When I have gone “off topic” in the past it has tended to be about serious subjects like governments trying to “help the planet” by culling the population with poison injections and although it is important to consider such matters, I understand that it can be depressing, to put it mildly. So today, with a critical and perhaps pivotal year ahead of us, we are going to start it on a much lighter note.
None of us are going to live forever – you could croak or I could croak and we don’t know when. But before either of us does, I want to bring you some of the finest old treasures from the “Maund Vaults” in order to enrich your life while there is still time.
Back in the 1990’s I was living in a rural community in a village near a small town called Pershore in Worcestershire in England where, having a lot more time on my hands than I do now, I contributed some mails to the local newspaper called the Evesham Journal. Most of the mails submitted to this paper were about boring subjects like garbage disposal, sewage and taxes etc but my mails livened things up a bit and got the star treatment.
Whilst pottering about in Pershore I got chatting to local business people and shopkeepers etc who were becoming deeply concerned about the dramatic reduction in parking spaces in the town which was having the effect of deterring visitors and reducing their trade significantly. So I resolved to do something about it and figured that the most effective tack would be to use humor and wrote the following mail to the local paper…
Shortly after it was published I was contacted by the Chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce who congratulated me and said that when it was read out at their meeting they all fell about laughing and it was used to embarrass local government officials into doing something about it.
Some months later I was taking a country walk through a hamlet or tiny village in the country where there was a terrible stench of excrement which I was not surprised to learn was having an adverse effect on the letting (renting) of holiday cottages there. So I got to work again with the following mail…
I don’t know if this mail had much effect.
Later on I noticed that a lot of drivers were speeding on the outskirts of Pershore and greatly exceeding the speed limits and the police were doing nothing about it and conspicuous by their absence, a situation that had existed for a long time. So I “put my shoulder to the wheel” yet again with the following mail which turned them into a “laughing stock”…
This mail had a dramatic effect with some of the local police clearly being called on the carpet. Some days later traffic cops were everywhere with radar guns catching drivers speeding. It was most amusing. However, this story had a “sting in the tail” for me for just one day before I left the area to go live in London, they caught me speeding.
Whilst in this somewhat frivolous mood and before returning to the serious business of the year, I want to draw your attention to one of the finest videos I have ever watched of some intrepid New Zealand lads rolling various sized old tires down a big hill in a very organized manner (there’s not much else to do in New Zealand) and even augmenting the performance with a ramp to launch some tires skywards and outstanding drone footage, especially the amazing accomplishment of flying the drone right through the center of a tire when it was speeding down the hill. This is entertainment of the highest caliber, I’m sure you will agree and we can all be thankful that such remarkable young men still exist. I only stumbled across this video last night and have added an appreciative comment below it…
Extreme Tire Jumping Down a Mountain
I trust that you have found this post suitably enriching.
Now, what shall I write about next – something about the markets, perhaps?...
Posted at 5.40 am EST on 3rd January 25.