Rising Nucleotides

Exotic and German

In my profession, I see odd vehicles on the highway, from time to time. Oddly enough, the odder the vehicle, the less often I see one of its type. A Ferrari will pop up, a couple of times a year. I followed a Maserati, once, in Buffalo. That, though, is the usual sort of exotic car.

Recently finding myself in Fairport, I noted a strange car traveling in the other direction. Some sort of German military vehicle? No, not quite, I decided. Then it hit me (figuratively speaking), what it must be, unlikely though it seemed... and a look at the tail of the car as it passed confirmed...

This one still floats

It was an Amphicar, that ultra-rare floating car from the 1960's, as the twin propellers made undeniable.

Looking it up in Wikipedia, I see that it is, indeed, German. "Designed by Hanns Trippel, creator of the war-time Schwimmwagen." Browsing to the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, I found that it was a an amphibious military vehicle, so the aesthetic feel of a German jeep was, perhaps, not entirely inappropriate. We're not used to seeing civilian amphibious vehicles, which no doubt contributed to such thoughts.

Apparently, fewer than 4,000 Amphicars were produced, and I am highly confident that I had not previously seen one in person. You might ask, then, how I knew what it was. Well, back in the misty mists of history (the latter half of the 1980's), I had regular access to automotive performance magazines such as Hot Rod and Car Craft. One or the other of these publications had a tiny article, giving a capsule history of the Amphicar, with a couple of black-and-white photos. I was reminded of its existence, several years ago, by an appearance in a television commercial for something utterly unrelated, like Pizza Hut, or something.

The phrase "you don't see that every day" may be trite, but it is accurate.

Avast, Ye Scurvy Landlubbers!

It bein' Talk Like a Pirate Day, and all, I figured to scour me blogospheric links for the occasion. I found two sites that would be fittin', but I hain't visited either o' them lately... verily, um, 'oops.'

Yarr!

Anyway, first up is Corsair the Rational Pirate, who weighed in yesterday with a piece which properly displays his practiced disdain for irrational morons. Aye, and if only we could get 'im to abandon the good ship Blogspot...

Scott, over at Pirates! Man Your Women! talks of preparin' for hurricane Isabel, which seems right timely to me at the moment. There's something of a blow goin' on out there, even though the closest body o' water suitable for piracy be Lake Ontario. I suppose the Erie Canal might do in a pinch... Yes, that's it-- "I'll send ye to DeWitt Clinton's locker! Arrr!"

As it happens, Talk Like a Pirate Day is my kind of holiday. I rather like speaking in an odd manner, and have a thing for Renaissance Festivals to boot. O' course, bein' encouraged to talk like a pirate by a bonny lass hasn't dampened my enthusiam in the least, but that wasn't necessary. It just helped. Yarr!

If you find that actually talking like a pirate is too much work, and you know what a stereotypical Canadian accent sounds like, then I have discovered a way to cheat. Affect the accent, and then say "arr" whenever you would normally use "eh." As in "This grog is pretty good, arr?" or "Tune it to TVO, arr?" I mean, really-- there were probably some Canadian pirates at some point. If I have any readers North of the border, I hope they'll take that in good fun.

Weigh anchor! We sail fer Lockport, me hearties, n' I figure we can make this a toll canal by nightfall!