HossC

Loretta Lynn

I'm a bit late this week... F1 was back at the weekend after its summer break with the last Dutch Grand Prix for the foreseeable future. Local hero Max Verstappen chose this race to announce that he's staying with Red Bull for a few more years, but the contract to host the event ends this year. Aston Martin finally seem to be making a bit of progress after major upgrades at this and the previous race. However, US based teams Haas and Cadillac appear to be slipping backwards with the latter replacing their team principal during the break. Red Bull's Isack Hadjar injured his wrist during the break meaning he had to miss the race. Liam Lawson got a temporary promotion from Red Bull's second team Racing Bulls, and his place was taken by Yuki Tsunoda. Mercedes driver George Russell took pole for the sprint race and converted it to a win in what turned out to be a fairly processional race with little overtaking. George could only manage second place on the grid for the main race with McLaren's Lando Norris taking pole in a car that he didn't rate as fast enough. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli started third ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Max could only manage seventh in his Red Bull. Sadly, Max's last home grand prix finished at the end of the first lap when he was caught out by a slightly damp track at hit the wall hard off the last bend. This resulted in a lengthy red flag. Kimi made up one place at the first start and took the lead after the second. Oscar also made a good second start, but then got passed by both Ferraris. Once Lando retook the lead he converted it to another win with Kimi and George behind. Lewis had to settle for fourth although he may have got third if his team had let him pass his team mate a few laps earlier. Liam Lawson got seventh in his stand-in drive and Fernando Alonso tripled his points total by finishing ninth. You can see the highlights here. Kimi has now extended his lead and George is back in second, although he has the same number of points as Lewis. The next race is in just over a week with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

He likes his cars. He also once held the record for the fastest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on Top Gear.

News is just breaking that Country legend Dolly Parton has died at the ago of 80. Above is the song with which I started this thread.

Southern

There's another Enos thread, and I posted a link to a Youtube channel will 11 complete episodes here.

We're in the middle of a hosepipe ban which gets introduced during periods of low rainfall. It prohibits the use of hosepipes or similar equipment for activities including watering gardens, washing private vehicles and leisure boats, filling domestic swimming or paddling pools, ornamental fountains and garden ponds, except where such use is required for commercial purposes. Romania has had to shut its only nuclear power plant due to very low water levels in the Danube River.

RIP Frank Beard, drummer with ZZ Top. From 'Back to the Future Part III': ZZ Top - Doubleback

The field next door to where I live caught fire the week before last, but luckily it was a reasonably small fire which the fire brigade put out fairly quickly. There was still a lot of smoke and all the cars were covered in ash the following morning. We think it was started by some idiot setting off fireworks (which are illegal in the Republic of Ireland) after several weeks of heatwaves and no rain. I think the only large wildfire we've had in Ireland this year was last month in Slievenamon, Co. Tipperary. There have also been wildfires across in the UK, but it's the ones in continental Europe that have been deadly this year.

To save you clicking the image link, the Facebook page says: Polish up those rides and come on down! Join us September 5th from 12–3 PM at the Cardinal Waterfront, 105 Legion Way for our Show & Shine! That's Cardinal, Ontario.

Of course, now that Brian May has his PhD in astrophysics, he can conclusively prove that fat bottomed girls make the rocking world go 'round!

I've just read that Derran "Derry" Brownson, co-founder of EMF, has died from a brain tumor. He was the same age as me, and this song takes me back to my college days. I never know how well known British bands are in the US, but this one apparently made it to #1 in the US charts in 1991. EMF - Unbelievable

Roger, I don't know if you saw, but we had a solar eclipse over parts of Europe earlier this evening. It was best viewed from Spain, but we were meant to have pretty good views here. Sadly, although it got quite dark around 7pm, I had cloud cover where I live. I liked the trailer for a later news show on TV last night. They were going to be interviewing Queen guitarist Brian May, who also has a PhD in astrophysics, about the eclipse, and said he'd be telling you why for this time only you shouldn't "Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see". I'm sure it was only going to be a warning about looking at the sun, but I liked the lyrics tie-in. In case you don't recognize the words, it's the third line of this:

I recently mentioned in the General Lee Pedal Car thread that I'd looked up the current asking prices for some rare Dukes diecast models, but I'd forgotten about this one. Believe it or not, there's one on eBay at the moment for just $10,000 (or best offer). That's not a bad return on an invest over 16 years, but of course it all depends on finding someone prepared to pay that much.

This sad news broke just after I'd gone to sleep last night, so I woke up to all these posts this morning. My condolences and best wishes to the family. I never got to meet Ben, but I got to know him a little through his autobiography. He had quite a life.