zabzonk

People posting here are perhaps missing that it is a comedy - with a bit of tragedy right at the end.

no, not really. occasionally the power pickup thingy would get detached from the overhead wires, but the driver had a big pole to hook them up again.

the trolleys were basically replacements for trams, which needed a lot of street furniture in the form of rails, points, etc. which caused problems for the increasing use of cars. but i always liked them (trolleys).

in the 1960s, the UK had lots of double-deck trolley buses with few problems - I used to ride them to school.

> I don't know where you live but UK summers were unbearable

well, i live in lincolnshire and used to live in london. i usually have a fan on for a few weeks over summer, but that's it. where in the UK did you live that the summers were so unbearable?

A mystery to me as well, given (as I have pointed out before here) he is the spit image of Carter Burke, the creepy Wayland-Yutami exec in the film "Aliens" - if you want to do a deal with face-huggers, either man is for you.

Thinking "I am in the presence of Satan" is quite common, though.

Somehow "USS Dolly Parton" has a bit of a ring to it for the next US warship after the "USS Dorie Miller".

> Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that.

Emmylou Harris does a great one also.

that "i before e except after c" rule often gets taken too seriously

Indeed, AFAIK. I've never seen an explanation for this. Most things that reproduce successfully want to do it again - or at least their DNA does. Perhaps octopuses are simply disappointed by the experience.

Though FWIW, they do protect their eggs quite well.

Hence one of the activities they are best known for - "cottaging".

Not exactly a cult, but... "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. It sounds like fun, until it doesn't so much. Soundtrack by The Grateful Dead.

> language and style of speaking sentences

Nabokov? His protagonists have very special styles of speaking. I'd recommend "Pale Fire" (which is also very funny and has an interesting hypertext-like structure) as a starter.