HossC

Roger, I see that Mindy Robinson plays someone called Evelyn Tisdale in 'Christmas Cars'. Is there any connection between her character and Miz Tisdale?

He was played by Henry Jones. His acting credits start in 1943 and go up to 1995, so I don't know what era you're remembering him from. Check out his IMDb page to see if anything rings a bell.

Well remembered, Roger. That's pretty much exactly what Cooter says in 'One Armed Bandits' - I watched it yesterday!

I think we see it as normal because we grew up with it, but we probably have to concede that things have changed over the last 40 years. Can you imagine lines like "This here Equal Opportunities law says that the sheriff's office has gotta open jobs for ladies now, just like regular people" (Enos in 'Officer Daisy Duke') being including in a more recent show? We have a channel here which shows reruns of old sitcoms, and they have a similar spoken message before certain shows from the '70s. Some shows have disappeared completely from listings because they're now deemed to be politically incorrect, so if we have to put up with a short, unobtrusive warning to see them, I won't complain.

With the New Year holidays, I almost forgot that it was Saturday today! Anyway, I noticed a small disclaimer at the start of each episode - a message across the bottom of the screen saying "1970s comedy-drama with dialogue and imagery of the time". I don't recall it being there last time they showed Dukes, but if a 10 second message under the preview scene is what it takes to keep Dukes on the air in 2021, I have no problem with that.

Looking at IMDb, Christmas Cars seems to divide opinion. There are three reviews there at the moment, two of which give it 10/10 while the other describes it as "an amateurish, cheesy and very cheap production devoid of any significance in acting and directing." I saw Byron Cherry's name on the cover, but he isn't listed on IMDb, so it's good to get confirmation that he's in the movie.

Well, I kept to my word about F1 hijacks in 2020, and waited until 2021! To add to all of his other achievements, Lewis Hamilton received a knighthood in the New Year Honours List. He follows in the footsteps of other F1 drivers Sir Jack Brabham, Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart.

Congratulations, Hobie - what a great way to start the new year .

Sorry to be negative, Hobie, but after a brief respite in December, we re-entered a level-5 lockdown at midnight. That means non-essential shops closed, travel limited to 5km from home and it could be months before I can get my hair cut again! I want 2021 to be better, but here at least, it looks very like 2020 at the moment.

Happy New Year y'all! I normally stay up, but I couldn't be bothered this time. I'm glad to see the back of 2020, but the start of 2021 doesn't look any better.

There's more to this than I imagined. From Wikipedia: In the United States the most common name suffixes are senior and junior, which are written with a capital first letter (Sr. and Jr.) with or without an interceding comma. In Britain these are rarer, but when they are used the abbreviations are Snr and Jnr, respectively. The use of these social terms is governed by etiquette, but not enshrined in law. According to The Emily Post Institute, an authority on etiquette, the term Jr. can be correctly used only if a male child's first, middle, and last names are identical to his father's (current) names. When a male child has the same name as his grandfather, uncle or male cousin, but not his father, he can use the II suffix, which is pronounced, "the second". ... In the United Kingdom, the suffixes "Snr." and "Jnr." are rare, and not usually considered part of a person's name as such. Ordinal suffixes such as "III" are generally reserved for monarchs; however, the General Register Office has stated that, whereas it would normally reject a string of symbols or letters that "has no intrinsic sense of being a name" when registering a child, a suffix such as "III" would be accepted. Those who inherit a title of nobility do not use ordinal suffixes, but are distinguished from any ancestors with the same name by their position in the order of succession; for example Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington is thus distinguished from his father, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Where I've met people in Ireland who are named after their father, they generally just use a variation of their name, e.g. Michael and his son Mick. I've just realized that the example I gave above also applies to German racing driver Michael Schumacher and his racing driver son Mick Schumacher. I honestly wasn't thinking of them when I wrote it.

The practice of naming children after their parents seems to be more prevalent in the US than over here, although it's certainly not uncommon. Giving the child the same middle name would appear to be a step too far.

Seeing as Skipper Duke found another thread about the Dukes appearance on The Graham Norton Show, I went looking for the show online so that I could watch it again. All the old links are dead (I edited my post above), but I found that someone had uploaded the show a few months ago. It's only the half hour show and not the 45 minute "uncut" version, but it's better than nothing. I'll just remind you that the show is more adult-oriented than you may be used to from US talk shows!

ride

There's a great way to start the new year in the UK and Ireland - Forces TV will be repeating Dukes from the beginning on weekend mornings. They're starting with a double bill of 'One Armed Bandits' and 'Daisy's Song' at 10:30 on Saturday 2nd January, and then they're showing the other three Georgia episodes back-to-back on Sunday 3rd starting at 10:05. Both are followed by a double helping of 'CHiPs'! There's no word on whether they've got the rights to seasons 4-7, but they're already being asked about on the Forces TV Facebook page.

Element

Bold (Bold can be used as a synonym for naughty in Ireland) Parlor games used to be popular of both sides of the Atlantic, especially in the Victorian era. They're just indoor games like charades.

games There - lets cheer it up a bit

I wonder why the General didn't have hood pins, especially after they welded the doors shut and put a roll cage in.

I had this song in my head for most of Wednesday afternoon because one of the ladies at work sang it as she distributed the bottles of whiskey and brandy around the office!

I didn't remember that line, so I googled it. It's actually from 'The Sweetest Taboo' - a song that I know less well, but still not a bad way to start Christmas morning given the quality of the music and the highly appropriate lyric. Looking at the release date, it came out the the same year as the final series of Dukes. Enjoy...

I woke up this morning, turned on the TV, and there was 'The Great Santa Claus Chase'. It was good of Forces TV to dig out this seasonal episode. I just hope it prompts them to acquire the rights to seasons 4-7 of the show as this is the first time I've seen Dukes in their listings since they showed seasons 1-3 earlier in the year.

tears I started the bottle I had a couple of weeks ago, but now I have another!

Maybe they stole their water from a nearby valley via an aquaduct, leaving the valley dry and ruining its economy. Oh no, that wasn't Hazzard, that was Los Angeles!

If you can do 'We Have All The Time In The World' I'll be impressed. I think that's my favorite song of his. BTW. Since I read that you liked Sade (I think you've mentioned it before), I've had 'Smooth Operator' and 'Your Love is King' stuck in my head!