Tag: British

Stranger battleships than British ones, and other odd stuff

September 5, 2016

I posted a year or two back about some of the oddest British battleships ever built – engineering weirdness that always had a rational explanation but ended up creating some very strange and quirky vessels indeed. I was careful to specify ‘British’ because their oddities were actually quite sane by comparison with designs concocted by … More Stranger battleships than British ones, and other odd stuff

A few random thoughts on Putney Piddleboms and other classic British cars

March 6, 2015

I have never understood how it was that, back in the 1930s, Americans built proper cars with decent motors and cool names like Packard Super 8, or Lincoln LeBaron v12 convertible. Whereas the British insisted on constructing vehicles out of Meccano and four-cylinder biscuit tins, with brand names like the Chumley Chinless Mk I or the Dribley Allegretto. All … More A few random thoughts on Putney Piddleboms and other classic British cars

The top strange battleships of the world. Strange? I mean British.

January 9, 2014

Yesterday I listed the top five Google strings that found my blog. Not on that list was a string that found me a while back – ‘strange battleship designs’. Odd. I didn’t have any listed. Hey – challenge! Although I can’t help thinking about the foolishness of nineteenth and early twentieth century thinking that uplifted … More The top strange battleships of the world. Strange? I mean British.

Kiwi English – was American, then British, now American

August 31, 2013

English is a funny language. Take American and British English. Totally different spellings, word choices, phrasing and styles. Yet we can all understand each other perfectly. Everybody knows what the word ‘twerk’ means, for instance, especially this week (I had to look it up, but hey…) Here in New Zealand we use British English, but … More Kiwi English – was American, then British, now American