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The wildly different 3 amigos with a Racing Porsche, a Pre-War Flathead single seat racer, and our star, the amazing 1957 Isetta 4 seat Bubble Car, constructed by BMW and the car that saved the failing BMW.
In the early-1950s, in Italy, the market demand for small, inexpensive cars inspired engineer and businessman Renzo Rivolta to create one. At that time, he was the owner of Iso Autoveicoli the country’s third-largest motorcycle manufacturer, a company that, prior to the war, made refrigerators and other appliances. These roots were best symbolized by the refrigerator-like door, a feature that became emblematic for the microcar.
Revealed at the 1953 Turin Motor Show, the car envisioned by Rivolta was nicknamed Isetta, the diminutive form of Iso. It was created on a tiny chassis around a 236 cc (14.4 cu in) two-stroke sourced from the motorcycles built by the company.
Although it was very small, its bubble-shaped body was designed to maximize space and could accommodate two adults. To facilitate access the hinged steering wheel and column swung out with the large front door and legend has it that on the first prototype an actual repurposed refrigerator door was used.
Performance-wise, the 9.5-hp engine meant the car needed over 30 seconds to reach 31 mph (50 kph) but that didn’t stop several owners from entering Isettas in the legendary Mille Miglia endurance race in 1954.
Rivolta wanted to maximize the profits of this vehicle in order to fund his other projects which involved the development of luxury grand tourers, so he decided to sell the blueprints and equipment to other manufacturers.
Among the companies that acquired the license for the Isetta was BMW, which was experiencing poor sales and was in dire need of a new strategy.
In 1955, war-torn Germany was in the process of rebuilding, and in the East, the Messerschmitt KR175 microcar emerged as an increasingly popular vehicle. Sensing the segment’s potential, the struggling Bavarians introduced the BMW Isetta 250 hoping that it could help revive sales.
Equipped with a modified version of the 250 cc (15.2 cu in) four-stroke from the BMW R25/3 motorcycle and an upgraded front suspension setup, the German version also had repositioned headlights and a soft-top sunroof that was designed as an emergency exit.
With the new 12-hp engine, the car accelerated reasonably faster and could reach a top speed of 53 mph (85 kph). This helped make it more appealing than it ever was in Italy, with more than 10,000 units being produced in the first eight months.
The car evolved into a four-seater a year later with the introduction of the BMW 600, a stretched-out version with a more conventional four-wheel layout and the capacity to seat four. It was powered by a larger 19.5-hp flat-twin and was even available with a semi-automatic transmission. Only manufactured for two years, 34,813 units were sold which did not meet the Bavarian carmaker’s expectations, partially because it was similarly priced as the far more popular Volkswagen Beetle.
Production of the smaller 300 continued until 1962 totaling close to 130,000 units (excluding the 600s) which made it the best-selling vehicle of its kind. While BMW’s future remained in muddy waters throughout the early 1960s, the cash flow from the Isetta helped the company survive throughout one of its darkest periods and became a cult hero in the process. Without that cashflow, BMW would have gone under.
Apart from Italy and Germany, the innovative vehicle was also manufactured under license by Velam in France, Isetta of Great Britain in the UK, Metalmecánica in Argentina, and Romi in Brazil.
AS ALWAYS....COMMENTS & INVITATIONS with AWARD BANNERS will be respectfully DELETED!
Replete with reflection in the moat :)
The Castle at Kirby Muxloe was never finished, as the chap who was having it built, William, Lord Hastings, Lord Chamberlain of England, was summarily executed by Richard III ("Thou art a traitor. - Off with his head").
Kind of scuppered the cashflow somewhat...
Komm vorbei in meinen Bungalow
Ich hab Snacks für die Late-Night-Show
Mama kocht für alle
Mama kocht für mich und dich
Komm vorbei in meinen Bungalow
By the rivers of cashflow
Wir trinken Soda, trinken Soda...
Euro 66 DE6311-F (92 87 0077505-1 F-AKIEM), & DE6312-F (92 87 0077506-9 F-AKIEM) parked up at Antwerp-Schijnpoort Yard awaiting their move to France.
DE 6313 F (77505 or DE6313-F (92 87 0077507-7 F-AKIEM to give its full number), is poking its nose out on view behind.
After 3 years in store at the old Tilburg depot, these were collected (with a few other brand new sheds stored in Holland) and transferred from Rotterdam Kijfhoek Yard to Antwerp-Schijnpoort on 17 May 2011.
Officially they were sold to AKIEM (SNCF's pretend separate rail company) a month later on 20 June 2011.
They had originally been ordered for DLC - Dillen & Le Jeune Cargo which became Crossrail, but that fell through with their cashflow problems as various shareholders came and went.
So after 3 years stored since arriving from North America, they were finally almost ready for work 😊
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
Will we make this happen?
The experiment continues. The mad professor and team are forging ahead with more tracked in real-time experimental field psychology.
Things will become 'safer' but less free: someone will have to pick up the tab after all.
UK retail sales 'growth' will be digitally tracked and traced and will make for interesting reading for the last week of July / Quarter 3 / H2 / Phase 1.
The UK high street may rebound (even dead cats bounce don't you know). Or it may tank further. Consumers may shop online even more so thereby finally signing the high streets death warrant (Cause of death: this year's on trend disease).
Of course spending via credit card will probably increase further so smaller retailers if they survive will have even worse cashflow of a form of currency that is even more Fiat. On the 'plus side', shoppers will have more of their purchases digitized and like good birls and goys their credit history might improve.
Will the high street bounce or will we roll over to provide a bezzoss bonanza? This is an experiment we can all take part in and alter the outcome through our actions, in real time.
Hello there. Relevant comments welcome but please do NOT post any link(s).
The Kelham Island brewery closed recently and the likes of Pale and Easy Rider will no longer be available. With the Fat Cat in the background the brewery one of the first Sheffield independents will be missed.
Kelham Island Brewery opened in 1990 in the beer garden of the Fat Cat in Alma Sreet, and at the time was the city's first independent brewery in almost a century. The original site was later converted to a visitor centre and a new brewhouse opened in 1999.
By the end of the 1990s Sheffield's other main independent brewers had all shut (Wards, Stones and Whitbread among them), leaving Kelham Island as the oldest. The reason cited for closure was cashflow issues following covid. Fortunately the Fat Cat remains open.
time machine time again.
Looking back the future held more promise for people in 1945, yes a period of bad times were around the corner but were they to be as bad as what we are dealing with in this day and age?
Our youngsters are looking at a time of harsh hardships with cashflow being a dream for most, the cost of living is through the roof and prospects of getting out of the ruts of this life look slim.
Then we figure in Global weather changes, due to easy movement the transmission of disease is a lot higher and the rise is nut cases being heads of state means everyone's future is at risk at a push of a button.
I know it all sounds doom and gloom and I know its not.
Back in 45 there was sunlight on the horizon or at least the dream of it whereas nowadays it seems all we see is darkness.
Lets hope this pandemic makes us realise we have to live again and to give those who came after us a better future where greed, oppression and hate are things of the past.
A stock photograph created to illustrate finance articles. Feel free to use in any way you wish for your articles, blogs etc. A credit for "Alan Cleaver" would be nice! There are more free stock photography shots in my Freestock set.
Lynden, Washington
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868[5] as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company". Until 1911, its automotive division operated in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and after 1909 with the E-M-F Company and with the Flanders Automobile Company.
The first gasoline automobiles to be fully manufactured by Studebaker were marketed in August 1912. Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for quality, durability and reliability.
After an unsuccessful 1954 merger with Packard (the Studebaker-Packard Corporation) failed to solve chronic postwar cashflow problems, the 'Studebaker Corporation' name was restored in 1962, but the South Bend plant ceased automobile production on December 20, 1963, and the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 1966.
Studebaker continued as an independent manufacturer before merging with Wagner Electric in May 1967 and then Worthington Corporation in November 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington (Wikipedia)
This image is best viewed in Large screen.
Thank-you for your visit, and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated.
Sonja
Lynden, Washington
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868[5] as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company". Until 1911, its automotive division operated in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and after 1909 with the E-M-F Company and with the Flanders Automobile Company.
The first gasoline automobiles to be fully manufactured by Studebaker were marketed in August 1912. Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for quality, durability and reliability.
After an unsuccessful 1954 merger with Packard (the Studebaker-Packard Corporation) failed to solve chronic postwar cashflow problems, the 'Studebaker Corporation' name was restored in 1962, but the South Bend plant ceased automobile production on December 20, 1963, and the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 1966.
Studebaker continued as an independent manufacturer before merging with Wagner Electric in May 1967 and then Worthington Corporation in November 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington (Wikipedia)
This image is best viewed in Large screen.
Thank-you for your visit, and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated.
Sonja
Sooke, BC Canada
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company". Until 1911, its automotive division operated in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and after 1909 with the E-M-F Company and with the Flanders Automobile Company. The first gasoline automobiles to be fully manufactured by Studebaker were marketed in August 1912. 231 Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for quality, durability and reliability.
After an unsuccessful 1954 merger with Packard (the Studebaker-Packard Corporation) failed to solve chronic postwar cashflow problems, the 'Studebaker Corporation' name was restored in 1962, but the South Bend plant ceased automobile production on December 20, 1963, and the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 1966. Studebaker continued as an independent manufacturer before merging with Wagner Electric in May 1967 and then Worthington Corporation in November 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington.
(Wikipedia)
This image is best viewed in Large screen.
Thank-you for your visit, and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated.
Sonja
Sooke, BC Canada
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company". Until 1911, its automotive division operated in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and after 1909 with the E-M-F Company and with the Flanders Automobile Company. The first gasoline automobiles to be fully manufactured by Studebaker were marketed in August 1912. 231 Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for quality, durability and reliability.
After an unsuccessful 1954 merger with Packard (the Studebaker-Packard Corporation) failed to solve chronic postwar cashflow problems, the 'Studebaker Corporation' name was restored in 1962, but the South Bend plant ceased automobile production on December 20, 1963, and the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 1966. Studebaker continued as an independent manufacturer before merging with Wagner Electric in May 1967 and then Worthington Corporation in November 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington.
(Wikipedia)
This image is best viewed in Large screen.
Thank-you for your visit, and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated.
Sonja
The Canadian View Card Company - CVCC
Canadian View Card Co. was based in Toronto, and was a prolific publisher of early Canadian patriotic postcards, as well as other early view cards. Their early series of postcards do not often bear the publisher’s attribution, however, an example from the Canada Coat of Arms series shows the publisher’s name associated with the card back that was frequently used with their patriotics series of cards. Later view cards more commonly bore the name of the publisher. LINK to the complete article - www.vintagepostcards.ca/Publishers/Canadian/CVCC/
In November 1884, the Canadian Pacific Railway railhead's westward advance reached Beavermouth. Inspector Sam Steele, Sergeant Fury, and about six or seven constables of the North-West Mounted Police maintained law and order within the camps. At Beavermouth, the police post was on the opposite side of the Beaver River to the construction camp, being connected by a bridge. The police facilities included cells for 30 prisoners, a courtroom, staff dining hall, and quarters for the men. In contrast, the worker quarters contained two long double tiers of bunks for 100 men, separated by a narrow passage. Water dripping from the snow-covered roof soaked the men's blankets. Unpaid wages were accumulating, because subcontractors had not been paid by CP, which was experiencing a chronic cashflow problem. In March 1885, hundreds of men from the various camps marched on Beavermouth. An attempt was made to arrest a man inciting workers to resist the police. Steele, sick with typhoid, went outside with a police magistrate, who read the Riot Act. After Steele threatened to shoot anyone who advanced on the police post, the gathering dispersed and the strike leaders were later fined.
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
I created this shot in my studio for use on my site, AssistedSeniorLiving.Net but I want to share it since it is applicable to much more than just senior retirement planning. Feel free to use this image but please check out our website at www.AssistedSeniorLiving.Net and give us a little love. It is very difficult to get seniors to +1 so your help can really help us establish the site as a great resource for caregivers and seniors.
Sooke, BC Canada
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company". Until 1911, its automotive division operated in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and after 1909 with the E-M-F Company and with the Flanders Automobile Company. The first gasoline automobiles to be fully manufactured by Studebaker were marketed in August 1912. 231 Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for quality, durability and reliability.
After an unsuccessful 1954 merger with Packard (the Studebaker-Packard Corporation) failed to solve chronic postwar cashflow problems, the 'Studebaker Corporation' name was restored in 1962, but the South Bend plant ceased automobile production on December 20, 1963, and the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 1966. Studebaker continued as an independent manufacturer before merging with Wagner Electric in May 1967 and then Worthington Corporation in November 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington.
(Wikipedia)
This image is best viewed in Large screen.
Thank-you for your visit, and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated.
Sonja
After shopping for hours and hours, one realizes that inadequately shopping makes effective cashflows. After all when it's time to go out with your best friend, there is no better time to wear your eye-catching rubber boots.
If it's Istanbul we are talking about, please be sure double it!
Jest Magazine Vol 6 No 30
January 1958
A Humorama Magazine
Back Cover Photo: Tana Louise
Back Cover Artists: DSD (Dan DeCarlo) and Paul Hamilton
The Humorama line was a small offshoot of Martin Goodman's empire known as Timely Features. Goodman eventually produced Marvel comics, but his first bucks were made with pulp western tales in the 1930s. Cowboys, horses, bandits and oats were good for Goodman, and he was eventually responsible for nearly 100 monthly titles.
Humorama was the dirty comics and pasty pin-ups sprout of Timely Features, a mere speck in Goodman's vast empire of stapled popular ooze. He let his brother Abe run the show. Martin made big bucks on True Detective type stuff and the Marvel line, but Abe's Humorama line delivered enough cashflow to sustain a dozen titles every month for years.
Each issue delivered 35 cents worth of cuties and cartoons. They were dirt cheap to produce and the artists were paid very little. So were the models, who included Bettie Page and Julie Newmar along with a hoard of country-raised "starlets" who never made it.
Some of the cartoonists went on to make it big like Bill Ward, Dan DeCarlo and Bill Wenzel; but there were dozens who remained in obscurity. One among them was Joe Shuster, who signed his work JOSH. Joe was co-creator of Superman.
Most of the Humorama digests had onomatopœic titles like:
Breezy • Cartoon Parade • Comedy • Eyeful of Fun • Fun House • Gaze • Gee-Whiz • Humorama • Instant Laughs • Jest • Joker • Laugh Circus • Laugh Digest • Laugh Riot • Popular Cartoons • Popular Jokes • Romp • Stare • Snappy • Zip
Jackpot originally popped up around the 1870s and was from the poker game “Jacks or Better”. This is much like traditional five card draw, except in this case, if a player does not have a pair of “jacks or better” in the first round of betting, he has to pass. This doesn’t necessarily mean he has to be holding a pair of jacks, queens, or the like. It just means that he has to be holding cards that will beat a pair of tens.
Once the first person who has that has placed a bet in the opening betting round, the rest of the participants are free to bet as they will, regardless of the cards they hold. In the case where nobody holds “jacks or better”, the hand must be re-dealt with additional ante required, so the pot can grow just from antes.
When the game is finally over, no player is allowed to win with anything less than three of a kind or better. If, at the end, no one has better than three of a kind or more, then no player gets the pot and the hand is re-dealt with additional ante required to be added to the existing accumulated pot. Over time this pot can potentially grow quite large, hence “jackpot”.
Within a few decades of the term “jackpot” in poker popping up, the term morphed into a slang term for “trouble with the law”, and further morphed by the mid-20th century to primarily be associated with “hitting the jackpot” with slot machines. From there, it became even more figurative, referring to any big prize or good turn of events.
Actor Jimmy Stewart, who incidentally was a two star General in the U.S. Military , once starred in one of his more obscure movies called “Jackpot”. The movie was based on a true story of a man, James P. Caffrey, who won $24,000 (about $210,000 today) worth of random and sometimes bizarre merchandise (on August 28, 1948). In the movie itself, Stewart’s character wins such a prize from a radio contest, the same as the real life Caffrey. Unfortunately, there’s no cash involved yet the character is of course obligated to pay a lot of money in taxes, approximately $7000 that he doesn’t have (his annual salary being just $4500, or about $41,000 today).
Snappy Magazine Vol 4 No 24
March 1958
A Humorama Magazine
Back Cover Photo: Pat Shebanek
Artists: Kirk Stiles (left); Bill Wenzel (right)
The Humorama line was a small offshoot of Martin Goodman's empire known as Timely Features. Goodman eventually produced Marvel comics, but his first bucks were made with pulp western tales in the 1930s. Cowboys, horses, bandits and oats were good for Goodman, and he was eventually responsible for nearly 100 monthly titles.
Humorama was the dirty comics and pasty pin-ups sprout of Timely Features, a mere speck in Goodman's vast empire of stapled popular ooze. He let his brother Abe run the show. Martin made big bucks on True Detective type stuff and the Marvel line, but Abe's Humorama line delivered enough cashflow to sustain a dozen titles every month for years.
Each issue delivered 35 cents worth of cuties and cartoons. They were dirt cheap to produce and the artists were paid very little. So were the models, which included Bettie Page and Julie Newmar along with a hoard of country-raised "starlets" who never made it.
Some of the cartoonists went on to make it big like Bill Ward, Dan DeCarlo and Bill Wenzel; but there were dozens who remained in obscurity. One among them was Joe Shuster, who signed his work JOSH. Joe was co-creator of Superman.
Most of the Humorama digests had onomatopœic titles like:
Breezy • Cartoon Parade • Comedy • Eyeful of Fun • Fun House • Gaze • Gee-Whiz • Humorama • Instant Laughs • Jest • Joker • Laugh Circus • Laugh Digest • Laugh Riot • Popular Cartoons • Popular Jokes • Romp • Stare • Snappy • Zip
Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire had been on my ‘to do’ list for many years but time, distance and the affects of disability had conspired to prevent me from getting there until earlier this year. I was not disappointed as I found myself wandering around the ruins like a slack-jawed yokel, just marvelling at the sheer size of the place. More than once I was heard to say f*** me! But at least I had the good taste to spell the rude word with a letter ‘q’.
To understand my awe you have to remember that I live in Norfolk and I am well familiar with the remains of Castle Acre Priory, Binham Priory and the single huge arch which is all that is left of Walsingham Abbey. Fountains Abbey was built on a wholly different scale to these religious buildings, both vertically and horizontally. In its prime it was a site of vast and serene grandeur. Even now it retains the ability to affect a visitor. It certainly affected me.
For perhaps the first time I was confronted with overwhelming evidence (and a better understanding of the claims made by historians) that King Henry VIII was the greatest vandal in English history. His agents took a wrecking ball to dozens of magnificent buildings and strip-mined them for materials and money. Many, like Fountains, ended up just being used as stone quarries.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/albums/7215771634122... to see the full set.
Fountains was one of the many religious houses suppressed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of his master, the King. King Henry had broken with the Church of Rome in the 1530s over the matter of his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry also needed to improve his cashflow. The church owned vast tracts of the richest land in Britain and wielded great influence over the hearts and minds of the King’s people. If Henry wanted to make himself head of the new Church of England he would need to line his pockets, build defences against a possible Papal invasion and destroy the ability of the great religious houses to put up a theological - or martial - defence against him.
It is no coincidence that the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was met almost immediately by a popular rebellion in 1536 which then led to the Pilgrimage of Grace:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace
It is also no coincidence that among the 216 known executions following the uprisings of 1536/37 were many monks and churchmen - including the former Abbot of Fountains, William Thirsk.
Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell had started small by closing or amalgamating just the humbler or allegedly corrupt religious houses with the money going into the King’s coffers. Following Catholic rebellions the King and Cromwell appear to have regarded the untouched larger abbeys in much the same way as Adolph Hitler regarded Communism in WW2. Idealogical resistance from the heart of the church led to Henry VIII issuing the equivalent of Hitler’s ‘shoot the commissars’ order. Close the abbeys, turf out the abbots and execute any who opposed Henry’s supremacy. The Abbot of Glastonbury paid just such a price by being hung, drawn and quartered.
Thus it was that Fountains was closed and pillaged in 1539. Portable valuables such as gold or silver plate and vestments were taken away and sold off while the buildings and 500 acres (200 hectares) of land were sold to MP Sir Thomas Gresham, a former Lord Mayor of London. This was an epic shift in policy for Gresham as he had previously gifted tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court and even paid for the poor Cardinal’s funeral when King Henry turned against Wolsey. Gresham was a man who could see which way the new wind was blowing. He went with it.
A full history of Fountains Abbey, once the richest Cistercian abbey in England, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Abbey
It is well worth a read.
Today Fountains is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although owned by the National Trust, English Heritage membership cards are accepted in full as EH also looks after the Studley Royal church on the same site.
Disability footnote: despite the well laid paths, etc, Fountains is not an easy site for the disabled. The main ruins are some distance from the entrance while the rest of the Studley Royal park is vast and was not visited by me. Pace yourself as I found getting out up the paths at the end while very tired rather difficult.
FINANCE - There are problems of rich, very rich, and Apple's problems. The success of the inventor of the iPhone has made it possible for the group to sit on a mountain of more than $250 billion in cash. But his problem now is knowing what to do with it.
According to its quarterly results released on Tuesday, May 2, Apple had 258.8 billion available cash as of March 31,2010, the vast majority of which was stored abroad. This is equivalent to the Gross Domestic Product of a country like Chile.
Such means would enable it to buy many of its competitors or even diversify into other sectors such as electric cars, a product to which it attaches great interest, for example by buying Tesla.
Surprised by the huge amount of its reserves, the imagination of Internet users was immediately overwhelmed, transforming Twitter into a more or less zany idea box.
Shares of Apple and its suppliers tumbled this week after multiple industry analysts predicted weak demand for the new flagship iPhone. Apple's (AAPL) stock slid by as much as 4% in premarket trading Tuesday.
The radically redesigned iPhone X was supposed to give Apple a boost following a couple years of sinking sales. Early sales reports were positive, and Morgan Stanley reported last week that the iPhone X is especially hot in China.
But the first wave of demand among Apple fanatics seems to have passed, and analysts are skeptical that more casual iPhone customers will upgrade to the iPhone X.
Citing the iPhone X's super-high $1,000 price and confusing features, a Sinolink Securities analyst predicted that Apple will ship just 35 million iPhone X devices in the first three months of 2018, roughly 10 million fewer than previously expected. JL Warren Capital now estimates Apple will deliver just 25 million iPhone Xs. Jefferies is slightly more bullish, expecting Apple to ship 40 million.
The analyst reports come after Taiwanese newspaper Economic Daily reported Monday that Apple had dramatically lowered its own iPhone sales expectations from 50 million to 30 million.
Apple didn't immediately respond to CNNMoney's request for comment.
Investors punished companies that make iPhone components. Shares Genius Electronic Optical, which makes of iPhone lens modules, have fallen by more than 11% this week. Pegatron and Lumentum fell by 3%. Finisar and Skyworks fell by 2%. Foxconn fell by 1%.
Related: For Apple, iPhone X times $999 = Many, many billions
The good news for Apple is that the 2017 holiday shopping season was likely its best ever. Analysts predict Apple sold as many as 90 million iPhones over the past three months, which would blow away the company's previous record.
CEO Tim Cook said in November that orders for the iPhone X have been "very strong" and defended the $999 price tag for the redesigned phone. The company hasn't publicly released iPhone X sales figures.
Apple's stock is up 50% for the year and continues to inch closer to becoming the first public company worth $1 trillion.
Over the past decade, Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) financial performance has become increasingly reliant on a single product: the iPhone. This is not news. These days, the iPhone typically comprises between 60% and 70% of revenue in any given quarter.
For most of the iPhone's history, Apple only released a single model per year, efficiently focusing its development resources and strategically choosing product depth over product breadth, which incidentally concentrates product risk. Starting in 2013, Apple released two models per year, and then unveiled three models in 2017 for the first time. Theoretically, diversifying the lineup reduces risk, but ultimately the disproportionate importance of the iPhone inevitably created a massive risk factor that investors have had to contemplate for years: What if an iPhone flops?
A flop can also mean failed execution
The possibility of an iPhone flop hasn't really been an issue thus far. Even when some headline features prove to be gimmicky novelties (like Siri initially or 3D Touch), Apple's marketing department picks up the slack and still convinces consumers that they need it.
Fortunately, Apple has mostly enjoyed successful iPhone launches every year. The company has a strong track record of introducing new features that consumers covet so much that they line up for days. Meanwhile, Apple has been able to overcome prior supply constraints with relative ease, particularly back when Tim Cook was COO and earned the reputation of being an adept supply chain coordinator and efficient operator.
There are two main ways that an iPhone could flop: The product itself could fail to impress and demand could falter, or Apple could fail to execute in meeting demand even if the product is strong. It's this latter scenario that is currently unfolding before our eyes.
With daily reports detailing iPhone X production challenges, the all-important new flagship looks more and more like it will be a flop. Not because the product itself is weak -- quite the contrary, iPhone X looks like an incredible smartphone -- but more due to Apple's inability to meet demand. In no uncertain terms, a failed iPhone launch is investors' worst nightmare, one that promises to wreak havoc on financial results during Apple's most important quarter of the year.
It's worth revisiting Apple's risk factor legalese (emphasis added):
Due to the highly volatile and competitive nature of the industries in which the Company competes, the Company must continually introduce new products, services and technologies, enhance existing products and services, effectively stimulate customer demand for new and upgraded products and successfully manage the transition to these new and upgraded products. The success of new product introductions depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to, timely and successful product development, market acceptance, the Company's ability to manage the risks associated with new product production ramp-up issues, the availability of application software for new products, the effective management of purchase commitments and inventory levels in line with anticipated product demand, the availability of products in appropriate quantities and at expected costs to meet anticipated demand and the risk that new products may have quality or other defects or deficiencies in the early stages of introduction. Accordingly, the Company cannot determine in advance the ultimate effect of new product introductions and transitions.
The production and supply issues this year appear to be worse than they've ever been, and the supply chain logistics also sound more complicated than ever before due to how much technology Apple is packing into iPhone X. While demand outstripping supply is generally a good problem to have, and one that Apple is all too familiar with (and it's still better than the inverse scenario), that demand is only as good as Apple's ability to meet it in a timely fashion.
iPhone X represents Apple's biggest risk factor materializing: an unsuccessful product launch.
www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/25/why-iphone-x-is-apple-i...
· On my way to Warm Planet to get my brakes fixed, I saw these two stickers. The one at the top represents my bike repair cashflow problems (at least it's not a car). The "no brakes" at the bottom suggests a crew I could join as an economy alternative.
The giant wheels on the right separated only by a line of bendy-straw drive-over plastic bollards disabused me of the latter notion.
The Bicycle Chronicles Chapter Four Part Four of The Flyte
In truth I had not anticipated the degree of excitement this 1939 CCM Flyte would ignite in some folks who attend the shop on a regular basis. That phrase The Holy Grail is an apt description for some, actually for many steeped in bicycle lore than myself. As mentioned my interests in bicycles is a relatively new thing, having been about ten years give or take since I first began tinkering. When I look back on the history of this small home based shop called Lumpy Bikes it marvels me how far my knowledge has grown and how many folks I have met in that period of time. If I have not said so prior in these writings, “it is the people one meets in this game that make it what it is, and for the most part the people are awesome.”
The very next day at the usual time, 1PM sharp (which is when I open) I pulled the Flyte out of the Honda Element where it had spent the night. It sure looked like a pile of poorly painted metal pieces, as the scratches on the frame to me were like the war wounds of a well travelled soldier. Lying there in the back of the truck I was reminded of a horse in a way that was quite arthritic and had difficulty in getting up on its legs. We have had lots of old bikes here at the shop, the first was also a 1939 double bar CCM that my friends Don Schmidt and Carol Trainor had given me in the early years of Lumpy Bikes, I was proud of that bike also as it was one of the first vintage bikes to go on display above the shop entrance, I fitted it with a period correct childs rear carrier and a front full size butchers basket, the original saddle though worn and torn was made of leather, the silver four corner badge was intact. It was a sad day when I phoned my friend Mario in Vaughan to see if he would purchase the bike as we had run into some financial difficulty that best remain secret. When Don owned the bike he used it to drive around the campus at Buffalo University, then he took the bike to Washington DC where he had one of his first high school teaching jobs, a lifes historical patina shrouded that bike in memories and you could feel it.
Later in the afternoon my friend Pat Johnston wandered over, he was about the only person who knew I had gone to get the Flyte in Quebec. With our grandson Mackenzies assistance we hoisted the bike up to the wooden mounting pegs at the shop entrance for all to see, my heart pumped in doing so as I am sure did the hearts of Pat and Mac. There was a steady parade of onlookers over the next few days to see the famous bike. Some clients didn’t quite get it, so every time someone came I would re tell the story of the bike, the history behind it and point out the curved forks and chainstays that were only found on this bike. Putting the bike on display was my intention all along, I don’t recall if I had planned to do anymore with it, I do know that I realized it had much more value than what I paid for it, which was $400. Though we must take into consideration my expense to get the bike, give or take $175, if you include my sandwiches and packed lunch. As well we need to put a value on the time required to fetch the bike in Quebec, and that is where I often argue with those who put a monetary value on their time, like an hourly wage. I don’t do that, I place no value on my time in that sense, but I do place a great value in non monetary terms in the pleasure derived from these pursuits.
Years back an old acquaintance was always, still is today, pre occupied with the word profit. Julie and I sold a small property near Hastings once and he had to know to the penny what we sold it for, how much the real estate fees were, how much the township charged for transfer fees and how much the lawyer charged to administer the sale. It would have been easy for me to tell him where to go, but I was diplomatic, and I told him all the numbers and he said, “well you only made $5,000 dollars on the property in two years after all those deductions.” To which I replied, ‘we lived in this beautiful area along this fine historic river in this historic town for two years, we entertained hundreds of people had rave like corn roasts, caught bushels of fish, behaved like madmen and women as the campfires burned weekend after weekend you cannot put a price on this joy, if we profited somewhat that is fine but it was not our intention, our intention was to enjoy life.’
He doesn’t quiz me much these days on my personal matters. Though I am reminded of another time, we had bought our first Toronto house and it needed a lot of work which was somewhat challenging for a man who previously had never owned a hammer. That summer we took a holiday up to the Wawa area, using an old Chevy station wagon sold to me by Verns cousin Ronnie, that car burned more oil than gas! Besides the wagon we pulled along a 16 foot cedar strip boat we had traded a car for in Hastings, it had an old brown coloured Johnson Seahorse 18HP motor that was easy enough to start and pushed the boat along at a good enough pace once the boat planed out. We camped up on the French River where one morning as the haze left the water I saw a fourty pound Muskie jump into the air right at the tip of the island Julie and I were camping on, what a sight. Endless casts did not produce a strike, We did see some Americans trolling for pickerel near Schells camp and they pulled up a pair of ten pounders to show us. We packed up and headed north where we discovered at Blind River that we had left the tent Octopus joint, the joint that all the tent poles stick into at the Island so we made our way to the Sault where we grabbed a motel for the night along with a spaghetti dinner and a tent store provide the piece we needed to go on to a cottage less lake just south of Wawa in a provincial park, the names will come to me. We camped there for three days, now I remember, Lake Michipicoten, and we could not get the boat out of the water with the wagon. No wonder our luggage was quite heavy, Gisele my mom had given us a matched six piece set of tan vinyl luggage for our first wedding anniversary and we hauled our stuff around in it like tourists, the luggage in the boat, thankfully two guys with a 4X4 truck hooked up to our trailer hitch and pulled the heavy boat out or we would still be there. We headed home as I recall via a town in the interior of Ontario called Chapleau, as we passed through the place we remarked to each other how desolate it was, upon leaving the town after a small gander we were about a mile out of town on a highway heading south when we noticed a car stopped in the middle of the road up ahead and something spread out on the pavement. Well, if it wasn’t a man taking a nap, and he was really out, turns out he was more drunk than sleepy and we urged him up and off the road along with his car.
We arrived back at our little home in Toronto’s hardscrabble Mount Dennis area, our second car a patched up late 60s Ford Falcon wagon was in the driveway, my friend was in the house smoking a cigar, our big german shepherd named Zorba greeted us. My buddy told me they almost lost the dog on a trip he took with the wagon up to Georgian Bay, the dog got away, but they eventually found him, they were not supposed to use the car except in an emergency. Then my buddy, my good friend told me that I only had $5,200 in my bank account. I said to him, “how do you know that?” to which he replied, “your bank book must have fallen out of your dresser drawer in the spare bedroom.” I was not impressed, I didn’t say anything at the time, nor have I ever but I never forgot that intrusion on our privacy and what I perceived to be a jealousy of my good fortune to be able to save some money at that time in life.
Getting back to the CCM Flyte. Without the help of Pat Johnston that bike would still be a pile of rubble. On the Tuesday afternoon August 21 Pat and I put the bike on the mechanics stand and Pat used sandpaper and a file to scratch the paint away to reveal the serial number which is 2C7461. The placement of the letter C designates this bike to have been manufactured in 1939 as per the charts issued by CCM. At that time the idea to restore the bike was spoken by Pat and I, I recall having to give this a lot of thought as I had a shop to run and not a lot of spare time to being a restoration this time of year, the freshness of the bike also came into play, I can say that the enthusiasm in Pat about the restoration idea was far greater than mine. We discussed colour ideas something that regardless of the project is a difficult subject for me as I do not visualize very well. I mean, I can put an idea in my head to a degree but I have known for some time that it takes time for the idea to set in so that my mind has a clear idea of what lies ahead. Over the next few days, I spent quite some time thinking about how the bike could look in different colours and different colour combinations. In the meantime, the regulars came by to look at the bike, CCM Dave was pretty impressed with it, I even tinkered with the idea of going partners on the bike with him, but we disagreed right off the bat about what colour it should or could be when restored and that kaboshed the partnership idea. It was Daves wife Charmaine who had whispered in my ear at the Lang Transportation Day bike show that “Dave would love a Flyte” and I think in a subliminal way those words influenced me in my hasty decision to go to Quebec for the Flyte in the first place. My notes show me that we did not put the bike up until August 25, I recall grandson Mackenzie assisting Pat and I to raise it onto the shop canopy where bikes are hung for display. That Saturday a big collector of vintage road bikes dropped over to check out my goods Jeff Lackey who lives in Lindsay, his bikes are too die for. He looked at the Flyte up there, he knew I had been looking for one for some time and he said, “I wouldn’t touch it, it’s beautiful the way it is, just leave it like that.” His point was not lost on me however, still early in the game I was having thoughts of my own about what to do with the Flyte and how to manage the restoration during a busy time of the bike season. The most difficult thoughts were the ones about choosing a colour or colour scheme to use on the bike. In the meantime, Pat had taken an old fork of mine to the Flashfire powder coat company in Courtice to have it powder coated in their chrome colour. We had to do this in order to determine for ourselves how the chrome on the bike which included the handlebars, curved fork, stem, crank and crank arms would look. My colour ideas were all over the place, my thoughts went from mauve with cream white fenders, to fire engine red with black fenders and chainguard, I couldn’t sleep at night thinking about the colours. Finally when the fork came back from the powder coaters looking OK, it looked more aluminum coloured than chrome to me not great but much better than it had looked before coating. Having parts chromed is a sport for the wealthy, recently Pat told me about a friend of his who had two rims and a handlebar chromed for the restoration of his vintage Raleigh Robin Hood bicycle, the cost was $500…OUCH! So you can see the economy I had in mind for restoring the bike came into play. The estimate from the coating company to sandblast and coat the bike was in the $200 range which included the chrome parts done their way, I figured that was something I could afford. In keeping with the tradition of the last owner of the Flyte, the priest in Quebec City I decided to have it painted jet black except the chrome parts and the chainguard which would be close to chrome in colour. All along I had seen this bike as a classic example of Design Art in which the object became available in this instance in the 1930s and I may be wrong but I think the design by Harvey Peace was ahead of its time. The unfinished Flytes that I had seen were quite drab looking, I didn’t like them at all. I knew I could improve on the look of the bike by the use of a dynamic colour, the one I chose was Jet Black.
I approached Pat with the idea of him taking the bike apart and reassembling it for a fee of $100. He agreed and said “I would have done it for nothing” I knew that Pat was capable of the job as well he was very enthusiastic about the restoration. The bike came down after only being up there a week where it had been admired by several shoppers, it did not draw crowds though just the folks who would have stopped by in any case to look at our wares. There is a photograph taken on September 7 of the Flyte in pieces sitting on one of my work tables at the outdoor shop. Pat took the bike to his house and broke it down. While doing so he discovered that a part of the crank side crank arm was broken, it was a critical piece that protruded into the crank ring to turn the crank mechanisim. Not to worry he hand made a replacement piece of steel on his lathe and took the pieces to a company that had done lots of work for him in the past Bruce Fabricating, the new repair was out of site and probably better than new. How the bike managed to function without this piece can only be explained by thinking the crank arm and crank were so tightly attached that the two pieces in a way welded into each other forming a bond and allowing the crank to turn the chain which in turn caused the back wheel to turn. Some proof of that statement lies in the fact that Pat had to take the crank to a reputable shop in downtown Peterborough called Spokes and Pedals where the owner a man who has worked on bikes steadily for over fourty years Dave Friese found the proper tool and long pry bar to remove the inner nut on the crank. That crank problem was one of the biggest surprises encountered in the process. I took the frame to the powder coating factory in Courtice on the edge of Oshawa and was told it would be up to two weeks before it would be ready. In the meantime I had time to go over the rims and well I must say I was quite surprised, but I should not have been given the amount of rust found on the rear rim to discover that the rim itself had rotted through in three or four places at the juncture with the spokes, probably the area of the rim that had sat in the snow while attached to that church fence for some years in Quebec City. Rims of this style are not readily available. Earlier that season I had given a bike to a street person to use an old CCM with rough paint and a decent set of rims. I located that person and persuaded them to give me the bike back and trade for a more modern mountain bike with gears in good condition. The trade was advantageous to both of us and I was very pleased to have the correct rims to complete the Flyte build with. The rims are chrome plated Westwood style with a red pinstripe in the middle, I will know better next time a pair comes in and set them aside for a special build. Earlier that summer myself and Little Ronnie Williams had spent some hours cleaning that pair of rims up of the rust that had accumulated on them over the years, condition wise they looked in eight out of ten shape. I recalled CCM Dave seeing those rims being cleaned, they came off a 30s CCM ladies bike that no one wanted to give me $75 for. I told Dave that he could have bought the entire bike for less than a hundred dollars, that old bike had sat there in the side storage area for over a year as it had been donated along with others by Mario the collector from King City who had become my benefactor. Besides the rims a proper head badge came from another of Marios bikes that we used on the Flyte rebuild. Things were falling in place, the rims, the crank repair, the colour of the bike and the chrome, cream coloured tires were ordered, we took the red mini crystal ball tail light off of a vintage 1938 Eatons Glider, a set of nice clean Gibson style pedals were found. The frame and parts were glowing when we picked them up at the powder coaters. The fellow who did the powder coating told me he had worked extra to get the bike parts to look as good as possible considering the degree of pitting he found on the handlebars. That same day Pat came over and admired the painted parts and took everything to his house for reassembly. I can’t say enough about the care and thoughtfulness displayed by Pat in this regard, he worked on this build as if it was his own. He used many parts form his arsenal of shiny nuts and bolts to attach the fenders and chain guard to the frame that now looked like a million dollars. Not only did he clean the hubs he took them apart and serviced them with new grease ensuring that they would work like new. On September 23 I got a call from Pat to come pick the bike up, it was ready. Wide smiles grace our faces the day his wife Mary took photos of the two of us with the refurbished bicycle in the back yard area of he and his wife Marys home we were pleased with the outcome, I slid the bike into my truck and took it home. The next day CCM Dave came by and he got to ride the bike, I told him to take it downtown and show it off, his smile was wide as well. The bike he said rode OK, it pulled a bit to one side and we found the front rim to need a bit of truing. On Sept 26 John Cisco the man who was second to point out the bike to me in Quebec City came by to exchange some vintage pedals, he posed with the bike, he said “Velos Roy, the shop you bought it from have been very helpful to me with my old bike ever since you bought the Flyte.” That was nice to hear.
For finishing touches on the Flyte I chose the 700c size Cream Schwalbe tires, they looked outstanding. For grips I used a pair of bullet style Bell black grips found at a discount price at a Winners store. The original Mesinger brand leather saddle was set aside for future restoration, I chose to use a new black leather Brooks B17 with a matching Brooks black leather tool bag attached to the back of the saddle. I believe the colour coordination, the use of black in the accessories was key to the overerall finished look of the bike. I was quite pleased.
A couple of times Pat and I discussed having a custom Lumpy Bikes sign made to fit between inside the frame of the bicycle. I had done this before with a Pashley Butchers Bike that I used as an advertisement for the shop some years back. I had thought to have the words lumpy bikes put on the sign, a short description of the bike, its age 1939, the manufacturer CCM, and words stating the restoration was done by Pat Johnston and myself. That never got off the ground, October is a busy month at this shop as we are prone to start thinking about moving downstairs to the indoor shop. Every day for two weeks or so I would pull the Flyte out from behind the garage where it was safely covered and put it out in the driveway for all to see myself in particular. Folks would drop over to look at bikes, to talk about bikes and I would have my words honed to share with them about the history of this bike. Mike Taylor the photographer also a bike mechanic was keen to take photos of me dressed as a Jesuit priest wearing a wide brimmed clergy had over by the black wrought iron fences of the Little Lake Cemetery. At night I would carefully put the bike back to its sleeping area and make darn sure the gate was locked at night. There is more work than I care to think about to make the shift downstairs, it is overwhelming. Our grandson Mackenzie is a god send in that he hauls the boxes of parts and cleaners box after box of tools and parts and what not down there for me and I take a day to set the new shop up, happy to know I can still work on bikes everyday in the cooler months. I would not say the Flyte was ignored as it had been brought into the house and installed above the desk replacing a $5,000 bike that had been bought as Industrial ART a Giant XTC Team bike with exquisite parts such as hydraulic disc brakes, Mavic Crossmax Rims, a bike that was strictly Eye Candy that had been built by a professional mechanic in Belleville at Dougs Bikes to be used as a commuter. I had seen the bike for sale on Kijiji and put an offer in right away and to my surprise another offer faltered and I found myself driving to Port Hope to meet the owner/builder and bring the bike home, it was in mint condition and was as Bling a bike as I had seen. The XTC went into the locked garage and the fabled CCM Flyte went above the office desk, this was October 26.
When the colder weather sets in here in Ontario it is normal for the bike trade to slow down as well. Sales that may run in the 25-35 bikes a month sold in the months of May to September slow down as well to maybe ten bikes in October and if you are lucky five bikes in November and fewer in December. With this your cashflow also stops, money just stops coming in and any smart bike seller will have salted some coins away to pay himself a wage in the down months from November to March while continuing to build bikes for the upcoming season. I never could figure out a winter gig to compensate when the bikes stop. Other shops I have run like the restaurant slowed down in the winter but there was still some trade from the locals. The Gange business ran year round. At one time I was offered to purchase a complete ice skate sharpening line of equipment at a very fair price. This would have entailed me renovating the garage to accommodate the equipment and providing a room for customers to wait while I sharpened the skates as some will want to wait. I never took the idea, I gave it lots of thought I just did not feel interested in this sideline and I knew that two shops in town did this in the winter and I witness the cash register singing at one of the shops run by my friend Ben Logan of Fontaine Source for Sports. These days, ideally I would be spending my winters in Thailand or some other exotic location, my feet in a hammock, sipping on long cool drinks through paper straws while girls in colourful sarongs wave palm leaves over my body to keep me cool. We just don’t make enough cash to enable such a change of life. Now that Julia is retired we could discuss liquidating some assets and changing our lifestyle by taking up residence in a less expensive area and this area Peterborough is half the expense of living in our home city of Toronto. Cape Breton comes to mind from time to time, but like some friends have pointed out, “you will miss your family” and they are right.
I try to understand the circumstances around the eventual sale of the Flyte on January 7, 2019. I know my books showed that the winter season was unusually quiet, that from the end of October to the 7th of January I had only moved 7 pieces one of which was a used Park Tool Stand. An email came in from my friend Dale Mcillmoyle who is a retired OPP seargeant and a fellow bike nut/mechanic who lives with his wife Cindy near Campbellford, Ontario. Dale said in his note that a friend of his Tom Huehn was interested in my Flyte as Dale had forwarded him photos of the finished bike some months back. By surprise I got a phone call on Jan 7 from Tom who said he wanted to come look at the bike, this was around 9:30 in the morning, I politely asked him to come back around 11:30 to give me some time to get dressed. Promptly at that time a knock on the door signalled Toms arrival, Benson the little dog barked as he is prone to do, we greeted, shook hands , I brought Tom into the office where he asked me an assortment of questions about the bike. I showed him the bikes history via photos on the computer, photos of every stage of the rebuild, of the trip to Quebec, the reception when the bike was brought home, by the end of the photo essay he knew as much about the Flyte as I did. Tom asked if we could bring the bike down from where it hung which we did together, he did not care for what he called Powder Coat Chrome, but he knew that was an economic measure that we undertook to keep our costs down on the build. Besides I would casually say to him, ‘the new owner can have that redone if he likes when he purchases the bike’. An offer was made that was to low and I actually think I could have pushed things higher had I felt like it but I was not in a great position to turn down $1,700.00 on a cold day in January from out of the blue. We shook hands on the deal, Tom added a $50 referral fee for Dale which Dale shared with me this spring. So I call the price we sold it for $1,750.00. If I wished I could go over the numbers as to what the bike took to get, to restore, to pay Pat the pittance of $100 for his efforts. I think I came out on top in the $650 range and I can tell you, that is one hell of a profit on a bicycle. My friend Mario who owns by the way 15 Flytes had shown some interest in the bike told me what it was worth and I have to go along with what an expert tells me on these matters. Is Tom happy with the bike? I don’t know, Dale had mentioned he might take it to one of the big American shows to sell, but what I have to say about that is “when you purchase something it is your prerogative to do with it as you wish” and I wish Tom all the best in his choices.
Do I miss the Flyte, I miss it more for my friends Pat Johnston and CCM Dave than I miss it for myself. I always have neat, old romantic looking bikes around here, what I do miss is the thrill of the buy, the pursuit of the bike, how it was revealed to me in of all places from a fellow bike lover in Britain and then a day or two later by someone whom I know from this shop. Someday, I feel in my bones that another Flyte will come my way and I will be given the opportunity to make it as beautiful as this one.
On the day Tom came to buy the Flyte two friends happened to be driving by the house and they saw me bring the CCM down the stairs to wait for Tom who had gone to the bank. The friends were Gene whose Mercedes EBike I had helped locate after it had been stolen in the fall and he was with CCM Dave, they both posed with the bike on the bench, Dave knew I had sold the bike, what other reason would it have been outside that cold day in January. It took me a bit of time to let Pat Johnston know I sold the bike, I am quite sure he was choked up when he heard the news as I would be…we both have friends with deep pockets and storage areas where they can show their trophies off. Over the years there have been at least ten stellar bikes that I would love to have today, the CCM Flyte was unique for its day and remains unique today, I wonder why no other manufacturer has duplicated the style, are patents holding others back from replicating it? Thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed this ride!