Wednesday 24 June 2015 at 07:51 am
Don Featherstone was an accomplished artist, but he rarely showed that side of himself to those outside his family circle. He preferred to let the world see him as the wacky, offbeat creator of the iconic
pink flamingo lawn ornament. He called his creation He named it
Phoenicopterus ruber plasticus, mocking one of nature's most elegant creations. His icon for suburban bliss was 1st sold at Sears, but found its way eveywhere, selling millions & millions over the years.
His early job at Union Plastics was to sculpt plastic birds for home decoration, but after his kitchy flamingo quickly became a retail hit, company profits skyrocketed, & Don's career picked up as well. Featherstone retired as President of the company in 2000.
He received many accolades & acknowledgements for his prized birds, from an
Ig Nobel Prize, to John Waters' movie "Pink Flamingo", to Disney's animated movie "
Gnomeo & Juliet", where the flamingo character is named Featherstone.
RIP, Don. You've done well, sir.
Monday 08 June 2015 at 11:50 pm
Saturday! ...
SUN-DAY!!!
This is THE weekend to be in Monte Vista, Colorado for the 2015
Hot Rod Dirt Drags!
Once again, our buddy Mike Nicholas has done a bang-up job setting up a proper recreation of what our hot rod heroes did "back in the day". Mike started with the
Hot Rod Hill Climb, which has been a resounding success for the past 2 years. That event has grown, because of its authenticity & the fact that it's well attended by the "Legends" who were there in the 1st place. Young-uns like us revel in the retelling of tales from those ground breaking hot rod events, that these self proclaimed geezers share with us every time we get together. Plus, it's a freakin' BLAST to run up the hill in Georgetown!
Now Mike has turned his attention from twists'n'turns to the straight line trials that the 50's were famous for. Across America, many of these early events were held on unused WW2 airfields, because they were safe & plentiful. Most of the airstrips were simple dirt affairs, but budding drag racers didn't much care. Top speeds in '53 were about 89MPH, as was recorded by the Bell Plumbing Roadster, which is now the Singlefinger Spcl.
If you can't be there, you can follow the event on Instagram, the
Singlefinger Forum, or the HAMB. Or you can wait to see it in the magazines...
Tuesday 02 June 2015 at 10:44 pm
Indiana Gets It! Thanks to Rep Dave Ober, all of you losers that dawdle the left (fast) lane of traffic in the Hooser state are going to get a $500 fine for clogging the roads & pissing the rest of us off.
The Washington Post
Many states have a
Slower Traffic, Keep Right law, but in states like Michigan, it's not enforced, EVER. So we end up with some dipstick in the left lane, yakking on a cell phone, putting on make up, or just twiddling themselves, holding up a half mile of highway traffic. This forces us to pass on the right to get around these asshats that refuse to budge, which is inherently unsafe.
Michigan's roads have been all effed up since Nixon's bullshit 55MPH rule went into effect. In the 70's, it was misinterpreted by a promonent asshole on the Michigan bench, who ruled that 55MPH took priority over the time honored lane discipline of allowing faster traffic to pass on the LEFT. Our state's expressway traffic has been a nightmare ever since.
Hooray for Indiana, I hope Michigan can learn this lesson & enforce the lane discipline laws already on the books...
