It's Hard Cyber Monday, 2022, Ya Beatniks! (MyLot Exclusive #1163)

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I had a great dream last night. It wasn't Lucid and it was only Semi-Vivid and that's going to prompt many of you to say, "I'm confused, Sir. How on Earth could it be rated "Great" if it was only Semi-Vivid?" Under normal circumstances, you'd have a point. But this one was unusual in that the subject matter more than made up for the poor Production Values. The star of the show (In a sense, the costar, but we'll get to that in a bit) was a 1931 Norton Model 18E Motorcycle. The E was short for Electric because it was an electric motorcycle. If you check your Motorcycle Reference Library, as I'm sure you already have, you'll find that Norton never made a Model 18E (They made the Model 18 but not an 18E). At least not in this dimension. They also never made an electric motorcycle, as far as any historian can tell (There were electric motorcycles from 1895 on but they were rare and early motorcycle history is murky but no surviving evidence that Noton ever made one has surfaced so far). But in this dream, they did and I had one. I knew it was a 1931 Model 18E because it was clearly stamped at the bottom of the speedometer. It also looked and handled much like a standard Model 18...Aside from the smoothness and silence of the electric drive. Along with the lack of smoke. And it was a bit more streamlined as far as cables, levers and pedals are concerned but otherwise much the same. One odd thing is that the throttle was on the right side, where it should be. Unlike on most British bikes, Norton included. Being an electric bike, there was no transmission and thus, no clutch. That didn't bother me. I used to be in love with manual transmissions. My first car was a 1973 Chevy Nova with a 302 Small Block engine and Three-On-The-Tree and I didn't own an automatic until I was 30. That love affair faded after a few years and since then, I've been happy to let the vehicle do the shifting. Especially nowadays, when the A/T can do it better than any human ever could. I have plenty more motorcycle, car and personal autobiographical history to cover but the Woke Liberal Mob has spoken by saying, "For the love of God, Sir, please just get to the stupid dream before we all die of old age! And boredom!" And who am I to argue with them? So, fine. I had a 1931 Norton Model 18E, which I drove all over the Greater Hooterville/Pixley Metroplex portion of The Neon Fun Jungle and I was quite pleased with it. At one point, I needed a drink and cigarettes, so I stopped at a popular local grocery store. It turned out to be the Costar I alluded to earlier. Because, unlike its nondream twin, it was Clothing Optional. It was a tremendous improvement over the "Clothing Is Required" rules we have here and I go into great detail as to why on my MyLot AfterDark Channel. And that's pretty much it.