3 ms·

Testing the Grave Digger Monster Truck (2010)

34 points by camtarn 8y ago

dang 8y ago
Which is the best article? This one, or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768630 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768626?
- camtarn 8y ago
  They both present a slightly different perspective - one's about the human element of the sport, and the other's about the mechanical. I actually thought the mechanical might be more interesting for Hacker News, but it seems that the personal one has got more traction. Happy for either to be killed to provide more focus - I just went on a bit of a monster truck reading trip last night and submitted the ones I found interesting :)
  - mirimir 8y ago
    Gotta love the language. For example: > High-speed oversteer in a monster truck, so we're told, is about as easy to rein in as a night in Vegas with a sloshed Lindsay Lohan.
ablation 8y ago
Loved the writing style in this. It pulled me along at a decent clip, kept me interested right to the end - and that’s something I never thought I’d say about monster trucks.
bozopi 8y ago
The mechanical aspects of monster trucks ARE interesting, but it's really impossible for me to separate that from the fact that this is really PR for Feld Entertainment. They're a family-held corporation famously known for owning the (now defunct) Ringling Brothers Circus... and for getting caught hiring a dirty ex-CIA official to wiretap and harassing their critics. (Clair George, an interesting guy. The highest ranking CIA official convicted - and pardoned by Poppy Bush - in the Iran-Contra scandal, among other dubious achievements.) Salon did a great series on this years back: Part 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20081012203919/http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/08/30/circus/print.html https://web.archive.org/web/20081012203919/http://archive.sa... Part 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20060203010938/http://archive.salon.com:80/news/feature/2001/08/31/circus/print.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060203010938/http://archive.sa... tl;dr - the owners of Grave Digger and Monster Jam are Not Nice People. (Posting as a throwaway because of this history.)
- mirimir 8y ago
  That is an impressive dirty-tricks story. Ken Feld adamantly did not want his late father outed as gay. That's not surprising, I guess. And he wanted to protect the reputation of Ringling Bros. Also not surprising. But the lengths he went to!
- justtopost 8y ago
  I am decidedly not nice when you come after my family as well. This reads like gossip, what is your personal beef?
  - PavlovsCat 8y ago
    That's not "not being nice". "Not being nice" is something like saying "hmm, hi" rather than "Hey, so great to see you! You look fantastic!!" Being a thief is being a thief, being a liar is being a liar, and so on, that such things are "not nice" is a bonus, it doesn't replace what they actually are. And unflattering truths isn't "coming after" anyone, either. > Over lunch, Smith recounted a campaign of surveillance and dirty tricks Feld had unleashed on her in the wake of her 1990 magazine piece in the now-defunct Regardie's magazine. Feld, he said, had hired people to manipulate her whole life over the past eight years. Feld had spent a lot of money on it, he said. He may have even tried to destroy her marriage. In fact, Pottker would eventually learn of a massive dirty tricks operation, involving former CIA officials and operatives, that would target Ringling enemies such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups, not just Pottker. [..] > The final paragraph of George's affidavit was a stunner, too. It suggested Feld had set up a special unit, much like the Watergate "plumbers," to destroy anyone who threatened the image of the circus as wholesome fun for the whole family, not to mention a conscientious custodian of animals and circus children. It was headed by one Richard Froemming, one of Feld's executive vice presidents, George swore. His main target was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and similar groups that had annoyed Feld with charges that the Ringling Bros.' elephants were badly cared for. If someone does that kind of stuff, and their family doesn't "come after them" for it, it dissed itself harder, and more long-lastingly, than any author or journalist could.

34 points by camtarn 8y ago

dang 8y ago

Which is the best article? This one, or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768630 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18768626?

camtarn 8y ago
They both present a slightly different perspective - one's about the human element of the sport, and the other's about the mechanical. I actually thought the mechanical might be more interesting for Hacker News, but it seems that the personal one has got more traction. Happy for either to be killed to provide more focus - I just went on a bit of a monster truck reading trip last night and submitted the ones I found interesting :)
- mirimir 8y ago
  Gotta love the language. For example: > High-speed oversteer in a monster truck, so we're told, is about as easy to rein in as a night in Vegas with a sloshed Lindsay Lohan.

ablation 8y ago

Loved the writing style in this. It pulled me along at a decent clip, kept me interested right to the end - and that’s something I never thought I’d say about monster trucks.

bozopi 8y ago

The mechanical aspects of monster trucks ARE interesting, but it's really impossible for me to separate that from the fact that this is really PR for Feld Entertainment. They're a family-held corporation famously known for owning the (now defunct) Ringling Brothers Circus... and for getting caught hiring a dirty ex-CIA official to wiretap and harassing their critics. (Clair George, an interesting guy. The highest ranking CIA official convicted - and pardoned by Poppy Bush - in the Iran-Contra scandal, among other dubious achievements.) Salon did a great series on this years back: Part 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20081012203919/http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/08/30/circus/print.html https://web.archive.org/web/20081012203919/http://archive.sa... Part 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20060203010938/http://archive.salon.com:80/news/feature/2001/08/31/circus/print.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060203010938/http://archive.sa... tl;dr - the owners of Grave Digger and Monster Jam are Not Nice People. (Posting as a throwaway because of this history.)

mirimir 8y ago
That is an impressive dirty-tricks story. Ken Feld adamantly did not want his late father outed as gay. That's not surprising, I guess. And he wanted to protect the reputation of Ringling Bros. Also not surprising. But the lengths he went to!
justtopost 8y ago
I am decidedly not nice when you come after my family as well. This reads like gossip, what is your personal beef?
- PavlovsCat 8y ago
  That's not "not being nice". "Not being nice" is something like saying "hmm, hi" rather than "Hey, so great to see you! You look fantastic!!" Being a thief is being a thief, being a liar is being a liar, and so on, that such things are "not nice" is a bonus, it doesn't replace what they actually are. And unflattering truths isn't "coming after" anyone, either. > Over lunch, Smith recounted a campaign of surveillance and dirty tricks Feld had unleashed on her in the wake of her 1990 magazine piece in the now-defunct Regardie's magazine. Feld, he said, had hired people to manipulate her whole life over the past eight years. Feld had spent a lot of money on it, he said. He may have even tried to destroy her marriage. In fact, Pottker would eventually learn of a massive dirty tricks operation, involving former CIA officials and operatives, that would target Ringling enemies such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups, not just Pottker. [..] > The final paragraph of George's affidavit was a stunner, too. It suggested Feld had set up a special unit, much like the Watergate "plumbers," to destroy anyone who threatened the image of the circus as wholesome fun for the whole family, not to mention a conscientious custodian of animals and circus children. It was headed by one Richard Froemming, one of Feld's executive vice presidents, George swore. His main target was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and similar groups that had annoyed Feld with charges that the Ringling Bros.' elephants were badly cared for. If someone does that kind of stuff, and their family doesn't "come after them" for it, it dissed itself harder, and more long-lastingly, than any author or journalist could.