At least we’ve heard what happened then. Let us not go gently into this evil, evil night.

I assume you reported the shop for cruelty to bicycle components and took your bikes elsewhere!

Hmmm. Ashtabula crankset? I have to confess that I’ve yet to have an unremovable pedal. A little light oil, a pedal wrench, and a mallet. So long as you remember the threading (as you point out above) that’s all I’ve ever needed, and I’ve worked on some ancient machines.

Purely out of curiousity, what pedal and what crank? Any chance that the pedal had an alloy shaft?

I have two good-quality adjustable wrenches in my toolbox, both inherited from my father—a small one, and a large one. They’re old-line Craftsman tools, and they’re very good. Not as good as a proper well-made made-to-fit wrench, particularly when things are (or need to be) very tight, but thanks to these two, I have…

Dunno. That’s just the way I’ve always done it—on a per syllable, rather than per word, basis. I really don’t know why.

ISTRC that these were sold in the US as the Mercury Capri, no?

My dad had a blue one, ‘72 iirc, and I learned to drive stick in that car in ‘77. I don’t recall it as being a car he was in love with, but it was sort of a compromise—it replaced his MGB convertible, which was, to put it mildly, not an appropriate car for Minnesota winters. Even if it did have wire wheels with…

Got scoops?

What is the fascination with exhaust pipes? They do not provide thrust and are not rockets.

We’ve been calling it the Death Star for a couple of years now, because that was precisely what the lamp brought to mind.

We’ve been calling it the Death Star for a couple of years now, because that was precisely what the lamp brought to…

No, no he really didn’t. I saw it in 1976, and it was passable then. Now it’s well beyond saving.

The term for those aircraft was, according to my late father, “Boeingovitch”—son of Boeing.

It’s a small thing, but it makes a difference—my Fit has a RH mirror. It was a ridiculously costly option on the Civic wagon, so I never got it. I like it.

I had the last year Honda Civic Wagon—’91, I think. First new car I ever owned, and I kept it for 15 years, watching as the rest of the Civic line ballooned into the midsize range.

All you have to know about John Wayne is that he played Genghis Kahn, topping the role off with the straight Wayne delivery of “Tell the prince we ride at dawn.”

I actually read the novella a few years ago, and I was impressed. The film takes a fair number of liberties, but that’s OK, because it has Audrey Hepburn in it. But the novella on its own was quite a good read, and I think you can enjoy both versions of the story. Which, actually, fits with Holly’s character in both.

In my early teens, I was a fan of the Dr. Demento show, but that’s not where I first heard Weird Al.

Spouse and I saw this the weekend it opened. And last week, I got to sit in the courtroom when RBG read her dissent in Epic. She’s amazing, and yes, for those who wonder, she’s still got it. Read the Epic dissent.

Married since 1986. Me: BA, MA, JD; Spouse: BA, MA, PhD.