what I have learned today.

[Tim Hall]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

[T42]

A uni chum of mine had a Light Fifteen with a dodgy battery.  One Saturday night he parked it nose-on to the kerb in a street with a steep camber. Next morning it wouldn't start so "we'll crank it back and push it". Har har we couldn't get the starting handle in. Ever tried pushing a ton of car up a slope when you've got a hangover? And guess who had to push the bloody thing to get it started once we'd done that.

[Salvatore]

That there's an area of Stoke called Dresden.

Makes sense.

Except Dresden china doesn't come from Dresden, but from Meissen. (I went on a tour of the Meissen factory in 1977. It  produced traditional porcelain for export, and pottery decorated in the socialist realism style for the home market.)

[Cudzoziemiec]

In my mind I see a teapot with Lenin pointing forward to the spout. "The futures is tea and biscuits for the proletariat of the world".

[hatler]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

But don't let go of the handle.

[T42]

In my mind I see a teapot with Lenin pointing forward to the spout. "The futures is tea and biscuits for the proletariat of the world".

Proper tea...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ah, you're confusing communists with anarchists now!

[T42]

Prouhon probably drank coffee, what would he know about it?

Anyway, I was thinking of Lenin's Green Label.

[Kim]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

They tested it in an episode of Hollywood SCIENCE, which I'm mentioning because Hollywood SCIENCE was awesome, and they should make some more^[1] episodes.


_{[1] On any theme apart from whether the human digestive tract can cope with ingesting large quantities of protein.  That's been exhaustively covered in the existing series.}

[Mr Larrington]

Prouhon probably drank coffee, what would he know about it?

Anyway, I was thinking of Lenin's Green Label.

Proper Tea... by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

[CAMRAMan]

Never arrange for deliveries to be made to a house on which you haven't completed! In my naivety, I'd assumed that an agreed completion date of last Friday would be the go ahead to get things sent there, but I hadn't counted on the incompetence/chicanery of those in the process. Cue much rearranging!

[madcow]

We were selling a house and a guy knocked on the door and said he'd been sent to measure up the bedrooms for fitted wardrobes.
Who asked for the quote? The gentleman that was allegedly buying the house.
We hadn't even exchanged at that time and never did because he dropped out a few weeks later.
Maybe the bedroom furniture was a deal breaker.

[CAMRAMan]

This is a new build without a chain, funds in place and no good reason why we are where we are, but that's covered in another, swearier thread!

[robgul]

Never arrange for deliveries to be made to a house on which you haven't completed! In my naivety, I'd assumed that an agreed completion date of last Friday would be the go ahead to get things sent there, but I hadn't counted on the incompetence/chicanery of those in the process. Cue much rearranging!

Ah - the moral of the story is that EVERYONE in the process is a liar . . . . until the fat lady sings NOTHING is certain.

[Guy]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

Not quite. The ne'er-do-wells in Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" also had to crank a car backwards up a Very Steep hill.

[robgul]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

Not quite. The ne'er-do-wells in Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" also had to crank a car backwards up a Very Steep hill.

Many years ago I had a mini (proper one, 1965) and had to reverse up the hill at Symonds Yat as a) the road was wet and covered in leaves, b) the car was front wheel drive, c) there were several crates of beer in the boot, d) there were four hefty people in the vehicle ..... just not enough front wheel traction or gear low enough.

[tiermat]

Meanwhile I have learnt that Dizzee Rascal is an MBE!!!!

[mark]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

Not quite. The ne'er-do-wells in Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" also had to crank a car backwards up a Very Steep hill.

Reversing up hills was standard practice with Model T Fords, something to do with the positioning of the fuel tank relative to the engine. A log time resident of Colorado told me once that reversing cars up Loveland Pass was common practice in the late 1940s through the early '50s. His father was very proud of himself when he acquired a car that was powerful enough and geared low enough to drive over said pass pointed in the proper direction.

[Mr Larrington]

Certain 21st century rental cars of my acquaintance have still struggled in that part of the Rockies.  My fault for hiring it in Florida, where they don’t do Up.

[Ham]

Many moons ago I had a sidevalve 105E van that used as much oil as fuel and had to reverse up anything more than a molehill. On one notable occasion with about 6 of us in the said vehicle, it ran out of steam on a long stretch of incline on the A1 in county durham at about 2am....

[ian]

The green waste bin lorry always reverses up the hill outside. Then gets stuck because it usually can't get around the corner so beats a retreat. The normal bin lorry is made of tougher stuff and can both get up the hill forwards and get around the corner. Assuming it can defeat the bad parking on the street below and get this far, which is getting rarer, even in the time we've lived here, the street below has got more bodged with cars especially at pinch points. I'd drive through them, but that's why they don't let me drive bin lorries. My grandad was a dustman*.

*he was a miner, then the pit fell on his head and snapped him in half. So they put the spare bone from the bottom of his leg into his back along with an LP-sized metal plate that he could make go bong to gross-out unruly grandchildren – I'm minded the surgeon was having a bit of a laugh – and of course, what job do you do after you've broken your spine? Heave full dustbins into the back of a lorry, that's what.

[Mr Larrington]

When my grate frend gNick lived in a narrow and bendy cul-de-sac in Ashford (Middx) I used sometimes to be rudely awakened by the dustmen and asked to move my motor-car* so they could reach the far end.  Not fun when you’re too overhung to put your contact lenses in.

* because my 14’ long trailer was occupying the driveway

[ian]

If they're blocked, they usually just leave. It's a tight t-junction between the hill outside a lunar-surfaced lane that constitutes the street behind us. The green waste lorry appears unable to turn corners (they bought a new lorry, the old one was fine). I grinked about this once to Biffa and the chirpy 'waste collection executive' said 'oh no, that's not a new lorry, it's the one we have always used' so I sent her a nice picture of a brand new, shiny lorry with this year's plates (I looked them up) visibly wedged in the junction (it was there for four hours, so I didn't have to hurry). In the spirit of customer service, she never replied and I figured it was their problem. Mostly it reverses up the road, stops, and then drives back down. Comes back the next day. Repeats.

[Mrs Pingu]

<wrong thread, moved>

[ian]

Don't worry, we never saw it, Pingu-prime. It clashed with the usual soiree.