DANG that's nice construction. Hand-hewn stone. I see a drawbridge so there must be a moat, that explains the castlely height. Nice tweeds too. I had to look up both fellows, not a clue, I never saw the works of either.

That's quite a tandem! Thought I was looking at a modern 650b drop bar conversion at first. Rear d/r on it too! Front chain appears to be running without a retaining idler.

-D.S.

I think (it appears) the front bottom bracket is inside an eccentric for front chain tensioning, just not perfectly adjusted. Notice the spindle is off-center, and the two bottom bolts to lock the eccentric in place.

Me neither, but as soon as I saw the photo I thought "It doesn't get any more Scottish than this" - maybe based on stereotypes about Scotland though...

Stereotypes be damned, when you're in Scotland, you want to know you're in Scotland!

During the Scottish independence referendum, there were greedy self-interests at work, but on the night the vote failed, I saw a Scottish woman sitting on the curb, *weeping*, and I thought, that's not greed, that's concern about loss of *identity*.

The same was true about the Quebec independence movement. But while that failed, it woke up the Canadian national government, and they did what was required for Quebec to maintain their identity, such as learning French FIRST as their native tongue and official language, and since then, I think all prime ministers have been bilingual in English and French. And it worked, Quebec was happy, and maintained the benefits of being part of Canada.

It would be a harder sell for all UK PMs to learn Scottish Gaelic, versus a more world-useful language like French or Spanish as a second language, but if the Scots want all kids to learn it, I wouldn't have an argument. Many native people's languages are in danger of becoming extinct because not given the support to be maintained. Scottish Gaelic is spoken by only 1.1% of the population 3 years and older.

That's an overly simplified view of what actually happened with the Quebecois independence movement. It failed, not on languages, but on politics. Hint: Paris wasn't particularly interested. The michif tinged "french" Canadian patter still generates muted chuckles down by le Seine.

-D.S.

Yeah I wouldn't doubt I have some things wrong, given that I am not a Canadian citizen. Yeah I'm sure the French isn't perfect, which is why some from the area were not hired as French teachers in some places of the USA. In my own French class, the instructor said that words in France needed to be approved by some language academy, or something like that, and that the government frowns on "franglais".

But anyway, that young Scots woman weeping on the curb, that got to me, it just seemed about more than being able to ignore Euro trade limits on fishing and north sea oil rights and such, leading to a tragedy of the commons.

I hope someday to visit the UK, but probably won't happen. My dream would be to just be in an urban flat for several months, buy food and cook it myself, and via my folding bike, explore and learn about the city, instead of just viewing touristy things. But the cost of a very minimal flat, just foldout bed, bathroom, and cookstove, in some place like London, is prohibitive.

Born January 6

Rowan Atkinson

Born January 6

Norman Reedus (with son)
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Born January 6

Eddie Redmayne

Born January 6

Kate McKinnon
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Born January 6

Syd Barrett
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Born January 6

John Singleton
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Born January 6

Tom Mix
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Born January 6

Gabby Reece
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I was in Scotland for a few days in 2018, and while there was a lot of that touristy thing - tartans, bagpipes, kilts, etc. - I felt a genuine "Scottishness" and national pride in many people. As one of them said: "I'm Scottish first, then British, never English!".

Caught The Cotton Club recently. Don't think it's one of FFC's best, but the music and dancing is pretty great. Diane Lane is pretty memorable too. Here she is a handful of years earlier in A Little Romance.

Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice in "And Soon the Darkness" -- 1970


Odette Annable and Amber Heard in "And Soon the Darkness" -- 2010

Born January 7

Nic Cage
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Born January 7

Lewis Hamilton

Born January 7

Jeremy Rener


I heard an interview where Jeremy mentioned that cycling played a big part of his recovery from his snow plow accident, and that he enjoyed the freedom it brought after being so limited by injury. I couldn't find any pics of him on an actual bicycle.

Born January 7

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
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Born January 7

Sammo Hung
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What's that, a Peugeot P-something? Not a UO-8 with the chromed fork (assuming it is chrome, and not paint), and the lack of chrome on the stays rules out a PX-10. That's as far as my limited Peugeot knowledge takes me.

Born January 8

Stephen Hawking
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