"Apparently, the horse-drawn caravan is now nostalgia, and, so, you can enjoy it on holiday.   https://irishhorsedrawncaravans.com/Caravan.htm"

"I lived in Ireland in the early 1990's, and the third picture - the cylindrical one - brings back memories.  Back in the day - maybe now, I don't know, who knows - there were travelling people - known as "travellers" or "tinkers," or what Americans would think of as "gypsies" - and I was only aware of them from the television, except that, when I lived in a small seaside town north of Dublin, one morning I walked over to the seaside, and saw some cylindrical horse-drawn caravans in the carpark, and, later in the day - about noon - I was in the pub, and told Sean what I had seen, and he said they'll be gone soon, and, later in the day - maybe the next morning - I wandered to the seaside, and, sure enough,  the caravans were gone and the carpark had large rocks piled up in the entrance points, as a "don't come back" message.  So, it's interesting that somebody in Ireland wants to upgrade - make posh - the tiny home.  Has the Celtic Tiger gotten it's claws into the horse-drawn caravan, which was the typical Irish "tiny home."By they way, what's the difference between a "tiny home" and the old fashioned trailer?  Except that, I guess, after Hurricane Katrina, the government seemed to have thousands and thousands of trailers available, except that they were contaminated with formaldehyde.  Oops. I suppose the bad publicity from Katrina's formaldehyde trailers gave people the idea to for "tiny homes" that people made with wood and nails. At the time of Hurricane Katrina, I remember that a Dutch aid group offered a bunch of tents, and they were rejected, with the statement "American's don't live in tents."  Not tents that can be shipped collapsed in bulk, but, rather, in formaldehyde-contaminated trailers that have to be hauled on tractor trailers, and,  once they are discovered to be poisoning the beneficiaries, I think they gave a lot of lawyers the opportunity to sue who knows who.Somebody, of course, got a contract to make all those trailers, and somebody got the contract to store them, and somebody got the contract to haul them, and somebody....And, I think, after the Haiti earthquake, some of the formaldehyde trailers wound up down there, where nobody will sue, and the life expectancy probably make formaldehyde nothing to worry about.I'm glad the Celtic Tiger gave somebody enough money that the old-fashioned horse-drawn caravan will disappear from the Irish landscape, and the carpark from a little seaside town north of Dublin.I'll drink to that.  "

"Got it wrong.  They didn't sit him down on a bench, they flew him in a helicopter.  Stephen Wiltshire - Autistic Savant Artist Draws City From Memoryhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1O_TMTc660"

"I think the term is savant.  In the bad old days, it was "idiot" savant.I remember seeing a report of a young lad from Britain who was brought to New York, and he just sat down on a bench and proceeded to sketch a brilliant rendering of New York.Centuries ago, certain artists produces amazing paintings.  They were surely "idiot" savants.Some of them, I think, were sponsored by the royal and wealthy class.  Obviously, they were head-hunted.   "

"Germans make vans, and Americans make pick-up trucks.  "

"The anti-digital movement has people reverting back to vinyl records.  And, I listen to the great New Orleans radio station WWOZ - wwoz.org - and they recently had their fundraiser, which featured a boombox, and, would you believe it that you can now record cassettes, directly off the radio?!  Maybe that electronic player gadget thingy that you use, too, just in case you can buy cassettes and know somebody with a cassette player so you can share.  https://wwoz.org/member-thank-you-gifts"

"Should have said 9 months after I sent it Pilot, not Pentel."

"I see that you like retractable rollerball pens.I claim to have originated them.  Way back in the late 1980's, I realized that the then-relatively-new rollerball writers - then water-based, not gel-based - didn't dry out.  I put a Bic-brand roller in the oven and gave it some heat, and it still worked.  Left it uncapped for days.  Blah blah blah.  I filed a patent application for a retracting mechanism:    https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0421937A2/en?oq=ininventor:Kent+ininventor:D+ininventor:MurphyI was living in Ireland at the time - moved there from the US, since royalties are/were tax free, but I never got any royalties - and circulated to the various German pen manufacturers.  One well-known maker gave it a long look, and another told me it would dry out.I sent it to Pentel in California, and the Japanese president had me talk to an American, who told me it looked like something in a novelty shop.I sent it to Pilot in Connecticut, and the American running it sent it to Japan.There was a pen shop across the street from Trinity College in Dublin that I would browse through, and, about nine months later from the date I sent it to Pentel, I found Pilot's Explorer rolling ball writer.  https://www.officeworld.com/Worlds-Biggest-Selection/PIL35360/14Q1/I asked the man in the store "Is this new?" and his reply was "They're exploring the market."I re-contacted the German companies - see, look, don't you want to compete with Pilot? - and nobody did.  I returned to the US, and found the Pilot Explorer in a stationery store in West Virginia.I never did see anybody else make a retractable rolling ball writer - water-based - until I see that everybody makes retractable gel-based rolling ball writers.It seems that in the history of retractable writing instruments, there was only one rolling ball writer - the Pilot Explorer.  Certain reverse-engineering characteristic allow me to claim to have originated it.I got no money out of it.  If there is anybody who doesn't believe Murphy's Law is real, take my word for it, it is.  I have a few now-30-plus-years-old Pilot Explorers.  A few months ago, I checked, and they still write.  "

"Some years back, I bought a similar Eton product with excellent design and seemingly excellent features.  I had experience with similar radios from Kaito, but, for some reason, I bought this Eaton radio.  It was being peddled on a radio program I listened to regularly, and, perhaps, I thought I should buy something from them.  Just to say thanks. Looks, in that case, were deceiving.  I don't remember too much, but everything was substandard as regards the ease of use and performance I expected.  I didn't even use it, just reading the instructions made me hate it.  One thing I do remember, though, is that it did not come with the AC adapter that such radios came with at the time, although it had an input socket.  And, beside the socket was the voltage, and it wasn't 12, or 9, or 6, or 5, or 3, which seem to be commonplace; no, it was something like 5.6.So, you couldn't charge it at home, unless you had somebody make you a 5.6 volt adapter.  And, I think the cranking and solar charging times were very poor: very short radio play time for the cranking or sit-in-the-sun time.I packed it up and gave it to Goodwill, and wrote a letter to the company's president, telling him it was less than useless to me - I live in West Virginia - and that, in my opinion, it's only purpose was as a stylish-and-never-hoped-to-be-used accessory for somebody in California to carry around in the boot of their Porsche.After a while, I never heard the radio advertised on my radio station, and I don't know if my letter had anything to do with that. "

"Yellow grips lead to hideous wasteful monstrosity and escape to various islands, surely each with landing strips to land the jet.  From one to the other,  they never know where you are.   "

"It appears that you can't use the toilet if you are cooking, since the stove and sink must be hidden and covered to permit the refrigerator to slide to the right to allow access to the toilet.  Maybe they figure you'll only boil something, which would require only a few minutes, but then you've still got to put the cooking devices somewhere and conceal and slide everything.  But, if your camped, I guess you just go outdoors, with the toilet only serving - essential - as a shower, which, of course, can be planned. If you cooking, and suddenly you  - or somebody - needs to go to the toilet and it's cold or muddy or snowing or raining outside, the really clean and neat Nordic decor lets you know your experiencing outdoor living.  "

"I recently moved to Moundsville, West Virginia, and went walking around the town, looking at the shops, where things were, etc.   There was a mysterious shop with the sign BINS, and I peered inside, and saw just exactly that: rows of bins, with several people looking inside.Got home, and looked it up on the internet, and they had a Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/820438558971430/I went back a day or so later, and went in, to find bins full of all sorts of stuff, some in boxes, some out of boxes.  Price on door: $7 on Friday, $6 on Saturday, and it drops down to 25 cents on Thursday, after which new stuff gets put out for Friday.Absolutely never know what you will find, and have gotten some very useful things for near nothing.  Things that you never knew you needed, but were exactly what you did, in fact, need.  Some things you're looking for, too, of course.  Met with a friend and her grandson - who lives in the town - and he spoke about the store, and said he had heard good things about it, but not so much lately.  He said the people were buying Amazon returns - apparently, it just comes on pallets, and you don't know what you get - and simply putting the stuff up for sale.  But, he said, he had heard that, lately, they had begun putting the good sfuff on Ebay.  "I don't blame them," he said.  Nevertheless, I've found very useful stuff, including food items that I would never think of buying, or even be able to get locally.A week or so ago, I heard this:  "Somebody said somebody found a laptop in here."  Every town should nave an Amazon BINS store.  "