StreetCowboy

Neither of us have improved it

What was the film in which the protagonists melted the stolen gold into Eiffel Towers? Another example of fencing gang aft agley…

What is your favourite fencing movie? Rabbit Proof Fence was pretty moving The Mask of Zorro was one of the first Douglas Fairbanks established the genre, but there are more recent. I like Snatch, which is loosely about fencing…

Almost all drivers are above average. Ask anyone.

If you are lucky you will find one; if not, buying it would be a waste of money

Better than walking with a limp and being fat

You can't ever go back.

The internet is a great tool for control. People can vent their spleen about the injustices of the world, and think that they have done their bit. Back in the day, we had to consider whether it was nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms, and by opposing, end them. Now, we can pretend that a bit of bleating is the same as a sheepdog’s barking.

The guys at Giant replaced the two spokes under warranty when I brought it in for service. They couldn’t find a problem with the clicking bottom bracket - maybe it’s one of the RM10 pedals that’s at fault, and I’m glad to have the bike back, although it was nice cycling my road bike into the office - it is significantly sparkier up the hills.

People would work a few hours in a paid job to pay their rent - or live in their family’s accommodation, or provide services in lieu of rent, or build their own home. When you don’t need a garage or a home cinema your housing can be a lot cheaper. When the streets are quiet with traffic and a pleasant place to meet your friends, you can live with less. When your city is a park you don’t need a garden.

I think you're confusing choosing the best government for the time with genuine mistakes. The former, we can rethink. Genuine mistakes we have to pursue to the end, as a learning experience, lest we make them again. Were we to (I was going to say 'back out now') recant and rejoin, we would not have suffered enough. We must continue until the country begs us to recant, until the demand to rejoin is universal; anything less would be a surrender to common sense and practicality. I hope that our grandchildren will be allowed to rejoin. We are lucky that we currently seem to be accumulating a surplus of small boats, should we have to get by with a reversal of Dunkirk.

Republic of China internal affairs, or People's Republic of China internal affairs?

You're dead on there. When you make a mistake, you should go in with both feet, irreversable. No looking back, no turning back, onwards and upwards, no mountain too high, no challenge insurmountable, a price worth paying, can't judge by money alone, can't judge by numbers, no point in thinking twice, no turning back, never surrender, never give in. How long will it take our grandchildren to join the EU?.

Generally, whenever Americans exercise the 2nd amendment in the spirit in which it was intended - Waco siege, murder of Lincoln, shooting of Ronald Reagan, the Civl War, it is generally looked on with ill-favour. The whole point of the 2nd Amendment is the right of the populace to overthrow the government by force of arms. Without domestic nuclear weapons, the 2nd Amendment is no more than an empty fantasy that results in unnecesasary murders.

I thought it was in the Constitution, rather than the Bible. Maybe they have a different Bible in the USA.

He's a bhoy

That's one less pleasant evening you're going to enjoy. I am sure you could trim your list of pleasant evenings to as short as an Ayatollah's. You're choice. I don;t actually have a list of pleasant evenings to which I aspire nor limit myself, I just enjoy them as they occur. SC

Only ColinNeil can answer that question. I don’t know how the answer would start, but it would probably end “****ing loads”

I’m not normally one to play one-up-man-ship on the forum, but I did get a run of tee-shirts printed “I’m a boring pedantic bastard…” not auto-corrected by the forum software, and I forget if it was “I’m” or “I am” - more probably the latter, for spacing on the shirt. I rest my case.

That’s great that an 85 year old can remember his recent history.

Back in the day, I’d sooner cycle 100 km than walk one, thanks to osteoarthritis. After some hammer-and-chiselry, I’d still rather cycle 100 km than walk one, but I’d walk two rather than take a taxi. If your hips and knees are healthy, a night out on the town dancing with a ladyboy can be a pleasant evening’s entertainment, so long as you don’t leave them out of pocket.

He might be Valentino Rossi on the scooter

They pray the last nail in? That might work if you’re the son of a carpenter…

How do they hammer in the last nail?

He would’ve been unhappy at them selling tickets. He was quite clear that temples were for prophets, not profits.