July 19

 

Towel boys:

Beauty before you were born:

Aston Martin DB5 1964

This is the British car (same year and model) used in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). In the movie, Sean Connery drove one (painted Silver Birch) across the Furka Pass in Switzerland. Your blogger confesses that he once drove a rented BMW convertible along the same route some ten years ago, inspired by a late night TV screening of Goldfinger, the third James Bond film. There was roadside snow in early July. No lie.

In 2020 Aston Martin delivered all 25 of its limited run of Goldfinger reproduction DB5s, each hand built and costing more than $4 million per car. Each one included all of the gadgets concocted for the film: a rear smoke screen delivery system, a rear simulated oil slick delivery system, revolving license plates front and rear, simulated twin front machine guns, a bullet resistant rear shield, front and rear battering rams, a simulated tire slasher and a removable passenger seat roof panel. More details:

https://spyscape.com/article/25-aston-martin-goldfinger-007-db5s-worth-115m-sell-out-in-record-time

BTW: For the connoisseur, DB stands for (Sir) David Brown (1904-1993). Brown was a British polo-playing, fox-hunting industrialist who was declared “Aston Martin President for Life”, a title he held even after he sold the company. He also bred racehorses, was a certified pilot and owned a ship-building firm and a factory that produced tractors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage:

Jeffrey Hunter

actor 1926-1969

According to bisexual actor Sal Mineo, Hunter engaged in same-sex activity. Hmmm...

Lament for a broken nation...

Your blogger attended a wedding last weekend, and about half the attendees were wearing masks. Those who did not trash talked those who did. Not surprisingly, those who did not were Trump supporters, repeating the lie that the dangers of wearing masks outweighed the risks of catching Covid. For me, hearing those comments cast a pall over the entire affair.

Our democracy cannot survive with a deliberately misinformed citizenry. There are too many people who are convinced that Trump won the 2020 election (false), that Ukraine was the aggressor against Russia (false), and that masks are a bigger health hazard than COVID (false, and it’s a good thing that the doctor who delivered you did not have a similar attitude). These lies cannot be allowed to stand. Those who just make up stuff and spew hatred cannot be allowed to prevail by hiding behind claims of “free speech”. Free speech is a right that needs to be earned, and our media must be held accountable when they deliberately spread misinformation.

My apologies for this rant, because I know you came here for the pictures of sexy men, not my political opinions. So just keep scrolling down.

Your blogger, Terry