rivercityvibe   “Puerile, smutty, schoolboy nonsense” – My Mom

The global economy is tanking, people are hurting and many are blaming capitalism. Against this backdrop, I received an email warning from Donald Twain, a member of the rivercityvibe faithful who lives in Miami, imploring me to warn my readers to avoid London, England at the end of this month. It appears that the great unwashed are mobilizing on an unprecedented scale to disrupt the upcoming meeting of G20 Finance Ministers.

Difficult to see how this will help, but. hey, it’s shaping up to be quite a spectacle! Civil disobedience is always fun. Especially when viewed from the baseline. Click on this picture of some cardboard Horsemen of the Apocalypse to be taken to the G20 Meltdown site:

Someone's a craft hobbyist (or Kindergarten teacher)

So, there I was, in a $600 silk shirt, $300 sunglasses, $600 Gucci loafers, cruising in a Rolls Royce Phantom, through Central London on the day of the May Day protests.  You might remember the sit-in on parliament square where they put a turf mohawk on Churchill’s statue?  Anyway, I was oblivious to the events of the day – I never read the news, watch TV, or listen to the radio when I’m abroad. This resulted in something of a Louis XIV moment when I found myself face to face with a verminous lynch-mob  of dog-on-a-rope types looking for the nearest  aristocrat to guillotine. I rapidly engaged reverse and J turned the battleship. Naturally I took out a couple of hippies with the car door on the way past  – to calm my nerves…..

He adds,

It is going to kick off in London, next week. You and I are better off in Florida. A friend emailed to say he’d seen a asshole in a convertible 911 turbo this morning heading into the city and had to resist the urge to spark up and hurl one of the collection of Molotov cocktails he’d been saving for the occasion………

I look forward to watching the festivities unfold on TV…….

Some Australian boffin has unearthed some pretty interesting film footage dating from 1904, which shows people going about their daily business in London, England, 104 years ago. Sky News carries a report. It is, actually, fascinating. But seriously, what’s with the headgear? I have watched this four times trying to spot a single person without a hat. There is not one. In the WHOLE OF LONDON.

To give local context, this was three years after the great Mossfire and 39 years after the end of the War of Northern Aggresssion. Man had already walked on the moon 39 years ago from today.