Monday, August 20, 2018

Literary Moment

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Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley


I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

2 comments:

Angantyr said...

Man, if I could get that T-62(?) hulk running again, I'd be the terror of the 405! Never have to worry about gridlock again - I'd be doing 25 mph whether traffic around me was doing 85 or 0!

Reminds me of an eBay auction I saw way back in the late 90's, someone from Poland (I think) was trying to auction off a King Tiger that had been abandoned at the end of WWII - even if you won I had no idea how they'd ship the damn thing; one road wheel at a time? And this is without even considering how to get customs and ATF approval for the 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 main gun...

Aesop said...

Some jerkweed from San Diego tried that with an M-60 a few years back.

Important freeway tank driving tip:
Combat-lock the hatches.

I have fonder memories of the semi driver who'd finally had enough. I think he racked up 80 cars between the 101/405 interchange, and somewhere around Gorman before the CHP finally got him off the road.

Said he was tired of the @$$holes on the 405.

If I'da been on that jury, I'd have voted to acquit, or found him guilty of an unsafe lane change or two, so he'd have gotten off with just trash picking at the side of the road.