7 Reasons

Tag: popemobile

  • Pearls of Wisdom

    Pearls of Wisdom

    It’s Sunday.  This is Marc.  I was thinking last week (as I occasionally do) and something occurred to me.  I love writing 7 Reasons.  I also love dictionaries of quotation.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if I combined the two?  The answer was emphatically yes.

     

    I decided to fire up the Randomator (it’s up there at the top of the page where it says “Randomator!”) and harvest a few 7 Reasons quotes on various aspects of life and living.  Here – in the order that I found them – are some 7 Reasons pearls of wisdom on an array of topics.

     

    On sharks:  “In my 27 years, I believe I have sleep-walked only once. And even then it wasn’t a very exciting sleep-walk, I just went looking for the bathroom in the lounge. I couldn’t imagine doing that every night though. Which is what a shark has to do. Apart from it swims instead of walking. And it rarely ends up in my lounge.”

     

    On St Peter: “It is generally accepted that 156,000 people die everyday. That’s about one every 1.8 seconds. I don’t believe that Saint Peter has the stamina to sit there all day every day shouting out names. When does he sleep?”

     

    On Viagra:  “When a man takes one Viagra pill, his penis assumes the shape of the number 1 for a considerable time. Therefore, if a man takes seven Viagra pills, his penis must assume the shape of the number 7 for a considerable time. I’m not sure why anyone would want a 7 shaped penis – unless they wanted to make love to someone round a corner – so it’s probably the wrong number of pills to take.”

     

    On the Dutch: “Dutch people are fantastic.  They’re tall, which is more space-efficient than being fat, and they speak many languages…”

     

    On supermarkets:  “A supermarket is not a place for mankinis and it is certainly not a place for jogging in them. No one wants to see that while deciding what to have for dinner. Apologise. Immediately. And then cover yourself up with a parsnip.”

     

    On measuring time: “I have no idea exactly how long I was in the kitchen, but I do know that I had a ginger beard when I emerged from it.  I had one when I went in too, but I was definitely in there for a very long time.”

     

    On supporting England:  “My heart has sunk so many times I am amazed it’s not lodged somewhere around my groinal area.”

     

    On the pole vault: “…it’s a sport which involves physically exerting yourself until you’re panting and thrusting a long, rigid shaft into a box before you briefly soar heavenward and eventually end up lying sweaty and exhausted on a mattress with a horizontal pole.”

     

    On popemobiles:  “A popemobile is visible from quite a distance.  Even when there isn’t a pope in it.”

     

    On new planets:  “I want a planet that is 100% water. Not ice, water. I want a planet that looks like a sausage. Or, even better, a planet that morphs into a sausage from its 100% water state.”

     

    On Christmas: “When the children burst into our bedroom at six o’clock this morning and jumped up and down on the bed screaming “It’s Christmas, it’s Christmas!” we were very moved. We don’t know whose children they were, or how they got into our house, but we were moved.”

     

    On polar bears:  “If you do insist on dating a polar bear, then you have to understand one thing. You will never be able to use your bath again.”

     

    On flamingo farming:  “With the new flamingo farms, it will be possible to stumble across fields full of pink clusters of gangly birds – all year round.  This will brighten up the landscape no end, especially at sunset.  Countryside campsites will become countryside camp sites where you’ll be able to enjoy the countryside camp sight of intense pink colours in tents (pink coloured).”

     

    On the Sinclair C5:  “Always a bit annoying having to get out of your vehicle and push it up a hill isn’t it? Which is why the Sinclair C5 should have come with a tow rope. Or a map that just showed hills that went down.”

     

    On Annie Lennox:  “Annie Lennox has got a problem. If her heart keeps going boom whenever she walks into an empty room – and it has been at least 25 years since it started – she needs to do one of two things. Go to the doctors or avoid empty rooms.”

     

    On philosophy:  “If a butterfly beats its wings in a forest in China does a tree fall on a deaf person on the other side of the world?”

     

    On the French:  “The French have dainty little feet. It’s a well known fact, in my mind, that they spend 56% of their time in the bathroom moisturising their toes.”

     

    On Foursquare:  “foursquare iPhone App Would Like To Add Your Current Location. Jonathan Lee doesn’t. He is very happy doing some work at home without the whole of foursquare’s Jehovah Witness community knowing where he is.”

     

    On rhymes:  “They say that nothing rhymes with orange, but this doesn’t seem quite right to me:  Nothing rhymes better with puffin.”

     

    On candles:  “There are always candles on the table at dinner parties but no one knows why.  I don’t want to singe my arm hair every time I pour some wine or pass the salt.  Why would you want to put a fire on the table?”

     

    On Nelson:  “Fancy losing a battle to a bloke with one arm and one eye. Do you know how difficult it is steer a ship with one arm and one eye? That’s pretty lame France.”

     

    On parenthood: “There are toys everywhere.  And if you have children, you have to get rid of your toys and replace them with stuffed animals and pushchairs.”

     

    On Turkish barbers: “…a middle-aged man – shaking and hyperactive from far too much strong coffee – holding a cut-throat razor to your jugular and gesticulating wildly, millimetres from your face, while he asks you where you’re going on holiday this year?  Then he sets your ears on fire.”

     

    On ironing:  “There are only so many movements you can make with an iron – assuming you are doing the job properly anyway. Right to left or left to right seem to be the only options. I would love to do top to bottom, but whoever invented bras made it impossible.”

     

     

     

     

  • 7 Reasons to Buy a Popemobile

    7 Reasons to Buy a Popemobile

    It’s the last day of the papal visit to the United Kingdom and, somewhat to my surprise, I’ve been inspired by it.  I used to believe that the bicycle was the correct vehicle for the urban environment, or that a tank would be practical, but I now realise that I’ve been a fool.  The correct vehicle for the urban environment is, in fact, a popemobile.  Here are seven reasons why.

    A white Mercedes m-class popemobile (pope mobile) registration number scv1 (SCV 1, S.C.V.1) carrying Pope Benedict XVI

    1.  Performance.  A popemobile might outwardly appear a little too sedate for the urban environment.  You might wonder how your popemobile will keep pace with modern traffic.  But it will.  Because the popemobile isn’t the top-heavy, lumbering vehicle that it appears to be.  The popemobile that we’ve seen in the UK recently has a top speed of 160mph, and a 0-60 time of six seconds (never let it be said that we don’t do research here).  Why they haven’t demonstrated this by spinning the wheels and performing doughnuts to delight the assembled crowds, I don’t know (unless they think that the smoking tyres might signify the election of a new pontiff).  But the popemobile is faster than you think.  And it’s also bullet-proof, which is handy if you live in Nottingham.  Or near a Wetherspoons.

    2.  Running Costs. Now you might imagine that your popemobile will be expensive to run.  And you’re right, it will be.  But you can offset that cost by moonlighting as a taxi driver.  You’ll make a fortune.  Consider it for a moment.  Imagine that you’re having a great evening out, but the time has come to return home.  You might be a girl with impractical shoes, or married to a girl with impractical shoes and you’ll need to call a taxi.  Or you can choose the new premium option, the popemobile taxi.  Who wouldn’t pay through the nose to ride home in the popemobile?  I’d be dialling MCMXIVIII to order a Vaticab like a shot.

    3.  View.  Finding somewhere to park is one of the trickiest aspects of urban driving.  Ever seen a pope struggling to find a parking space?  Of course not, just look at the visibility they get in the back.  You’ll be able to find a space easily.  And laugh at balding people at the same time.

    4.  Income.  The back of the popemobile is, essentially, a large glass jar.  Now traditionally, in fairgrounds and confectioners, people fill large glass jars with sweets and charge customers money to guess how many are in there.  And you can do that with your popemobile.  You can’t just fill it with any sweet, obviously.  You’ll need something (ahem) appoperiate.  Werther’s Original?.  You can charge people to guess how many are in there, and your vehicle will pay for itself really quickly.  And you’ll meet lots of men in comfortable knitwear, which is..er…well.  There must be a plus side to that somewhere.

    5.  Visibility.  Ever lost your bland silver box of a car in the car park?  Of course you have.  I once spent almost an hour searching for a Volkswagen Passat I’d parked at B & Q.  But with a popemobile that problem will disappear.  A popemobile is visible from quite a  distance.  Even when there isn’t a pope in it.

    6.  Self-Sufficiency.  We’re all looking for ways to stretch our budgets further these days, and everyone’s come over a bit Tom and Barbara from The Good Life recently.  In fact, there probably hasn’t been a time since the second world war when people are growing so many of their own fruit and vegetables.  In the urban environment that most of us live in though, there isn’t much space to do this.  But look at the back of the popemobile.  It’s glazed.  You can use it as a greenhouse when you’re not cruising in it.  And it’s bulletproof.  So no one can off your cucumbers with an uzi.  It’s an all-round win.

    7.  Resale Value.  It’s unlikely that you’ll tire of your popemobile, but if you should, remember this.  Second hand car dealers often try to attribute religious credentials to the former owners of the vehicles they’re trying to sell.  “It was owned by a nun”, or “it was used by a vicar to travel around his small country parish” are oft-heard pieces of sales-patter.  But imagine that you’re selling a vehicle that’s been owned by the pope?  “One papal owner”?  You’ll make a fortune.