Fred, There has been a lot of speculation about the possible making of a film on Graham Obree. Think the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor is being tipped to play the part. Like all things think they are having trouble raising the money for the project. Interesting about the highway being built for private use. When we were in the US we visited the Berkshires in Mass. We were amazed by the sizes of the "cottages" which where once owned by the giants of American commerce and industry. The place was called Lennox and we were told that the wealthy use to charter whole trains from New York to take them and their staff to their cottages. Some cottages, we are talking about 40+ bedrooms! We found America both fascinating and bewildering, such a diversity of lifestyles and culture. This is what made it interesting. One thing I could never get my head around was when we stayed in Sheffield Mass. Tiny place. I went into this small bar come pizza restaurant. The woman serving said to me what part of Australia are you from? This must be quite an easy mistake for an American to make. To a unfamiliar ear an Aussie accent must sound a bit like a British one. The dialect experts say Aus sounds like 18th. century cockney. Anyway as soon as that I told her I was a Brit she asked me if I knew this person in Manchester. Having always been a bit of a mickey taker I said yeah I know the name and think they are best friends with a mate of mine. Cruel I know but I had told her that I lived near Cambridge I then realized that she came from a tiny community and probably knew and was related to everyone within a 100 mile radius and probably didn't realize the scale of her own country let alone mine which is small and very over populated. Also whilst in the States a TV presenter called Jill Dando was murdered in broad daylight in London on her doorstep. Single shot to the head by a trained assassin. Shortly before her death she was fund raising for Kosovan Muslims and it was generally thought that she was killed by a Serbian nationalist. Not a dickey bird in your media when America and Britain were engaged in the Balkans. To us British it seemed like nowhere else existed to America. Frightening when you hold such influence on the World.
Thanks for looking out for that book. Have you got a copy of Graham Obree's "The Fling Scotsman or the Boardman book?
Yours in cycling. Michael Butler Huntingdon UK.
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. http://www.yahoo.com