Tuesday, December 15, 2015

ready yourself.. this isn't going to feel right. It's a gut punch... Pininfarina has fallen on such hard times, they sold 76% of the heavily indebted business to Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group

I warned you. Now, I have nothing against, nor do I know anything about, Mahindra group... other than the obvious. They aren't Italian.

That means quite a bit to me. I think Italian companies, should remain forever Italian. Same with British companies, I'm completely opposed to Rolls Royce being run by anyone but a stuffy prude with an accent that has tea every afternoon, and frequently asks god to save his queen. And those blimey grunts making Jaguars ought to pronounce it wrong so it rhymes with esquire.

That is the way I'm built. I want John Deere to be run by farmers in America, and Mack trucks to be tough as nails and last forever. Harley should always be made in Milwaukee by guys that drink beer made in Milwaukee. Yes, I'm out of touch with times, I still recall when Milwaukee was the beer making capital of the USA

And when Ferrari makes a car, I want to know it has cappuccino fingerprints on it somewhere. It's the way the planet is supposed to move, counter clock wise when viewed from above the north pole. With Italians designing cars no one can afford, but everyone desires

http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/15/autos/mahindra-pininfarina-ferrari-design/

14 comments:

  1. Jesse, I understand your sentiment and I really, really, really hate to tell you this... but the planet rotates anticlockwise when viewed from above the north pole.
    Regards,
    Tony (a stuffy prude with an accent that has tea every afternoon).

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    1. I was very very tired (friends shouldn't let friends blog tired) and screwed that up!

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    2. ha! Tea... did you laugh at that? Or get offended by my vulgarity and mention of the queen?

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  2. Quite alright old chap; colonists are allowed to mention the Queen (always capitalise, please) as well. As an American you can't help your vulgarity of course but we overlook that. Tony

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    1. well, that's mighty sporting of you. We're vulgar because, and I'm just guessing, because we've been fighting bears, and Nazis, and Japanese, and terrorists, and etc etc etc, since day one. No time to sit back and get civilized like you anglo and saxons, or celts or vikings... you've have 2000 years or so since London was founded, and we've had about 400, about 1/5th the amount of time to round off the sharp edges. Some leeway must be given to us cowboy types for our relative youth and vivacity.

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  3. Well, we managed to exterminate our bears (together with wolves, boars and various other species) in the middle ages. I do have to point out though, that we have also fought Nazis, Japanese (SO unsporting of them to attack Singapore from behind), terrorists, etc. However, your final point is well founded. After 2,000 years (give or take the odd civil war, regicide, waves of religious persecution and devouring imperialism) we now have the right to look condescendingly at everyone else.
    Toodle-oo,
    Tony

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    1. yes,. but you had so FEW critters, on the islands, and we have had a continent of them, Polar, Kodiak, Brown, Black, and Grizzly. The English also had the spot of trouble with the Chinese over opium, with the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, which reminds me, the Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese are older cultures than the English. Strange though, that England didn't follow through and colonize China, and make it a territory like India, Canada, and Australia. It would have set the empire to such immense size that it could have then taken over Russia, and Europe.

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  4. My dear chap, this discussion could go on forever. The fact is that we are the natural rulers of the world*, hence the name GREAT Britain. It's perfectly understandable if you feel a little vexed about this but don't worry, we're used to people feeling envious; that's why that little upstart Bonaparte used to refer to us as "Perfidious Albion" until we took the cane out of the cupboard and gave him a damned good thrashing.
    Chin Chin,
    Tony
    *subject to current temporary setback

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    1. subject to temporary setback... you slay me! That's hilarious! (Oh, and Chin chin, very funny too... rubbing that in the nose of the Chinese?)
      You are a hoot to chat with, Illegitimi non carborundum

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  5. Hi Jesse,
    Following my earlier xenophobic comments; I don't know if you're familiar with the Noel Coward song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMlyT_Sb7sg ), but it contains the line at 1:30:
    "It seems such a shame when the English claim the earth,
    that they give rise to such hilarity and mirth".
    I assume Coward was being ironic when he wrote it but there were plenty of English people before WW2 that would have taken the line at face value.
    If you don't know the song it's worth listening to; the lyrics are brilliant, especially sung in Coward's cut glass accent.
    Regards,
    Tony

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  6. Hi Jesse,
    Thank you for your kind comments. If I can offer a little return for all the pleasure your site has given me I'm delighted.
    I'm not sure where Chin Chin comes from. It's usually a drinking toast like "Down the hatch" but also gets used (at least in a P G Wodehouse fantasy upper class England) as a general salutation. I'm saying all this on the assumption that it's not an expression used in the U.S. It certainly sounds like it should be Chinese but I vaguely remember it to have an Italian origin, something to do with Cinzano. Lets face it, we've trampled on so many other cultures in the past it could have come from anywhere.
    Did you know that there's one Maldivian word in the English language? Just to be spiteful I'll leave you to guess it.
    Regards,
    Tony

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    1. HA! I love that... one, and to be spiteful I'll let you try and guess it... that is some cool trivia though, now I have to look it up

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  7. That's the one. I heard about it when we went on holiday to the Maldives some years ago. Wonderful place; unfortunately it's nearly all destined to disappear as the sea levels rise.
    Happy Thought.
    Tony

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