doppelganglander 3/21/2020 7:42:59 AM

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Syrah 3/21/2020 7:55:53 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 1:

all the card halls are closed. 

The Gambler

That was released 1978. I was in high school. Rabbit Bait was still President.

(I think we might be getting old.)

doppelganglander 3/21/2020 8:26:57 AM

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Reply to Syrah in 2:

We are about the same age, then. Most of the time I don't feel terribly old, but I like some aspects of aging. Not recognizing the younger celebrities or knowing pop music is pretty great.

lucius septimius 3/21/2020 8:38:02 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 1:

He owned a farm out past Crawford, GA.  It was originally the plantation owned by the folks who built my hippy out-laws house.  They lived in the "town house"; there was also a columned plantation house out on the patch Rogers owned.

lucius septimius 3/21/2020 8:39:19 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 4:

I would add that you can still see Burt Reynolds' old place out by Loganville.  It's now the clubhouse for a big development.

revobob 3/21/2020 8:43:57 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 3:  I was well past high school, working as the night shift foreman at a sheet metal shop. Small crew on nights. Had a black guy with a really good voice. He had a good high range, I carried the baritone. Did a lot of spotweld assembly where I would clamp the parts into fixtures while he spotwelded. We did a lot of duets to the rhythm of the welding machine (which spit sparks of molten metal and made a deep bass hum when it fired). The Gambler was one of our best and favorites. I also liked 'Just Dropped In' and 'But You Know I Love You'.

lucius septimius 3/21/2020 8:45:27 AM

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Reply to Syrah in 2:

At the boat store we had WUSN, the country music station, perpetually playing in the shop.  The summer after that came out I must have heard it at least six times a day.

1978, by the way, was a very good year for Country Music.

revobob 3/21/2020 8:53:20 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 7:  Yes, yes it was. 

lucius septimius 3/21/2020 9:19:57 AM

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In #6 revobob said: We did a lot of duets to the rhythm of the welding machine (which spit sparks of molten metal and made a deep bass hum when it fired). T

The background noise in our shop was the periodic hum of impact wrenches and the dulcet tones of different outboard motors in the test tank.  The 1958 V4 50 hp. had a distinctive low roar.

revobob 3/21/2020 9:43:27 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 9: For a motorhead like me that would have been cool. I worked for some years as a motorcycle mechanic and service manager. One reason I say "What?" a lot is revving up high performance bikes in a concrete service bay. It does stir the blood though.

Back in the early 70s there was a semi-pro racing circuit that did indoor races in places like Nat'l Guard armories and such.  Limited to 250cc bikes (and classes for 125 and 100cc engines too), at the time when racing bikes were mostly stripped down street models with hopped-up engines and no mufflers. Single cylinder Harley and Ducati 4-strokes singing bass, twin cylinder Honda Scramblers with their unique sound filling the tenor lines, single cylinder two stroke Bultacos and Yamahas carrying the alto parts, and twin cylinder 2 stroke Kawasakis and Suzukis screaming soprano at frequencies that dolphins and bats converse at. All reverberating off the tile walls and concrete floor midst a cloud of psychotropic castor-bean oil exhaust. Total sensory overload!  (Another reason I'm nearly deaf as a post!)

revobob 3/21/2020 9:47:04 AM

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In #9 lucius septimius said: V4 50 hp. had a distinctive low roar.

Interesting cog belt magneto drive.

lucius septimius 3/21/2020 10:37:00 AM

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Reply to revobob in 12:

It is -- only used on the '58 and '59 engines.  The next series had water-cooled heads and a different ignition system and were rated 60-75 HP.  Those old 50 HP were the sort of engine where you stand on a chair and yell "TORQUE!!!"  Polar opposite of those motorcycle engines.

Ahhh, the wonderful smell of 2-cycle exhaust.

A couple of summers we were home base to a formula 1 outboard racing crew from Holland.  Loved working with those guys -- crazy.  The engines were V-8 that put out in excess of 500 HP, mounted on boats that were more or less made out of the sort of basswood they used to use for pints of strawberries.

revobob 3/21/2020 11:15:55 AM

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In #13 lucius septimius said: , mounted on boats that were more or less made out of the sort of basswood they used to use for pints of strawberries.

I remember watching some of the old boat races and seeing some of those old boats virtually explode when anything went wrong- when things were trimmed out and the water was smooth they sure were fast though.

The ones that I find kind of amazing nowadays are the tunnel boats- not as fast as the hydroplanes, but pulling 6 Gs in the turns??? Wow!

Kosh's Shadow 3/21/2020 1:20:41 PM

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Giant "potentially hazardous" asteroid to pass Earth next month

It will practice safe social distancing, staying 3.9 million miles away. I guess it wants to avoid COVID-19

lucius septimius 3/21/2020 1:59:29 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 15:

I dunno.  I think we are ready for an extinction-level impact.

Kosh's Shadow 3/21/2020 3:07:29 PM

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In #16 lucius septimius said: I think we are ready for an extinction-level impact.

Maybe at the next election. SMOD