Terms of Endearmints

Some friends went down to South Africa recently. (That's the "Europe of Africa".) They very nicely brought back some gifts - including some Endearmints.

If you're ever in South Africa, pick some up - they are like Mentos only better!

Retail therapy

I bought a watch from a highway salesman recently. It's a Porsche Design. Fake.

It cost all of about $14. The case is not titanium. On the back it says "Rose Gold". Maybe not.

I was amused, as I asked the guy, "It runs on batteries, right?" Not. (I knew it wouldn't be battery-powered.) It's wind-up (or motion-activated) and needs to be reset to the right time every morning. In other words, the mechanism is so ineffieient that it runs down in the middle of the night, after a day of wearing.

I love the tire pattern - on the inside of the rubber band. Very cool.

(My other title for this post is: "Wasting money = coping mechanism".)

Sometimes I'm glad I'm out of the loop

As some of you know, my bandwidth is very limited here. Also, my server at work blocks all Flikr and Youtube.

Jason writes: "When one thing (i.e. Twitter) is easier than something else (i.e. blogging) and offers almost the same benefits, people will use it."

I'm out of the Twitter loop too.

I guess that's all good - I get more work done!

Rubbish art #3

Actually, this is my seventh in the series. I think it's only the third or fourth that I put in my blog.

This one features scratch-n-sniff phone cards. Most people in Kenya use pay-as-you-go phone cards with no contracts. The vast majority of people buy 100 shilling cards from Safaricom. Only about 10% of the cards discarded by the side of the road are from the competition, CelTel. Does this indicate that CelTel customers are less likely to litter or just that there are fewer CelTel customers? I think both are true.

One thing is true - CelTel customers are more likely to pick up discarded phone cards than Safaricom customers. (Yes, as in, I am a CelTel customer, and I am the only one in the country who has ever picked up that many spent phone cards!)

If you double-click on the image, you can see it a little bigger.

Mind-numbing inefficiency

Telkom is the (mostly) government-owned phone company. They have done so badly during the last few years that they are dying, financially. (The Kenyan government has kept them on life-support.)

We have an internet connection at the office that is represented in the pic. It's payable at the strange amount of 35,914 shillings a month. (That's about $500, for what would be piped into your home in the USA for about $60 or less.)

So where's the bureaucracy?

1. They won't accept checks without a 4-day clearance period, which would cause two trips to get the monthly required top-up card. This connection must be paid for in person each month - no automatic debiting of an account or credit card. (Aaaugh!)

2. Note the hand-written receipt: the lady had to write the amount four times, by hand! Then she had to write the card's serial number and rubber-stamp it by hand.

Featured here, featured there

This is a new site to me: Expat Interviews. There are some interesting interviews. Rob and Heather are both there. (Rob's is in the Germany section and Heather's is in the Kenya section.)

Check out the post on yours truly!

Barb inspired me

Barb wrote a post on the evils of MSG. I agree. However, I'm too much of a hedonist to give it up - yet.

We don't have aisles of Lays at our supermarkets, but I am thrilled to say that Lays are available. (They were imported from South Africa.) But I bet you can't get this flavor - at least in North America!

After I ate the pack, I read the fine print and discovered that there is no MSG! But my friend Amy told me that another ingredient, maltodextrin, is just another name for MSG. (Apparently MSG has lots of names, just like the devil.)

Update: a doctor friend, John, assured me that maltodextrin has absolutely no relationship to MSG.

Creativity by some anonymous computers

Remember back in the 80s? Punk band names were an amazing area of cultural creativity.

Spam email titles are today's equivalent. The difference this time through is that they are generated by a computer to carefully carve their way through spam filters. (This set all were caught, though.) I have no idea who actually opens those messages. Maybe I should have opened one to see if the contents were equally creative. Or not. Pandora might leap out.

These are actual spam titles:

My nose he prejudicial
And shelf of meteorite
It of riven
It sunbeam is commandeer
For do kaskaskia
To nonsensic as eclogue
A an estrange
In mitre it monetarist
I a burley
As nutria no grandstand
As do mervin
An at sandburg
A is precautionary
Be he respectful
I go mice
That of shack
At chancy it reel

No freezes = giant house plants

This is the biggest poinsettia I have ever seen. Note that it is a tree and not just a little potted plant that you might see at Christmas. It's not far from where my kids wait for the school bus each morning.

A different place

On our way to Kenya in May 2005, we stopped in England*. We lived there from 95-98, and that was our first time to return. It was great to re-connect with some of our friends there.

Ben connected with this contraption at a medieval village, not far from Cambridge.

Jay and I connected with a TVR and Lotus dealership near that village. (Both are low-volume British sports cars. TVRs are appealing to me, as they are nearly hand-made. They have quality-control issues that come with that too!)

*To get to Kenya from the USA, one must stop in Europe, at least for a layover between planes.

Politician, heal thyself

I read in Newsweek that Al Gore's home used 221,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity during 2006. That was 20 times what the average US home used.

By way of contrast, my family used about 4,000 kw-hrs. That's 55 times less than what Al used and about 3 times less than the average US home.

I don't say this to be self-righteous but rather to humbly ask Al to reconsider his personal ways. (Are you listening, Al?)

Some more fun blogs for you

The Lone Beader - this lady does amazing stuff with beads. She has to be one of the best bead artists in the world!

Brook works with drug addicts living on the street in Kathmandu, Nepal. She really lives on the edge.

Lora has a unique perspective on life, from Austin, Texas.

Courtney & Brent live in our home town - Littleton, Colorado. They adopted Sam, a wonderful boy from Kenya, via India.

Dave & Barb are the only couple I know who both have blogs. They live in small-town Illinois and I hope some day in the same town as us!

Chris is a great writer.

And yes, I probably left out you. My apologies. This list is not exhaustive. (It may be exhausting.)

Coffee from Singapore

(Well, the coffee was not grown in Singapore - but it was canned there.)

Again, it's so strange what stuff makes it to the shelves of our local supermarket in Nairobi.

Conveniences at the Proms

The folks who put on the Proms rented the most amazing portable toilets - two trucks with actual bathrooms were available for the guests. As you can see, the trucks themselves came to Kenya from England more than 40 years ago - but they have been maintained in superb condition. (I think the toilets were added later.)

These "porta-loos" are normally used for wealthy clients' luxury bush safaris.

The Proms

Those in the UK and its former colonies may know of what the Proms are - concerts outside during the summer, often in the evening. Sometimes the end is marked with fireworks. When we lived in England, we went to a couple of those concerts - really fun!

Kenya has the Proms too.

And there is none of that date/rejection stigma as in the USA high school variety. (One would have to do a word study to find the link between the two meanings of the world "promenade". I'm too lazy.)

So back to Kenya's Proms. It ended last weekend. We attended Saturday afternoon's concert. The featured players and singers were Ken Wachira's Nairobi Chorale, the London Adventist Chorale and the London Guildhall Players. Venue: Nairobi Arboretum.

It was great fun! The weather was superb - warm and sunny. Kids played in the grass. A skinny cat stalked an unseen prey in front of the stage. The music was wonderful. My favorite was a spiritual performed by the Adventist Chorale. The singers were British men and women of Caribbean descent singing African-American spirituals in Africa. Their performance was awe-inspiring.

I love the juxtaposition in the photo of the "Home Boyz" logo on the speakers with the prim and proper singers. I guess speakers with an appropriate classical music logo weren't available. (Actually, Home Boyz is the sound company.)

During a break in the music, one of the Leaky family spoke. (You know, the Leakys who discovered evolution.) One of Nairobi's very richest men also spoke – Henry Josephs (or something like that) - the chairman of Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile phone service company. (He's the guy in the light blue shirt.) He wants to open an ampitheater at the Arboretum, but apparently there is too much politics involved. The Leaky guy is also in the front row, next to Mr. & Mrs. Njonjo. (He used to be a prominent figure in Kenyan politics - Heather taught one of his daughters oboe lessons during our first Kenya life.)

More tomorrow.

How to get rid of a pile

This fire was lit on purpose. It's a bunch of tree-trimmings from the compound I work at.

So there's the dilemma - air pollution that way or via taking it somewhere else? If the group that runs my office compound had paid to have the stuff removed, it probably would have been taken away by an old polluting diesel truck. Petroleum would have been taken out of the earth somewhere, never to be seen again. Money would have been spent for the removal, never to be seen again.

If they had asked me, I would have suggested taking it to a nearby "vacant" lot and starting a new hill.

Thought for the day

"God has been found lurking in a burning bush, lying in a manger, even hanging on a cross. Given His track record, He might show up anywhere. This very day, the circumstances of any given moment could suddenly facilitate a sacramental encounter with the divine. That makes this a special day, indeed."

From an editorial by Russell Board, a missionary in Japan, as published in "World" magazine, Nov. 18, 2006.

Another Heather

Heather Armstrong has one of the most popular blogs. She became famous when her company fired her for what she said in her blog.

Anyhow, this pic she posted inspired this post.

I have collected concert ticket stubs for years. I still have the ticket from the very first rock concert I went to. (My brother Bill and I went to see Stephen Stills and Neil Young. The opening group was Poco. That was a long time ago.)

My time in Nairobi this time has meant no additions to the concert ticket collection. However, I have had a few park passes go through my hands. This one was from Mt. Longonot, a peak we climbed on Christmas. (See my blog entries shortly after then for some pix.)

By the way, I am not collecting national park entry tickets. I have too many collections already. (I am collecting digital pix of various things - many of which I have shared with you!)

How to benefit others

From kottke.org: "...if you really want to help fight AIDS in Africa, instead of buying that (RED) Gap t-shirt for which Gap will donate 50% of its profit to The Global Fund, buy a cheaper one at American Apparel and send the $13 difference to the Global Fund yourself."

I'd say Samaritan's Purse or Compassion are maybe even better causes.

Madmen and web stats

Two of my favorite bloggers are Rob and Heather. (My Heather does not blog.)

Rob has a good post recently that reminded me to just not worry about how many people come to my site. After all, I really do it as a creative outlet anyhow.

Heather reminded me that her rural podunk town in Kenya is a lot like the big town I'm in. Kenya is Kenya. Our neighborhood has a madman too. (As there are in many parts of America.) And I've seen the streets filled with teenagers here too. The most recent set was one Saturday on Ngong Road - a bunch of young people were lining the street on both sides, and even down the middle. They were on some fund-raising walk benefiting some charitable organization.

And I have lots of other favorite bloggers too, but those are two today's pleasure allotment from me to you.

Mandela on a bus

Nelson Mandela is a wildly popular figure here. For good reason.

The portrait artist did this one-off painting on the back of this public minibus. (It was on the back window.)

Time and energy

Checkout lines are always frustrating, no matter where you are in the world.

The other day, I needed to get change for a purchase from another shop, so I went to Nakumatt, the only store in Kenya where change is always plentiful. The lines were so slow and so long that I went to a nearby health food store and bought an overpriced "energy bar". I was highly amused to read the wrapper later and see that it was imported from my native Denver, Colorado.

By the way, I don't recommend that particular flavor; mixing cinnamon and chocolate isn't a good idea - at least for my taste buds.

The wrapper states, "Each bar is a gentle balance of high energy and sustaining foods that leave you with a pleasing sense of vitality and well being for hours to come." That is what I felt, but I think that was from my cup of coffee.

A world o' contrasts

Yes, these two trucks always hang out by the side of a road we often travel.

The hilarious thing is the contrast - just a block or so away is one of Nairobi's two fanciest shopping malls. The lowest shot is from one of the shop windows in that fancy mall (The Junction).

Only in Africa

Yes, I defy any of you to find a plane striped like a zebra anywhere else.

The very best (?)

What better name for your product?

This soap is from India, and it contains neem - an herbal plant that is also used in toothpaste (in India).

I liked the fact that this is an "International Pack". (I guess the "National Pack" is in Hindi rather than in English.)

Why some come & some go

I use a tool called Google Analytics. (It's free, like most Google things, including this site.)

Within the last week, 115 return visitors came to my site & 144 new people came. The top day (Mon 27th) had 47 visits & 70 pageviews. Grand Rapids won the most hits with 15.

Why do some come back? I hope it's because they find my viewpoint interesting. Would it be possible to keep any of the new people? I dunno; my numbers seem to be pretty level. My guess is that some regulars get bored and quit coming. Some new people stay. Kinda like a city bus; some people stay for the whole journey. Others ride for only one stop.

How do you keep your friends coming back?

What are your Google Analytics numbers?

Not the star whose name starts with "B"

Yes, I took the plunge and let Heather remove some weight from my shoulders. Why? For a change. For something different. Life is to be lived.

It has been fun to watch people's reactions.

I tell my Kenyan friends that I'm being culturally appropriate. Well, I use different words - "I'm being African". You see, most Kenyan men in Nairobi have very close-cropped hair.

This is the shortest I’ve had my hair since I wore diapers (about 45 or 46 years ago).

My intention is to let it grow back to "normal".

By the way, the star whose name starts with "B" has an empty website right now. Perhaps what's between her ears is currently under construction.

Different choices

(I am referring to the fact that if I were the art director for this Sunday newspaper supplement, I would have made a different choice for the details of this image.)

I was highly amused that this guy appears to be on the verge of taking a big bite of a big raw fish.

(And what an amazing fish!)

Snow tires & ski racks

Some of the "out of context" things I see frequently on the streets of Nairobi are snow tires and ski racks on cars that will never again see snow.

As I have mentioned many times before, most cars and SUVs in Kenya are used imports from Japan. They come "as is" - the TV antennas, ski racks, nav systems for Tokyo's streets, different frequency radios, etc., are still installed. (Occasionally the radios get stolen at the port of Mombasa.)

These high-end snow tires are on the car of friends Joel & Barb. Bridgestone's Blizzak is a great tire. And hey, when they're still in great condition, why get non-snow tires till they wear out?

The ski rack is not on Joel & Barb's car! I shot it at a golf course's parking lot. (I don't play golf - Rachel was going to a birthday party there.)

The Karen Country Club

Rachel went to a party at the Karen Country Club. A buddy of hers from kindergarten had his 6th birthday party there. (We are not members but have friends that are.)

I could have taken shots of the poolside party - but that may not have looked very much different than some poolside kid parties you may have been to. But this all-mahogany staircase is not something that very many establishments in North America have.

And we breathe that!

Our porch has a glass-
topped table. The weather has been so nice lately that we often eat lunch out there. (My office is an 8-minute walk from our apartment.)

I always wipe the top before we eat out there. The dirt on this rag was there after just two days. The air in Nairobi is notoriously dirty. It has a high percentage of diesel particulates. Our apartment is about 50 meters (yards) from a busy road, so we benefit from increased consumption of toxins.

(The rag is on top of the glass table.)

Raila's dad's place

Raila Odinga is one of the most prominent politicians in Kenya. He is very self-serving and changes his tune from year to year. But I won't get into that. (He's also very popular.)

His dad (Odinga) was also a prominent politician. (He's no longer with us.) Odinga's foundation is on the road I walk along every day. About once every two months, some meetings are held there. And lots of cars and people arrive. The next day, and for the next two months, it's a ghost town (ghost house, that is).

Faith or blind optimism?

Our friend will lose her job in about 2 weeks. Her employers leave the country. (She works as a house helper.)

So we asked if she would like our help in finding a new situation. She said no. She wants to wait until the family she serves leaves before starting her search.

As I pondered this, first I thought of how much faith she has that God will provide for her needs. Her faith humbles me. (I like to get as many stinking ducks in a row as I possibly can!)

But then the other side of the coin is cultural. Many Africans are more content to live in the present than Americans are. Jesus tells us to let tomorrow worry about itself. So it’s a spiritual issue too.

Climate influences attitudes toward planning ahead - when a sub-zero winter is looming, you must store up food or die. North Americans and Europeans have faced that for centuries, which has affected our thinking. No such winters have ever hit Nairobi.

I'm just observing - not being judgmental. I hope you've picked up that from reading my blog.

Biz idea

Heather had a great idea of starting an import-export business between Kenya and the US. We'd fill up a shipping container with this artist's furniture and sell it through an exclusive group of stores in appropriate shopping areas in the States. (Denver - think Cherry Creek.)

Shoot, if shipping wasn't so expensive, we'd send a bunch back for our own use!

One huge problem is just figuring out all the problems. One small example - the beautiful wood is probably banned from export. (Can you say "governmental laws to prevent deforestation"?)

By the way, this is another example of a "jua kali" (hot sun) artisan. The storeroom floor is indeed dirt and grass. (Hey - it's pretty low overhead.)

Gone.

I looked at my bulletin board the other day. A little snippet of paper was there, and I thought it no longer needed to be. So I threw it away.

Then, the symbolism of that action hit me, so I had to whip out the camera.

You see, the organization we came to Kenya with no longer exists. They merged with another organization, lots of bad financial decisions were made, the administration did a poor job of communicating with its members, and they had to close their doors - all within a very short time.

Marti gives a well-written account of what happened in her blog. (See her Feb 15 entry.)

We are in the midst of joining Wycliffe Bible Translators, the organization we have been serving here. We were members from 1985-1998. Then we left to join Caleb Project. So it’s welcome back home time.

The transition has been deeply sad, annoying, angering - and exciting. We are excited about the possibilities for what is ahead.

Nakumatt's elephants

Every Nakumatt supermarket has a big elephant by its entrance. This particular elephant is in front of The Village Market branch. Each one is hand-made and unique. I think they are representative of the chain's market share here.

(Our kids were still wet from swimming at Hi Tide.)

Answers

It was great to see that Heather (not my Heather) found the answer to my bird mystery that I posed on Feb 7.

By the way, go visit her site now! She has great (and often funny) insights into life as an expat missionary in a more rural part of Kenya. (No water slides in Kitale.)

Fun on Saturday

Many have described Kenya as "Africa Lite". That is totally true, if you consider that it's possible to go to places like Hi Tide.

We went this weekend, as a family activity. Heather and I "observed" rather than took part directly - saving a little bit of money.

This photo shows Jay and Ben zooming down the slides. Jay, at left, won that particular race.

Part of our little group was a guy on break from working in southern Sudan with Samaritan's Purse. He definitely came from "Africa Heavy".

Casual Fridays

Fridays are casual days all over the world (at least in Kenya and in the States). A colleague wore this shirt recently, on a Friday of course.

The vast majority of garments worn in Kenya are pre-owned from North America or Europe. Even yours truly wears a lot of them. They are a good deal, and if you buy from the right merchant, they're nearly new.

So about this colleague's shirt - I'm not sure he ever has flown a kite. (This shirt is advertising the American Kitefliers Association.) But he commented that he liked the "American" aspect of the shirt.

I cropped out his face, to protect the innocent.

I originally shot this photo for my friend Rob, who loves to fly kites.

Which car to buy in Kenya?

Currently my recommendation is to buy the most common car or SUV. Reason? If you're in an accident, you will need to get it repaired. If you get a non-mainstream model, such as the Mazda Bongo Deluxe, it may be a long time after the accident till you'll be driving again.

Driving is so crazy here that I tell people to expect to get in an accident about once every nine months.

So why this sub-standard photo? This is the same model of car that some friends were driving when they got in a wreck. Then, the day after the car was repaired, another accident happened.

The second accident was thankfully minor enough that the repair was done in a few days. The first required a new hood (bonnet). It was in the shop for about two months till a replacement hood could be found. I thought their car was common, but it wasn't enough for that huge inconvenience to happen!

The downside to getting common models is that those are targets for carjackers. (The parts are easy to sell!) So you gotta choose which pro or con is most important to you. Or which risk you prefer.

Our car, a 1999 Nissan Sunny, is the second most common model in Nairobi.

Peter Horbury

Peter is the head of design at Ford. His staff is 770 talented individuals. He's a Brit, working in Detroit. He used to work in Sweden for Volvo.

"Sometimes it takes a foreigner to notice basic cultural differences." He mentioned that as it related to his design of a gigantic truck concept. That same principle guides me as I craft this blog.

(By the way, he doesn't have a blog - he's missing out on the fun!)

I'm not sure about this...

When vehicles come off the ship from Japan, Dubai or Singapore to the port of Mombasa, temporary hand-painted plates are given. I have been told that vehicles are only to be driven on Kenya's roads for one week with those plates.

Someone I know has been driving this car for more than a year with this plate. (I blocked the numbers to protect their identity.) I haven't asked them what they do when the police stop them. (That's "when" not "if" - getting stopped is a weekly or monthly occurrence.)

They haven't gotten regular government-issue plates, as the government is dragging their feet in giving the required plates. Perhaps the plate issuers are looking for a bribe?

Peppers are a gift from God

I love hot spicy food. The Tabasco company stays in business because of me.

As our days here are getting fewer, I am buying the smaller containers of Tabasco.

By the way, about 12 or 14 years ago, Heather and I toured the Tabasco factory in Louisiana. It's a great tour.

More than ten years ago, Tabasco produced its own brand of salsa. It was fabulous. It came in little metal cans. I was really sad when they stopped producing it. I even wrote to ask where I could get some. (The reply was something like, "Son, you're outta luck.")

The Frames

To the few of you out there who enjoyed The Owls, a band I recommended around Christmas time, I recommend The Frames. I only have one of their many releases, but it's a great one! Burn the Maps. It was released in 2004. They have a later CD, but as you might guess, it is not available for purchase in Kenya. (Nor is the one I have.)

The Frames are from Dublin, Ireland, for those of you who are into that kind of detail.

There are some free & legit downloads on their site.

Sportsman wins by a mile!

Here's another in my series of "rubbish art". These cigarettes were all made in Kenya (except for maybe the Pall Mall). Tobacco is grown here, so it's way cheap to smoke. Sportsman, as you might guess, is one of the cheapest brands - thus the large percentage of them among the found packages.

When we get back to the States, I plan to market my rubbish art as a series of greeting cards. Stay tuned, after July, and you can find out how to get your pack. (That's "pack of cards" not "pack of Kenyan cigarettes.")

If you double-click on the image, you can see it a bit larger.

Wooden men

Beautiful hand-made art is all over Kenya.

At the school our church meets at, these men are the lightposts that light the driveway. I liked them enough that I had to share them with you.

(The school is Hillcrest, perhaps one of the most posh schools in Nairobi. A bulletin boards features articles highlighting the accomplishments of their students in the local press. I think one went on to be Miss Kenya.)

Meeting Don

Chris has a great account of when she met Keith Richards.

Mine isn't as glamorous. I sold a hammer to Don Henley (The Eagles) in Aspen. I worked at a hardware store there one summer.

One fine day, a couple came in to do some shopping. The lady was, um, rather attractive. I didn't take much notice of the man. After they left, a seasoned Aspen resident co-worker informed me who I just sold a hammer to.

That same summer, my girlfriend there saw John Denver at the open-air mall. That shows you how long ago it happened. Another friend was a maid at a condo complex, and she cleaned the suite of the president of Sony.

Love birds

These long-tail birds are very common in our neighborhood. As usual, I have no idea what they're called. But they're fun to look at!

At the end of our first life in Nairobi, I was walking along the same road I do everyday. I saw one of these birds and thought, "Paul, why do you want to leave this paradise?"

More public annoyance

The main reason I object to the Muslim call to prayer that comes out of these speakers is that it wakes me at about 5:20am. Nearly as annoying is the lack of an ability to carry a tune by the main guy that calls the prayers. (And I'm not making a comment on Muslim tonal scales - I have heard much better from other mosques.)

This raises issues of freedom of speech and the use of public spaces. Those matters are complicated enough in my own culture - so I have no clue what the answers are here.

You heard me rave against christian evangelists - so this shows you I'm annoyed by people who make bad noises, no matter what their nationality, color or religion.

By the way, this is a photo of the actual speakers that broadcast the annoying sounds.

Kenyans can be so nice!

Yesterday evening on my commute (walk) home, a lady stopped me. We had been greeting each other for at least the last year. We would pass each other maybe two or three times a week - in the morning or the evening.

So she said she would no longer be seeing me. She was retrenched (laid off) from her nearby job.

I said I was sorry. We shook hands and parted.

I greet maybe twelve or fifteen people like that each week. One guy is always on a bicycle. He has a cheerful round face with little beady eyes. Another lady often walks with a work mate, and they always talk in Kikuyu. The ladies typically wear dresses. Many of the men wear ties and dress shirts.

Screaming evangelists

These guys are offensive wherever are.

Across from our apartment yesterday afternoon, a screaming evangelist did his work. He was speaking at the national stadium through an interpreter, and both voices echo-echo-echo, really loud-loud-loud. So that noise prevented me from thinking-thinking-thinking any further. (Needless to say, that particular evangelist export from the States I wish had not made it here.)

His voice was not unlike a squealing pig.

This guy came all the way here for one 4-hour crusade. I would have loved to spend his airfare on feeding the poor here.

My favorite phrase he said over and over was, "I can't hear you!" He was attempting to get the crowd worked up into a frenzy. I wanted to broadcast back, "Maybe you can't hear them because you are just not connecting!"

Car vs Car

Heather gave me the December British magazine, Car, for Christmas. Then my buddy Eric went to South Africa for Christmas and brought me back the January issue of Top Car.

Notice any similarity?

A few of the articles are the same. I scanned the editorial contributors' listings for both magazines. Funny enough, there were none of the same names (like for the art directors or designers). And there was no listing of a parent corporation over both magazines.

And yes, I love the cover car - the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

By the way, the covers are slightly different dimensions. And apologies for the bad photos - operator error.