Matryoshkas of Putin And Medvedev

If this doesn't prove that Putin and Medvedev are connected at the hip, what does?

CKY

Anthropomorphic Hot Dogs From Chicago

What's up with Chicago and their creepy hot dogs?

U Lucky Dawg: 80s fever

Superdawg: Old school

Hot Doug's: Nerd

Gold Coast Dogs: Mr. Peanut's cousin

Felony Franks: The lack of legs increases the creepy factor

CKY

Entry Into Turkmenistan: Denied

I'm on a pseudo-whirlwind tour of the Central Asian -stans. I was just denied access into "Turkmenistan". More later.

CKY

Tabasco Packet

The greatest food innovation of the year.

CKY

Musavi Versus Musubi

Not to make light of the situation in Iran, but every time I hear the name of the opposition candidate, Musavi,

I think of delicious musubi.

CKY

Vettel And Vickers Clinch Poles

In what I believe is a first, Red Bull's F1 and Nascar teams both clinched pole positions on the same weekend. Maybe they'll both win their respective races too.

CKY

Kate Gosselin's New Car: Toyota Land Cruiser

I'm staying out of the "Which spouse is more to blame" debate. I'm just reporting on their rides.

In the last few weeks, thousands of you wanted to know what Jon was driving. (It's a practical Nissan 350Z Nismo.) Today, Kate picked up her brand new Toyota Land Cruiser, seen above. I'm still working on confirming rumors that Jon traded his Nismo for a new BMW M3. Stay tuned.

Update 1: Here is Jon's "new" BMW M3.

Update 2: Here is Jon's Porsche SUV.

DC Embassy Tour

Statue in front of Kazakh embassy

I came upon this site while looking for directions to the Central Asian embassies. I thought it would be fun to try to see the missions of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Last year, a group of people walked to all 170 plus embassies in Washington, DC, in ONE DAY. Here is their route. Here is their Excel file with addresses and directions. That takes a lot of stamina. And I thought I was nuts.

Borat in front of Uzbek embassy

CKY

Diecast Models of Citroen XM Cabriolet And Citroen SM Limousine

I. Want. These.


CKY

Hearses I Prefer Over Lincolns and Cadillacs

Mortality has been on my mind since watching a clip on how hearses are made. Here are some hearses I'd take my last car ride in.

Mercedes 600

Holden Ute

Citroen DS

Citroen CX

Bentley

CKY

Citroen CX Orphee By Guy Deslandes

Update: Aussiefrogs readers, here is a CX ute. Feel free to post it on your website forum!

Heuliez Limousines

Peugeot 604 limousine by Heuliez:

Citroen XM limousine by Heuliez:

CKY

Peugeot 604 Landaulet By Chapron

What do you get when you mix famed coachbuilder Henri Chapron and an already awesome Peugeot 604? Answer: The Peugeot 604 Landaulet.


Only two of these puppies were ever made in 1978. One was for Freddy Heineken (of green-bottled beer fame). The other went to the president of Niger.

The car you see here was for sale in Niger around 2002 with 15,000 clicks on the clock. It looks like it was in pretty good shape.



Apparently, it was purchased, restored, and on display here at a recent Retromobile.

Credit: www.garage24.net

CKY

Peugeot 604 Truck

While looking for a picture of a Peugeot 604 hearse (long story), I came upon this Peugeot 604-amino. It was based in Belgium and for sale on ebay a while back.

CKY

When Ferrari Builds Trains

Leave it up to the Italians to make a TRAIN sexy. A new privately-held company is doing just that. The company, Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), will be using these cherry red trains known as Italos to carry fashion-conscious riders between Naples and Turin.

The trains can travel up to 225 mph, or somewhere between the top speeds of a Scuderia Ferrari F1 car and a Bugatti Veyron. The trains are supposedly 15% more fuel efficient than similar high-speed trains and 98% of their materials can be recycled. They also supposedly cost 15% less to maintain. I have my doubts about that last claim.

The train was designed by none other than Giorgetto Giugiaro, formerly of Isuzu Piazza/Impulse fame. It is a stunner. Only the Italians would put a train in a photo studio and take glamour shots.

The venture is backed by SNCF and Fiat/Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo. This train distraction may explain the disastrous state of the Ferrari F1 team.

CKY

The Cars And Cast of A Confederacy of Dunces

I just finished A Confederacy of Dunces, which may very well be my favorite work of fiction of all time. It takes place in the early 1960s in New Orleans. A movie of this book must be made. These are the actors and cars that should be in the movie:

Janeane Garofalo as Myrna Minkoff in her compact four-door Renault

Artie Lange as Ignatius Reilly and Estelle Harris as Irene Reilly in their beat-up Plymouth

Frieda, Betty, and Liz, the 'roid raged Sapphos (Rosie O'Donnell, Cynthia Nixon, Sara Gilbert), in their "magnificent" German automobile.

Extras in their Charity Hospital Cadillac ambulance

Gus Levy (played by Richard Jenkins) in his expensive sports car

CKY

Banksy Bristol Museum Videos

English graffiti artist Banksy's exhibit at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery is a hit. One particular piece really frightened and disturbed me when I saw it on the news yesterday. It is of the hot dog (with mustard on top) in the second video below:

CKY

Guantanamo Uyghurs Going to Palau

I've talked about the plight of the Guantanamo Uyghurs before. It looks like they're going to end up in Palau, one of a handful of countries that recognizes Taiwan over China. In all likelihood, Obama and Clinton worked out a deal with Taiwan and Palau to admit the Uyghurs. China will no doubt be pissed. It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds.

CKY

Omar Bongo's Car Collection

Gabon's Omar Bongo just passed away. He took over his small oil-rich nation when LBJ was president, making him the longest serving head of state in the world. Coincidentally, Bongo also became very rich while in office.

Bongo with Citroen-loving Chirac

I first became aware of Bongo's lust for exotic cars while doing research for my Rides of Heads of State series. He had a whole fleet of pimped out Stutzs.

Bongo used his nation's treasury as his personal bank account. Here is a check his young wife wrote to buy a Maybach using public funds.

Bongo's collection was superb and extravagant. He used to own this Tickford Aston Martin Lagonda, which is now for sale. He also had a Ferrari 612. Here is a Ferrari 400 that used to belong to him:

Me thinks he drove his prized cars mostly in France. He had 33 luxury homes throughout Paris and Nice. Not bad for a former postal worker.

CKY