Hatmaking

• Launched in 2022, the Power List was created to explore how celebrity ownership can affect the value of a car.
• When faced with a unique car such as the Batmobile, Hagerty valued the standard equivalent of the vehicle on which it was based on.
• This year, the Hagerty Power List has grown, analyzing nearly 400 sales of celebrity cars and bikes from around the world, each with their own story to tell.
• Power List creator and Hagerty UK Price Guide editor, John Mayhead, said, "Hagerty monitors a huge amount of enthusiast car market data every week, and often we see record prices achieved throughout the year.

• Allegedly, he likes listening to the music of Michael Bublé, watching Emily in Paris – and reading the novels of Jilly Cooper.
• Cooper is a stalwart of the British literary scene, awarded an OBE in 2004 and a CBE in 2018 for services to literature.
• In later books in the so-called “Rutshire Chronicles”, such as Rivals (1988) and Polo (1991), he becomes Tory minister for sport.

What is a bonkbuster?

• Feel at last bonkbuster is on the road.
• Publisher [… enquires] about progress of blockbuster.
• Bonkbusters are characterised by melodrama and spectacle – in other words, they are completely, unashamedly, unabashedly bonkers.
• The bonkbusters are no different, with their focus on wealth and power – and of course sex.

Sex, relationships and goldfish

• There are key differences in attitude between the two forms – including the way they approach sex.
• Sex can be euphoric and multi-orgasmic – this is certainly the case in what is arguably the most infamous bonkbuster sex scene, the goldfish scene from Conran’s Lace.
• This exemplifies another typical bonkbuster theme: bad relationships.
• Read more:
  A whole new set of horny lords and ladies: how Bridgerton brought romance book serialisation to television

Orgasms and class

• However, it is arguably in their depictions of sex and relationships – particularly their championing of female orgasms – that the most compelling case for reading them as feminist texts can be made.
• Bonkbusters – especially Jilly Cooper’s books – are often associated with the English upper classes.
• Cooper’s aristocratic characters attend parties in (often quite tumbledown) stately homes, or socialise at polo matches.
• What all bonkbusters endorse is aspiration – to be richer, to be famous, to have better sex (or more sex), or to gain a husband.

Where has the bonkbuster gone?

• The 21st century saw the bonkbuster disappear somewhat from view – or, at least, from its wholesale domination of bestseller lists.
• The slew of copycats died down and other forms of women’s fiction, such as chick-lit, arose in its wake.
• However, this is not to say the bonkbuster has gone away.

• PITTSBURGH, Aug. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- "I wanted to create an improved hard hat to protect the wearer's head from harmful impacts while also providing optimal forward lighting for easy visibility," said an inventor, from Scottsdale, Ariz., "so I invented the SMART HARD HAT.
• The invention provides an improved way to increase visibility when wearing a hard hat.
• Additionally traditional hard hat headlamps cause your hard hat to be unbalanced by the added weight to the front.
• The smart hat is perfectly balanced due to the USB charging battery being placed on the back of the hard hat.

• Beginning today through August 14, 2023, cowboys and cowgirls 25+, who are active members of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo Association can visit www.bpirfoundation.org to submit their application for The Hats Off Grant.
• "We at the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo Foundation are honored to expand our partnership with Crown Royal through The Hats Off Grant.
• "We thank the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo for their continued partnership and providing opportunities to participate in – and amplify – their rodeo celebrations.
• Follow @CrownRoyal for more information on Crown Royal's initiatives and partnership with the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo Foundation.