The Citizen, 1996-01-24, Page 5International Scene
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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1996 PAGE 5.
What's in
a name?
They say familiarity breeds contempt. I
don't know about 'contempt' but I'm dead
sure that having certain things around can
make you take them for granted.
Take the jalopy. Also known as the set of
wheels, bucket of bolts, puddle-jumper,
scrap heap, crate chugalong, tin lizzie,
rattletrap, junker or beater. Now there's
something we take for granted.
Every day, most of us commit our bodies
to contraptions with names like Chrysler,
Chevrolet, Pontiac or Cadillac stamped on
their noses. More exotic travelers sit in
vehicles that carry monikers such as Audi,
Lexus, SAAB, BMW or Fiat.
But how many of us know what those
names mean?
Well, last things first. Fiat is an acronym,
formed by the first letters of Fabrica haliana
Automobili Torino. Same story for the
German BMW, which stands for Bavarian
Motor Works. SAAB is almost an acronym —
it stands for Swedish Airplane Inc.
Don't ask me where the airplane fits into
it. SAABS are fast, but they're not that fast.
As for the name Audi, that's a little
cleverer. August Horch was a German car
maker who, for obscure legal reasons, was
prohibited by law from putting his name on
any automobiles he created. Trouble is, he
had this hot new car and enough ego to want
Taking
out-of-the-way
roads
A Canadian businessman, whom I was
escorting around Switzerland, paid me the
compliment (I think) of stating that I knew
more backroads in that country than anyone
he had ever driven with.
While I do pride myself of having an
encyclopedic knowledge of the country's
roads, I have an ulterior motive; over the
years I have been constantly looking for
scenic routes from point A to point B
without it being the shortest way. I want it to
be the most enjoyable one.
Thus it is, that when I enter the country at
Basle, instead of taking the autobahn from
there to Twann, I immediately head for the
backroad by way of Delemont. Then I pass
through a number of small villages before
entering Twann the back way for a scenic
few minutes overlooking Lake Biel. It may
take a little longer but is the scenery ever
worth it!
But there are other places in Europe where
the view is outstanding. The first place to
start in this respect is along the coast of
Norway. The train north from Oslo to Bodo
is fine, but for sheer pleasure there is nothing
better than driving along the fjords, taking
to see his name on the hood.
What to do? Well, in German, "horch"
means to hear or to listen. In Latin, the verb
for to hear or listen is "audire". August
Horch named his new car "Audi" and put
one over on the German lawyers. At least the
Latin-speaking ones.
As for Lexus, well it sounds Latin, but it
isn't. Lexus is a totally made up word coined
to describe Toyota's top of the line car. They
thought Lexus sounded, well ... luxurious.
So much for the hothouse plants of the
automotive world - what about the the
prosaic, home-bred varieties?
You may not think of a Chrysler as
prosaic, but its origins are. It comes from
Walter Percy Chrysler, who got his start as a
sweeper in a railway roundhouse.
The Cadillac is named after a 17th century
French fur trader, Antoine de la Mothe
Cadillac, who made Motor City possible by
erecting a trading post at what would
become Detroit.
Pontiac was an 18th century Indian chief
who laid siege to Detroit (it was held by the
English at the time).
Chevys take their name from Louis
Chevrolet, a guy who raced cars when going
60 miles an hour was tantamount to breaking
the sound barrier.
Then of course there's Henry Ford, the
father of the mass-produced automobile and
perhaps the only carmaker whose persona
remains as firmly identified as his product.
Well ... there was one other — almost. An
Austrian who backed the production of a
curious little German mechanical critter back
ferries wherever necessary.
The view of some of these places is
nothing short of awe-inspiring. My
suggestion is to rent a car in Oslo, take it up
the coast as far as you want to go and then
drop it off at one of the agency's offices.
Getting back to Oslo is easy by train and you
will have had one of the trips of your
lifetime.
It is unfortunate that the fighting in
Yugoslavia has deprived tourists of another
scenic trip along the Adriatic coast as far
south as Dubrovnik. There are plenty of
lovely spots along the coast but in this case
you save the best until the last.
Dubrovnik is a gem; one of the most
historic and lovely cities I have ever seen.
As a journalist writing on Titoism in
Yugoslavia, I spent about 10 days there
reporting my findings. It took longer than
expected since I was out exploring the city.
When tourism opens up there again, try to
put Dubrovnik on your list.
I know that a lot of people go to Paris but I
think that it, like Rome, is somewhat
overrated. To me one of the nicest trips in
Europe is along the Loire River. This
stretches from the Atlantic coast through the
central part of the country and you are able
to do two things as you drive leisurely from
one point of interest to the next. The first is
sample the excellent wines that arc to be
Found there; the second is to visit the
impressive castles along the river, castles
filled with, history and architectural beauty.
When you come to the end it is an easy
step to go on to see the Black Forest area in
in the 30s. His car was homely, slow and
rather dinky in comparison to the land yachts
that North American car manufacturers were
turning out.
This guy wanted to call his car the K of F
Wagon, standing for Kraft Durch Freude
(strength through joy). Saner heads prevailed
and the car hit the market as the
Volkswagen. Kraft Durch Freude is a
clumsy name for anything and a bad
marketing idea.
But then that Austrian guy had a lot of bad
ideas. His name was Adolf Hitler.
Car names — they're fascinating. Honda,
Toyota and Hyundai sound almost
impossibly exotic. In fact they are simply
named after the guys who first manufactured
them.
Datsun? Well, I can't vouch for it, but my
friend Ernie the Barfly down at Moe's Tap
Room claims he knows where the name
comes from.
"A bunch of Detroit caretakers went to
Japan a few years back" says Ernie. "They
were looking for a Japanese company that
could turn out a new economy car for them.
They finally settled on an automotive plant
on the outskirts of Yokohama. They were
sold when the plant manager promised them
ultra-speedy delivery."
"They asked him how soon they could get
their first consignment of the new cars."
'Three weeks', the plant manager replied.
"The Detroit guys were dumbfounded"
says Ernie. "Their jaws dropped, their eyes
bugged out, they look at the plant manager
and said all together... "DATSUN?"
southern Germany or head north along the
Rhine River for the equally spectacular
region between Mainz and Cologne with a
side trip along the Moselle into Trier. The
wines there are equally good as those of
France.
When you are in Britain head for the
highlands of Scotland especially around the
area of Iverness. This, by the way, is in the
vicinity of the Loch Ness and its monster
which adds a little bit of spice to any trip in
the region.
Some of the roads are a bit narrow but, if
you all breathe in every time you pass a car
on one of the narrow spots, you will be able
to get by without incident or accident. Try it!
It works!
All this may lead you to believe that I
spend my time belittling scenery in Canada
and dream only of being back in Europe
again. Far from it!
My two favourite spots in Canada are
admittedly at far ends of the country, but it is
about time that you saw more of Canada.
For openers drive along the Annapolis
Valley from Halifax to Yarmouth and when
you finish that, go to Cape Breton. The road
going into Baddeck and Alexander Graham
Bell Museum is worth the time spent in
getting there.
Next year head out west and go along the
superbly engineered road from Banff to
Jasper or vice versa.
Life is too short to miss all these beautiful
spots. If you have to go somewhere,
determine what the most scenic route is, not
the fastest. Slow down and enjoy.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Let's talk about:..
Let's talk about sex, shall we? A friend,
mildly concerned about the tone of my
column last week thought I sounded a little
down. I really wasn't but just to prove it, I
promised her I would write about something
of strictly entertainment value.
While it's a subject common to all of us,
certainly our views on it are not. It's all a
question of morals. It's all a question of
attitude. And there's no question that when
we're talking about sex, we each have a
different attitude about what's moral.
I'm not exactly a totally free-spirit with
regards to this basic human instinct; I was
born into a Christian home, circa 1954,
protected and set an example, not only by
parents, but by two older siblings.
Yet, neither do I see myself as a prude;
after all I reached puberty in the liberal 60s,
the sexual revolution era when the laces of
moral restriction were not only loosened, but
completely undone.
For these reasons, I have been able to
accept that there are those who seek
alternative lifestyles. Yet, for myself I
maintain a certain 'old-world' thinking
regarding fidelity and the traditional family,
while believing in our need to physically and
emotionally attain fulfillment with another.
It may not be a 90's attitude, but it's the one I
am comfortable with. I'm fairly certain, too,
that the majority still believe in a loving,
healthy, monogamous relationship between a
man and woman.
Therefore I was somewhat taken aback by
the reaction of NBC head, Warren Littlefield
regarding a recent episode of Mad About
You. For anyone who has never seen this
television show, it is about a young New
York couple, Jamie (a girl) and Paul
Buchman. The episode in question concerns
the Buchmans attempts to conceive. They
were refraining from sex until Jamie
ovulated and becoming more obsessed and
frustrated as the show progressed. Littlefield
said the show had "stepped over the line of
acceptable content.", primarily because it
now airs at 8 p.m.
Certainly, some of the scenes were a touch
risque; in one Jamie becomes aroused while
sitting on a laundry machine, in another she
presses for details of her sister-in-law's
lesbian affair. But when I consider that at 8
p.m. on another evening, I watched a lesbian
wedding, and on any given evening, at that
same time, can watch single people, in any
number of sitcoms, either hopping from one
bed to another or talking about doing it,
Littlefield's comments got me wondering.
This is the same network that produced the
"master of his domain" segment of Seinfeld
about masturbation. Yet, complaints (not a
large number, according to Littlefield) about
two people with a healthy sexual appetite,
who love each other, want to have a child
together and are married, are warranted?
This is the same network that had no
problem with David Caruso baring his butt
on NYPD Blue. (Boy, I did. His replacement
Jimmy Smits is another story, however.)
On TV these days we see naked bodies
and promiscuity, conflict and violence. We
hear ribald innuendos and crude jokes. Yet, a
couple in love, who are each other's best
friend, who share intimacy and enjoy sex
offended some people? Well, not me! Not at
any time of day.
Arthur Black