
…I can appreciate the engineering precision and sheer brilliance of its design; but I just can’t see myself dropping around $150k on it.
But a lousy $150k is nothing compared to the other Tourbillon, that of the new Bugatti which will arrive sometime in 2026.
I did not know that Mate Rimac (yes, the guy who brought us the all-electric Rimac supercar) was now the CEO of Bugatti. But anything this guy touches turns to magic, so spend the next half-hour with him as he explains the design and engineering behind the new EB Tourbillon, which is to the current generation of supercars as the 2024 Rolls-Royce Corniche is to the 1924 Silver Ghost.
Never mind that none of us will ever own one of these, and never mind that it’s hopelessly impractical and horribly overpowered.
It is to my mind, however, the perfect marriage of design and technology, and an example of what happens when a man absolutely refuses to compromise, on anything.
He’s climbed the curve past the point where anyone else might have stopped, and frankly, there’s no telling where it will lead.
Brilliant.
Good Question
Reader Preussenotto asks the important question: “Has Nigel Farage displaced Jeremy Clarkson as the Greatest Living Englishman?”
Now that is a tough one to answer. Both men love guns and love their pints.
Both men drive Range Rovers, so that’s a tie. But Farage’s other car is a Volvo (ugh):
…whereas Clarkson has an Alfa Romeo GTV6:
…and that’s just on his farm.
Both shag sexy girlfriends — okay, Jezza’s chick is skinny and Irish, while Our Nige’s squeeze is French and not skinny; but nobody’s perfect.
…and yes I know: both men can be said to enjoy slipping into a Ferrari.
But Clarkson did not support Brexit at the time (most likely because his EU farm subsidy money would — and did — disappear), whereas Farage…
And both men have terrible teeth, but then they’re British.
Like I said, it’s a tough call.
News Roundup
Aaaahhhh… Australians, keeping it classy as always.
In Everybody Panic! News:
...♫ ♪ ♫ won’t be fooled again ♪ ♫ [/Peter Townsend]
...published 96 hours ago. I report, you decide.
...the line of volunteers starts behind me, and quit that shoving, y’all.
Speaking of vermin:
...fuck me, y’all can’t even stop killing each other on your very own holiday.
In The Great Cultural Assimilation Project©:
...our Nigel may want to look to the rather elegant “Greek Solution”:
...too bad this approach wouldn’t work in the Rio Grande.
...the Strylians were never going to go for the”Greek Solution” — unless of course the Chinese migrants were unvaccinated.
...send him to Greece. By boat.
...dunno about you, but I’m not shocked at all. In some Kraut cities, it’s 100%.
In Political News:
...if by “many”, you mean “all”, Tommy: then yes, yes there is.
...you had me at “Anna Paulina Luna”:
And in the Corporate Bonehead Department:
...which means no more of this:
...or this:
...or even this:
...you stupid, stupid cunts.
And speaking of…
...of course she did. Just imagine if it were a man who’d done it: oh, the lamentations.
...of course it was. I wonder who pays this “expert’s” salary?
And in still more meaningless 
...welcome to a man’s world, sweetheart.
And as we saunter down 
:
...one of the better examples thereof, I think:
And speaking of lying, that’s the end of the news.