[sports quiz] for non-sports buffs

Photographed the 1936 Olympics

Opera and literature more your thing? Not a problem. There are, in any field of human endeavour, some names which transcend the field and are known worldwide by people in all walks of life. Try these ten:

1. Who was the boxer who wowed them in the 60s, changed his name from Cassius Clay and whose modus operandi was "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"?

2. Who socked it to Hitler in 1936, a black runner who took it up to the dictator and destroyed the myth of Aryan supremacy?

3. Who was the German film maker, a controversial figure, popular with Hitler, who is remembered for her superb camerawork at the 1936 Olympics?

4. Who was the film actor, who was also a champion swimmer, who played Tarzan?

5. He clocked 9.79 seconds for the 100 metres, was a Canadian and was disqualified for failing a drug test.

6. You don't have to know sport to know who is generally regarded as the greatest baseballer ever.

7. His footballing skills were amazing with Man U but sadly he was prone to drink. Some considered him the Best.

8. Some say the greatest batsmen ever, with a Test average of 99.94 but it is possible to find some Englishmen who don't think he was that good. Actually, he was amazing.

9. Captain Denis O'Kelly supposedly said: "[Insert name] first and the rest nowhere." The horse?

10. Has to be one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time, despite only just having retired. If you can't get this, I'm afraid I despair of you, reader.

Answers here.

[blogfocus wednesday] old friends revisited

Click on the pic for the expanded version of one of Lord Nazh's trademark cartoons, originally from www.daybyday.com.

The great danger when one becomes close to others in the blogosphere is the temptation to be a little less than careful in promoting those friends. This is a mistake and I'd like to show some of the wares of eight bloggers whom, if you don't already know them, you should:

1. Tiberius Gracchus reflects on sin and the quest for atonement which often follows:

When thinking about sin, one thinks normally of atonement. In Joe Wright's new film, Atonement, based on the Ian McEwan novel- the sin is committed within the first hour, and the second hour shows the consequences of that sin spinning out of control, spinning through three people's lives and leaving a fourth, the perpetrator, in that icy circle of hell that Dante reserved for traitors.

2. Tom Paine writes of walking through those pesky barriers at the airport terminal:

An older businesswoman who had sat next to me on the plane from Frankfurt walked straight through, opening barriers as she went. We followed, pleased at avoiding the humiliation of walking pointlessly from side to side under the gaze of the petty officials.

The senior immigration officer (an officious Scot) looked angry, but said nothing. As I walked away after he had checked my passport, he barked at a junior colleague to "Put those barriers back! Someone [pointedly, as the "someone" in question was in earshot] has opened them."

3. Ian Grey writes of the difference between toruing and "living there":

I always fancied the Far East but the opportunity never arose (although my Lodger and colleague got to do a training course in Tokyo, it kept us in Sake' for months and gave us a chance to refresh our CD players). I define "lived there " as in staying in an Apartment for an extended period rather than a Hotel (Norway 1 year, Saudi 1 year, Ontario 2x 3 months, Eire commuting for 6 months or so.)

4. Lord Nazh puts a complicated scenario regarding abortion and it's well worth following through:

The husband/boyfriend argues that this wouldn't be good [to have the child] because of [insert good reason here] and you feel roughly the same. After thinking about it, you feel that reason [insert better reason here] would overcome his (and your concerns) and decide (as is your right) to have the child even though he doesn't want to.

A period of time later, you split up (in no relation to said pregnancy). Here's the question: should it be his choice whether to support the child or not? (morally yes and legally yes, in all places I'm aware of, but this is a hypothetical) Why or why not?

5. JMB writes of the scourge of the walker and she doesn't mean blistered feet:

Canada Geese are the scourge of the unwary walker since they don't pick after themselves. Despite being native to North America they have spread far and wide, to Western Europe, eastern Siberia, eastern China and Japan, annoying people everywhere, although I find them rather charming. Once a New Canadian was arrested at Stanley Park for catching one with the intention of dining on it. So tempting, those fat little things.

6. Lady MacLeod is having problems with nipples and migraines:

I consider myself European in most of my outlook but in I did grow up in the Highlands and carry whatever prudery that entails and I acknowledge that. I had a French nanny however and was exposed to the rather revealing Hindu arts at an early age. All to say I am more nudist than not – but in private people, in private. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, perhaps an age thing, but I do not enjoy having another woman’s nipples thrust into my view – especially a woman MY age, and worse, one who needs to drop thirty pounds.

7. Liz gets quite biblical in her blogging post:

In the beginning ... was the blog, and the blog was made word. And I blogged and the world was good.

On the next day they created MySpace, and everyone said, 'This is the future,' and I became part of the future. But I continued to blog.

On the next day they created Facebook, and everyone said, 'Be my friend,' and I was their friend. But I continued to blog.

On the next day, they created Twitter, and everyone twittered - and I said, 'Enough.' And I continued to blog.

Which is just a silly way of saying, 'AAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! I can't keep up!'

8. All right, he's not blogging but I can't forget Notsaussure, especially when addressing the The Commission on Integration and Cohesion:

First, I don’t quite see why anyone would want to hire someone if they didn’t think their language (or any other) skills were adequate for the particular job they had in mind. Well, any private employer, at least; certainly our local hospital — of which I saw rather more than I would have wanted during my late wife’s last years — employed whole armies of absolutely charming ladies from the Philippines as nursing auxiliaries whose English, unfortunately, wasn’t up to communicating with patients at anything other than the most rudimentary level, which meant that complicated requests like ‘please get me a bed pan’ (from the elderly lady in the bed next to my wife’s on one stay in hospital) frequently went unanswered.

I tried to put in Ian Appleby and Two Wolves but they weren't posting either. However, I'll keep a look out.

[global warming] too early to say - yeah, right

Despite growing consensus that global warming may spawn stronger tropical cyclones, weather experts believe it is too soon to blame climate change for the back-to-back hurricanes.

Uh-huh.

[time] where does it go

So many things to do - respond to Matt, visit you, put up a post, collect Anne's award - and all I could manage was to address the Phishez thing and respond to a few of your comments. It was back to uni today and it was a bunfight all day. Sorry - I'm for bed and will respond tomorrow morning. BPers - please check the latest post.

[q cars] affordable, traditional motoring

Pilgrim FT 2000 - not mine but almost exactly the same - my AA badge was nicked.

It's well known in Britain about the dreaded "Q" car and I'm not talking police here. I mean the Q reg or old, discontinued reg for cars which their owners like to think are "custom" and detractors call "bl--dy kit cars".

I know the Americans are also interested - I recall a 56 Buick being restored by my friends.

The thing is, to buy a restored classic is big biz in most western countries and the mark-ups are phenomenal. Along with that is the restoration time and the fact that they're essentially metal and so they rust.

How, today, to enjoy the pleasure of traditional motoring in the old manner, genuinely so, out there on the road with the wind streaming through the long vanished hair and the throaty roar of a sporty roadster?

FT at the show - note the long nose and running board.

Q is one way to go.

The problem is, they're like French and Australian wine. Buy an Australian wine and it's almost always going to be very, very good, with a reasonable price tag. You can say this about the bulk of the sedans on the road today. They do their job well.

But buy a French wine and you have to know what you're doing because the worst is like bilge water - way below any Australian wine. The best though - ah, yes, the best.

So it is with Q cars, whose manufacturers range from the quite frankly dodgy, shoddy and appalling, especially with cobra muscle car and Lotus 7 replicas up to a level of manufacture which puts some firms, like Pilgrim of Small Dole, near Brighton, into the elite class in themselves. And before you sniff at GRP, remember the Europa and Bolwell Nagari were GRP.

For a start, you're going to have to want this sort of motoring - the BMW and Volvo are seductive with their push button, dial-in, silky sliding luxury and sheer hush power. And you pay for it. This is different - it's raw, sporty motoring the way it used to be.

Dickie trunk treatment of surprising size inside, with mounted spare wheel.

Having got past that point, this site with the appalling name has some good starter info and one thing becomes clear very quickly - you get what you pay for and put time into. For example, one of the most popular companies has a build time, using donor components like Fords of 142 hours and the cost is 2, 600 pounds.

Good luck.

On the other hand, a company like Pilgrim, which does an Austin Healey 3000 replica as well as dedicated designs such as my FT, is all about quality and to hell with money and time. Thus you can pay up to 27 000 pounds and spend up to 3000 hours building the damned thing.

The ones in the photos above were not mine but this is the only photo I have of my baby, in North London.

Now why would you do that, when there are a multitude of real production marques under that price? The answer is "love".

I bought my FT because firstly, it was not a replica but a design in itself, secondly it was within my price range [almost], thirdly, because of the build quality and certainly not the least point - it was such a pretty little thing with a beautiful note to the exhaust.

I took her for her MOT and the chief mechanic said it was the best of its type he'd ever seen built. It should have been so - the man who constructed it was a stickler, a pedant. Even the boot/trunk was plushly carpeted and the upholstery was leather. The rag top was double thickness and made by a woman [his wife] who produces these things.

I am telling absolutely no porkies when I say I drove it in October/November round Scotland, through storms and it neither leaked nor did I freeze. The rag top purred like a sail rather than flapped. In fact the heater had to be turned down.

An example of poor interior design, with two clashing styles of wood panelling but still illustrating build quality.

Of course, where it came into its own was in the summer, top down and neatly stowed in its cover at the back, girl beside you, hair streaming backwards, up hill, down dale, to some ridgetop moorland pub for lunch. That was hard to beat. And motoring up a hill, cresting the top, only for the English sun to burst out from behind a cloud - that was close to idyllic.

The down side for some but I quite liked it, was that with that long, long, nose, you had to "drive" it in an arc round corners rather than "turn" it. Turning circle was not really a concern in the 30s. It took getting used to and I loved the way it moved.

The other thing was that with those black wings scooping the air out front and a 2 litre tweaked Cortina engine in a 1600 pound [about 730 kg] body, there was a tendency to rocking and even flight at speed - 30s designs were not meant to go over 80 mph. I did actually take off once on the M25, going under the A110 flyover and how many people can say that?

The site labels this "as good as it gets" - do you need more comfort than this in an open sports car? This is the Sebring.

Popular? You can say it was. Coming out of Debenhams' car park, the old chap on the gate said: "Ee, it does my heart good to see one of these again." I didn't have the heart to tell him what marque Pilgrim actually was.

Also I recall being at a Yorkshire pub, walking outside and the car was surrounded by men. Oh dear, I thought, here's trouble. "Yes, gentlemen?" A twenty minute discussion ensued about my FT and as we drove away eventually, my girl and I, it was in a serene mood, helped only marginally by the XB we'd consumed inside.

If you can do it, I'd urge you to try one of these, one of the classic designs or maybe the Sebring because it's a world which, outside the city, brings the drab grey motorway commuting suddenly to life and adds pleasure to your existence.

Plus the girls like it.

Or at least they did in the old days.

Sebring is a company which makes a nice vehicle, originally using Rover parts.

Taking It for Granted

Matt, of Buckeye Thoughts, has been in the blog wilderness and explains here:

After a week and five days of no Internet connection at my apartment, I returned from Labor Day Weekend (even though today is Labor Day!)to find my computer able to connect to the Internet again.

This just proves to me how badly I take a network connection for granted.

I will keep on doing so but with a new found appreciation of how easy it is to access critical material for classes, so I no longer need to go into one of Purdue's many computer labs.

Happy Labor Day to all, whether you are Stateside or out in the wide world!