English Channeling

For the past few months Beloved Girlfriend and I have enjoyed snuggling up on the couch and streaming episodes of Dirty Jobs on Netflix. If you've never seen this program, you should. It's star, the charming Mike Rowe, spends each episode engaged in some of the dirtiest jobs in America. We laughed, we screamed and we squirmed at the disgusting situations Mr. Rowe found himself in each week, most of which involved something Mr. Rowe euphemistically referred to as "poo".

Unfortunately, we all-too-quickly exhausted the available supply of Dirty Jobs. As pitiful as it sounds, we actually started watching it again from the beginning, but it just wasn't the same. I mean, once you already knew that Mike was about to receive a surprise mouthful of steaming pig poo you... uh, well, never mind.

So last week I happened upon a weird but amusing Youtube video of some guy intentionally rolling, to no small comic effect, a three-wheel car called a Reliant Robin along the streets of Barnsley in Great Britain. It turns out the clip was from an English program called Top Gear, so I checked and, sure enough, episodes were available on Netflix. Beloved Girlfriend and I subsequently spent the weekend watching a few episodes.

Friends, lemme tell ya this program is one of the most amusing things I've seen on TV in a long time. The combination of fast cars, dangerous stunts and three witty hosts is an inspired combination. We were both laughing so hard we had to break out the asthma meds. There is no finer praise than that.

Highlights included sailing a Toyota pickup across the English Channel, driving through Alabama in cars painted with such choice slogans as "NASCAR sucks!" (which almost got them killed) and finding Driving Heaven while racing across Switzerland in Lamboginis and Porches. And then there's "The Stig".

I realize I'm very late to the Top Gear party but there are probably many of you that have never heard of it, either, so check it out. You will like it.

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On the second day of Xmas shopping my Reddit Secret Santa gave to meeeeeee:

Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens












=Lefty=