Epic WTF

There’s loads more, like the time my mum got caught up in a shady deal between a newly-minted oligarch trying to flog a decommissioned nuclear sub for titanium scrap to a British ‘businessman’, resulting in the aforementioned spiritual healer who was brokering the deal getting assassinated in a drive-by.

He then got excommunicated from the Soviet party and almost sent to a gulag for believing he was doing the right thing in exposing corruption by the apparatchiks embezzling machinery from the steel processing plant where he was an engineer, and was forced to work as a PR agent for a spiritual healer, and as a smuggler of cars and parts from Europe.

Poor bastard!

When I was about 12, we drove to Poland in my father's brand new Hillman Hunter. The advice was to remove the wiper blades if we parked up anywhere, as they would get nicked - not that they would fit any Polak motor.

Should have gone to Iran in the Hilman Hunter, it’s where the production lines ended up

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paykan

When he died a couple of years ago, I ransacked his secret stash of documents, and found leaflets for the ‘spiritual healer’ which my grandad designed, claiming he could cure Down’s syndrome by the power of “white Jewish magic”.

Any idea what his attitude was to this guy?

He didn’t talk about it to anyone, my family only pieced together clues. He was a very proud and stoic man, fully cucked by Soviet ideology. His world came crashing down when he got fucked over by the deeply corrupt state.

Blimey! Every day's a school day.

No judgement, but part me likes (is that the right word?) to see that corruption and dodgy socio/psychopaths are everywhere.

https://www.johnlewis.com/seletti-jobby-the-cat-table-lamp-black-white/p112764418

Jobby can travel from room to room like any typical feline. He is rechargeable and his eyes light up when you push his magic gold-coloured button.

Just wait until you see where that gold-coloured button is placed.

Linky no worky.

3 seconds to google: https://www.johnlewis.com/seletti-jobby-the-cat-table-lamp-black-white/p112764418

Everywhere there are people.

The book I linked to above played a key part in turning me into a history nerd with a special intrest in what we don't hear about other cultures. It's old history now, but if you wanted some insights from a sympathetic Western observer on that vanished society, it's not a bad place to start.

Extra WTF north of the border for the name Jobby

It’s not even north of the border
It’s a common term

I used to know a guy from Soviet East Germany. He left school to do an apprenticeship as a stonemason. There was a poster of a Golf Cabriolet on the back of the toilet door. Every day he'd sit staring at it. He decided he had to be in the society which had such things. So he volunteered for military service. He knew he would be conscripted eventually, but by volunteering as a teenager and presenting himself as a faithful Communist he was able to choose which bit of the army to serve in. So he joined the border guard. He learned where the mines were and was able to cross the border. (One of his colleagues also tried, but stepped on a mine.) He got to New York just when there was a craze for rich people to have a custom stone fireplace in their apartment. Not many people had his stonemasonry skills so he made a ton of money. One of his customers asked him to go to Florida and supervise the building of a beachfront mansion. One mansion job led to the next. His last mansion was on a private island. He stayed on to manage the island, which is when I met him. A nice cushy job with a free house, a company pickup and a company boat. He had quite a firearms collection (including a Kalashnikov) and plenty of space in which to shoot them.

But no Golf Cabriolet?

I forgot to ask whether he ever drove one. It wouldn't have suited him, he was too big and beefy. F150 plus a Glock in the waistband...that was his style.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/dec/06/dining-across-the-divide-im-not-anti-cyclist-im-anti-cyclists-who-ignore-red-lights-and-drive-three-or-four-abreast-in-front-of-me

Lisa, 44, Surrey
Occupation Police and crime commissioner for Surrey

I know it’s not great but it would never be a political priority for me to give cyclists better infrastructure, particularly when they don’t contribute in vehicle taxes.

I’m not anti cyclist. I’m anti the full-Sky-replica-kit Sunday cyclists who ignore red lights and drive three or four abreast in front of me.

Erm... "Police and crime commissioner for Surrey"

There is no hope.

It's Team Ineos, not Sky.

You would think she could at least to try to find out how roads are funded before making herself look like a fucking idiot in the national press.

Why. A Tory police and crime commissioner doesn’t need facts, just feelings.

One could extend that statement to most Tories.

You are Dennis skinner aicmfp

Ironically, Skinner is a reknowned Brexit Leaver, which was the biggest recent example of tories disregarding facts to favour their feelings.

True, was going more for his Tories are crooks comment.