March 29, 2013
November 20, 2012
Car Lust update
Had a go with an update of the Great Cars of Egypt:
I’m kind of sad seeing so few of those old 504s and Ladas and Fiats all over. They were kind of foreign and exotic and, you know, different. Now most of them all look pretty much the same: rolling, rounded jellybeans, only differing from one another by the badge on the front grille and the name on the back. And now with the Tuk Tuks the streets of Egypt probably don’t look too much different from those of Bombay or Bangkok. Oh, I’ll happily fasten my seat belt in the new vehicles and feel marginally safer, but it won’t have quite the same caché as a 504 wagon with its rakish headlights and long-throw suspension.
I also reminisce about some of the changes that have taken place in the time I’ve been coming to Egypt. No photos of the field quite yet, but I have some nice ones of the bath coming.
November 4, 2012
Notes from the field
Well, nothing terribly exciting and no photos. Just more moving of a lot of sand and fired mud brick that hath fallen down. I’m in the tepidarium and in 1975 it had a partial vaulted roof, but I am now, I believe, digging through its fallen remains. It’s quite tedious because we have to save at least the larger chunks of brick from each room — just keep them in the room (no screening) but its still tedious. Will try to get some photos tomorrow.
One other item of potential interest:
Those are called Tuk Tuks. Why do I include a photo? Well, a couple of years ago I did a Car Lust post on the Great Cars of Egypt. This year I’m doing a follow-up post because quite a lot has changed since 2003 when I was here last. As I noted in that link, the gub’mint has tried to get rid of a lot of the older cars. . .and they largely succeeded. There are very few Fiat 124/128s running around anymore, I’ve only seen two Nivas, and the number of Peugeot 504s has been reduced significantly, although they are still quite common. These things, however, are totally new. They were never here until a few years ago, from what my sources tell me but now they’re common as bugs. Word on the street is that they started importing a lot of them second-hand from India where they’ve been for years and years. They’re mostly for short-hauls off of the main roads (though some wander there anyway) in bigger cities, but there are a few around us. I haven’t ridden in one yet, but I plan to. Not sure if they actually replaced anything; they seem to have just filled a niche that was probably served by full-size vehicles before. I think it’s a great idea, although I would imagine they’re not very safe, relatively speaking.
August 30, 2012
August 28, 2012
It’s blogiversary time!
Not here, of course, once again this year I forgot about it, but at Car Lust!
Anyway, looking back to those thrilling days of 2007, we find that in January Steve Jobs introduced Teens-on-cell-phonesthe iPhone thereby condemning an entire generation of youths (and adults) to willingly affixing their eyeballs to a little device and as a consequence becoming oblivious to their surroundings. In August of that year (surely a simple coincidence, I assure you) the Storm Worm botnet sent out a record 57 million emails in a single day, sadly eclipsed the very next day by distributors of Cialis. Later that year, the Mitchell Report (also known colloquially as “The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball”) found that, to our utter surprise and dismay, baseball players were juicin’ it up. Shocked, shocked!, I know. Next thing they’ll tell us cyclists are using, too.
Somewhere in there I also discovered Top Gear which, together with Car Lust, really opened my eyes to the fact that writing about cars can actually be, you know, entertaining. And not just for high end stuff either; from the AMC Gremlin (“You know a car is terrible when the only people to profess to like it are really only claiming it to enhance their own ironic slumming hipness”) to the Morris Marina (“I’ll guaranteee that nothing exciting, vibrant, dynamic, new, creative, hopeful, or beneficial in any way to humanity has ever been done, thought of, or driven to in that drab, dreary, entirely beige, woefully awful pile of misery”), even the most banal of automobiles can be made at least interesting.
Great little blog.
May 8, 2012
Vehicular archaeology, update
At Car Lust. Found some more information on the river dump site — “Detroit riprap” they call it — and added in another one. And. . . .the Purple Polizei!
April 26, 2012
Almost forgot
Vehicular Archaeology! I think I posted something about this earlier, but wanted to get it out to the Car Lust community for feedback. Sadly, no one has ID’d the cars, but at least I got some other info out of it, especially the V8 engine at the Dump Site. Sadly, due to my efforts we will have to actually go and record the River Dump site next week as all of the vehicles are older than 50 years.
If anyone here knows the makes/models/years of some of the unidentified cars, make sure to chime in.
April 6, 2012
Finally, some archaeology!
What
WouldDid Jesus Drive?A somewhat farcical question to be sure, but one that we here at Car Lust are more than willing to throw ourselves into with gusto. This post has as its ultimate source a small movement some years ago by environmentally-directed religious groups to get people out of their gas-guzzling SUVs and into JesusDrivingsmaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles (no obvious relation other than in name to the band). While the merits of this quest of theirs is beyond the scope of this post, it nevertheless spurred me to ponder the question: Just what did Jesus drive?
My ultimate conclusion is probably nothing, but it was kind of a fun little piece to write. Learned a few things as well.
March 30, 2012
March 27, 2012
Over at Car Lust
That’s something I was thinking of when my ‘78 Mustang II hit 100k: that used to be a semi-mythical milestone that very few cars ever hit, especially in the upper midwest where rust took its toll usually well before then. Now if a car doesn’t hit 100k it’s pretty much considered a lemon.
