Saturday, October 07, 2017
Loretta Lynn, what an amazing person
the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade, she taught herself to play a $17 guitar, and in by age 34 began making number one hits, 16 in all.
Country music radio stations often refused to play her music, banning nine of her songs, but Lynn pushed on to become one of country music's legendary artists. She and contemporaries like Tammy Wynette provided a template for female artists in country music to follow.
Her best-selling 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, was made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same title in 1980, starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones.
Lynn is the most awarded woman in country music (including 4 grammys and 7 AMAs) , has recorded 70 albums, including 54 studio albums, 15 compilation albums, one tribute album to Patsy Cline, and to date Lynn had been inducted into more music Halls Of Fame than any other female recording artist.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/loretta-lynn-asks-whos-gonna-miss-me-when-im-gone/
A railway owned ferry in WW1 tried ramming a German submarine... so, it could be said, that a train company was attacking a German sub
Fryatt who, in March 1915, attempted to ram a prowling German U-boat with his 1902-built passenger ferry, the Great Eastern Railway-owned SS Brussels.
Ordered to stop by submarine U-33 near the Maas lightvessel off the Dutch coast, Fryatt - born in Southampton and raised in Harwich - saw the German U-boat surface.
It was his third such encounter with a U-boat that month.
Believing it was being readied to torpedo his ship, Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and tried to ram the U-boat head on, forcing it to crash-dive.
The SS Brussels managed to escape and Fryatt was awarded a gold watch by the Admiralty.
But 15 months later his ship was cornered by five German destroyers shortly after setting sail from the Hook of Holland. Fryatt, his crew and passengers were taken to an internment camp near Berlin.
Fryatt was then taken away to Bruges to stand trial on charges of being franc-tireur - a civilian engaged in hostile military activity.
His gold watch from the Admiralty was used as evidence against him and he was accused of sinking the German submarine - despite U-33 still being in active service.
The hearing, sentence and execution by firing squad all took place on the same day, 27 July.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-essex-36745439 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fryatt
Friday, October 06, 2017
A contractor's overweight excavator crashed through the decking of the century-old covered bridge spanning the Hammond River last year, now this issue is in court
The department hired the contractor to conduct repairs to the decking of the Hammond River No. 2 Bridge, which was built in 1912.
The excavator was carrying a heavy load of wood when it crashed through and got stuck, suspended between the deck and the embankment below.
The bridge had a weight limit of 12 tonnes, according to a posted sign. The 312C L excavator is listed as weighing more than 13 tonnes on the manufacturer's website.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure failed to take adequate steps to ensure the safety of people during repairs to the covered bridge in French Village last fall, WorkSafeNB alleges in charges laid earlier this week.
The department is accused of failing to take every reasonable precaution to ensure the health and safety of its employees, as well as the the health and safety of anyone having access to the project site on Route 860 at the end of French Village Road in southwestern New Brunswick.
WorkSafeNB laid the two charges under the New Brunswick Occupational Health and Safety Act in Saint John provincial court on Wednesday.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure has not entered any pleas yet. Judge Marco Cloutier set the matter over until Dec. 11
The new bridge is expected to be open to traffic in January 2018, the department has said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/transportation-charges-worksafe-bridge-excavator-french-village-1.4343745
made for the CEO of Airstream by West Coast Choppers, back when they were still in business
Robert Wheeler, chief executive of Airstream, paid $300,000 for one of the most elaborate masterpieces James’ shop had ever produced–a gleaming silver motorcycle-with-sidecar to commemorate Airstream’s 75th anniversary.
James and his welders machined, riveted and hammered 18-gauge steel and razor-thin aluminum into a space-age-looking vehicle, applying some of the same construction methods Airstream uses in its shiny luxury trailers.
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2011/10/unique-sidecars-showcase.html
Lauren Hutton, on how she got into movies...
Lauren Hutton was a 20-year-old nightclub waitress when she had her chance encounter at a red light.
Riding to work on her clunky Vespa, she heard the roar of a motorcycle that pulled alongside her at a stoplight.
The guy astride a customized Indian Motorcycle bike, Steve McQueen, exchanged glances with her. “Hey, sweetheart!” he yelled. “You want to see how a movie is made?” Hutton nodded, flashing her gap-toothed grin, and followed him to the set of The Cincinnati Kid.
http://zhumoristenouveau.eklablog.com/zhumeurs-d-octobre-hommage-a-lauren-hutton-a127137026
https://www.forbes.com/2004/06/23/cz_kb_0623hutton.html it's a good article on what celebs go through to stay in the money
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1224/086.html
from the I Can't Effing Believe This catagory... 42 years of sitting in a Philadelphia paint shop after the axle broke
time capsule 67 RS Camaro
It was a Philadelphia street race car in the 70s, it was parked in 1975 in a body shop when the rear broke and was never touched again.
Here it is.... the eventual conflict between competitive sports and gender hoopla. A transgender pre-op guy wins a woman's cycling race. Is that good for women? For sports? Or is it time to get sports co-ed?
So either you're finding that letting a trans woman compete in a womens sport is accepting her as a woman, ..................
or you are ok that no one with a vagina will ever win at sports ever again.
That's right, a professional male cyclist who feels like a woman was the winner of a woman's race, and was that close to the time of a Olympic cyclist after 106 miles
On the other hand, in June 2016, Alaskan high school girls felt cheated after teenage male Nattaphon Wangyot took home all-state honors in girls’ track and field. Wangyot immigrated from Thailand.
Is allowing pre-op men to compete in sports of the opposite sex disproportionately impacting female athletes, who will lose opportunities to get advanced in their sport and never get to the Olympics? Simply to cater to male athletes who identify as female? Are we ready for co-ed locker rooms where your daughters, sisters, and moms are showering with teammates, or competitors, who are still equipped with penis and testicles?
So - if you are offered the decision to keep competitive sports based on xx or xy chromosomes, or whatever the athlete wants to "identify" as will be the sex based competitive field they are placed in, regardless of how far past their contemporaries they place in the sport. Do you vote to let them, not let them, or throw out gender based fields, and all entrants to a sport compete for the win, with no trophy for the mens best and the womens best.
What the hell difference is there between mens and womens tennis? Bowling? Diving? Gymnastics?
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/07/first-female-transgender-pro-cyclist-colorado-classic-2017/
http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/22/its-absolutely-huge-biological-male-dominates-womens-cycling-competition/
http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/03/high-school-boy-wins-all-state-honors-in-girls-track-and-field/
You might be wondering why I bring this up.... well, I'm of the opinion that anything going on in the wheeled world is fair game to post, and I'm also a proponent of leveling the field for women to get a fair deal in all aspects of life.... mostly focusing on women in motorsports, mechanics, and jobs in the automotive field.
So this crosses several things I blog about, bicycling, women, and racing. And though it's a extremely controversial issue most people avoid, I'm no quitter, as you might guess - I don't go to meetings
Thursday, October 05, 2017
A De Dion-Bouton car fitted with puncture-proof ducasble tyres (each element comprises a ball the size of a tennis ball), 1903
http://mezzaluna.me/post/49783357726
photo by Lartigue, that incredibly talented guy who made these other photographs:
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/02/terrific-photography-of-jacques-henri.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/05/photography-of-jacques-lartigue.html
Harley-Davidson had a plan to teach an entire American town how to ride a motorcycle, all 84 of them, and it nearly worked.
the town of Ryder was very excited to get Harley’s attention, and even their painted fire hydrants orange and painted their water tower in Harley-Davidson script.
Ryder even briefly changed its name to “Riders” for the riding season.
Harley taught about 70 percent of Ryder, N.D. eligible residents how to ride free of charge, the other 30 percent just weren’t interested.
And the result was that 15 to 20% of the population bought new Harley-Davidsons because of this.
THAT, is genius marketing effort.
http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/14841/here-are-the-results-of-harley-davidsons-attempt-to-teach-a-whole-town-how-to-ride
get a Kleenex before reading, you might need it. Bobby Unser interview in Auto Week magazine had a cool story to tell. A SALUTE of the day to Mario Andretti for making up with Bobby Unser while they are still alive (77 and 83 years old)
Auto Week question: You win the race in 1981 after one of the most controversial race days in Indy 500 history. You finish first, but the win is taken away and handed to Mario Andretti because you passed cars under caution.
Then the next day, the call is reversed and you regain the win. Does all that still stick out for you?
Bobby Unser reply: It stuck in me for a long time -- really hard.
Mario was one of my very closest friends. He was hard to beat. He went fast.
But he cheated by saying I passed all those cars, which I damn sure did. He passed them all, too!
It turns out I was totally right. It was legal. But Mario got excited seeing me get away like that.
I was going to beat him. I had passed him three or four times in the race. My car was faster than any of the other cars. Jackie Stewart talked about it on TV and said what I did was illegal.
That stirred it up. If Bobby was wrong, how could Mario be right? It was all on tape.
My recent hospital stay was bad, for four or five days, it was pretty close. Guess who I got a phone call from?
First time since 1981, from Mario. He just wanted to talk.
It went really good. I hate to say it, but I’m a hard person. I know that. I can be pretty ornery.
But I got a tear in my eye. I really did. He knows I like him. He knows how close we used to be. We used to room together on the road.
You can’t believe how much better it made me feel talking to him. I hadn’t talked to him in so many years, I didn’t recognize his voice.
I asked who it was. He said, “Damn it, it’s me, Mario.”
You know, I don’t need another car or another airplane. Talking to Mario did me good. It was good for my health. Got me over some of the grudge I had.
http://autoweek.com/article/indycar/inside-unserville-visit-racing-legend-bobby-unser-his-home-albuquerque
Then the next day, the call is reversed and you regain the win. Does all that still stick out for you?
Bobby Unser reply: It stuck in me for a long time -- really hard.
Mario was one of my very closest friends. He was hard to beat. He went fast.
But he cheated by saying I passed all those cars, which I damn sure did. He passed them all, too!
It turns out I was totally right. It was legal. But Mario got excited seeing me get away like that.
I was going to beat him. I had passed him three or four times in the race. My car was faster than any of the other cars. Jackie Stewart talked about it on TV and said what I did was illegal.
That stirred it up. If Bobby was wrong, how could Mario be right? It was all on tape.
My recent hospital stay was bad, for four or five days, it was pretty close. Guess who I got a phone call from?
First time since 1981, from Mario. He just wanted to talk.
It went really good. I hate to say it, but I’m a hard person. I know that. I can be pretty ornery.
But I got a tear in my eye. I really did. He knows I like him. He knows how close we used to be. We used to room together on the road.
You can’t believe how much better it made me feel talking to him. I hadn’t talked to him in so many years, I didn’t recognize his voice.
I asked who it was. He said, “Damn it, it’s me, Mario.”
You know, I don’t need another car or another airplane. Talking to Mario did me good. It was good for my health. Got me over some of the grudge I had.
http://autoweek.com/article/indycar/inside-unserville-visit-racing-legend-bobby-unser-his-home-albuquerque
Did you know electric cars cost their manufacturers money, on every car sold?
Fiat takes a 20,000 dollar loss on every electric 500 (500e)
Chevy loses 9000 on each Volt
Tesla had a goal of 1500 model 3s, but only made 260. How much did they lose? Don't know. But, 1/6 of your production won't cover the intended profit from losing 5/6s of what you intended to sell.
http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/14759/fiat-chrysler-loses-20000-for-every-fiat-500e-it-sells
and as I recently posted http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/09/this-seems-ridiculous-electric-car.html they sell a Fiat 500 electric for about 12 to 15 thou on the used car lots because they are lemons. Soooooo... it's a 40 thousand dollar loss to Fiat for every lemon electric 500
Chevy loses 9000 on each Volt
Tesla had a goal of 1500 model 3s, but only made 260. How much did they lose? Don't know. But, 1/6 of your production won't cover the intended profit from losing 5/6s of what you intended to sell.
http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/14759/fiat-chrysler-loses-20000-for-every-fiat-500e-it-sells
and as I recently posted http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/09/this-seems-ridiculous-electric-car.html they sell a Fiat 500 electric for about 12 to 15 thou on the used car lots because they are lemons. Soooooo... it's a 40 thousand dollar loss to Fiat for every lemon electric 500
the racist American southern and eastern states created a need for a travelers guide to avoid the racist assholes, so Victor Green made a travelers guide so blacks could avoid racist places and find the hotels, gas stations, and restaurants that were hospitable
Black travelers in the USA have often faced hardships from racist assholes, such as businesses refusing to serve them or repair their vehicles, being refused accommodation or food by white-owned hotels, and threats of physical violence and forcible expulsion from whites-only "sundown towns".
In 1936, Victor Hugo Green, a New York City mailman and World War I veteran, originated and published the first annual volume of The Negro Motorist Green Book, later renamed The Negro Travelers' Green Book, an annual guidebook for black travelers to avoid open and often legal discrimination, compiling resources "to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable."
(Read digital copies from the New York Library https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=about or PDF http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Casestudy/87_135_1736_GreenBk.pdf )
Although pervasive racial discrimination and poverty limited black car ownership, the emerging black middle class bought automobiles as soon as they could, to avoid segregation on public transportation but faced a variety of dangers and inconveniences along the road, from refusal of food and lodging to arbitrary arrest.
In response, Green wrote his guide to services and places relatively friendly to blacks, eventually expanding its coverage from the New York area to much of North America, as well as founding a travel agency.'
The custom Google Map below compiles placemarks for over 1500 listings from the Spring 1956 Green Book.
Green offered a reward of one dollar for each accepted recommendation, which he increased to five dollars by 1941. He also obtained information from colleagues in the US Postal Service, who would "ask around on their routes" to find suitable public accommodations. The Postal Service was (and is) one of the largest employers of blacks, and its employees were ideally situated to inform Green of which places were safe and hospitable to black travelers.
The 1949 edition included a quote from Mark Twain: "Travel is fatal to prejudice", inverting Twain's original meaning.
Many black Americans took to driving, in part to avoid segregation on public transportation. As the writer George Schuyler put it in 1930, "all Negroes who can do so purchase an automobile as soon as possible in order to be free of discomfort, discrimination, segregation and insult." Black Americans employed as athletes, entertainers, and salesmen also traveled frequently for work purposes.
Repeated and sometimes violent incidents of discrimination directed against diplomats from countries in Africa, particularly on U.S. Route 40 between New York and Washington, D.C., led to the administration of President John F. Kennedy setting up a Special Protocol Service Section within the State Department to assist black diplomats traveling and living within the United States.
The Green Book attracted sponsorship from a number of businesses, including black newspapers in Ohio and Kentucky. Standard Oil (later Esso) was also a sponsor, owing to the efforts of James "Billboard" Jackson, a pioneering black Esso sales representative. Esso's "race group", part of its marketing division, promoted the Green Book as enabling Esso's black customers to "go further with less anxiety". By contrast, Shell gas stations were known to refuse black customers.
While the Green Book was intended to make life easier for those living in racist areas, its publisher looked forward to a time when such guidebooks would no longer be necessary. As Green wrote, "there will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go as we please, and without embarrassment."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/history-green-book-african-american-travelers-180958506/
http://mappingthegreenbook.tumblr.com/
Thanks Gary!