Mustang
The
Ultimate Classic...
By
Mood Dude
Nothing beats
a classic Ford Mustang and the reasons are a plenty. A friend of mine
used to complain that the original and super cool '68 Mustang looked
like a Toyota Publica. It turns out that the Publica is a feeble copy
so may his brain fry for overuse of his company's radioactive cell
phone. It's a car that is so cool that ultimately he admitted to its
"coolth" We ended up spotting a black one with purple stripes
in the streets of Dhaka and went after it with our ancient Corolla.
The deal was to try and make a deal with the owner. Unfortunately
it was on the other side of the road and by the time we found an opening
to make a U-turn the car was gone. Then again, all we had was about
500 taka for the first down payment.
Ford's Mustang
was conceived in full knowledge that in the mid-'60s the biggest population
bubble in history was coming of age in America. Baby boomers would
rule the '60s and there was little reason to think they wanted cars
that were anything like their parents' cars. The production Mustang
was shown to the public for the first time inside the Ford Pavilion
at the New York World's Fair on April 17, 1964 two months and nine
days after the Beatles first came to New York to appear on The Ed
Sullivan Show. It went on sale at Ford dealers that same day.
The 1964 1/2 production
Mustang followed two Mustang concept cars. The Mustang I shown in
1962 was a mid engine two-seater powered by a V4. The Mustang II was
similar and these were real funky looking for the 60's. The production
version had to be toned down for matters of cost cutting. It came
out as a 4 seater with parts borrowed from existing cars. It looked
great even though my girlfriend say it looks like a truck.
Compared
to every other American car then in production, except the Corvette,
the Mustang was gorgeously sleek. But that's as far as the good points
went. It came with really pathetic engine choice the lowest of which
had about a 100 horsepower. Not only that the car had drum brakes
which were totally inadequate for stopping. Also the suspension set-up
was horrible for anything other than straight roads but since America
had miles of straight roads this car was perfect.
In the end the
car was affordable, a great looker (totally disregarding opinions
of girlfriends) and fun to drive if the roads weren't narrow and twisty.
Inside it was a lot of basic material but did the public care? Nope.
They bought it in record numbers. Even Ford was shocked at America's
appetite for the Mustang during '65. It sold an astounding 409,260
coupes, 77,079 2+2 fastbacks and 73,112 convertibles that year. That's
a total of 559,451 Mustangs for the '65 model year. That's more than
any other manufacturers sold in a single year.
With that many
Mustangs in the nation's automotive bloodstream, it was natural that
many of them would be raced. But in order to go road-racing head to
head against Chevrolet's Corvette, Ford needed a two-seater. And rules
said that Ford had to make at least 100 of them by January 1965. That's
where Carroll Shelby came in.
Shelby, a Texan
and long-time racer, saw the potential to slay Corvettes with the
Mustang and took 100 of the first 2+2s down to Los Angeles for modification
into "GT 350" models. Tossing the rear seats aside, Shelby
added such performance items as oversize front disc brakes, a fiberglass
hood and a lowered suspension with oversize tires on 15-inch wheels.
It looks a lot like the blue car in the pic above. These are some
of the most sough after cars fetching prices over 50 thousand dollars.
That's about twice the price of the new car.
The car was glorified
by Steve McQueen in the movie Bullit where there was a 12 minute chase
scene. It's still considered one of the best chase scenes ever. The
coolest version of the Mustang was featured in the movie Gone in 60
Seconds. This car my girlfriend loves and surprisingly Nicolas Cage
has nothing to do with it. Girls are weird and mine is the weirdest.
The Mustang stared
losing its charm in the 70's as it grew in size and later the engine
sizes dropped to face the oil crisis. This was the time some of the
most pathetic Mustangs came out but these surprisingly sold well.
This depressing styling continued till the 90's when in 93 an all
new shape came out with styling cues harking back to the old days.
Special editions came out like the amazing Cobra R with 300 horsepower
that came out in only a limited quantity or 250. It was only available
in red and was featured in NFS Hot Pursuit 2. It's a weird name when
you think of it. A Mustang Cobra. Is it a Horse that bites or a snake
that gallops?
This year the
latest incarnation came out and this is exactly like the original
'64 version only cooler. Never thought that was possible. It borrows
styling cues directly form the classics and has power and handling
to match. 300 horsepower is standard for the GT version and options
list reads a mile long. You can have anything you want as well as
personalised instrument panel lighting. Interiors has finally been
changed to something classy with aluminium highlights. Before it used
to have angular plastic surfaces. Optional sound system includes a
1000watt set-up. This is a car I would sell my soul for. It's thankfully
not an exotic but definitely an affordable super car offering great
value for money. Plus my girl loves it.
50
First Dates
Review
by Gokhra
The
Plot: At first glance 50 First Dates is a absurd story. Henry
Roth is a Hawaii-based sea-animal caretaker. The movie begins with
establishing Henry as a love-'em-and-leave-'em liar. He shows female
tourists a great time and then conveniently leaves with stories like
he is gay, married or a secret agent on the run. You excuse his act
for reasons explained later on. Of course all this philandering changes
when he meets Lucy. Ain't love grand!
Cast |
Henry Roth - Adam Sandler
Lucy Whitmore - Drew Barrymore
Ula - Rob Schneider
Doug Whitmore - Sean Astin
Alexa - Lusia Strus
Dr. Keats - Dan Aykroyd |
Drew
Barrymore is Lucy Whitmore, a sweetie pie with a penchant for treating
her breakfast waffles like Leggo blocks when Henry meets her in a
local diner. They meet, play with their food, flirt and get along
great. The next day she has no idea who he is.
Her memory loss
is thanks to a car-vs.-cow accident where she suffers from short-term
memory loss eaning whatever happens each day she has no recollection
the next. When she wakes up each morning, she has forgotten the previous
day and thinks it's the same day of her accident. Amazingly, her father
Marlin (Blake Clark) and brother Doug (Sean Astin), as well as the
workers and customers of the local diner, play along to help her relive
that day over and over. Her father even gives her a copy of that day's
newspaper, and he and Doug watch tapes of the same Vikings game and
"The Sixth Sense" just to keep her on her routine.
The result is
that it's eternally October of last year for the poor girl.
This is the silly
part because heck, they can do all kinds of different things. But
it does create a good opportunity for Sandlers character to play the
good guy by stating the obvious: Gosh, at some point she's going to
notice that time has been passing.
Plus, Henry is
in love with her, so he's got to figure out a way to make their life
work.
After starting
his courtship of Lucy each day from scratch -- the variations are
sweet, extremely funny, stupid, and occasionally all three -- he creates
an explanatory video with which she can start her morning, get over
the necessary trauma, and move on with her life. Its not very believable
but very sweet and that is the movies strong point. There's a real
charm to the notion that a couple might share a first kiss every day.
Of course, all
good things don't last too long so Lucy decideds to break off the
relationship because she is worried that taking car of her is keeping
Henry for following his dreams. So off goes the guy crying his head
off in typical Sandler fashion. But this is not the end.
Aside
from the sweetness there are occassional moments of slapstick comedy
which are sometimes a little difficult to swallow, literally. Take
for example a walrus gushing out all over Sandlers manly looking female
assistant. The reason, she stole Sandlers sandwich. Then there is
Rob Schneider doing his comic stunts as weird Hawaiian stoner who
thinks sharks are gentle creatures that bite only if you poke their
genitals. Yes, he got bitten by one and Sandler the vet patched him
up.
The
verdict: Sandler's movies always have combined juvenile humor
with sentimentality. There's slapstick humor that don't always go
well with some viewers. Sandler does not play his usual no brain cell
character but rather one hat actually comes up with smart ideas. Despite
that this movie takes the amnesia plot from a different angle and
makes it quite interesting. Its worth the ticket price.
Sites
Unseen
By Niloy
Every
once in awhile, I am reminded how amazing and exciting it is to live
at a time like this. Think about it, we're disappointed (and I agree,
I would like to see higher res photos as well) about the quality of
sounds and pictures FROM ANOTHER FREAKING PLANET! (moon, whatever).
Seriously, how cool is it we can take that for granted? These images
of an alien world, with detail, not some blurry photo from space,
are easily available on our computers. I mean, about a hundred years
ago, people were amazed by electric lights, and powered aviation had
just started. From Kitty Hawk to Titan in a hundred years (+/-)? Un-freaking-believable!
Life is good.
Most of the official pictures are in this NASA site: http://tinyurl.com/3naaq
Here's this probe from one world, landing on another, and what does
it see? http://tinyurl.com/4qljj A shoreline! What a wonderful throwback
to the age of exploration here on earth. The coolest thing I have
seen from the great site gathering these open images is a poster combining
and tying together all of the pictures seen so far (2 MB). http://tinyurl.com/52pm3
Oh, and Maddox has his special exclusive picture form the Titan probe,
something "that ESA/NASA doesn't want you to see!" http://tinyurl.com/6j9vo
If you feel overwhelmed by all these links to be typed before you
can visit the sites, go to my blog, niloywrites.blogspot.com. The
whole Sites Unseen and all these links are over there for your "convenience."
Let's now go on with the regular cool links:
Coolest T-shirts on the planet
http://www.t-shirthumor.com/
T-Shirt's humour has some of the coolest and funniest t-shirts in
the planet. Their t-shirts has cartoons on them and goes like these:
"To do list: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, The blue states, Canada",
"Tommy Stick-figure", "not Latte, not Cappuccino, not
Espresso, not De-Caf, just regular, FREAKING' COFFEE! thank you.",
"And an Windows 95 styled loading box titled "Loading humorous
message. Please wait...""
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, makes a comix less fun than writing the
caption down. Maybe reading it aloud is worse. Anyway, the thing is,
the t-shirts are especially humorous. Some of them are rude and offensive,
but rightfully so.
Outdoor Adventure and Exercise section of a bookstore
http://tinyurl.com/5849v
Gaming magazines on the outdoor adventures section? Looks like the
bookstores have finally given up.
Bill Gates Poses for a Teen Magazine spread…http://tinyurl.com/45kvt
Why, Bill? Why? No, seriously… why?
Bow Man
http://tinyurl.com/6ohvb
Fun little game involving two men with bows and arrows, tying to kill
each other. Only 34 kb, this game is a must play. There are some difficult
features in it, and the game can be played with a friend.
Vegetable Cruelty Militant Movement
http://www.vegetablecruelty.com/
"What a terrible sight. This poor fruit is being ripped in half
by an evil primate. Very disturbing..." "Caged in and ready
to be sent off for torturous cooking. These innocent strawberries
don't deserve to die like this! Nobody does." "The world
was shocked when it found mass graves in Iraq. How do you feel about
finding mass graves in your local supermarket each and every day of
the year??" No additional comments.
Compare your height with Celebrities
http://www.ringophone.com/TallOrNot.swf
Enter your height on Tall or Not and you can compare your height to
a long list of famous people.
You can email me at [email protected] or visit my blog at niloywrites.blogspot.com
