Where the cobbles of Detroit’s first historic district meets the 21st century pavement

Torch Bar in Flint, Michigan

Wrapped up William L. Shirer’s “Collapse of the Third Republic” today. Great book; not as riveting as “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” but definitely illuminating. Probably won’t write a big post about it, but have a draft in the works about one section in particular.

First day of the season around 80F. Trudged through suburban desolation and realized we need more trees. Not enough shade.

Testing something. Here’s a photo of my nearly finished Yorkshire Gold.

Stella gave herself a dirt bath

James Bond continues to shine when it comes to the car stuff. From “Live and Let Die”:

Bond liked fast cars and he liked driving them. Most American cars bored him. They lacked personality and the patina of individual craftsmanship that European cars have. They were just ‘vehicles’, similar in shape and in colour, and even in the tone of their horns. Designed to serve for a year and then be turned in in part exchange for the next year’s model. All the fun of driving had been taken out of them with the abolition of a gear-change, with hydraulic-assisted steering and spongy suspension. All effort had been smoothed away and all of that close contact with the machine and the road that extracts skill and nerve from the European driver. To Bond, American cars were just beetle-shaped Dodgems in which you motored along with one hand on the wheel, the radio full on, and the power-operated windows closed to keep out the draughts.

But Leiter had got hold of an old Cord, one of the few American cars with a personality, and it cheered Bond to climb into the low-hung saloon, to hear the solid bite of the gears and the masculine tone of the wide exhaust. Fifteen years old, he reflected, yet still one of the most modern-looking cars in the world.

Kid Rock’s star outside the Country Music Hall of Fame looked defaced compared to all the other ones

The Nashville Trash Hole