posted 12-17-2011 08:05 PM ET (US)        

Just got back from checking out Cristmas villages in Bavaria, then hitting up our regular haunt on French Riviera to warm our frozen bones. Often as we visit Europe (too many times to count, we've never been to Bavaria). Anyhow, street vendors everywhere selling schnitzel and sausages and hot punch (if you don't ask for it without, you will get a wallop of schnapps with it), AND chestnuts roasting everywhere. The standard rig? A standard steel wire shopping cart, with an inverted, 5-gallon steel can, with hot coals underneath and holes punched in the bottom, (which is now on top because it's inverted). Naturally, the one I gave my business to is the one who was using a Motul can. :)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motul_(company)

As a side note, it was refreshing to see a free market at work, (in Europe, no less), without being regulated to death. Haven't seen that for a while around here :( Oh wait, a grade school girl in San Francisco got to sell lemonade for a couple of hours before she was shut down for not having a permit or attending a commercial food handling class.

posted 12-17-2011 09:17 PM ET (US)            

I"d be shocked if some of our fellow Whaler'ers in Europe don't use a Motul product or two in their maritime hobbies as well.

posted 12-17-2011 09:38 PM ET (US)            

Further, for a variety of reasons I won't delve into unless asked, I bet Motul is better known in Canada than it is around here.

posted 12-17-2011 11:20 PM ET (US)            

quote:

---

As a side note, it was refreshing to see a free market at work, (in Europe, no less), without being regulated to death. Haven't seen that for a while around here :(

---

posted 12-18-2011 01:57 AM ET (US)            

By the way, please leave poor ol' San Francisco out of your lemonade stand tale. A quick Google of <lemonade stand closed down> will show you that the guilty LEOs were from Midway Georgia, Coraville Iowa, Portland Oregon, and McAllen Texas, NOT the City by the Bay. (ref: Forbes)

posted 12-18-2011 02:35 AM ET (US)            

Where the idiocrats are, who shut down kids lemonade stands, is of course, entirely irrelevant. That they occur at all is the tragedy.

posted 12-18-2011 11:18 AM ET (US)            

Though I realize it's hard for many to grasp, I believe we're slowly improving; that our amazing experiment in republican democracy marches (sometimes stumbling) along -- away from slavery, from men-only voting, from child labor, from unregulated food and drugs, from rapacious disregard for our environment, from lynching and Jim Crow, from sexism and homophobia. (We're speaking here only of domestic matters; perhaps some day we'll get our national act together re multi-national corporations and their bedfellow, imperialist invasions and occupations of sovereign countries).

I think it was St. Augustine back in the fourth century of the common era who admonished: "Don't despair; one of the thieves was saved. Don't presume; one of the thieves was damned." And wasn't it another great philosopher during the Viet Nam fiasco (I'm not sure which of the group of four) who asserted: "Gotta admit it's getting better, getting better all the time..."

Tony

...couldn't get much worse.

posted 12-18-2011 03:50 PM ET (US)            

So, are we safer for all this? That's debatable. Are we freer for it? No way.

And freer is more important.

posted 12-18-2011 09:23 PM ET (US)            

Maybe, and that's good. On the other hand, fifty years ago (1961) folks with dark skins couldn't vote in many states, let alone eat in public establishments or drink out of 'white only' fountains, were forced to sit in the back of public transportation, were legally (de jure) and/or extra-legally (de facto) denied rental accommodations and home purchases in "white" (meaning non-slum) neighborhoods, and were denied education and decent employment opportunities. Women didn't have it all that good either when it came to higher educational and employment opportunities, and heaven help a gay person, because so-called "sodomy" laws made homosexuals liable for felony imprisonment for merely existing. Oh yeah, fifty years ago, soon after the inauguration of JFK, our so-called leaders began ramping up the Viet Nam mess, which would lead to a dozen years of national division and misery, and to the deaths of over 50,000 American servicemen and women.

Great time for a "full glass" of lemonade, however.

posted 12-22-2011 07:10 PM ET (US)            

With all the pollution and damage to the earth by seagulls, it's time to start up the EPA and local state Ecology "Seagull Diaper Program".
Thousands of new high paying government jobs with a whole new category: "Seagull Diaper Changer".
Sales of Boston Whaler chase boats would skyrocket.

posted 12-24-2011 09:56 PM ET (US)            

I admire the resourcefulness of the European street vendors, repurposing a previously used 5-gallon can. I'm romanced by it. too. Being a participant in motoring hobbies, (like boating), I would love a VP Racing Fuel, can or a Motul brake fluid can, or Evinrude 2-stroke oil.

Ok, sometimes they turn a little gray after sitting for a while but they're stil tasty.