The Fascinating Life and Strange Death of Rudolph Diesel

[David Gentle]

> German engineering is amazing. I just bought a VW Jetta TDI to
> go along with my 2000 Honda Insight. Going diesel for the first
> time, I was curious about its origins. I had no idea that there had
> actually been a man named "Diesel" who had come up with the
> the idea of the "oil engine," and that originally he had intended
> for it to be run on vegetable oil.
Some people here in the UK (especially Scotland, I believe) are running 
their cars on vegitable oil. This, of course, annoys the government who 
would prefer they run them on something that they can tax (i.e. actual 
diesel fuel). Don't know if this happens anywhere else in the world but you 
can tell if a car is running on vegitable oil by the smell of hot chip fat.
Is this Pynchonian enough?

thanks,
David Gentle