I finally see it, the Fiat 500. This is the promised car with the “500cc motorcycle engine”, now 1.4L and turbocharged. The 1957 original was 479cc, this new model is competitively priced, they say, at around $23,000. (In today’s money, the 1957 model sold for less than half that.) I’d rather have the motorcycle. This is the next of many different cars that the confused people at Fiat call the “500”, and is reputed to reach 99 mph flat out.
The drilled gold bar covered here was based on Internet reports, and it looks like I was misled on the price of tungsten. But to prove my point, why don’t you try to find the price per ounce of tungsten? The “official sources” quote the price between one-half cent per ounce to $540 per ounce. I usually quit searching after five minutes, maybe you’ll, as it were, dig deeper. But I do know if it costs more than silver, people are dumb to use it for salting gold.
Time for a Blues lead session, so I did a youTube on “beginner blues in a”. That instantly found me 2,180 clueless dorks. Ever tried to get a straight answer out of guitar player? I say dorks because who else would purport to teach a beginner and then haul out a guitar tuned to open Eb with no fret markers, start finger-picking and say, “it’s easy”? One thing we were right about is that generic Blues requires minimal talent or brains. Yes, it really is a sequence of repetitious simple three note licks strung together.
What seems strange so far is that many of the standard licks I’ve found to be musical errors. If you get off beat, just keep playing the same pattern off time and people think you are syncopating. Or start on the wrong note, and you’ve got instant innovation. Just keep bending notes until you get back on beat and key. It’s hard to make a mistake. Bad guitarists have trained their audience.
The battery mileage on the eBike has dropped to less than ten after maybe 50 charges. The literature says 150 out of a maximum 400 charges, a more than misguided statement but one that is very difficult to quantify. And that’s in pedal-assist mode that conserves the charge. It is still a handy vehicle for what it does as long as you don’t mistake it for reliable in-town transportation.
I’ve begun reading a startlingly informative book called “The Fifty Year Wound”. It concerns the psychological price the Americans paid to win the cold war. It is clear-headed analysis and has offers some incredible viewpoints, such as how America has become the only society where army generals run industry and how unprepared our population was for any such leadership role. Expect a good review.
It is better researched than most such books and does not hesitate to point out the personal failures of persons with otherwise good reputations. Churchill’s son one quipped that Britain had dragged the US into two wars, and would drag them into a third. If this brand of intense history intrigues you as much as me, I can already say this book is worthwhile.
Trivia. The car Peter Sellers drove in “The Party” (1968) was not a Messerschmitt, but a Morgan 3 Wheeler. Like American cars, it is hard to get a price without some salespig pressing you for a buy commitment, but Morgans sell for around $30,000 & up and are classed as motorcycles. If you don’t know what an American salespig is, you haven’t tried pricing new tires lately. “If you’ll take a seat, sir, as soon as I’m finished, we’ll get your personal information into the computer and we’ll see what we can do for you.” (Maybe you could apologize for interrupting his busy schedule.)Return Home
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