From "Frank Skinner on faith and finally getting married (she said no four times)/The comedian opens up about his alcoholism, the consolation he finds in poetry — and whether he could succeed Melvyn Bragg as In Our Time presenter" (London Times).
There's a new season of "Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast" beginning this week, first episode here. I'm a big fan of that.
Hillman Imp? Apparently some sort of car.
That's Frank's idea of the metaphorical body that contains his soul.
I'm reminded of the George Harrison song: "I got born into the material world/Getting worn out in the material world/Use my body like a car/Taking me both near and far...."
But George didn't name a particular car. Frank named the Hillman Imp. How about you?
Posts
70 comments:
Fiat 500 Abarth.
Iman, you beat me to the Cinquecento!
RR
JSM
Looks like an East German Trabant. There was one--a Trabant, not an Imp--that was a big attraction at the Berlin Wall in 2019.
😎
Definitely a Lesser Vehicle.
1975 Volvo 164E
A Hillman Imp and Lucas Electrics? Get ready for some smokin’…
In The Meaning of Life when everybody at the dinner party dies from bad salmon and Death bids them "Follow Me", they all decide to take their cars rather than walk.
Skip ahead to about 6:30.
https://youtu.be/Afetnw70S04
"Frank named the Hillman Imp. How about you?"
IDK the model, but it definitely has a standard transmission.
The soul is the mind and emotions. Unfortunately most people confound it with the spirit that must be reborn. If not the soul is all you have to go by. But it makes a big industry out of psychology or soul-ology.
"But I didn't eat the mousse."
I've got to thank Althouse for recommending the Frank Skinner poetry podcast. I bounced off it the first time I tried it, but I went back a few months later and gave it another try and now I love it. Still catching up (I have too many things on my "to be listened to" list).
A Red Barchetta
Fiat 500 Spiaggina- a Jolly clone…already got it. I’m ready…
JEREMY: Uh, shall we take our cars?
FIONA: Do we need them?
GEOFFREY: Why not?
ANGELA: Yes. Why not?
HOWARD: [mumbling] ...is my vote.
ANGELA: Good idea.
RANDOM: Yes. Why not?
GUESTS: [mumbling]
RANDOM: Shall we go separately?
[car sounds]
Reminds me of the east European Trabant cars the band U2 had hanging over the stage during the Achtung Baby, ZOO TV Tour.
My body is like a Hillman Imp and my soul is driving it. When I die, I park the car and walk the rest of the way.
The body of the Trabant was largely sawdust, cotton wool and resin and would actually soften in the rain, which made them light and easier to hoist. U2 original manager Paul McGuinness demonstrates
Abarth: a lot of noise, a lot of fun, but caution: may be addicting and may lead to excessive hooning.
Science has nothing but guesses about the mind/body problem. The brain as conduit rather than source of consciousness is as plausible as any other explanation based on what we currently know.
Peachy wins the post with her throwback to a better vanished time....
RR
JSM
Here you go, Peachy:
https://media.carsandbids.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=2080,quality=70/c51905b0000b639a185eeb080dd879bf007f5604/photos/KmVXm5Jx-ResDe8xR7Sr/edit/WL_cF.jpg?t=173553949111
Not sold in the US, but a cool little sportscar.
I'd like to say a Honda S2000.
But in reality, a 1975 AMC Gremlin.
"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
Apparently not C. S. Lewis
Christianity is a physicalized religion, the idea that we become disembodied souls in heaven is popular, but not actually Christian. The ontological dualism in that assumption is gnostic, where physicality is bad, and derives from non-biblical sources. Christianity teaches a Jesus who was resurrected with a physical body. New heavens and a new earth, and all that, with physicality part of Christian ethos now and into eternity.
Amen.
I'm intrigued by non-reductive physicalism, though haven't settled on it for the mind/body/soul problem.
"Apparently not C. S. Lewis"
Further up and further in!
In addition to The Last Battle, The Great Divorce is a really worthwhile read, one of my favorites from CS Lewis.
Like a lot of aging men, I like to see myself as a Corvette Z28 but the reality is a '52 Hudson.
``It may be that the sense of falsification comes from the way I understand the phrase ``have a body.'' It is really a mythological way of saying that I am flesh. But I am not satisfied with this myth, for it implies that I also have something other than a body, call it a soul. Now I have three things to put together: a body, a soul, and me. (So there are four things to be placed: I plus those three.) But I no more have a soul than I have a body. That is what I say here and now. People who say they have a soul sometimes militantly take its possession as a point of pride, for instance William Ernest Henley and G.B.Shaw. Take the phrase ``have a soul'' as a mythological way of saying that I am spirit. If the body individuates flesh and spirit, singles me out, what does the soul do? It binds me to others.''
Cavell _The Claim of Reason_
Cars of my heart:
1965 Mercury Comet I bought for $500 from an old lady who really did just drive it to church. Looking at the prices now, I should have kept that thing.
1972 Dodge Dart. A guy in the neighborhood loaned it to me while he fixed my Camry. There was a smallish hole where the passenger seat should be, but what a ride. You did have to put a quart of oil in every time you drove it. The neighbor would not take a dime for fixing my car. Unfortunately, and unknown to me, he was running a chop shop behind all that kudzu. But he helped a lot of not-well-off people in the neighborhood.
No more Melvyn Bragg?
Just call me Studebaker Hawk.
Complete with a theme song!
Zappa Live At Fillmore East - Studebaker Hoch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8A5wLba370&ab_channel=CrazyDigitalMusic
Pleased to see his list of favorite poems includes one by alexander Pope.
‘55 Chevy. Old school classic, and aging the same way
How about you?
In my mind I’m a Ford GT40 with the 7 litre engine.
hawkeyedjb said...
“Like a lot of aging men, I like to see myself as a Corvette Z28 but the reality is a '52 Hudson.”
Hudson was a serious player in stock car racing back in the early ‘50s. There’s history behind the character of Doc Hudson as a 1951 Hudson Hornet in the original Cars movie.
Bugatti Veyron Mistral. And hell yeah I’m taking it with me.
Tina Trent said...
“Cars of my heart:
1972 Dodge Dart. A guy in the neighborhood loaned it to me while he fixed my Camry. There was a smallish hole where the passenger seat should be, but what a ride.”
In 1972, you could still get the Chrysler 340 engine - a small block that thought it was a big block - in the Dart, although they were already starting to detune them for emissions.
I loved my 4-door 5-speed standard Geo Metro. It allowed me to be small in public.
Smilin' Jack said...
“Bugatti Veyron Mistral. And hell yeah I’m taking it with me.”
A co-worker used to regularly say that you would know if he won the lottery on Friday if he pulled into the parking lot on Monday with a Veyron.
a '64 Impala SS, maybe. Big engine, borderline sporty, but not necessarily high end.
Just like my Ford F-150 - old, beat up, and white. The body (mine, not the truck) is being restored lovingly by orthopedic surgeons.
Any 21 window Westfalia will do.
The 340 is one of the all-time greats of V8 engines!
The soul is the union and expression of spirit in a mortal body.
“a '64 Impala SS, maybe. Big engine, borderline sporty, but not necessarily high end.”
Nice car. ‘64 was a good year for Chevy and Pontiac (e.g., GTO, Grand Prix).
I had an uncle - he lived in Orem, Utah - who had a black ‘63 Impala SS with a 409 and a 4 speed. While on family vacation, my father drove it when he and I went to fish the river up in Provo Canyon. Even at the age of 11, I knew it was a very special car.
I'm a fan of Frank Skinner and I'm grateful to Althouse for introducing me to him.
Iman... I had a friend who had a Keith Black 340. Absolute monster, but he needed aviation fuel.
I also had a neighbor who has a Studebaker Golden Hawk, a small block with a Judson blower, IIRC. Beautiful car.
Yikes, BUMBLE BEE!
somehow I'm thinking of "My Mother, the Car".
Personally I think of myself as a Volvo 122S.
Leora said...
"Personally I think of myself as a Volvo 122S."
Lovely car.
I am a Honda Civic Sport with the optional turbo engine and stick. Not as flashy or performance oriented as a Civic Si or Type R, but at least I don’t have the damned wing.
Pleased to see his list of favorite poems includes one by alexander Pope.
I agree. Here's one that merits contemplation by Readering and his fellow-travelers...
“Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.”
Weird
john mosby said...
“Iman, you beat me to the Cinquecento!”
If it is a late model and comes in orange, you can call it the CinqueCheeto.
Not weird.
Donald Trump is the patient man's reply to a long train of abuses by the enemy occupation government and their left--wing henchmen.
The next time we have to remind the government scum that they are merely our hired help, we won't be nearly so kind and gentle.
70s era Ford Pinto.
I could’ve easily gone with a Fiat X1/9: too old to be reliable, but if properly cared for, a heckuva lot of fun.
My dad’s 1967 Mustang convertible, which I drove during college when home for the summer.
British cars have a sort of reverse cachet. They have a way of being soaked in irony, just for existing, hence have a literary quality just for being mentioned. French cars however have a sort of implied chic, even if, or especially if, they are rather rubbish.
Our very Spanish family, abroad though were mostly were, were, naturally, hopeless anglophiles. Being an anglophile is, ironically (ironies piled high and deep), very Spanish. So of course my dad insisted on owning various Morris Oxfords. Our other car, used for utility and logistical purposes, in a very British way was of course a Renault 4. Yes, in Manila this was eccentric.
Are we predestined for pedestrianism?
So, life is like a street car (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan). You take it where you want to go. And then, there you are.
Hassayamper: weird for several reason, first because it's not even a quote from Pope or one of the other poets mentioned. So you are taking an allusive quote and shoehorning it to make a political point that has nothing to do with the topic except that it is a snippet of poetry.
Lazarus said
...where you... go... there you are
You're thinking of Buckaroo Banzai
Ah, readering, you're right. I see I left some words out that I intended to include. My original post should have said, "Here's one from the same era that merits contemplation"...
https://mayo.short.gy/nux-cashapp-750
Which car would Alexander Pope drive? I say a Jaguar. But I know poetry, not cars. Car knowledge must be forced on me. I most recently bought one of those Kia Serrentos that occasionally explode, leak oil like crazy, and their lobbyists were powerful enough to force through not a recall but a computer chip voice that says you have 40 seconds to get off the road and exit the vehicle. Before the engine explodes.
Stressful on Atlanta freeways.
I'm tempted to go the old easy way my folks went: two-year old Camrys. But I live in the mountains and need a solid SUV. Time to hit the library and read Consumer Reports. Damn I miss that Comet.
All advice appreciated and will be reimbursed by tutoring childred on 18th Century Poetry or fixing plumbing or drywall. Really, the same thing.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.