Just ahead of Episode Seventeen of Three Men on the Bummel, let me thank you for your many insightful comments on this latest Tale for Our Time. Listeners' discussion yesterday on the German citizen's compliance with state management of every minor detail of daily life prompted this response from Tim Neilson, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club:
Regarding street crossings and the realm of manners, a friend of mine had a somewhat similar experience during his time lecturing at Cambridge. He told me that one night he was walking home from a very late finishing social event, and up the totally deserted street he could see a young man standing at a street corner, obviously waiting for the lights to change even though no motor vehicle could even be heard in the distance let alone be seen. When he got close to the dutiful pedestrian he could see that the young man was wearing a T shirt emblazoned with the message 'ANARCHY!'
My friend thought that was a very amusing insight into the English mentality, but when he told the tale to a German colleague the German solemnly explained that the young man had been doing the right thing because the purpose of the traffic signals was to regulate the behaviour of road users [etc. at great length].
In tonight's episode of Three Men on the Bummel, we have some further insights into Germany's national character:
The German driver is not what we should call a first-class whip. He is at his best when he is asleep. Then, at all events, he is harmless; and the horse being, generally speaking, intelligent and experienced, progress under these conditions is comparatively safe. If in Germany they could only train the horse to collect the money at the end of the journey, there would be no need for a coachman at all.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Seventeen of Three Men on the Bummel simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Speaking of which, please allow me a quick plug for our Tales of Our Time home page in its handy Netflix-style tile format. It's super-easy to pick out whatever tickles your fancy of an evening, and Timely-Talers from around the world seem to like it. If you've yet to hear any of our Tales, you can enjoy the first eight years' worth of audio adventures - by Conan Doyle, Kafka, Conrad, Gogol, Wodehouse, Baroness Orczy, Jack London, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson and more - by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking the perfect present for a fellow fan of classic fiction, don't forget our Steyn Club Gift Membership. Alternatively, if you'd like a book in old-fashioned book form, over at the SteynOnline bookstore there are bargains galore among our Steynamite Special offers.
Please join me tomorrow for Part Eighteen of Three Men on the Bummel.
