I am kind of excited about this project. When I switched jobs at work, I lost the use of a company lease car, and pressed this 1962 Mercury Meteor ("Merc-O-Saurus") into service. My son and daughter drive to high school in it every day. But we had to do some things to get it ready for the type of weather that Detroit experiences this time of year.
Specifically, we wanted to install a rear window defroster (de-fogger). They didn't have those in 1962, in case you are too young to remember. I bought a Clear View Defroster Kit from a website: www.frostfighter.com ... and I am pleased with the results (see video). It is a bit tricky to install ... you have to prep the glass just right, and make sure that you understand every part of the instructions before actually starting. (If anyone is considering doing this, send me a message, and I can give you some hints.)
And here, just for kicks, are a few photos of this "work-in-progress" car:
Here is a typical usurpation of someone else's rights (right to speak) by some typical Occupy reprobates. What they don't get is this: There is a reason that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was given the microphone in this situation, and they were not. She was given the mic, given the floor to speak, because based on her past accomplishments and her current status as someone who is running for election to the highest office in the land, it has been estimated that she may have something to say which is worth hearing.
Based on the non-accomplishments of those who disrupted her speech, it was (correctly) estimated that they have nothing to say that is worth hearing. In situations like this, such people have a duty to shut up.
I have identified one of the central things that irritates me about the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, and all the other Occupiers.
At first, I thought of this central point in terms of rudeness, of the cavalier attitude of unconcern with the property, well-being, and freedoms of others. When you shut down all commerce in an area, as Occupy Oakland did, you are doing something selfish and illegal, and you deserve the punishment that comes your way. I will not shed a single tear over the "ouchie" you get from the rubber bullet which the Oakland Police send your way. Sorry.
When you forcibly camp out on someone else's private property, as OWS has been doing all along, you deserve whatever negative consequences come your way. You are stealing private property, perverting it for your own demonic uses. You deserve no sympathy.
But when I thought deeper about the Occupy movement, and why they do what they do, I realized that it was chiefly this:
Blocking the passage of innocent citizens, impeding traffic, shutting down commerce, and appropriating someone else's private property are chiefly acts of desperation. They are done when it becomes obvious to the protesters that, based solely on the merits of their grievances, nobody at all will listen to them. So, they find a way to be so obnoxious that people have to listen.
If the Occupy folks didn't block people's travel, stop their commerce, and steal their private property, no one would listen to them. Because their arguments are ridiculous, and have no power to persuade.
When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Alan. He had an older brother named Robert. My dad had seen Alan over at our house. But when he saw Robert, he made the statement, "Robert looks more like Alan than Alan does!" It is absurd, but you get the idea of what he meant. Whatever corporeal or facial features Alan possessed, Robert had similar ones, but at a great level of intensity.
That is how I feel about Australia. I don't know a lot about Australia, but from a distance, Australia seems more like America than America does. It seems like a manly, "Wild West" place. I base this largely, I have to admit, on the very healthy auto racing culture that is obviously present there. Here are two examples of their Vintage Touring Car series. I love the green-and-white Falcon Sprint, and ... well ... all the rest of these cars, too! (Hat Tip to my son Eliot, who finds these things for me. I love when he pronounces "Bathurst" with an Aussie accent!)
I think I'm in love. Just watch the video, and you'll know why. Ingrid Morley gets it.
My son and I are all the time arguing with the distaff side of our family, because they don't believe that you can talk to (and hear back from) automobiles. But listen to what Ingrid says happened between her and this International AR-160 truck (Lacie Lorrie) upon their first meeting:
"I looked at her and she looked at me and we sort of ... there was a twinkle."
"I realized something else that this truck said to me, and that was about authenticity, about being thoroughly integrated into the land."
"Going out to this block of land which is filled with ... you could call it junk, but to me, it's an artist's dream. It's just gorgeous. It's just got everything imaginable, made out of steel. And it's in all varying states of decay, and a I saw her, and I just fell in love."
Beautiful. This woman understands. She understands the honoured place of an old truck or car in the cosmos, as well, or for that matter, an old man or woman:
"There's something about ... an authority about ... old equipment or old vehicles, old things, that have done their time, have worked. They are tarnished. They're pocked. They are riddled with stories."
Wow. Look at the skin of your favourite old person, and you'll see just what Ingrid means.
And, anyhow, how can you not love a woman who wields a plasma cutter? And her work at the relatively tiny Venn Diagram Intersection of the old car hobby and fine art?
This lovingly cut-up truck, Lacie Lorrie, is currently being featured as a part of the "Love Lace" exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.
More about Ingrid and her creation may be found here.
For reference, here is what others might have tried to do with this same truck:
Has every single person in the Occupy Wall Street movement lost his sense of irony? It seem so. I had to look twice at the web address to make sure I was not reading an article from The Onion! The mind reels when pondering irony of such an enormous magnitude.
Basically, what we have here is the rich (that is, the Occupy Wall Street protesters) refusing to share their food (how callous, selfish, and insensitive!) with the less fortunate homeless people who have joined their ranks. Amazing. Because from the many, many interviews I have seen with these communist agitators, they are supposedly all about pooling all wealth (money, energy, food, etc.) and dividing it equally. But here they are with their golden opportunity to implement their socialist paradise ... and they've already blown it. By deciding who is worthy of the food and who is not, they have separated themselves from another group of people simply because they have worked for the food and the others have not. (Hmmmmm ... what does this remind me of? Help me out here!) They have set themselves up as the "upper class", and initiated class warfare against the homeless. This tells me one thing: that they do not really believe the bullshit they are spewing. They are hypocrites, and not worth listening to.
Here is a race Parnelli Jones really should have won!
Note the cool air brake on the tail of Parnelli's #40 STP car, visible in operation at around 12:41 of this video (and also at 27:35, where the announcers mention it). It deploys upward to provide aerodynamic drag for braking.
Pay attention also at 25:20, when Parnelli spins the car after going low on the apron to avoid a slower car.
Other race highlights:
At 2:44, Dan Gurney is being interviewed, and predicts that the turbine car might have gearbox failure (I think this is called "foreshadowing").
At 26:40, Mario Andretti loses a wheel.
At 28:00, the STP team has a bungled pit stop. Jones pulls off before the fuel hose is disconnected from his car, and almost runs over Granatelli's foot.
At 45:30, eventual winner A. J. Foyt comes close to being collected up in a last lap wreck.
Perhaps my favourite part of the video, though, is the interview with Graham Hill, which begins around 2:12. Many drivers were resentful of the turbine car's speed. But Hill had a different take:
"I don't think it's unfair at all! I think it's bloody clever, and full marks to Granatelli for doing it. I man, it was a hell of a gamble, and it's paid off. I think he deserves every credit. I'm only sorry thta I didn't think of it first!"
