Quote of the Day

[lproven]

I recently saw a rather fun little web page which took various passages from books and replaced all works describing colour with a small block of the colour itself; the object was to try to work out the hue described. You could click on the swatch to see if you were right. (Alas, I can't find the link. Sorry

Comments

[makyo]

Some years ago, probably the early 1980s, round about the age I first became aware of things like Chancellors of the Exchequer, red briefcases and budget statements, I remember sitting in my dad's car while some people on the radio speculated about what that afternoon's budget statement would have in store for the people of Britain. At some point during the programme, I have a memory of someone saying "... well, the question he has to ask himself is whether he wants to be remembered as the Chancellor who brought in the £2 gallon".

I don't, offhand, remember who the Chancellor in question was (although it was presumably either Geoffrey "savaged by a dead sheep" Howe or Nigel "global warming is made up by a conspiracy of overpaid academics" Lawson), or whether a gallon of petrol actually hit £2 that year. But if it wasn't that year it would have been the year after and, like you, I can't find it in me to have a tremendous amount of sympathy for
American motorists who are now starting to find it a bit more expensive to run their enormous, fuel-inefficient, four-wheel-drive monsters.

[lproven]

I remember fuel in gallons, but not anything about its prices. My only significant recollection from back then was my buying fuel for my VW Beetle at Uni, and having great difficulty finding the cheaper 2-star it'd happily run on... But I've no clue what it cost.

But now, we're about £5.22 a gallon. I daresay that would give my dad (bit of a petrol-head, died in 1988) *conniptions*.

I know that my trike is pretty poor on fuel-efficiency in bike terms, but considerably less thirsty than a car of comparable performance. I get 30-35mpg. (I've just noticed; I tend to think in mpg, not mpl or km/l. Hmm.) Something like 7km/l. That *sounds* /much/ worse!

As of last year, it was getting to the point, in fuel alone, where for a journey of 100m+ - worth taking the trike, if the weather was pleasant or the trains inconvenient - it was cheaper to take a train than pay for the gas.

Which was making me think that maybe it was time to get rid of the rather silly 1.1l 160-180mph+ trike and buy a smaller bike with what Rolls Royce might have called "adequate" power. :¬)

But the trike's a toy. It's not about cost efficiency, not in the slightest. It's about having a laugh.

[fishlifter]

I remember fuel in gallons, but not anything about its prices.

My father worked in a garage in the days before self-service and when petrol was still under £1/gallon. I remember as a kid hearing of a technique employed by one of his colleagues for selling fuel. If somebody pulled up onto the forecourt and asked for five gallons of petrol, the chap would carefully explain that, no, love -- in this story it was always a 'lady driver' -- you don't want five gallons, you want five pounds-worth 'cos you get more that way.
---Mark

[lproven]

Ahh, those were the days. When men were men and women were grateful.

Out in Nigeria in about '78, we were returning from the local supermarket - 10 miles away, so an hour or so's drive. The company car was a big Merc, complete with company driver, Johson Onakufe.

We noticed that he was pelting along at rather more than the usual pace - a somewhat dangerous thing to do on Nigerian roads. My dad asked him why.

"Because we are low on fuel, sir."
"Er... we're low on petrol, so you're going faster?" Asked my dad.
"Yes, sir!"
"Er... why?"
"So we get back before it runs out!"

True story.

[*Sigh* 4th go. It's not my night. Morning. Thing.]