From peerless car artist Alan Fearnley:
(right-click to embiggen and save as wallpaper — as I did)
Note the dog… which makes the pic about perfect.
The only thing wrong with this scene is that I’m not the owner of the Ferrari.
Category: Old Fartism
One More Kindred Spirit
My loathing for seagulls has been well documented (here, for example), so when I saw this little snippet, I was mightily pleased, oh yes I was:
A blue plaque has been installed to commemorate a man made famous – for swearing at seagulls.
The honour was cheekily bestowed on Huw Davies – who was renowned for shooing the pesky birds away with expletives.
Huw, from Aberystwyth in Wales, was previously honored with a joke plaque on his favourite bench when he passed away.
And the new one (which is not as funny because OMG swearwords doubleplusungood):
I wish that I could achieve such fame, for so trivial a cause.
I suspect that
Kim du Toit
Used to sit here and shout
FUCK OFF!!! at authority figures
would be tripleplusungood, even though it’s a very accurate summation of my lifelong attitude.
But yet, we persevere.
Lovely Stuff
I know we’re all supposed to act our age, but this is just priceless:
A Massachusetts woman was arrested and charged after the Townsend Police Department said she crashed into a building and then left while driving under the influence of drugs.
Deborah Gyles, 61, was charged with operating under the influence of drugs, leaving the scene of a property damage accident and unregistered motor vehicle.
Sixty-one? And massively stoned?
It’s a kind of reverse precociousness. Wonderful.
I was having a bad day until I read the article (courtesy of Reader Mike L., who should know better than to send me stuff like that).
I just want to know what drugs they were.
Well That Explains It
Had a little email exchange with Reader Brad_in_IL, after he pointed me to this article and asked me if I remembered any or all of the items and products (follow link to see what he was talking about).
I replied that I remembered all of them, and had in fact used all of them, to which he responded: “Okay .. you’ll have to explain how/why you used that hair dryer !! “
And my response:
When I was a pro musician, I used to have highlights put in my hair. Monthly trip to Armando’s, one hour in the dryer. It was the 70s, FFS.
We did a lot of stupid shit like that back then.
Again?
And the hits just keep on coming:
Southwest Airlines planes were grounded nationwide Tuesday for what the carrier called an intermittent technology issue.
But think of all the money they saved by not upgrading their systems for well over a decade…
I can’t really cast nasturtiums, though. My laptop is five years old, I still use Windoze 10 and I haven’t downloaded upgrades to my 8-year-old printer, ever. My car has nearly 130,000 miles on it, my 1911 has fired off close to 30,000 rounds and I still watch DVDs (never got into that blu-ray nonsense). I even read Dead Tree books, not their electronic versions on Kindle, and I still love butter-fried eggs even though they’ll probably kill me. The catalog of things in my life that have never been upgraded is voluminous.
But I’m just one guy, and not a billion-dollar corporation responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year.
Makes Sense
Why does this resonate with me, even though I’m retired?
‘Self-employment provides a way for older workers to use their skills and experience in a flexible and autonomous way whilst also generating income and maintaining their sense of purpose.
‘Technological advancements means setting up a business in your 50s or 60s has never been easier and armed with rich life experience and a valuable business network behind them, the appeal of building something of their own or pursuing a passion project can be a powerful draw.
‘There is a more sinister side to the rise in self-employment amongst this age group too.
‘Shut out of the mainstream workforce due to a lack of flexible working opportunities and rampant age discrimination in the workplace means many older workers have no choice but to set up on their own.
‘Stuck between a rock and a hard place with a rising cost of living and the state pension age soon to be extended to 67, self-employment can feel like the only option for many who have been denied access to traditional employment.’
I’ll be happy to be proved wrong, but the way older workers have been treated by corporations since the 1980s…