HossC

I think I've mentioned this before, but something similar happened in F1 back in 2008. Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed at the Singapore Grand Prix to bring out a safety car (similar to a caution) and help his team mate. The main difference is that nobody suspected anything until the end of the season when Piquet was dropped by the team and revealed what happened. Two of the team were given five year bans from the sport, and although these were subsequently overturned, they both agreed to leave the sport for a while. In addition, the team's main sponsored pulled out because they didn't want to associated with cheating. You can read the Wikipedia page about the controversy here. I can't find any punishment that was given to the team (Renault). I think it was decided that this was a scheme conconcted by the driver and two team members rather than being a team decision. They did get a suspended ban and were told they be kicked out of the sport if anything similar happened again. Piquet was given immunity for his evidence.

There's more info on the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race here. It's an annual charity event that's taken place since 1977. It used to have some association with the United States Grand Prix West (as the F1 race was known), and later with the IndyCar race. Here's Jenilee with the 1981 overall champion, Robert Hays ('Airplane' etc.). The later seasons of 'CHiPs' often used Long Beach as a filming location, and you can see the grand prix barriers in some episodes. Coincidentally, Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bruce Jenner, who replaced Erik Estrada in six episodes of 'CHiPs' during a contract dispute, won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in 1979. This year's winner was TopGear U.S. co-host Rutledge Wood. According to my old backlot map, the set is called "Jungle and Wooded Area", although the area just north is called "Doonevan Flats".

Getty Images again. Caption says: LONG BEACH,CA - MARCH 14: Actors Jenilee Harrison and John Schneider attend the Fifth Annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Grand Prix on March 14, 1981 at the Long Beach Street Circuit in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage) I don't know Jenilee Harrison, but according to Wikipedia, she was "the replacement 'dumb blonde' roommate Cindy Snow on the hit sitcom Three's Company, between 1980 and 1982. She went on to play Jamie Ewing in Dallas from 1984 to 1986." As for your Rosco question, I'm not sure which episode/location that is - I'll look into it!

show

If they find that Bowyer did something wrong, maybe NASCAR should set Mike Skeen's girlfriend on him .

The picture's from Getty Images. They list it as being from "Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes" (makes sense with the logo on Cathy's shirt), and date it as 22nd March, 1980. IMDb doesn't list the 1980 event, but I found the whole lineup on TCM.com. I also found and advert for the show (below) on pmsimon.com. There's a load more of the Getty pictures of Cathy, including a few more from the same event, here (you'll need to scroll down). There's hundreds of pictures of Tom here, and pictures of John here. There aren't many of Sorrell, but I like the one below (NB. unless you buy them, all Getty Images have the info panel on the right): 1974: Actors George C. Scott and Sorrell Booke in a scene from the movie 'Bank Shot' in 1974. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

There were debris cautions on laps 135, 267 and 343 (I still have my "lap-by-lap" window open!), although I don't remember seeing the debris on-screen this week. I'd forgotten about the alleged jump start at the end. In my defense, it was really late here .

"Did you spin on purpose to help your team mate?" "No, I think we had a flat tire or something." Bowyer doesn't seem too keen to make eye contact as he gives his answer. It also looks like he's basically saying "There was a good reason for my spin, honest. As soon as we've thought of it, we'll tell you". I noticed the commentators were also dubious of one of the debris cautions, saying that certain drivers (sorry, I forgot which) were calling in debris reports because they needed to pit.

I'm sorry that JG missed out, but I'm happy with this result. Ricky had a solid race (even though I hardly saw him on screen), and was never off the lead lap. He seemed to struggle slightly after the start and each restart, but made up places just before the stops. I found it hard to keep up with all the position changes over the last 20 laps, with drivers slipping in and out of The Chase. I even thought Ricky would be denied a top ten finish when he fell to twelfth after the Bowyer caution, but he must've made up two places on the last lap.

Don't know if you saw 'Mock the Week' this week, but they had a round something like 'Unlikely things to hear on a motoring show'. Andy Parsons came up with "This car has a fail-safe anti-theft device: It's a Vauxhall Corsa".* * For non-Europeans, Vauxhall Corsa is the UK equivalent of CD's Opel Corsa. Vauxhall and Opel are the main European brands owned by GM. A very limited range of Chevy's is sold here, but we don't get Buick or GMC. I'm not sure if Cadillac is officially sold here anymore.

You could also use a gromit: Sorry, I mean grommet : BTW. The horn sounds a little fast. Can you change the speed?

Could it simply have been a "choice" of the weather? When I was watching 'CHiPs' earlier this year, I noticed that the stars mainly wore short-sleeved shirts, but not always. Maybe some cold Santa Ana winds were blowing when they filmed the last season . You could add a couple of screengrabs to this thread - I think there's only two different outfits shown here at the moment.

I know football games last about three days, but your game doesn't start until 1:00 PM ET. The Grand Prix starts at 8:00 AM ET, and will be over by 10:00 AM - you'll have to think of a different excuse now .

Well Garrett, it looks like it's your turn to be happy with the qualifying results this week. 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Kurt Busch 3. Brad Keselowski 4. Clint Bowyer 5. Matt Kenseth 6. Denny Hamlin 7. Jamie McMurray 8. Joey Logano 9. Greg Biffle 10. Regan Smith (Jimmie Johnson will drive car) 11. Martin Truex Jr. 12. Juan Pablo Montoya 13. Kyle Busch 14. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15. Aric Almirola 16. Mark Martin 17. Kevin Harvick 18. Kasey Kahne 19. Jeff Burton 20. Brian Vickers 21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 22. Paul Menard 23. David Ragan 24. Ryan Newman 25. Casey Mears 26. Carl Edwards 27. Josh Wise 28. Landon Cassill 29. David Stremme 30. Michael McDowell 31. Joe Nemechek 32. Marcos Ambrose 33. Travis Kvapil 34. AJ Allmendinger 35. David Reutimann 36. Danica Patrick 37. David Gilliland 38. Ryan Truex 39. Reed Sorenson 40. Dave Blaney 41. Tony Raines 42. Ken Schrader 43. JJ Yeley The Federated Auto Parts 400 at the Richmond International Raceway starts at 6:30 PM ET tomorrow (Saturday) on ABC. If you still want a race to watch on Sunday, don't forget the Gran Premio d'Italia (or Italian Grand Prix if you prefer) from Monza - one of the oldest and fastest tracks on the calendar.

I've lightened the image to show the Road Runner a little clearer.

Madonna

Is this the picture you were after? I don't normally go to Instagram because I thought it was full of pictures of people's food . I think you tried posting the address of the page as an image. In Firefox I can right-click the image and select 'View Background Image', then use that address. In Chrome it's not so easy - right-clicking and selecting 'View Page Source' or 'Inspect Element' will reveal the name of the image if you can find it hidden in all the other info. NB. Normally it's easier to insert images - maybe there's an easier way to hotlink Instagram images (as I say, I don't use it).

We'll have to agree to disagree about Daft Punk - I like them. It looks like the anime tie-in was for their 2001 album 'Discovery'. Here's their appearance in 'Interstella 5555' (picture from Wikipedia):

You know very well that I was talking about the animation style used in their videos . I have a couple of Gorillaz albums and a few of Blur's too. I watched the first part of '5 Centimeters per Second', and while I'd concede that it's very well done, I didn't enjoy it as much as 'Howl's Moving Castle'. One reason is the amount of subtitles. There was more dialog, as well as train announcements and translations of writing that appeared on screen. By the time I'd read them, I'd missed what was happening. Maybe I'd get better with practice (or maybe I should start with English dubs before trying them in Japanese). The other reason was the realism. This may sound like a strange criticism, but some inanimate objects (eg. cars, buildings, signs etc.) looked almost photorealistic, and the city setting was also very real. What I liked about the Studio Ghibli movies is that they are pure fantasy, and the settings are very stylized versions of reality. Maybe they are just two different sub-genres of anime. None-the-less, I appreciate the recommendations .

I seem to remember you wanted to fit those horns to your bike. I think this makes more sense . Too much?

Was it 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3' - it's named on the Wikipedia page. Following on from yesterday's pictures of Tom and John in Pasadena, here's a few of them appearing together at the 1993 TV special 'A '70s Celebration: The Beat Is Back': I'd never heard of the show before, but I found a VHS transfer on YouTube. Skip to 2:25 to see Tom and John (you get nearly a minute before they're cut short ): Speaking of Tom and John appearing together, I also found a TV Guide advert for the 1987 movie 'Christmas Comes to Willow Creek'. And so Cathy doesn't feel left out, here she is with John: All pictures found on Ebay.

girls It's a section of beach, either near Santa Monica Pier or Venice Boulevard, where bodybuilders hang out. I seem to remember seeing the "Muscle Beach" sign in several '80s movies. The screengrab below is from 'Dragnet'.

beach (as in Muscle Beach)

Thanks for your description of the different type of anime. There isn't any on tonight, I checked early . I listened to this track, and it got me thinking that it's rare to hear songs sung in Japanese (even after they invented karaoke ). I took a look through my record collection, and found very little in Japanese. Songs by Fantastic Plastic Machine are nearly all in English, Isao Tomita plays electronic instrumentals, Ryuichi Sakamoto mainly does movie music (and I never got the collaboration album he did with Thomas Dolby, despite being a big Thomas Dolby fan ). I have a track that claims to be YMCA in Japanese, but it's actually Chinese. Funnily enough, I do have a live track by Ben Folds Five that they translated into Japanese for their Japanese tour, but it contains too much English swearing to post here. What does that leave me with? Well there's the song below which doesn't really have words (I also have the original 1959 version by The Rock*A*Teens, but this one is better). I love the expression on the drummer's face. The guy who presents the show that this clip was taken from, Jonathan Ross, is a big anime fan. Another Japanese artist that I couldn't resist posting is Takako Minekawa. You can see the original video , but I thought you might like the version below because, according to the descrption, the video is made using clips from the classic anime series "Azumanga Daioh". I know it's in English, but I love it . I was going to ask you if Gorillaz were anime, but I found an anime forum that concluded they have Japanese/anime influences, but are not anime. Still, remembering which forum we're on, you've got to love people who speed up at "BRIDGE OUT" signs!

That's more than I expected from NASCAR - well done them (do they read my posts ). I assume the allegation about Max Papis pushing Mike Skeen's girlfriend proved not to be true.