HossC

I've seen that picture and similar small car replicas with the title "The Dollar General".

I watch a guy on YouTube called Tyler Hoover who has a channel called Hoovies Garage. His videos are usually about cheap cars he's bought and how much they cost to fix, although the YouTube money has also enabled him to buy a good few supercars now. Anyway, it turns out that he was the Grand Marshall at the Watkin's Glen race at the weekend. If you skip to about the 9:30 mark in the videos below, you'll see some behind-the-scenes footage and a chat with Aric Amirola. It also shows the divided social media reaction to his appearance.

Somehow, amidst the talk of Spike's Richard Petty car, I managed to miss that, Roger. Albion is an old name for England or Britain, but is now only used poetically. It also lives on in the names of soccer teams like West Bromwich Albion and Brighton & Hove Albion.

There's a sword connection with the castle we visited last week (the one with the cannonball in the wall). It was one of the filming locations for the 1981 movie 'Excalibur'. Despite the story taking place in ancient England, all the filming appears to have taken place in Ireland. In the park next door there's a sword embedded in a stone for visitors to try and remove!

I'm currently watching my way through my 'Cheers' boxset, and have now reached the final season where we get to meet Rebecca's father who's a navy captain. One scene cuts to him and the guys watching TV in the bar and he comments, "As a man who has thirty years of naval experience, I can say at all confidence that if that crew got together and shot Gilligan, they'd have been off that island in a week. Problem solved." I think I can guess what they were watching!

We went to the ruins of an 18th century house today. The interior was destroyed by a fire nearly 90 years ago, but most of the exterior is still standing, and the walled garden is still maintained. On the way home, we stopped by a dolmen - a megalithic portal tomb dating to between 4000 and 3000 BC. The capstone is thought to weigh about 150 metric tons.

As an aside, Roy Tatum, who appeared as one of the FBI agents in 'Daisy's Song', started his acting career as a Burt Reynolds impersonator. He also played a patrolman in 'The Cannonball Run', but didn't appear with Burt (he pulled over the ladies in the Lamborghini).

Welcome to HNet, Kait. I've never seen more than a couple of fuzzy clips of 'On the Rocks'. Have you ever seen 'Porridge', the UK show upon which it's based?

It looks like there's a tie-in with Mercyhurst University. There's an article in The Merciad.

Roger, after visiting the castle yesterday I went to the coastal town of Dungarvan. As you enter the town there's a sign saying that it's twinned with Erie, Pennsylvania - isn't that somewhere near you? BTW. Dungarvan also has a 12th century castle, but I didn't get to see it.

I have a couple of friends from Romania - I'll have to ask if they've ever visited Bran Castle, which is the castle usually associated with Dracula (despite there being no direct connection).

That was in 'Dukes Strike it Rich', although I don't think Boss got a chance to call her as he and Rosco ran outside when Cooter towed his car. Incidentally, in 'Witness: Jesse Duke', Boss tells Jesse that "Lulu's away in Decatur visiting her sister Hortense, so you can use her bedroom." Other than her original appearance in 'The Return of Hughie Hogg', I think that's the only other mention of Aunt Hortense.

I went to another castle today. It was built between the 13th and 15th centuries, and still has a cannonball embedded in the wall from when it was attacked in 1599!

I have a SATB T-shirt with Buford saying "Yew sumb****!". I've continued your censoring as per this thread, although the shirt isn't censored. I only wear it to car events.

I guess 1880s is historic where you live, Roger. The castle where I live is only about 700 years older than that!

I nearly witnessed a nasty head-on crash last week. We have a lot of tractors on the road at the moment with the inevitable queues behind them. As I was on my way home for lunch, I got stuck at the back of one of these queues. About six cars got past on a straight section of road and then next in line was a semi with a lime tanker. He decided he could pass on the next really short straight, but spotted a car coming the other way as he drew alongside the tractor. The truck must've cut back in with inches to spare to the tractor, and the car had to brake hard and pull into the verge to miss it. The really stupid thing is that the tractor pulled in about 100 yards later to let the traffic past. Knowing the road, I was expecting that, but I guess the truck driver didn't know!

I've just watched the scene a few times, and I think that the three parked cars (Jesse's pickup, Swamp Molly's pickup and the General) appear to be in the right places when the angle changes. There's room behind them for the truck to enter the water. A couple of things I did notice: 1) Rosco's driving a '74 Plymouth Satellite when he gives Enos permission to make the arrest, but in subsequent shots he's driving a '75 Plymouth Fury. 2) From when Rosco speeds past Enos to when he hits the truck takes about 12 seconds. Even if he was only going at 30mph, he would still travel 176 yards in that time, yet when he gets out of his crashed car, Enos and the walkie talkie in the road are no more than 20 yards behind him.

We've had over 1,000 new cases a day over the last three days, and about 70% are meant to be the Delta variant. Luckily, there seem to be less deaths and hospital admissions than last year. Indoor dining was supposed to reopen later this month, but that may now be delayed. They seem to think that a lot of the Delta cases are coming from the UK, and the UK is ending nearly all of its restrictions today, against international advice! I had my second vaccination about a month ago, so hopefully I'm as protected as I can be. Also, where I live is regularly among the counties with the lowest incidence rates.

I played a little at school when I was around 10 or 11, but then did athletics in my early-mid teens. I can't even claim to be a football fan - I watch a few matches during the Euros and World Cups, but otherwise I just keep an eye on the scores so that I can join in conversations!

Well, as y'all may have seen, England were in the final of the Euros football (soccer) tournament last night, and lost to Italy when the match ended in a 1-1 draw and went to penalties. For various reasons, the England football team doesn't get a lot of support from outside England, even from the other home nations. Couple this with a feeling that this was their year (it's their first major final since they won the '66 World Cup and the final was in London again), and you didn't have to look far today to find people who were happy with the outcome. Suffice to say, being an Englishman abroad, I've had a day of 'witty' comments and light-hearted digs. Still, it's a young team and there's a World Cup next year...

As we discussed recently in the Every Which Way But Loose thread, William Smith also played Clint Eastwood's opponent, Jack Wilson, in 'Any Which Way You Can'. Looking at his credits on IMDb, it seems he was still acting up until last year.

snowman

Cool

These are all hugely impressive, and they make a great collection. I think I'd add a Mustang, but would it be Lucifer, the Double Zero, or Black Tillie II...

Police (I'm going by British slang)