Cronometer

Cronometer Calorie Counting Program

I am trying to lose weight, again. For me, it's entirely psychological. Perhaps if I had an all consuming hobby or project, I wouldn't eat so much, but as it is, eating is one my favorite things. I have managed to lose some weight before. The only thing that seems to work as far as losing weight is if I write down everything I eat. That isn't too onerous. I did it for a while. But then I would look up the calorie content of the food and enter the data into a spreadsheet and that took time, so much time that this project fell by the wayside and since then my weight has climbed back up to 250 pounds.

escali digital kitchen scale

Spring has sprung and I am making another go of it and this time younger son recommended Cronometer. I have a Chromebook I keep in the kitchen so I can enter what I eat right there. The program works pretty well. It seems to know all about all the foods and has 47 different ways of measuring them, so you can pick whichever one works for you. I use an escali scale to weigh everything. My wife bought it a while back. I considered it a frivolous purchase, but it, along with Cronometer and my Chromebook enable me to keep track of what I eat. We shall see how long I can keep this up.

Italy 1948 Part 3

1972 Moto Guzzi Ercole tipper trike - David van Mill

I've seen three wheel motorcycles before, but never a motorcycle dump truck. Stu spotted one at a local old timer's car show.

The Italian motor vehicle manufacturing business seems a little odd. Moto Guzzi, famous for high performance motorcycles, also produced this three wheeled dump truck. Lamborghini, famous for their low slung supercars, also builds tractors. This would be like International Harvestor building race cars or Farmall building motorcycles.

Moto Guzzi built Triporteurs from 1928 till 1980, which just happens to include 1948, the year when we (the Americans) were mucking about trying to keep the Communists from coming to power in Italy.

Toyota Century

2018 Toyota Century

Poking around, I come across a story about some guys working on an old Toyota Land Cruiser with a Toyota V-12 engine. What? A Toyota V-12? Really? I've heard of Toyota (of course), and I have heard of V-12 engines, but I had never heard of a Toyota V-12.

Seems the engine comes from the Toyota Century, a limousine built for the Japanese market. Originally it had very low power output as the goal was to be smooth and innocuous.

Toyota Century Fenghuang Badge

The strangest part is the weird bird emblem that comes with it. It it ever shows up on a car built for the American market you will know that the Japanese have won the war.

Tulips

Gainbrige Tulips Commercial 2019 from David Eeles on Vimeo.
I don't know nuttin' 'bout Gainbrige, but I enjoy their story about Tulip mania.

Basketball History

The Greatest Basketball Team You’ve Never Heard Of | The Goodyear Akron Wingfoots
This ad, or something like it, played during the game last night between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets. The winged foot comes from the Roman god Mercury and was the trademark of the Goodyear tire & rubber company before their basketball team got started. It's a sure fit for the basketball team. The Akron Wingfoots disbanded during WW2 due to the shortage of men.

The Blazers won last nights game, though it took FOUR overtime periods to get there, something that hasn't happened in the NBA since 1953. The game started at 7:40 and didn't end till 11:10, which means it lasted three and a half hours. Both teams are getting pretty beat up with falls and collisions resulting in bruises, strains and sprains. Several players clocked a full hour of playing time which has got to be exhausting given that the average time on the floor is more like 20 or 30 minutes.

The power of internet people

1927 Chrysler

In the Middle of the Right is working on an old car and chronicling as he goes:

So I commented below that I needed a distributor drive gear for the '27 Chrysler.
And someone commented and pointed to a gear set that was available at, believe it or not, JC Whitney.
and, while that ISN'T the correct gear, I called the listed manufacturer, who didn't have the right gear, but suggested a third party, who pointed me to a fourth, who gave me the number of a FIFTH party, who ACTUALLY HAD THE GEAR.
It'll be here Monday or Tuesday.
Many thanks to commenter "Knucklehead" for the help.

I've never heard of a distributor gear wearing out, but then I've never worked on anything that was older than dirt.

I remember we used to get JC Whitney catalogs, actual printed on paper catalogs. They had everything you could possibly need for your car, and a lot of stuff that nobody needed. I bought a couple of things from them, but it didn't work out.

Italy 1948 Part 2

Ninotchka (1/10) Movie CLIP - Don't Make An Issue of My Womanhood (1939) HD
A couple of weeks ago I posted a bit about werewolves and the defeat of the Communist Party in the 1948 elections in Italy. Today we have a post by Scott Grønmark about Greta Garbo and James Angleton and the same event.

The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton

"Angleton... interrupted one embassy meeting in Rome in early 1948 to ask Ambassador James Dunn if he might offer an idea...
"I thought," he began mischievously, "we might take advantage of one of America's greatest natural resources: Greta Garbo...I realise she once belonged to another country," Angleton said, "but I believe by now we're justified in claiming her as our own. So I suggest we import one of her best pictures. " he paused. "I'd like to expose the Italians to Ninotchka."...
Ninotchka... was a comedy in which Garbo spoofed Stalinist Russia. The ambassador ratified Angleton's proposal on the spot. Actually,  Angleton wasn't the only wise guy with this idea. The Hollywood studios had printed extra copies of Ninotchka and made special arrangements to show the film in Italy as a way of contrasting golden America with ravaged Russia. At the end of the meeting, Agleton supposedly quipped , "Miss Garbo will prove a most lethal secret weapon."
And so she did. The Christian Democrats emerged from the election of April 1948 with 48% of the vote and an absolute majority in parliament."

So was it Greta's light touch, or the CIA's heavy hand that tipped the election? Hard to tell at this distance which one had a larger effect.