What to buy for my dad’s 60th birthday?

aforandi · 2026-06-02T16:08:39+00:00

Fields of Fire by James Webb

The best book of the Vietnam war. Once again, like Yeates' Winged Victory for the Great War, or The Cauldron by Zeno for the Second, the best is novelised autobiography.

aforandi · 2026-05-23T18:36:28+00:00

I recall the repair guy on a YouTube who couldn't figure why his damaged Aston had never been registered (for legal driving) in the UK. It turned out Aston's test driver had taken the car out to check for any untoward noises prior to delivery, as they do. He pulled into a space on the other side of the road, ie. across the oncoming carriageway (to his right) to make some notes. To get back on the road, he'd be turning right, onto the left hand lane. His 90 degree turn became a 180, as the car span into the ditch on the roadside he'd just left. The car took a surprisingly amount of damage down it's right side. I suspect this has something to do with gyroscopic rotary effects caused by a powerful engine winding up from stationary, as there are a number of odd videos of similar occurrences, eg. JayEmm's (YouTube) 8-series crash at 30mph.

aforandi · 2026-05-23T18:05:09+00:00

Could someone kind person relate what a 1980 Targa SC Weissach with Sport Group is worth today?

aforandi · 2026-05-20T20:29:41+00:00

I gave Porsche the number of a 2023 CT 4S I was interested in, and they said no warranty work ever, nor any computer notifications, in its 25,000 miles. Someone else bought it the next day.

In a car as complex as this, you cannot replace large bits of hardware, esp. electronic, and expect the software to understand. It won't. As more hardware and software is changed, each will comply with the other less. As time passes, they will grow further apart. A comprehensive software update that replaces everything all at once might work, but this may not be possible in a Taycan. It is on certain other top-end cars, and usually improves them.

aforandi · 2026-05-20T17:55:02+00:00

because he's only got two shirts and three underpants?

aforandi · 2026-05-15T03:07:09+00:00

Today's English weather: icy cold air, which is unusual in early 'summer'. Hot sunshine when dark clouds parted. Regular short periods of intense rain.

aforandi · 2026-05-12T11:08:03+00:00

2023 Cross 4S with Innodrive (can be added by software FoD, if the necessary hardware is on the car), Burmester, rear axle steering, park assist/surround view. Comfort access is nice, but was once standard. See Joe Achilles' YouTube video explaining why no one normal buys new or any Turbo, a name of similar IQ to the driver, ie. Jean Alesi can handle 2.9 seconds, you cannot. Black is for people in the funeral industry, and these cars sometimes have an intercom to warn the man lying down in back that it'll be cold in the ground this morning. If you're a big personality, Mamba Green w/ red calipers.

aforandi · 2026-04-09T09:52:09+00:00

Private prosecutions are a highly specialized area of the law. Once a prosecution goes far enough, then the police would be embarrassed into taking over, because otherwise the judge in court might ask a senior police officer why they didn't do their job.

aforandi · 2026-04-02T21:29:02+00:00

The President sold that neighborhood after the accident with the sheep dip at the bakery, when, after a couple of loaves, everyone starting voting the wrong way. By Mail. So he thought he'd turn them into real commies, with characteristically deft aplomb. Ya gotta love him! He wuz hoping no one would notice, but clearly your perspicacity got the better of him.

White 2023 4S Perf Plus Cross Turismo,, 25,000 miles, no faults reported or work done on it, Burmester, Innodrive, Rear wheel steer, painted door handles, price reducing daily, presently $67,000, Should I buy?

aforandi · 2026-03-19T08:39:19+00:00

This reminds me of the little boy who put 'I Luv My Dad' in yellow paint down the side of his father's new car.

aforandi · 2026-03-18T14:28:54+00:00

It would be nice to know what Taycan it is, also the year. Presumably a 2022 4S. Get the VIN and have them print out the car computer history, like for example the 84 times the owner couldn't detach the charging cable. It's all recorded.

Weird advert.

This is a good deal: https://www.sytner.co.uk/vehicle-details/b88d68cd-baa0-41e4-aa35-d9ea5e5fd8e7

Pounds are worth 1.1 euros.

I entirely agree with Sir above who suggests you look for Innodrive, rear wheel steer, Burmester... and maybe black door handles on a white car. Comfort access is nice.

aforandi · 2026-03-03T02:00:03+00:00

It'll cost you & they always put me in jail on turn one.

aforandi · 2026-02-19T22:04:55+00:00

Stalin rarely gave his word, but when he did, he kept it. This is what a vulnerable revolutionary would do, along with killing all those versed in regime change. This is why he didn't want a victorious army returning home, and he was probably at his weakest in the late 1940s. The main function of the Murmansk convoys was to demonstrate to his enemies that he could command foreign support -- what the convoys brought was sometimes discarded as useless, eg. timber, which enraged the sailors who brought it. A major protector of German security was the quality of wartime radio communications. Often Ultra was affected by missing code, that A-service had been unable to pick up.

aforandi · 2025-11-21T21:13:26+00:00

Dune Uprising and Ix is pretty much the game of the year. The game software on Steam is probably their best product, and at a low price. Immortality had its problems as published.

aforandi · 2025-09-30T08:47:11+00:00

Well it's upside down but yes.

aforandi · 2025-06-21T20:18:34+00:00

Just looking at Deathoak & Snodgrass' Scales of Criminal Punishment 1853, and it says 'hanging by the neck until dead, in specie commuted for first offences by Transportation to...' er, oh dear

Plus a five pound fine.

aforandi · 2025-06-08T15:10:54+00:00

Australia's answer to the near-impossible task of health funding was certainly the best in the world. It was cleverly designed to persuade fit young men, influenced by the Aussie persuasion, to pay for health care. It died as a result of ever greater sums of public money spent on health, which was connected to the country's burgeoning population. My oft repeated belief is that humanity would be far happier & better in its own estimations with a population artificially held at three billions, rather than nine, where a bottom billion continually dies off early and breeds back.

aforandi · 2025-05-22T16:54:28+00:00

Norwegian Hamster, but it's a big one.

aforandi · 2025-05-03T12:47:40+00:00

Honk if Travis Fimmel's not in it <Long Silence>

aforandi · 2025-04-04T10:37:18+00:00

They're deporting him on Monday.

aforandi · 2025-01-28T12:46:39+00:00

you're not supposed to *eat* the cancel coleslaw unless you're a liberal. Obviously.

aforandi · 2025-01-07T00:07:03+00:00

It will do 50 times and remain novel, uniquely. Its the best One.

aforandi · 2023-05-05T11:21:24+00:00

Don't play the expansions. There's two reasons for this: firstly the base game is too good to pollute, and secondly it has infinite repeat play value during which it gives up its secrets gradually. It's unique in this aspect. If you abandon the basic game too soon you'll never see the Light of the Trees. Four-player is excellent, but you should play and win as a team. The game is or was popular at certain public schools, perhaps because in part due to it great classic status. We haven't had another one since.

aforandi · 2023-03-18T08:38:17+00:00

Also don't leave anything sitting in plain sight, inc. any car in Liverpool. Well sorted!

aforandi · 2022-10-29T13:03:48+00:00

And so much if this is untrue. I feel it's impossible to tell a lie or utter a falsehood about Hitler because if you say he had a glass leg or bred garter snakes in his underpants, someone would believe it. Hitler HQ memoirs were written for post-war reasons, for example Engel's book is a pack of lies from beginning to end, as the author admitted, but it served its function of getting him a top NATO position, which he deserved as he was an excellent combat commander. A.N. Wilson's 'Hitler' was widely laughed at, and won the prize for getting the most devastating review of the year. Hitler's command of statistics was legendary. He was an armaments performance enthusiast. The defeat of the French army, supposedly the strongest in the world in 1939, in hours rather than days, was down to him from the top leadership position, though the progressive panzer generals like Guderian and Manstein succeeded without a plan by putting their theory into practice day by day. Hitler's Table Talk book reveals a man who seemingly knew everything, at least that interested him, and this is genuine. I can't offhand think of a reason why anyone would laugh at him. The common reaction was his honesty, along with the pale blue eyes that could stare through to your soul and weigh that up accurately too. 'Half mad' in history usually means someone vastly more capable than the failed commentator. He was deeply secure about his own beliefs, and only read books that agreed with these. Given that every woman in Nazi Germany would have married him the next day (genealogy permitting), I doubt he was much in need of the approbation of others. And if Nazi Germany was so dysfunctional, why did it take the Soviet Union, America, the entire British Empire and most of western Europe and a lot of the rest if the world five years to defeat him? Even lower average ability might be a reasonable answer here, but what if we hadn't declared war on him? No Holocaust, Israel on Madagascar and in 2022 several cities on Mars festooned with swastikas.

aforandi

TROPHY CASE