This month's Practical Classics

[jleyton]

For those who've got the November issue of Practical Classics, have you spotted the letter on page 31? For those who haven't got the mag, the short letter ends up with:

"Sadly, I am unable to give you permission to publish the photographs I sent you as, since my husband passed away, I no longer know who owns them and would not wish to run foul of privacy laws. Sincerely"

OK, all very serious, but it's from Lady Agatha Maberley, Bowal, New South Wales, Australia - not the most common of names.

However, if you read the first paragraph in isolation, it all reads very differently. The Lady starts:

"I am most impressed you showed an interest in my Bristols (Letters October). My late husband used to love messing about with them" :shock:

So, either she's made s a very unfortunate choice of words or else it's a total wind up. If you're reading this Lady Agatha, I apologise

Cheers

Julian

[KOY 23]

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A friend of mine, also sadly departed, had a pair of topless Bristols. One a 400 the other 404. Lovely.
John.

[dasadrew]

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Well, if it's a wind up, it seems very long planned, since this person is an avid poster on many subjects it seems.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2006/10/in_town_99_per.html

http://mandarinelemon.blogspot.com/2010/06/crumpets.html

[alistair260661]

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if it is a wind up I love it., Perhaps we should start a competition to see who can get the best spoof letter printed....... A collected edition eventually was also be amusing

[jleyton]

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dasadrew wrote:

Well, if it's a wind up, it seems very long planned, since this person is an avid poster on many subjects it seems.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives...wn_99_per.html

http://mandarinelemon.blogspot.com/2.../crumpets.html

Ah well, maybe she isgenuine, but she does pick her subjects - talking about Bristols and crumpet

And I still reckon that if you read the first para of the original letter, then most people would reckon it was a wind up

Cheers

Julian

I love Alistair's idea of startinga competition to see who can get the best spoof letter printed....... :dude:

[jleyton]

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Talking of spoofs, in Autocar, many years ago, there was a classic that led to a certain gentleman losing his job.

At the end of each year, they used to print a potted compilation of all of the road tests completed during the year. The format varies from year to year but this time they printed two reports, side by side, on each page. So, if you opened up a double page spread, you'd see four tests in four columns.

Now, the key thing was that the very first letter of each test was printed as a capital letter and in a much larger font. Nothing unusual it seemed and it all looked quite normal until you just concentrated on just thesebig letters on each about 40 pages.

It then transpired that it spelt out:

Y O U T H I N K T H I S L O O K S G O O D E H Y O U S H O U L D T R Y P U T T I N G T H E D A M N T H I N G T O G E T H E R I T S A P A I N I N T H E A R S E

IIRC it was first noticed byPrivate Eye a couple of weeks later and, subsequently, the sub - editor was sacked :?:shock:

[flying farmer]

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Wasn't that Top Gears James May, IIRC he got sacked for doing something like that

Neil

[jleyton]

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flying farmer wrote:

Wasn't that Top Gears James May, IIRC he got sacked for doing something like that

Neil

I wasn't going to say, but yes it was

He's a very clever guy. In fact all of the Top Gear guys are very different from how they appear on the programme. Get Jeremy on to the subject of Opera or France or a multitude of other subjects and he will amaze you :shock: