The best laid schemes … gang aft agley

[Cormanus]

Great trip report (and rant). There's nothing more fun than a winding mountain road and a CB1100. Also I feel your battery pain. Mine did exactly the same thing on the bike's 2nd birthday (batteries die young in the desert heat). Started up fine for a ride across town, then after the first stop, nothing. Push starting in a flat parking lot in 100+ degree temps wasn't fun.

Regarding the rant, I don't think the remaking of good shows from elsewhere (usually the U.K.) is because Americans think they can do them better. It's really just laziness. It's much easier to recycle a good concept from somewhere else than to come up with a brand new one. Just a few weeks ago I was pointing out to my nephew (a Ricky Gervais fan) how many popular American TV shows of the last decade, actually originated in the U.K. It's a surprising number to most Americans.

I was never a huge fan of Men at Work, but Collin Hay's work has inhabited my MP3 player for many years.

Ride on, Mate!

Thank you. I, too, have become a big Colin Hay fan. I recently came across Are you looking at me which I'm really enjoying.

Great piece.

It's cheaper to buy the rights to a tv show/movie than to reverse it, but there's less payback. Remaking a show costs more, but can have a greater return and, also, allows the remake to be more relevant to its intended audience. I'm also sure that there's at least a little "we can do this better" attitude in some of these ventures.

Thank you.