NOSTALGIA

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50 Nostalgia-Instilling Posts For Kids Of The ’80s, ’90s And ’00s

Bored Panda recently posted captioned photographs and reader comments under the above title, which I think is incorrect in that some of those memories extend earlier than even the ‘80S.

The items come from a Twitter site called ‘I love Nostalgia’ at:

https://twitter.com/il0venostalgia

The Bored Panda post can be viewed at:

https://www.boredpanda.com/i-love-nostalgia-pics/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter

Here is a selection from the Bored Panda post . . .

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Back In 1975, 'The Muppet Show' Predicted What Most Women Would Look Like In 2023

Some reader comments:

It's 100% happening right now!

They missed the fake boobs, though.

The template for selfies.

"Most" women? I hope not! Maybe some.

Perhaps we could say "most women on instagram/tiktok"?

She is Donatella Versace now!

KATIE PRICE!!!!

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Water from a hose, delicious if my kid self may say

On a real hot day... oh hell yeah!

Yummmm, I can taste it right now, and it's the best water ever...straight from the well, ice cold, and refreshing.

It has electrolytes! The kind that get leached off the pipes, but still.

But be sure to let it run cold first!

And this gave birth to... sprinklers and running through said sprinklers

Kink it and then when that kid everybody loves to mess with comes along, let the kink go and spray that kid right in the face!

I can taste this picture.

Only AFTER it cooled off. You could boil eggs in the water that was in that hose.

Nothing better than running Around in the hottest part of summer and turning on the hose and just drinking for a minute straight

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I miss these. If you got on, you knew the deal. The risk was always worth the ride. 🤣

Now I get dizzy walking thru a revolving door. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Wheel Of Misfortune, there was always the one sadistic kid with the evil grin who wanted to spin it for you.

OMG, yes!!! 🤣🤣🤣 quickly followed by 🤮

These still exist in plenty of places. I think the US has safety-regulated playgrounds into complete and utter boringness though.

You picked yourself up, shook it off and ran like hell to jump back on again. That's how we did it. No broken bones, no missing teeth, no problem.

The struggle of being the pusher - getting it going really fast - and then pulling yourself on board against the centrifugal force.

Yeah, but being thrown off it when it was going around really fast was part of the FUN of it!

The local playground in my town still has one of these!

I went on not knowing better after I ate lunch🤢

Maybe we were more "bouncey" back then?🤣

No, back then, we played rough and learned how to do it. Sure, there would be stitches and broken bones but that's all part of the fun, isn't it? Kids today are so freaking soft their parents won't even let them drink out of a hose because germs.

That's why past generations were strong and tough to handle things.

Those were the best!

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Only People Of A Certain Age Know Why These Two Are Related

I always used a BIC pen tho

I guess I was poor ... I used my pinkie finger

Cassettes are back. A new generation is learning the correlation. Lol

I saw some for sale recently and it made me feel young for a second.

Im gen z and I know what this is 😅 it’s too rewind it right?

lol...bless your heart. No, it was for when the tape inside the cassette got stretched out of the cassette, or flipped backward and would not play properly...it is so you can wind the tape back into the proper position to allow for it to play correctly.

Interesting fact: pencils sold in the west don't fit the spool holes very well because they were designed for Japanese pencils which are fatter!

Ah, how I miss the sweet heart attack-inducing panic of a chewed tape...

i patiently sat there with my pinky finger bc nobody told me about the pencil trick!!! XD

Man. When you were driving. And it just kept eating. And it was your best tape.

Yep. Ah, mix tapes.

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Of Course It's Encased In Glass, It’s A Priceless Masterpiece

Can remember the noise the doors made when shutting.

And feel. I can feel the little spring loaded magnet thingy when you would push in a bit to get the door to pop open.

... And the speakers would be just as big.

So fancy back In the day, beautiful.

I remember the smell of old vinyl too

Dad had one. No one was allowed to go near it.

There we go. There's my old stereo. Except in black.

Oh the memories.....

If you had this and the big Pioneer speakers, Pink Floyd and some good acid it was Heaven on earth!

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Mine had a record player sitting on TOP of all that. My years listening to music were never wasted. Love this thread. Good times.

Mine too, but it was grey/silver (I don't know why as it was a gift), the record player was so good!

This was mine. It has the cool three CD rack and you could always turn up the mega bass! I think this was from the early 90's/.

Ours had the detachable speakers connected with the tiniest of wire. Meant to last I tell you!

Whenever I'd get a new one, I'd save the speakers from the old ones and cram the wires in the ports. Surround sound, baby!

Still have one. Why would I get rid of what still works?

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Are You This Old?

I'm old enough to have driven a SCHOOL BUS with one of those!

Oh it's the gum wrapper holder

Yeah, but the front seat was all one long bench. Sucked for tall front passenger when the driver was short. 🤣

Old enough to have used one

I don't remember any of my parent's cars having an ashtray in the back. My current car has both an ashtray and a cigar/cigarette lighter in the front. I neglected to specify the non-smoker option when I bought it! LOL.

Your car must be a few years old. Nowadays it’s a smoker’s option, and costs extra money for them to put in the ashtray & lighter.

My very first car had such a thing. It was a 1964 Chevy Impala. I loved that car. I also remember ashtrays that were integrated into the armrests in the back seat of the car.

In my parents' car they were in the door handles, not the back of the front seat, but otherwise the same.

oooooo...expensive cloth seats

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Ouch

If you could see my shins…

In the shin ? In the legs many times. But in the shin ??

Yes the shin, I still have scars. edit... you know the shin is the leg right?

The amount of bruises these have caused, the pedals should go to jail for war crimes

Or riding barefoot.

That was us. Barefoot most of the summer. I can't remember how many times I stepped on bees and got stung.

Is that blood in the center of that pedal? (Probably my blood.)

I can feel the pain searing through me just by reading this

The back of my heel! OMG THE PAIN!!!

Thankfully, I never owned a bicycle that had pedals with teeth.

I'm pretty certain the devil made these just to laugh at the pain caused 🤣🤣🤣

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How You Found Your Friends In The 80s

I wish this was how it is now. All my friends live far away 😭

How you found your friends, and how you got around town.

Oh wow, yes! On a Saturday or day off from school, we would hop on our bikes and pedal around the neighborhood. If we found a house with this we knew where we were hanging out that day!

Bikes were the best... Bike Life was even better (kid kind, not adult kind)

Yup, my bike didn't have a kickstand so it'd be on the ground...

I always removed the kickstand, the chain guard, and the back pedal brake.

“How you found your friends in EVERY decade since the 1880s or thereabouts.” Bicycles did not just magically appear in the 1980s, folks.

I'm pleased to say, this is still often how our driveway looks! I've run over many bikes left for me in the morning in fact.

Being a girl, I always used my bike stand ... not sure, but didn't most girls refuse to lay your bike on the ground?

Not just the 80s. This was the method used by countless generations since the bike was invented.

I just had a flashback!

Hey free bikes

And every other kid in the neighbourhood would recognise the stolen bike and tell the owner - we looked out for each other in those days.

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More to come

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

NEXT TOP 10 + 2

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TOP 10 + 2

I have previously posted my Top 10 + 2 films, based on “watchability”, those films which you (meaning me) like to watch more than once and enjoy thoroughly for whatever reasons. Hence Groundhog Day was on the list, Citizen Kane is not, at least in my case never having had the urge to watch Citizen Kane more than once.

My friend Steve cringes at my choices.

The reason my first list was called Top 10 + 2 was that I had difficulty whittling the list down to 10. That list, with comments, was:

Zulu

Groundhog Day

12 Angry Men

Godfather

Rat Race

Sin City

Chicago

Pleasantville

Runaway Train

Blues Brothers

Blade Runner

Full Metal Jacket

Sometime later I posted my Second Top 10 + 2:

42nd Street

Soldier

The Castle

Captains Courageous

Goodbye Mr Chips

Love Actually

Rollerball

Life of Brian

Judgment at Nuremberg

Down Periscope

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Jeremiah Johnson

This was followed by my third Top 10 + 2:

Breakfast Club

The Enemy Below

The Searchers

The Quiet Man

Forrest Gump

Midnight Sting

Once Upon a Time in the West

Shawshank Redemption

Kill Bill

A Night at the Opera

Casablanca

Titanic

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Of those, the only one I hadn’t gotten around to writing about was Titanic, so I’m correcting that and will then start on my fourth Top 10 * 2 next week

TITANIC:

What a film. One forgets one is watching a movie, it feels as though we are observers on the actual events and persons involved. Titanic is a 1997 Directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron, this 1997 film is based on accounts of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. It sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time. It remains the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner or cruise ship.

Cameron has long had a fascination with shipwrecks, and for him Titanic was "the Mount Everest of shipwrecks", his inspiration for the film. This came to the fore again by his public critical comments about the OceanGate disaster when, on June 18 2023, the submersible Titan imploded during a voyage to the Titanic wreck site, killing all five occupants on board, including company founder Stockton Rush. The Titan wreckage was found on the seabed about 500 meters (1,600 ft) from the Titanic wreck site.

According to Dalin Rowell of /Film, "With complaints about its lengthy runtime, observations that certain characters could have easily fit onto pieces of floating furniture, and jokes about its melodramatic nature, Titanic is no stranger to modern-day criticism." In 2002, filmmaker Robert Altman called it "the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life". Criticism has also been directed at the length of the film, the writing and script and the acting performances.

Nonetheless, I like it.

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Facts and Trivia:

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Cameron made the sketch of Rose which Jack purports to create. Above: the sketch of Rose wearing the Heart of the Ocean. The scene was one of the first shot, as the main set was not ready.

The hands seen sketching Rose are James Cameron's. In post-production, Cameron, who is left-handed, mirror-imaged the sketching shots so the artist would appear to be right-handed, like DiCaprio.

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Unlike previous Titanic films, Cameron's retelling of the disaster showed the ship breaking into two pieces before sinking entirely. The scenes were an account of the moment's most likely outcome.

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The elderly couple seen hugging on the bed while water floods their room were the owners of Macy's department store in New York, Rosalie Ida Straus and Isidor Straus, both of whom died on the Titanic. Ida was offered a seat on a lifeboat but refused so that she could stay with her husband, saying, "As we have lived together, so we shall die together."

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James Cameron went on 12 dives to the real Titanic himself, and found it an overwhelming emotional experience to actually see the sunken ship. During his first trip, he was so goal-oriented that he managed to film the shots he wanted, but as soon as he was back on the surface, he broke down in tears after finally realizing the magnitude of the historic tragedy that he had just witnessed. He ended up spending more time with the ship than its living passengers did.

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In the scene where the water comes crashing into the Grand Staircase room, the film makers had only one shot at it because the entire set and furnishings were going to be destroyed.

“Ready when you are, CB.”

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At $200 million, the movie cost more than the Titanic itself. The cost to construct the ship in 1910-1912 was £1.5 million, equivalent to $7.5 million at the time and about $120 to $150 million in 1997 dollars.

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Due to the long theatrical run of the movie, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox had to send out replacement reels to theatres that had literally worn out their copies.

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In a recently-completed investigation by Tim Maltin, he reveals that the reason the iceberg was not seen was due to a "cold water mirage." This is the opposite of a desert mirage. The multiple layers of cold and warm air cloaked the iceberg. Normally the iceberg could have been seen as far as 12 miles, giving Titanic 30 minutes to avoid.

This is revealed in his e-book "Titanic: A Deceiving Night" and his Smithsonian documentary Titanic: Case Closed (2012). This also explains why the Californian failed to receive the distress message "Come at once; we are sinking" that crew on Titanic signalled with Morse lamps.

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Initially, Céline Dion didn't want to record "My Heart Will Go On" because she didn't want to sing another film song and she didn't like it when James Horner first played it to her. After she was convinced by her husband René Angélil, she stepped in and recorded the song in just one take, so the song that was used over the end credits and later released is actually a demo.

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The last remaining Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, was asked if she would like to attend the premiere but she refused, stating that watching A Night to Remember (1958) was painful enough. She was born 2 Feb 1912 and died 31 May 2009 at the age of 97. She never married or had children.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

SONG SPOT

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Whilst looking up something on YouTube I happened to come across Ringo Starr singing ‘Photograph’. Very touching and moving, plus gave me a new appreciation of Ringo.

Some comments:

George Harrison died on 29 November 2001 from cancer which had spread to his brain. He was aged 58.

On 29 November 2002, on the first anniversary of his death, the Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London as a memorial to George Harrison. The event was organised by Harrison's widow, Olivia, and his son, Dhani, and arranged under the musical direction of Eric Clapton.

Apart from musos who played a selection of mostly Harrison's songs, from both Beatles and post-Beatles eras, generally staying faithful to Harrison's arrangements, the remaining members of Monty Python performed comedic items. Ringo Starr and Pail McCartney performed, as well as Harrison's son Dhani Harrison (in the white top in the video clips and in the photo below), Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Billy Preston and numerous others.

The full concert can be viewed on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6maMr1TOQic

Ringo comes out at the 48:10 mark.

Ringo's opening words:

“What a band, what an opening night. I loved George, George loved me, and I’d like to do two numbers for you tonight. One that George and I wrote together, it’s called ‘’Photograph’ . . .and the meaning’s changed now of course. And he loved Carl Perkins so we’re going to do ‘’Honey Don’t.’”

It's very sad listening to the lyrics of Photograph in the context of a tribute to George Harrison.

Link to Ringo singing Photograph without the full concert:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x81upxi

Link to Honey Don’t:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x81upxj

Lyrics:

"Photograph"

Ev'ry time I see your face,

It reminds me of the places we used to go.

But all I got is a photograph

And I realize you're not coming back anymore.

I thought I'd make it the day you went away,

But I can't make it

Till you come home again to stay.

I can't get used to living here,

While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.

I want you here to have and hold,

As the years go by and we grow old and grey.

Now you're expecting me to live without you,

But that's not something that I'm looking forward to.

I can't get used to living here,

While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.

I want you here to have and hold,

As the years go by and we grow old and grey.

Ev'ry time I see your face,

It reminds me of the places we used to go.

But all I got is a photograph

And I realize you're not coming back anymore.

Ev'ry time I see your face,

It reminds me of the places we used to go.

But all I got is a photograph

And I realize you're not coming back anymore.

Ev'ry time I see your face,

It reminds me of the places we used to go.

But all I got is a photograph

And I realize you're not.

About the song:

Ex-Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison began writing "Photograph" on a luxury yacht in the South of France in May 1971. Starr had hired a yacht, the Marala, for the duration of the Cannes Film Festival, after attending Mick Jagger's wedding in St Tropez with his wife, Maureen Starkey. The Starkeys were then joined in France by Harrison and the latter's wife, Pattie Boyd, for the Monaco Grand Prix.

This period coincided with Starr's first success as a solo artist, with the Harrison-produced single "It Don't Come Easy", although he continued to focus on his career as a film actor, beginning with a role in Blindman (1971).

Another guest on the Marala was Cilla Black, singer and a friend of the Beatles since the 1960s. She recalled Starr and Harrison playing "Photograph" during an evening get-together, with "everyone on board" contributing ideas for the lyrics. In her autobiography, Step Inside Love, Black says she had hoped to record the song for a single later in 1971, only to be told by Starr: "No, it's too bloody good for you. I'm having it myself."

Ringo’s personal life at the time of the album's release coincided with the failure of Starr's marriage, partly as a result of Harrison and Ringo’s wife Maureen conducting an affair. The friendship between the two former bandmates soon recovered, but Starr and Harrison did not officially write another song together after "Photograph".

Commenting on the context in which Starr's song of "beautiful sadness" was released in the United States, writer Alan Clayson describes "Photograph" as having been a popular request on radio playlists "for a nation still awaiting the return of many of its sons from Vietnam, following the January cease-fire".

"Photograph" topped America's Billboard Hot 100 for one week.] It was Starr's first number 1 hit on that chart as a solo artist and was also number 1 in Canada and Australia, while in Britain it peaked at number 8.

According to the Concert for George website: "Ringo Starr caught everyone with a tear in their eye with a rendition of 'Photograph' “.

Colin Larkin, writing in his Encyclopedia of Popular Music, describes "Photograph" as "wonderful" and says that the "poignant" Concert for George rendition "highlighted Starr's great ability to love, and in turn, be loved".

Starr sang "Photograph" at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014] during which he and Paul McCartney, as the two surviving ex-Beatles, were honoured with the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone reported on Starr's performance of the song: "Backed by a massive full band, he bounced around the stage while old black-and-white photographs showed on a big screen behind him." The images were taken from Starr's recently published book; also titled Photograph, it consists of photos from his personal collection, dating back to the 1950s.

Cilla Black eventually recorded "Photograph" for her 2003 album Beginnings: Greatest Hits & New Songs. Music critic Bruce Eder describes it as a version that "she jumps into head first at her most soulful". Hear her version at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cghBIzPCmQU

According to one comment: “Nice, but I think Ringo Starr's original version has more soul to it.” I fully agree.

Ringo Starr and George Harrison, 1961

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

LAUGH

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Another mixed bag of humour to set you on the road to the weekend. Enjoy, readers.

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SOME HUMOUR:

__________

John gets pulled over for speeding

John: Howdy officer, is there a problem?

Officer: You were speeding, sir. License and registration

John: Dude, I got no license

Officer: You're driving without a license?

John: hell yeah!

Officer: And registration?

John: I jacked this car!

Officer: Are you serious?

John: Dude, I killed the driver! I popped a cap in him with this gun I've got in the glove box. His body's in the trunk now!!

Officer: Stay right there!!! *returns to his vehicle and connects to dispatch* I need backup NOW!!!

Within the next couple of minutes, there were several cops at the scene including the chief of police who walks over to John

Chief: Sir, can you open your trunk

John: Sure

John popped open his trunk and it was empty

Chief: alright, now let me take a look inside of your glove box

John opened his glove box and the chief couldn't find any weapons

Chief: you wouldn't happen to have your license and registration, would you?

John: of course I do

John present his license and registration. He was eligible to drive and the car belonged to him

Chief: Alright, I'm confused. The officer who called me said that you had a dead body in your trunk, a firearm in your glove box and that you were driving without a license in a stolen car.

John: Yeah, I bet that lying son of a bitch also told you that I was speeding

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Abdul was going through bit of a rough patch in his marriage.

So after work, he decided to pay his Imam a visit.

He said "I have been going through some problems with my wife, she seems like she is always angry at me, what do I do?"

The Imam replied "You should spend more time with your wife, appreciate her role in your life, maybe praise her cooking once in a while."

Satisfied with the advice, Abdul goes back home and his wife has set the dinner table. As he's having dinner he says "Darling, the food is very good today."

To his surprise, his wife is upset with that and says "21 years we've been married to each other and you've never appreciated my cooking, the one day I get food from the neighbours, you like it?"

__________

When I heard this morning that the Prime Minister of Canada is separating from his wife, I couldn’t believe it.

Turns out it was Trudeau.

__________

Because of her size, we had to order a specially reinforced armchair for the wife.

When it arrived, we discovered they had accidentally sent us a top spec model with a vibrating function, it even starts automatically as she approaches the chair to sit.

We called the company to tell them of their error and they informed us they make no such model.............Turns out it was just bloody scared!!

__________

I’ve just got my latest batch of haemorrhoids medication but I had to call the doctor when I got a bad reaction. He asked ‘where did you apply it?...

On the bus I said.

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Early one morning a kid was sitting in an airport terminal eating a giant size candy bar.

An older man strolled by and saw the boy.

He stopped abruptly and asked "Hey kid, do you think it's a good idea to be eating a giant candy bar for breakfast?"

The boy replied "I don't know, but my grandpappy lived to be 102 years old."

The old man said "I'm sure he did, but he didn't eat giant candy bars for breakfast did he?"

The boy shook his head "Nope. he just minded his own fucking business."

__________

Bonus From the Vault:

The Lone Ranger was ambushed and captured by an enemy Indian war party.

The Indian chief proclaims,

"So, you are the great Lone Ranger" ..

"In honour of the Harvest Festival, you will be executed in three days."

"Before I kill you, I grant you three requests"

"What is your first request???'

The Lone Ranger responds,

"I'd like to speak to my horse."

The chief nods and Silver is brought before the Lone Ranger who whispers in Silver's ear, and the horse gallops away.

Later that evening, Silver returns with a beautiful blonde woman on his back. As the Indian chief watches, the blonde enters the Lone Ranger's tent and spends the night.

The next morning the Indian chief admits he's impressed.

"You have a very fine and loyal horse, but I will still kill you in two days."

"What is your second request?"

The Lone Ranger again asks to speak to his horse. Silver is brought to him, and he again whispers in the horse's ear. As before, Silver takes off and disappears over the horizon.

Later that evening, to the chief's surprise, Silver again returns, this time with a voluptuous brunette, more attractive than the blonde.

She enters the Lone Rangers tent and spends the night. The following morning the Indian chief is again impressed.

"You are indeed a man of many talents, but I will still kill you tomorrow."

"What is your last request ???"

The Lone Ranger responds, "I'd like to speak to my horse, ... alone."

The chief is curious, but he agrees, and Silver is brought to the Lone Ranger's tent.

Once they're alone, the Lone Ranger grabs Silver by both ears, looks him square in the eye and says,

"READ MY LIPS!!!! FOR... THE... LAST... TIME...

BRING POSSE ! ! !"

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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:

Driving to work I heard a discussion on the radio about late and great Australian cricketer Shane Warne, who was almost as well known for his love life as for his sporting prowess. The speakers referred to him a number of times by his nickname “Warnie”, which had me thinking and inspired the following limerick . . .

There once was a man dubbed Warnie

Whose love life was very much stormy.

“I’m just never sated,

It’s not my fault,” he stated

“That I am perpetually horny.”

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GALLERY:

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RELIGION SPOT

A priest and a rabbi are standing on the side of the road holding a sign that says, "TURN AROUND! THE END IS NIGH!!!"

A young man passing by in a car slows down and sticks his head out of the window to shout at them, "Get fucked, you religious freaks" and zooms ahead at full speed.

Moments later, they hear a yell followed by a loud splash.

The rabbi turns to the priest and says, "I told you we should have just written 'Warning. Bridge collapsed.'"

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CORN CORNER:

__________

I asked the cashier “Could you give me small change instead of bills? I need money for the bus “

She said “That’s fare”

__________

An old man goes to a French restaurant

The waitress asks him if he wants an aperitif, the old man removes his false teeth and said “no thanks I already have one”

__________

Batman: "It's been a long day. Alfred, please fill up the bathtub."

Alfred: "Master Bruce, what's a htub?"

__________

I was threatened today at the airport.

At the check-in the woman said “Window or aisle?”

I said “Window or you’ll what?”

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

AESOP'S FABLE

Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to modern times through a number of sources and continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic media. The fables originally belonged to the oral tradition and were not collected for some three centuries after Aesop's death. By that time a variety of other stories, jokes and proverbs were being ascribed to him.

Fable:

The Ass in the Lion's Skin

An Ass found a Lion's skin left in the forest by a hunter. He dressed himself in it, and amused himself by hiding in a thicket and rushing out suddenly at the animals who passed that way. All took to their heels the moment they saw him.

The Ass was so pleased to see the animals running away from him, just as if he were King Lion himself, that he could not keep from expressing his delight by a loud, harsh bray. A Fox, who ran with the rest, stopped short as soon as he heard the voice. Approaching the Ass, he said with a laugh:

"If you had kept your mouth shut you might have frightened me, too. But you gave yourself away with that silly bray."

Moral:

A fool may deceive by his dress and appearance, but his words will soon show what he really is.

Alternatively:

It is not enough to pretend to be what you are. One must genuinely be what they say they are, otherwise, their true nature will start showing, and people will recognise their lie(s).

Clothes may disguise a fool, but his words will give him away.

By the way:

C. S. Lewis put the fable to use in The Last Battle, the final volume of The Chronicles of Narnia. A donkey named Puzzle is tricked into wearing a lion's skin, and then manipulated so as to deceive the simple-minded into believing that Aslan the lion has returned to Narnia. He then becomes a figurehead for a pseudo-government that works contrary to the interests of the Narnians.

Greek stamp, 1987

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

MORE BRAND NAME ORIGINS

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Alfa Romeo:

__________

The company started around 1906 in Milan when French automaker Darracq opened an automobile factory. When the economy soured a few years later, the plant’s managing director, an Italian aristocrat, acquired the company and named it Alfa. Alfa is an acronym for “Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili”, which translates to the Anonymous Lombard Automobile Factory Company.

__________

The very first Alfa-branded car was the 24HP even though its 4.1-liter engine delivered 25 horses. It was well-engineered and quick, reaching 62 mph on wooden-spoke wheels.

The A.L.F.A. 12 HP was the second car produced, following the he success of the 24 HP, first car made by A.L.F.A

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During WWI, automakers helped manufacture supplies for their respective countries. Alfa lacked the funds to make the switch, so Nicola Romeo stepped in to help. He acquired the company and re-branded it with the addition of his name to Alfa Romeo.

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The Alfa Romeo pays homage to Milan. The left side with the cross comes from the Milanese coat of arms, while the right side, the snake, comes from the Visconti family crest. The Visconti’s were the former rulers of Milan.

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Alfa Romeo cars had great success at races like the Mille Miglia, Le Mans, Formula, the Vanderbilt Cup, and many more thanks to their superior handling and lighter construction.

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For the 1923 Targa Florio — the notoriously dangerous road race in Sicily — Alfa’s factory team fielded four specially-prepared lightweight RL models. These were driven by Antonio Ascari (father of the two-time F1 world champion Alberto Ascari), Ugo Sivocci, Giulio Masetti and a little-known Modenese named Enzo Ferrari.

Prior to the race, Sivocci had a green four-leafed clover on a white square painted on the front of his car as a good luck symbol. 

It seemed to pay off; some 200 yards from the finish, Ascari’s car, on course for victory, went off the track, requiring repairs to get going again.

In their enthusiasm, Ascari’s mechanics clung on to the back of his car as he revved up and roared across the line to an apparent victory. This, however, was against the rules, leading Ascari’s win to be declared null and void. With Ascari forced to return to where he broke down and cross the line for a second time, this handed the win to Sivocci in his clover-adorned car and marked Alfa’s first major international win.

A few months later, Sivocci crashed his Alfa P1 and died while racing at Monza. Due to complications surrounding the paintwork, the car he had been driving was not wearing its good-luck charm, an affirmation for many of the power of the quadrifoglio verde.

Following Sivocci’s crash, superstitious drivers, mechanics and engineers at Alfa began to insist on the inclusion of the clover symbol on the firm’s racing cars and, to mark Sivocci’s absence, the white square background was replaced by a triangle.

Cars have not used Sivocci's racing number, 17, since his death to signify his passing and honor his legacy.

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Before Enzo Ferrari began his own automotive company, Ferarri ran the Alfa Romeo racing team for about 10 years. His famous prancing pony logo even appeared on Alfa Romeo cars!

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After WWII, Alfa Romeo decided to focus less on race cars and more on production vehicles with models like the 1900 and the Giulietta, which put the company on the map.

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When Nicola Romeo left the company in 1928, things were up in the air. Alfa Romeo was then acquired by the Italian government in 1933. Alfa Romeo essentially remained under government control until 1986 when Fiat bought them.

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In 1995 Alfa Romeo stopped exporting their cars to the United States, save for 100 models f the 8C Competizione around 2007. After a 20-year pause in exporting, the company resumed bringing cars to America in 2015 with the 4C sports car.