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there's a used magazine store in town, not far from my domicile that i frequent.... since i like to read... it's a great resource... it's nice to get cheap back issues of magazines i wouldn't ordinarily buy when there's an article of interest... more importantly... it's car magazine central... recently they got a collection of motor trend, car and driver, popular mechanics and road and track magazines... probably 30-35 years worth of each... mostly complete sets... after digging through them for a few hours... i managed to find a few rare issues i had been searching for for a while... specifically... car and driver from march 72 march 73 and august 75... basically it's the triptych detailing the original cannonball run races... of course most would recognize the name from the movie (one of many!) very loosely based based on the race... of interest to me is the fact that they are contemporaneous accounts of the race and authored by Brock Yates, one of the preeminent automotive journalists.... whose writing style i greatly appreciate and admire... A few years back Mr. Yates released Cannonball: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race which is a reminiscence of the "cannonball" events... while a good read, after finishing, my desire to read the original articles increased significantly... typically these issues are priced between $15-$20 via online sellers. I traded in some magazines, and am a preferred customer at the used magazine store... so by the time the whole transaction was done I ended up paying $3.50 for the lot instead of $4 each which was the listed price. I guess 8 years of frequenting a retail establishment still has some merit in the world of the independent business person... that's good to know... In fact, the proprietor was going to give me back $0.50 (which represented the "credit card charge") but I told him to forget it because I knew I was getting a great deal... yet i digress... I recently read the above mentioned book Mr. Yates wrote about the cannonball run... i am glad to now have the original documents.... of course the race has been recreated and bastardized several times.. but at the time it was a pretty radical proposal... and it's great to read about the seat-of-your-pants DIY atmosphere that permeated the whole scene...
so i used to work at a car magazine and even before that I had been a huge car junkie... i think i got my first subscription to road and track when i was like 9 or 10 and it kept coming for years after that... i read them so many times i've memorized every road test they ever did... anyway... as a result... i know a lot about cars... especially italian cars made before 1980... and muscle cars... german cars... sweedish cars... etc... let's just call them "exotic" for lack of a better word... anyhoo... i was in paris and i was doing the touristy thing at the top of the eifel tower and i was looking across the street and i noticed all these cars... being the car freak that i am i ran across the street to sus it out... there was some sort of road rally going on... the traversee du paris in fact... i love car shows and this one was awesome... there were so many great old cars that were never imported to the u.s. and that i'd only previously read about in books and magazines... it was nice to see some of them in real life finally... then something caught my eye and i couldn't believe what i was seeing... i thought maybe the french air/water/food/wine/women were causing me to hallucinate... could it be? an original 1957 Bugatti SC Atlantic? no frackin' way... i took a picture for posterity...
i was 90% sure it wasn't an original 1957 SC Atlantic... as they only made 3 and all three are well documented... but since i had only seen pictures of one... the ralph lauren car... i couldn't be sure... especially on the spot... once i got home and compared the ralph lauren car to the car in my picture i knew that it probably wasn't one of the three... here's ralph's car:
i wondered if it was another sc shipped back to the factory to be made to look like an atlantic... perhaps someone did it on their own or another custom shop did it... or i thought it could have been a complete "recreation" from the ground up w/ no bugatti parts involved whatsoever... in the business that's known as a "fakey do"
so i wrote to my old boss and this was the reply i got...
Hi Marc:
Definitive answer from our writer Donald Osborne....
The car in the photo is a recreation of the "Aerolithe", the car which led to the Atlantic. The original was built of Elektron, which couldn't easily be welded- hence the spot welded external ribs. It was destroyed in an accident.
A couple of replicas have been built- although I know of someone who claims to have the original Aerolithe chassis and is rebuilding it.
It's certainly a fabulous car in any event!
cheers
Paul
here's a picture of the original...
here's one being restored... i wonder if it's the original or one of the fakes like the one i saw...
i found this picture on the internet of what claims to be an Aerolithe... however based on the info above... it's a fake... as was the one i saw in paris...
here's a link to a site that has pictures of yet another fake... seemingly more authentic looking than the one i saw... the headlights on the one i saw were all wrong...
http://www.bugatti-club-deutschland.de/contents/fahrzeuge_aerolithe.html
i find these types of situations very interesting... that's why when you spend $5,000,000+ on a car you better know your shit... people get burned at auctions all the time... it would suck to think you're getting one of one or one of 3 cars made when it's really one of many "fakes"
it's worse in the muscle car world... there's so many fake gto's and fake KR500GT's and fake gsx's etc. out there... gotta know your shit... like the fact that the factory only made a handful of convertible 1969 firebirds with a 4 speed transmission... but there's 100's of 1969 firebird convertibles with 4 speeds... funny that...
anyway... if you have any exotic car questions... feel free to ask...
since i moved to oregon, i've always heard a lot about celilo falls, but never really knew much about it other than that it was a large waterfall that was flooded as part of construction for a dam... the other evening i caught a really interesting documentary about the history of photography in the columbia gorge... part of the footage included multiple photographs and compelling first hand accounts about the above mentioned celilo falls... i was blown away and almost moved to tears... it's a really an amazing and tragic story... celilo used to be the oldest continually inhabited settlement in north america... celilo falls was one of the most productive fishing areas anywhere ever... as well as a spiritual center for native americans from this area... the falls were supposed to have rivaled niagara for size but not productivity... celilo was far more productive...
what Celilo looks like now:
http://www.common-place.org/vol-06/no-02/talk/
Oregon Public Broadcasting has an excellent radio show about the falls:
part 1:
Apparently there's been a lot of talk about restoring the falls to as original condition as possible... but there were also rumors that the Army Corps Of Engineers had blown up the falls before the area was flooded... according to sonar reports of the area the falls are still intact...
what i'm listening to:
note... the "all negro cast" and NO negroes in line... funny that!
oh... there they are! hey the back door and the balcony is better than nothing... right?
In the blighted pantheon inhabited by the heroes and heroines of cautionary tales, Slovenly Peter has nothing on Hellé Nice, the luscious French racecar driver of the 1920's and 30's who began life as the wayward daughter of a dour provincial postmaster, then built herself a dream of glory and lived in it -- for a while, at least.
Born Mariette Helene Delangle, she moved to Paris in her teens; there,
she cast aside her name, her past and her clothes, posing for naughty
postcards and dancing in risqué yet distingué revues at the Casino de
Paris and other music halls in the era of Maurice Chevalier, Josephine
Baker and Mistinguett. (Picture the withered stars of the animated film
''The Triplets of Belleville'' in their blooming jazz-hot youth.) Her
smile was joyous and sensual, her skin a creamy bisque, her eyes
heavy-lidded and her features smoothly sharp. In some photographs, she
resembles Kristin Scott Thomas in a period role.
In 1929, after suffering a dance-dooming knee injury while skiing away
from an avalanche, Hellé Nice switched metiers, trading dance slippers
for driving gloves. She soon won the Grand Prix Féminin and exulted to
the press about the thrill of having a ''great roaring racecar in your
hands that wants only to go faster.'' That early victory secured her a
sleek Bugatti and the nickname ''The Queen of Speed.''
For most of the next decade, Hellé more than earned her title as she
hurtled through men and motorcars, setting records and appearing in
rallies, races, exhibitions and grands prix from Paris, Monte Carlo and
Morocco to Woodbridge, N.J., and Winston-Salem, N.C. World War II
sidelined her for a while, but just as she was preparing to resume her
position behind the wheel, in the Monte Carlo Rally of 1949, she was
denounced (falsely) as a former Gestapo agent at a glittering gala
attended by le tout Monaco. Thus began Hellé's slow, downward skid.
my maternal great-grandfather...
The sturdy character of the men of the hills has frequently been remarked. The mountain counties of Virginia are no exception for they have sent out men of both races, who have been able even in the face of difficulties to strive and to endure. Every profession has felt the impact of their personalities. Among the hardy sons of Botetourt County, Va., now (1922) residing in West Virginia, must be mentioned Rev. Matthew Lawrence Fairfax, a successful Baptist pastor of Ronceverte.
He was born on April 30, 1870, and is the first member of his family to be a preacher. His father, the late Charles B. Fairfax, was a tanner by trade. He was the son of Thornton and Charlotte Fairfax. The mother of our subject was, before her marriage Maria Louise Pendleton, daughter of Anderson and Amy Pendleton.
Young Fairfax experienced the new birth when he was fourteen years of age and joined the Lapsley Run Baptist Church.
Ordinarily we think of men being called to preach after their conversion, sometimes years after. But Mr. Fairfax had felt even before his conversion as a small boy that his life work lay in the direction of preaching the Gospel. He was licensed in 1899 and two years later was ordained to the full work of the ministry.
As a boy he had laid the foundation of his education in the public schools and spent a year at the Virginia Seminary and College at Lynchburg. Before entering upon the work of the ministry, he worked on the farm and was a stationary engineer. He taught school for a couple of terms in Virginia. It is as a minister of the Gospel, however, that he is best known.
He began his career as pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church which he served continuously for twenty years, and the church prospered under his ministry. As the character of his work became known his services were soon in demand by other churches. He was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fincastle from 1905-19. He served the first Church at Indian Rock for six years, 1904-10. He accepted the call of the church at Iron Gate and preached there for ten years, 1910-20. He served Lapsley Run from 1904-08 and Lick Run from 1909-20. Since 1920 he has divided his time between the Shiloh Church at Alderson and the First Baptist Church of Ronceverte, giving half time to each and residing at Ronceverte.
He has made friends for himself and for his work wherever he has gone and has had a fruitful ministry.
Mr. Fairfax has a fine family. On January 25, 1892, he married Miss Maria E. Cash of Eagle Rock, Va. Of the eleven children born to them, ten are living. The oldest, Capt. Norwood C. Fairfax was in the service during the World War and made the supreme sacrifice on the field of battle. Mr. Scott in his History of the War tells a most thrilling incident in connection with his final struggle. Captain Fairfax's company had been ordered forward when some one asked him if he knew there was a nest of German machine gun directly in front. He replied, "I only know we have been ordered forward, and we are going." He went. Machine guns did their worst, but they could not take away from parents and brothers and sisters the record of that heroic courage in the face of danger. The other children are Myra E., Lawrence E., Irma T., Charles C., Frank T., Clara M., Mary P., Augustine E., Matthew L., Jr., and James A. Fairfax. These are all being given excellent educational advantages and form a group of which father and mother may well be proud. Corporal Lawrence E. Fairfax of Company E., 351st Field Artillery, served overseas and was on the front for six weeks. He was on duty at the close of the war, November 11, 1918, and is now (1922) a student in the business department of Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
In order that he might be a real leader of his people Mr. Fairfax has given serious consideration to their condition and needs. He, of course, puts first their spiritual needs. After that, he says, must come self respect and self help. The writer pauses to note that those qualities are the qualities which account for the success of Mr. Fairfax.
After the Bible to which he naturally gives first place in his reading, he loves history and biography. In politics he is a Republican and among the secret orders is identified with the Odd Fellows, the Pythians and St. John the Watchman.
source: http://www.wvculture.org/history/histamne/fairfax.html
I used to live on martha's vineyard year-round... and i've been going there since i was a kid... so i've spent a lot of time on the MV ISLANDER over the past 30 years... sad and nostalgic to see the ship decommissioned... it was one of my main forms of transportation for a while... indeed one of the only physical links to the mainland.... what's worse... to add insult to injury... they're selling it on EBAY!!
a tragic end for a grand vessel...
what i'm reading:
what i'm listening to:
what i'm watching:
originally when i posted this i unintentionally omitted the link to the article wherein which the story of mr. rusel is told... it's actually an interesting article about the coverage of black golfers in the augusta chronicle and worth a read for anyone who's interested in history or sociology... i found the image first... and found it quite compelling... i knew it was from a newspaper photographers archive so i did a bit of research... and while i wasn't able to find the original account of the event... i was able to find the thesis which was just as informative if not moreso...
The first substantial mention of any African American golfer or golf achievement in the Augusta Chronicle occurred on November 26, 1942. Oddly enough the article was neither about John Russel’s golf accomplishments nor about golf at all. Although the Chronicle described John Russel as a caddy and “One of Atlanta’s best Negro Golfers,” the first association in the Chronicle between an African American and golf was the golfer as a confessed murderer: “[Russel: pictured above] was today charged with the murder of George H. A. Thomas 57 year-old manager of the Black Rock Country Club….Russel went through the safe and stole some cigarettes and golf balls,” the Chronicle wrote. A robbery gone bad and turned into murder is tied both to John Russel’s race and to his ability to hit a golf ball, stigmatizing Blacks who sought a place on the links. Such is our introduction to the Chronicle’s coverage of African Americans in golf.
source: http://www.aug.edu/sociology/StudentWork/trimgreen.htm
