The General Lee

Dinner party tonight with Philippe and his wife, Normita. Philippe is the Belgian friend for whom I collect Hot Wheels cars. When I arrived with a suitcaseful a few days ago, he wanted to thank me by taking me and Normita out to a nice restaurant. Somehow instead I ended up cooking them an American dinner at the home of a mutual friend.

In the kitchen, I struggled a bit with the electric cooktop, unfamiliar pots and pans, and the somewhat but not quite equivalent ingredients from the Super GB on rue Neuve. Meanwhile in the living room the conversation had turned to--what else?--Hot Wheels cars.

Philippe was excited because the ebay auction of John Schneider's "General Lee" was ending any minute. Schneider is the actor who played Bo Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard. His "General Lee," a seriously souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger, was not one of the cars used in the original television series, but in a later Dukes of Hazzard movie.

We logged onto ebay and sure enough, there it was. The auction ended with a bid for $10 million. Philippe was excited, not so much about the actual car, but about his little Hotwheels reproduction of it.

The auction sale will probably fall through, but Philippe doesn't care. All the brouhaha surrounding the car can only increase the value of his midget version.