Friday, December 16, 2011
More than your five-a-day
At a traffic junction in Coundon, Coventry this week something very strange occurred.
Motorists in the UK always have to be prepared for precipitation, but drivers in this area were witness to a very different sort of rain. Out from the sky fell – not water – but apples.
Yes. Apples.
One road user stated, “The apples fell out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard. Everyone had to stop their cars suddenly.”
There have been two theories presented since the fruity downpour. One involves a plane losing its cargo, and the other involves a mini tornado sucking apples from an orchard somewhere and then letting them go over Coventry.
Well, you’ve heard the stories about raining frogs and fish – now you’ve heard of apple-rain.
We’d quite like it to rain money next. We’re carrying buckets around with us just in case.
Photo © Grey World via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: apples, Coventry, drivers, experienced motorist, fruit, junction, precipitation, rain, road user, traffic
Friday, October 7, 2011
Incredible reporting of young (?) driver’s race win
It’s amazing how the definition of “young” has changed over the years.
Recently, an archived news piece from 1929 came to my attention which talked about a young driver who had won the Indianapolis 500 race.The piece described Ray Keech as a daring young auto driver, but after researching the American racing driver, I found that he would have turned 29 years old just four weeks before the race took place.
Nowadays, we tend to think of motorists between the ages of 17 and 24 as being young drivers and someone aged 29 would be considered an experienced motorist, especially if they had been driving since their teens.
The article, which featured in the Calgary Herald and can be accessed here, reports the astonishing revelation that although another driver, who had crashed during the race, died at the track while the race was still being contested, the event was seen through to completion.
And, the three separate headlines to the piece further tell the story of how the driver’s death was valued by editors of the newspaper:
“Louis Meyer Finishes Second in Annual Indianapolis 500-Mile Grind”
“Only 13 Cars of 33 Complete Course”
“Bill Spence, Victim of Crash, Was Trailing Leaders – Car Rolls Over”
Quite incredible!
Image © momentcaptured1 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: 17, 24, experienced motorist, Indianapolis 500, young driver