More Of 'Cart Rubble'

I Checked And Yes, I've Used This One Before

Back in February, with a long preamble about hilarious misinterpretations of common phrases.  There is a word for this, although it isn't in either my 'Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable' nor my 'Collins Concise English Dictionary'.  To what do I refer?  Why, 'Mondegreen', a word coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954.  She had heard the lyrics to a song, which were 'Laid him on the green' that she heard as 'Lady Mondegreen'.

      ANYWAY Art!

     I back-added this one in because Car Trouble is more impactful that a wooden truck hauling builders waste.

Like it says on the tin.  Cart Rubble.

     I have my own Mondegreen story to tell, which I won't labour with here, so have a link instead:

BOOJUM!: If I Were To Say "Baba Yaga"

     ANYWAY AGAIN I have a theme for this Intro of 'Car Trouble', specifically cars that have been overloaded in extremis.  We shall be skipping across three continents, so here's the African entry.  Art!

     The errant driver here was arrested in Nigeria, by the 'Cham Unit Command' of the 'Federal Road Safety Corps', neither of which either you or I knew existed before this very Intro.  His licence had expired.  No! only joking.  He seems to have added another car on top of the lower one, then cunningly camouflaged it with luggage.  You can tell how distressed the suspension is by looking at the rear tyre and comparing it with the front one, which is usually the one to be flatter thanks to bearing the weight of the engine.  Art!

Waldorf, Maryland

     This is one I remembered from 'Snopes', the  myth-busting website.  Yes, it's real, not Photoshopped.  The car was parked in the lot of an 'International House Of Pancakes' and had loaded up at Home Depot next door before a passerby noticed and took this photo.  The store manager at HD had the driver sign a waiver before loading up the car.  Not only is there half a ton of lumber on the roof, there are an additional ten 160 pound bags of cement in the back seat.  The driver was out jogging up and down the pavement whilst his female passenger was zonked out in the front seat, and both, according to witnesses, were off their gourds on Bad Chemicals.  Art!

     There doesn't appear to be any more news about the car or couple, even after doing a bit of Google-fu.  Okay, that was the American component of this Intro.  Art!

     Meet the European entry here.  If the previous two items were down to sheer stupidity and drugs, this one is down to quiet despair.  The picture is from Kyiv, a couple of days ago.  The driver, Pan Mykola, aged 70, had been living in the Donetsk oblast until his wife died, whereupon he moved to Chernihiv.  After four years he decided to move to the city of Uman.  Art!

     Or, 220 PROUD IMPERIAL miles.  Not a mere hop, skip and jump.  He had all his belongings loaded onto or into his car, including his pet dog and 18 (!) chickens in cages.  For the eggs, one suspects.  He got as far as Kyiv and his ancient car gave up the ghost, as you can tell from the bonnet* being up.  

     One thing I cannot represent here is the song being played in the background - a cover of Cherry Ghost's 'People Help The People', a point I explained on the Tweet itself, to several people's appreciation.

     ANYWAY ANYWAY one suspects that, had this happened in Mordorvia, his dog would have been chased away, his chickens stolen and everything not tied down looted.  Not to paint Ukrainians as saints, but the locals contacted the police, who turned up.  Art!

     Tempering justice with mercy, they didn't arrest him or give him a hard time.  No, instead they gave him a tow to the nearest garage.  Art!

     That police car must have a beast of an engine to be able to tow the Travelling Home And Contents.  O and thanks to 'Anton Gerashchenko' for posting this story.  

     The subsequent update had a couple of still shots of Pan Mykola's car at the garage, which the Ukrainians call a 'Repair station'.  Art!

     Dog just visible.  I've enlarged this photo as I missed Fido on a casual look.  He - or she - looks quite settled and comfy.  Art!

     The chariot in all it's overloaded glory, with a couple of mechanic's tools in view.  To prove that they were utterly upstanding chaps, the garage did not charge him anything.  Once repaired, he was able to continue his journey to Uman and arrived safely after another 130 miles of transit.  People helping people indeed.  O do you have a bit of grit in your eye?

     The story isn't finished yet.  Another Tweet from 'Lesya Ukraina' on Twitter - ha! take that Elong Tusk! - continued the tale.  I will just post his Tweet - 

Co-founder of Monobank Oleg Gorokhovsky promised to gift a new car to the man whose video with an old car touched social media. He reported that he has already contacted the man and will hand over a new pickup truck to him.

     It's almost enough to restore my faith in Hom. Sap.

You dodged a bullet there, the original Intro I was slanting for was another on wartime innovation.  It will still come.  I bet you can hardly wait.

Beavis And Butthead Strike Again

I refer, of course - obviously! - to J D Vance and Donnie Dorko.  You can argue between yourselves about which is which.  You see, Just Dismal has been sent to Pakistan to hold negotiations with an Iranian delegation, on how to stop the Special Military Combat Operation and reset everything back to what it was before February 28th.  Art!

     This is after his stopover in Hungary to protest Ukraine's alleged interference in the upcoming election, and promote Orban The Weretoad, the irony of which burns hotter than the heart of the sun.  His spectral presence caused Orban to lose another 3% of the vote.  Art!

     Ol' Turkey Neck again, in another unflattering photo of him.  You'll notice that it's not him doing the negotiating in Pakistan, so if it all goes pear-shaped, he has complete deniability, and if it's a success, he'll swoop in to take all the credit, as is his operating style since the Eighties.

     O and I just came across a complementary news item on my feed, which I will post the thumbnail for.  Art!

    Just Dismal is going to need more than eyeliner to get around this.

Yet Another 'You What?' Moment

I am beginning to see a pattern here, and am wondering if the universe is trying to tell me something.  It would be handier if it could manage a social media post or a postcard, rather than me trying to read goat entrails or tea leaves at the bottom of a cup.  Art!

     The news feed is back to pimping Tektronix again, although this model seems to be different from the other oscilloscope they were pimping previously.  Perhaps my railing against them is being picked up by AI as me wanting yet more oscilloscopery?

I'm Only Here For The Beer

And the gin, too, just to be clear.  Allow me to introduce another bottle of beer purchased because it looked interesting, without regards for taste.  Art!

     'Bacchus Cherry Beer' for those unable to resolve the small print.  Conrad is unsure about a cherry-flavoured beer but it willing to try it once.

I Haven't Covered This Much

So here's a snippet to keep the story simmering.  The Artemis II crew splashed down safely after completing their absolutely historic trans-lunar mission, the first such for 50 years.  Art!

     This time there were four crew - one cannot say 'crewmen' any longer as one was a gel - one is black and one is from Canuckistan, which is a measure of what progress NASA has made in five decades.  Conrad is too classy to go over their toilet arrangements.

Finally -

Glad I took Edna trotties ten minutes ago, the rains have returned.  April weather!

*  NOT THE 'HOOD'.  This is The Hood -