There’s a one hour documentary on Camp X on Netflix (or was, it was supposed to be pulled in early June, but it’s still in my list, maybe because I watched it recently). It smacks of the History Channel treatment, but was interesting nonetheless.

Britain and Canada built a covert op school in Whitby, Ontario, not far from the town line with Oshawa, and about 30 miles east of Toronto. It was collaquially known as Camp X. Fleming was there, as were a large number of British SOE operatives and American OSS agents. It was ideally situated on the rail line between…

To quote Billy Connelly, “More to be pitied than scolded, I assure you.”

It’s a textbook example of a cult of personality.

What is it about French colonials and crappy pavement? The worst roads I’ve ever driven are down here in Louisiana. It’s sad when even Mississippi’s roads (except, for some reason, around McComb) are better than your state’s. You don’t need a sign to point to the exact Texas-Louisiana border.

Canadian English spelling is an odd mix of American and British spelling. Canadians spell these words colour, centre, favour, but also spell these words magazine, tire (British tyre), aluminum (my Dad installed aluminum in the Oshawa area for years, but as a Scot he had to break himself of aluminium). There are some…

If he gets picked up, it’s not entirely out of the question that it will be the age at which he retires...

Yesterday I said that I probably wouldn’t watch this year’s Azerbaijan race considering how bad last year’s was. I did end up watching it, and if the race were actually a person, I’d be sending it a handwritten apology. Hell of a race.

I’m a big F1 fan. I watch every race every season except when I can’t due to illness or travel. I’m not planning to watch the Azerbaijan race tomorrow. Not before I find out whether or not it’s as big of a snoozefest as last year. I’ve seen my share of dull races. Last year’s was the dullest I can recall. Even the US…

But winless...

You have to drill down into the Wikipedia source information to see where they came up with that number of states. They got it from a site that indicates there are 19 states with “variable fuel taxes”. Some of those are flat up sales taxes on fuel. Others are “variable” in that the per gallon tax rate changes yearly…

I didn’t say those were the only states with fuel taxes. I said those were the only ones with sales taxes, where the dollar value of the fuel is taxed.

You made me look. The only states with sales tax on gas are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and New York. I should have known about Georgia. I forgot Michigan, but it’s been 10 years since I had to look at their tax structure.

Not in the majority of states. The federal gasoline and diesel excise tax is a fixed rate per gallon: .183 for gas and .243 for diesel, as well as a .001 liquid underground storage tank fee added to both.

Okay, here’s the scoop on midgrade.

Not if you’re talking profit margins. Midgrade carries the highest profit margins.

They do put additives in the fuel. It’s the only thing that differentiates gasoline brands. The gasoline in the pipeline can come from any manufacturer. It might be gas from an Exxon refinery right now, and gas from a Chevron refinery in 30 minutes. In fact, the only difference between brands at some of the big fuel…

Three of us! I even bought Gabriel IV in German. I don’t speak German.

It was hard to phase my Dad, and even harder to shut down his droll, wicked sense of humor.

That was almost the fate of my great grandfather. He worked on the WW1 era submarine, K-13, in Glasgow. He was invited onboard for its Admiralty trials, but he came down sick and couldn’t go. During its second dive, the cover over a boiler room ventilator failed to close. Water flooded into the boiler room. As the…