The fire in the sky on the fourth of July
Wakes up the holy night
Down on the ground a crowd gathers 'round
Looking up at the light
Holding hands we tap our toes to the band
And take the pledge of allegiance
There's a big wheel up in the sky
Looking down on our flag waving wide and high
Christmas eve we pack up and leave
But there's snow on the pass
It's go man go through the ice and the snow
Leaning hard on the gas
Pray to the heavens and open our presents
And take the pledge of allegiance
There's a big wheel up in the sky
Looking down on our flag waving wide and high
Out on the edge of town our children lay down
Looking up at the grass
The daughters and sons of wars lost and won
Keeping the peace at last
Play taps fold up the flags and we pack up our bags
And hit the road for the holiday
There's a big wheel up in the sky
Looking down on our flag waving wide and high
Big Wheel - copyright 2005 Gosson Bros Racing Library
And what a week it was. To a backdrop of thirty-some million frustrated Egyptians sorting out their jangled democracy experiment, countless hotdog eating contests were waged here in the land of the sleepwalk and the home of the dial tone. Such Yankee ritualism may have been lost on the Egyptians, but was awarded with lead story headlines here at home, right alongside Edward Snowden and just behind George Zimmerman (neither of which will likely get their mug on a Wheaties box). And behind the scenes, history unfolded at the SGE compound, as e-mailed files flew under the NSA radar and the Gosson Bros Racing Library inched closer to opening its doors to a public ravenous for the truth. Sweet justice, all around.
Promoting books is pedestrian enough, but in the process of getting to know Chris and Ray, something very important became instantly apparent: The patter and chatter of these two vastly knowledgeable characters would make nice up-grades for "Click" and "Clack" (obviously ashamed to use their real names!) and their old Car Talk show on National Public Radio. With their New England/Italian accents, Chris and Ray would be plug-and-play replacements, with the huge bonus of actual interesting cars being knowledgeably discussed. I hereby challenge NPR to listen to we the people, who want to listen to them the Motor Mouths..... you know what I mean. C'mon! Who's with me? Before you answer that, listen to them in action for yourself: http://www.motormouthradio.com/ Then, suggest this bolt-in swap to NPR and qualify to win a dream date with Nina Totenbag!
The moving boxes are still being uncrated at the new SGE World Headquarters. Many hold treasures unseen by human eyes for many years. One particularly personal discovery was a piece of correspondence batted back and forth between hot rod artist/drag racer Pete Millar and myself in the 1990s. Pete had agreed to critique my burgeoning Son of Godzilla comic books at the same time that my life was drawn into a vampirical black hole littered with rusty sheetmetal suspended in nitro fumes. My wristwatch hasn't worked since. Pete not only made time to right my pen, but also sent me a rare (and controversial) Isky T-shirt that he designed in the 60s, and a copy of what I believe was the last issue of Drag Cartoons released before his passing. Why don't they make heroes like that anymore? I take that back - the world is still well stocked with heroes. In fact, besides sharing his wonderful skills and outlook with us, Pete also left us his wife Orah Mae and daughter Robyn, who both work vigilantly to remind hot rodders in every zipcode that it's always Millartime!
I began work on yet another CarTech book project this week, but it's classified Top Secret.
Some changes are coming in the magazine world that I can't discuss yet, but stay tuned to SGE.
Nostalgia Fuel Funny Cars ran this weekend at Champion Raceway, but I missed the show.
All is temporary. Savor this moment while it's here. I'll remind you again next week.
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