McLeod Idler

It is my birthday, and I am surprised once more by the vast number of people who have marked the event by carrying on as normal. The list of people ignoring it is fairly long. It includes the Queen Mother who is dead and can be forgiven, the Duchess of Cambridge who isn't and can't, and, oh, another 6,999,999,994 people one of whom is my daughter. But I don't mind because I'm Elderly and anyway Barack Obama, at least, emailed me last week. (No I know you don't believe me, but it happens to be true.) -

Over in the Parish of Richmond Mr McLeod has been un-busy not-filming his new idler wheel, and his suggestion as to what to call it - 'The McLeod Twiddly Bit' - is so rubbish that I have immediately vetoed it. I have toyed with calling it 'The Middleton Twiddly Bit' instead, but that's rubbish too. It's not rubbish because I eliminated Mr McLeod's name and substituted my own. That at least has many precedents, starting perhaps with Ackerman Steering, which was invented by Lankensperger, improved by Jeantard, and patented by Ackerman, who was the agent. His real name was Ackermann but we all spell it wrongly on purpose.

Anyway, it is going to be called the McLeod Idler because then even serious people can use it. We do not want to discourage the serious people. They have rights, too.


Here is another picture of it, and eventually, when Mr McLeod and Mr Schroder manage to arrange a time mutually convenient to their wives or helmet cams, I shall post a link to a Youtube showing it actually working, whereupon crowds of front wheel drive recumbent builders may both fall down in astonishment and send me a thousand billion dollars in royalties whenever they copy it. I will pass on a suitable proportion to Mr McLeod every time they do, rest assured. Say, sixpence. I will keep the remainder for my friend Mr Xenothobo who has offered me a similar sum if I lend him my bank account details to withdraw certain monies from a Nigerian company in which he has business interests.

(It isn't my birthday today. It's my birthday today, tomorrow. It's just that tomorrow's already here in New Zealand, and Blogger is still in yesterday mode on account of being American or some such nonsense.)