VVoyage 

Remember, Remember,

The 5th of November, 

The gun powder, treason and plot,

I know of no reason, 

Why the gunpowder treason,

Should ever be forgot.

We are told to remember the IDEA and not the man,

Because man can fail.

But an IDEA can still change the world.

The Monologue 

Evey: Who are you?
V. : Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey: Well I can see that.
V. : Of course you can, I’m not questioning your powers of observation, I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
Evey: Oh, right.
V. : But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace soubriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona. 

 Voila! In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.

 

 

Reference books are fun!

The Second Mulled Toast

When as a student a long time ago
my books gave no theory glimmers,
why two-strokes ended in second place slow,
and four-stroke were always the winners.

Williams and Craig were heroes enough
whose singles thumped to Tornagrough,
such as black 7R or silver Manx,
on open megas they enthused the cranks.

Wallace and Bannister gave me the start
into an unsteady gas dynamic art,
where lambdas and betas meshed in toil
for thirty years consumed midnight oil.

With the parrot on Bush a mental penny
into slot in brain fell quite uncanny.
Lubrication of grey cells finally gave
an alternative way to follow a wave.

That student curiosity is sated today
and many would describe that as winning.
Is this then the end of the way?
No, learning is aye a beginning.

-Gordon Blair


Things the reader needs to know:

Peter Williams - Rode a black AJS 7R 350cc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Williams_(motorcyclist)
Joe Craig - Tamed a silver Manx Norton 600cc https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Craig

Tornagrough (pronounced as tawernagruff) is a bend on the Dundrod circuit where the Ulster Grand Prix is held.

Wallace - Gordon's Ph.D guide for Unsteady Gas Dynamics
Bannister - External Examiner for the dissertation
Lambdas - Wavelength of sounds
Betas - Sound Pressure Levels

Bush is a local colloquialism for the amber nectar produced at the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery at Bushmills Co. Antrim, a modicum of which has been known to ease the pain caused by trying to figure out who these people are!

The Last Mulled Toast 
Usually we skip the foreword/preface of a reference book and hop on to the content page. Today I discovered that even petro-heads could be poetic, this book titled “Design and Simulation of Four-Stroke Engines” by Gordon Blair opens with the poem. In my attempt to understand the references I sat through entire foreword; even the Acknowledgement.


A Grand prix race is very rough,
the going's fast, the pace is tough.
The four-stroke rules the world of cars,
in bikes it's two-strokes that are the stars

Now,why is this you'd have to ask?
The rulemakers you can take to task.
For the intake air never needs to question,
“Is this the right bellmouth for my ingestion?”

The designer of both must surely know,
or else his engines will all be slow,
unsteady gas dynamic trapping
by right and left waves overlapping.

To model an engine is algebraic simple.
You sit on the gas like a veritable pimple,
solving the maths the waves to track
from valve to bellmouth in the intake stack.

At the inlet valve you scan induction,
count the air that's passed by suction
and just as the valve would shut the door,
you get a wave to ram home more.

In the exhaust it's furnace hot,
for the modeller 'tis a tropic spot.
Exhaust waves reflect but do the job
of sucking out the burned gas slob.

Sometime ago I wrote two tomes                        
on two-strokes, including poems.
It seemed only fair to tell those with cars
that black-art tuning is best kept for bars.

This book informs the four-stroke tuner
what I wish I knew decades sooner,
as Brian Steenson followed Agostini
with my exhaust on Mick Mooney's Seeley.

The pen's both strokes have now been told.
My writ is run, I'm pensioned old.
While I may be ancient and time is shrinking,
only Dei voluntas can stop me thinking.


-Gordon Blair
*Most of the Names are of Grand Prix Road racer