I didn’t say you said you could bend a key with your bare hands.
;-]
Along with a stain on the seat…
I recall seeing pictures of a soda straw sticking into the bark/trunk of a palm tree after a hurricane. Seemingly weak things can be awful tough under the right circumstances…
I had a guy that worked for me that could rip the Minneapolis phone book in half and not even break a sweat. I don’t know how it came up but he grabbed a book and demonstrated. I thought it was a trick but he grabbed another and did it again. You know, the old style 4 inch books. I’m sure he could handle a key no problem.
The wrench was an off brand. The tire was worn enough that I didn’t repair it either.
Here’s how from I’ve Got A Secret (go to 5:20 for the demo):
;-]
Yeah that’s interesting. He didn’t have any trouble at all though but ripped it the other way. Just held it straight out in front of him and ripped it right in two. I concluded shear strength and a good grip. We were always friends but I’ve never been intimidated by big guys.
Since we’re AGAIN already way off-topic . . .
I like the fact that the teacher supposedly tore the telephone book clean in half on the first day of school . . . that’s something the kids won’t soon forget. At that age, that would seem even more amazing, versus if we seasoned adults were to see somebody do it
Speaking of putting on a show and silencing all critics, I have a good movie recommendation for you guys
“Reach for the sky” . . . an oldie, but goodie
It’s based on the life of an English air force pilot who crashed his plane, several years before the second war, and had both legs amputated. He got fitted with prosthetics . . . obviously very primitive, in those days . . . and was quickly able to figure out how to drive a car. Then he learned to fly again, but the air force didn’t even want to consider him. When the second war broke out, they were desperate for pilots, and he got in, as a squadron commander, I believe. When he arrived at his base, his squadron had heard about him, and assumed he would just be riding desk, not actually flying, due to his legs. On the first day, he had a roll call and told them to just watch. He got in a plane, took off and pulled some maneuvers those other guys could only dream of. They had nothing to say, and were only too eager to learn and follow orders, after that
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Since we are making off track recommendations, sounds like a good book is one on Jimmy Stewart and his days during WWII. It was being talked about on the radio the other night. He was quite a guy and would never allow a book on the war to be written while he was alive because he said he would not profit from the 130 men that he lost. I haven’t read it yet but plan to.
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Hi. Not sure how we got from bending car keys to tearing phone books and movie recommendations…but could you please bring the discussion back to cars? Thanks!
Okay…I will start to make that turn back toward cars by noting that, according to one of Jimmy Stewart’s biographers, he was a REALLY bad driver. Nobody–including Stewart himself–could figure out how/why he was so skilled as a pilot, but so inept and accident-prone as a driver!
Yeah I guess I pushed the limits a little. Just trying to bring it back to cars a little so read if you’re bored. Just popped into my memory again. (By the by, that whole movie is on youtube. Over 2 hours long though so I’ll wait for a rainy day.)
The guy that ripped the phone books did auto repairs on the side. He always worked fast but sometimes got ahead of himself. I had bought a 67 Buick Vista type wagon for hauling stuff while building a house back in 76. It really had some issues but I only paid $250 for it from a girl whose better half had fled and she was just trying to keep the house payments up. At any rate it ran terrible so I had him tear the engine apart expecting an overhaul but he said the bottom was like brand new but had valve problems with heads. Said it looked like the guy started the overhaul job and just stopped when he got to the heads. Charged me $350 which I thought was a little high but still was a little work and machine shop, etc. and ran great after that. (This is back when house payments were $300.)
A couple weeks later it wouldn’t start in the parking lot. No spark and no rotation of the rotor on the distributor. So I towed it to a local shop where he found the cam gear just laying in the bottom. Bolt had evidently never been tightened. Another $80 but still not too bad.
So $250 for the car, plus $350, plus $80, plus tires, plus brakes and MC, plus seat repair, plus a little body work but still not too bad and was a work horse.
What a stupid post.
Yes. Sir Douglas Bader. Quite a story. Since this year old topic has derailed one of my favorite aviation humor stories is a British Airways captain having landed at Frankfurt contacted ground control and requested taxi instructions to his gate. The somewhat snarky German replied: “This must be your first visit to Frankfurt”. The British pilot replied: “Actually I visited Frankfurt several times in 1944 but it was dark and I didn’t stop”.
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Yup!
The Brits carried-out nighttime carpet bombing, while the USAF engaged in precision daylight bombing, thanks to our carefully-guarded Norden Bombsight. Both nighttime and daylight bombing–along with tactical errors on the part of Herr Hitler and his drug-addled compatriots–eventually wore the NAZIs down.
Talk about an inspirational story
After seeing the movie “Reach for the sky” on TCM, I decided I had to buy it the dvd
I can’t imagine driving a car with stick shift with 2 peg legs, much less fly an airplane, while pulling some pretty tricky maneuvers.
I have no flying experience whatsoever, but the movie made it seem like this guy had the will to do just about anything, and then he found a way to do it.
Ben Mankiewicz also mentioned that Douglas Bader was a great golfer in real life, as well
Unfortunately, if the need were to arise again, I doubt any major air force would give a guy with 2 peg legs a chance to fly airplanes, much less fighters. I don’t mean to use that term in a derogatory way, but that’s literally what they appeared to be in the movie. And even though I’m not an expert, I know that prosthetic limbs in the days of Douglas Bader were downright primitive, compared to the technology now available.
Darn it, I just realized this is an old discussion
But I’m not editing my comments 
I just picked up a copy. Looks interesting. I’ve been reading that Artemis book about moon-colony life, but just about done w/it, so Jimmy Stewart is up next.