Travis Magee and gasoline engines.
 

John D. Macdonald's Travis Magee was an unusual character in the pulp fiction
of 30 to 40 years ago. Magee was a hard-hitting guy defending damsels in
distress from nasty guys (there was also a right wing political bent and a
fundamentalist religious taint to MacDonald's writings).

Magee lived on a houseboat named "Busted Flush" and drove a 1930's Rolls Royce
that had been converted to a pickup truck.

In one of the books, Magree was to meet a woman that he wanted to impress and
so started to get cleaned up ahead of time. In fact, Magee was so far ahead
that he was dressed in blue blazer and white pants a couple hours early, so he
decided to spent the time changing the points and plugs (on his 1930's gas boat
engine. I seem recall it was an inline six, and a flathead, but it has been a
while). Magee finished installing the new points and plugs so quickly and he
still had lots of time left over, so he changed the rings as well just to kill
time.

Travis Magee books were interesting in the context of their times, but I still
remember the image of the guy in a blue blazer and white pants changing the
rings in his engine just to kill time.

sorta like cleaning the plugs in a longliner because one is nervous.

btw, Travis Magee was originally named Dallas Magee, but that little incident
in Dallas changed the publisher's mind. Reportedly, MacDonald was never
happywith the name Travis but that was what they came up with in an instant
hurry.

btw-2, The Sisters In Crime (a female splinter group off the Myster Writers of
America) awarded -- tongue in cheek -- the Travis Magee novels its award for
Most Girlfriends Killed in a Series. Magee could change piston rings wearing a
blue blazer and white pants, but he had a hard time keeping the women he slept
with from the paths of villians bullets.