There is nothing like sauntering across England's sweepingly evocative Marlborough Downs to bend your thoughts towards bloody sacrifice of livestock to appease Lig or Bol or whomever or whatever foliage-faced, horned entity the Ancient Britons deified. But mysteriously erected megaliths were not the only upright objects of great value that I encountered in Wiltshire. The region's "petrol pumps" where thirsty automotives drink were often honored by my credit card as I drove around the many Stone, Iron, and Bronze Age sites. And considering the vast amount of money that filling a car's tank costs in England - almost twice the price of US gas - even Woden himself would have flashed me a wink when reviewing the sacrifice my bank balance offered up to his rain-weathered and crop-encircled monuments.
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Funny how that petrol is. Used to be almost as cheap as gas. In fact, our gas now is approaching petrol's high prices. Luckily, our drivers still sit on the left side, so we should be safe from further price gouging. And our prez has Jimmy Cartered up, so we'll certainly see better times ahead!
Posted by: DarkoV | October 03, 2005 at 12:06
Oh, yeah. Welcome Back, been missing your wry posts.
Posted by: DarkoV | October 03, 2005 at 12:07
I always thought "petrol pumps" were worn by a certain type of girl in high school.
Dumped that Baez chick yet, have you?
Just so I don't have to submit an additional comment a few minutes from now, as DarkoV did, and end up looking like a complete idiot -- Welcome back.
Posted by: Bleak Mouse | October 03, 2005 at 16:48
Don't be fooled by that petrol lark - an english litre is twice the price of a US gallon.
When they changed from gallons to litres back in the day, we were all completely flummoxed having no idea howsoever to work out how much our petrol was costing us.
Seven years ago it was around $6 a gallon. Don't you be telling me taxes have gone down meantime!
Posted by: Fcb | October 03, 2005 at 17:25
The latest price I saw for the US was 37 pence per litre. It is 94 pence per litre here. That is 2.5 times the price by my reckoning.
The difference is tax only makes up about 7 per cent of the US gasolene price, whereas it is 67 per cent of the UK petroleum price.
Also do not confuse a US gallon with a UK (Imperial) gallon when doing any conversions for pricing.
Posted by: Monjo | October 04, 2005 at 09:36
Bleak Mouse..."complete idiot"?!??!? Please, that's "considerate complete idiot".
Posted by: DarkoV | October 04, 2005 at 16:01