Johnny Not-So English

January 28, 2022 Kim du Toit Architecture, Modernism

Rowan Atkinson has reportedly finally moved into his ‘space age petrol station’ mansion after a decade-long planning row with neighbours. The Blackadder star, 67, initially bought the 1930s quaint English home – known as Handsmooth House – and its 16 acres of land for £2.6million in 2006.

He shocked locals in the charming seventh century village of Ipsden in Oxfordshire when he knocked it down and installed a modern 8,000 sq. ft. glass and steel mansion designed by top U.S. architect Richard Meier in its place.

Oy. From this:

…to this:

Now I’ll grant you that House #1 needed a lot of restoration. And I’ll also grant you that House #2 is located where nobody can see it (at least from the road).

But seriously?

I note, by the way, that he has ample space to park his supercar collection:

Small wonder that it took him ten years to get permission to build this dropping of visual excrement. It should have taken longer.

As Opposed To…?

January 28, 2022 Kim du Toit Numbers & Statistics

Saw this at Insty’s a while back:

U.S. records most unprovoked shark attacks in 2021

…which leads me to ask: who the hell would provoke a shark attack?

I report, you decide.

Quote Of The Day

January 28, 2022 Kim du Toit QOTD

From the Z Man:

“It takes special skill to make it to the Senate. It is one of the best jobs in politics. You do very little, you get massive bribes, and you get to live outside the law. As a result, it is a great job, which means it attracts the worst people in politics.”

H.L. Mencken and Ambrose Bierce would heartily approve.

Caption Competition #214

January 28, 2022 Kim du Toit Captions, Friday Feature

All captions welcome…

Lists

January 27, 2022 Kim du Toit General

Longtime Reader Newt F sends me the following question:

Yesterday I was online and followed a link to “Top Gun Blogs,” and I was surprised that you weren’t even in the Top 50. Given that a lot of your readers (including me) would think that you should be, why is that?

Thankee for the compliment, but I don’t think that I can call myself a “gun blogger” anymore, and probably lost the appellation when I switched over from the Nation of Riflemen to The Other Side Of Kim; and certainly, this latest manifestation of mine, Splendid Isolation, is even further away.

Although if you click on “The Gun Thing” category on the right hand side of this page, you will find over 90 pages of gun-related posts (about five posts per page, good grief), it’s worth noting that jokes and such (“Funny Stuff”), cars (“Drive Time”) and booze/food (“Food & Drink”) have 80, 30 and 23 pages respectively. Clearly, there’s a lot more than just guns over here, nowadays.

More to the point: volume doesn’t count as much as quality, and I’m not sure that my recent fevered scribblings about guns are even close to the quality of some of my earlier gunny posts.

None of this matters, of course. I have no interest in popularity, nor recognition of my writings. I write for myself, on topics which interest me, and any following I may accrue in so doing is simply a happy concidence.

And you’re all welcome on this back porch of mine. Just mind yer manners, handle yer guns with respect, don’t spit baccy juice on the floor, and all will be well.

Cheers, y’all…