Yesterday we went exploring in the wilds of suburbia, specifically the retail and entertainment complex known as Patriot Place that has sprung up like so much crabgrass around the fringes of the stadium's property down in Foxborough. Don't get me wrong, the Kraft family is obviously a very smart group of business people, but the Christmas Tree Shop and Victoria's Secret seem just a little incongruous.
The original purpose driving our visit was to look at some shoes. The shoes were at the Bass Pro Shop, which is an outdoor emporium the likes of which most people in this part of the country, myself included, have not seen. Yeah, sure, I've been to the Bean mother ship in Freeport and so have you, but as the Mrs. put it, "this place is like L.L. Bean on crack."
I was in search of something specific that I had seen on their web site, but I didn't want to order it because I didn't know if they would fit, and then I would have to pay shipping both ways because Bass Pro is one of those stores that does not allow web order returns at their stores. So I figured it was just easier to go there, try on the shoes, and see if I liked them, and I was curious about the place anyway.
If you've spent time in the midwest or the southeast and you do anything outdoorsy, chances are you've visited one of these stores. They are huge and rustic, and there are hundreds of taxidermied animals decorating the place. The whole store is built on two levels surrounding a pool and waterfall, and in addition to the clothing, there are acres of fishing equipment (including boats), lots of camping equipment, archery gear, guns, and just about anything else you could think of for an outdoor activity. It's retail as theater.
I took a spin through the men's department before heading to the shoes. They have a couple of their own labels, and some of that stuff was mildly interesting and reasonably priced, but nothing made me want to take it home. I ended up not liking the shoes, so I didn't buy anything. I might consider buying something there in the future, but I probably don't need to visit the store again. The Mrs. managed to entertain herself for about half an hour before losing interest, as well as being seized with a strong feeling of being somewhere she didn't belong.
The story would end there, except we were hungry, it was dinner time, and there are about half a dozen restaurants in the Patriot Place complex. We drove to the other end where the stores and restaurants have been assembled in a village-like layout, walked around for a few minutes, and decided to eat a a place called Red Robin. Apparently the Foxborough area has been lacking for weekend casual dining destinations, because it seemed like all of Norfolk County was either waiting for a table or already eating. There was a Revolution game taking place but it had already started, so presumably the people in the restaurant weren't going to the game.
We ordered burgers, which are supposedly Red Robin's specialty (it's a chain with some 400 locations, but I believe it's pretty new to this part of the country). They took an inordinately long time to arrive; at one point, after 15 or 20 minutes had gone by, our waitress came by to tell us our food was taking longer than expected, and she was on her way to the kitchen to see what was up.
You'd expect this might lead to the food arriving in another couple of minutes, but it was about another 15 before the food appeared. Both burgers had been prepared wrong: I had asked for no mayo, and there it was on the bottom bun, and the Mrs. had asked for her mayo on the side, and it was on the burger. Not only that, but she was disappointed overall because she thought the turkey patty tasted too processed.
When we told the waitress, she apologized profusely and promised to find a manager. A few minutes later a young fellow came over and introduced himself as Pat, the kitchen manager. He too apologized and offered to take both burgers off the bill, leaving my beer. So the total, which had been around $27 before tip, was now $6 plus tax. After Pat left I looked at the Mrs. and said, "Does it taste any better now?" We made sure to give our waitress, Sarah, a generous tip, because clearly whatever was going on was beyond her control.
05 April 2009
02 April 2009
Bad Habits
There's nothing quite like stepping into a restroom on one's way to get lunch and picking up the unmistakable aromatic residue of someone's surreptitious and illegal smoke break. In a HOSPITAL, no less. So appetizing...
After I'd gotten my lunch, a caesar salad with grilled chicken, I was ladling on the dressing (they put it out in a big tub just to one side of the grill line where you get the salads) and trying to hurry so as not to hold up the person behind me, who had also gotten the salad and was waiting to add her own dressing. Seeing how much I was ladling on (something the Mrs. frequently chides me about), she said, "You might as well have gotten french fries."
After I'd gotten my lunch, a caesar salad with grilled chicken, I was ladling on the dressing (they put it out in a big tub just to one side of the grill line where you get the salads) and trying to hurry so as not to hold up the person behind me, who had also gotten the salad and was waiting to add her own dressing. Seeing how much I was ladling on (something the Mrs. frequently chides me about), she said, "You might as well have gotten french fries."
31 March 2009
Underneath It All
While thrashing around in search of a suitable topic, I recalled an exchange I've been having via email with A Proper Bostonian regarding undershirts. She mentioned that her husband's undershirts are getting old and need to be replaced.
I find that somewhat interesting, because I've always taken care of that sort of thing myself and I have a hard time imagining the Mrs. buying undershirts (or any other item of clothing, for that matter) for me. But everyone's different; APB's spouse is a busy guy, and so he's lucky to have someone to worry about such things for him.
My stance on undershirts is that I consider them to be more or less disposable, and therefore I buy them as inexpensively as possible. Same goes for underwear bottoms and socks. That doesn't mean I buy the cheapest ones I can find, because that's almost always a bad idea. Saving a couple of bucks doesn't do you any good if the things fall apart after a few washes, or shrink to child size, or stretch out too much. You need to find the right balance between thrift and value.
Most of the time, a multi-pack or two of Hanes or Fruit of the Loom T's is all you need. You can easily find these at the local department store or mega-discount emporium of your choice, and nowadays a lot of CVS and Walgreens stores carry them too. In my case that doesn't quite fill the need, because most of my undershirts are gray rather than white. As with so many other things, I have to be a bit of a contrarian about my undershirts; I do have a few white ones, but I prefer gray, and it's harder to find those in multi-packs.
For the past couple of years I've been buying them at Old Navy. For whatever reason they come in packages of only two, so I wait for sales and buy a couple of packages, adding them into the rotation and disposing of any that have gotten too ratty. But at the moment they are also selling basic T-shirts that are slightly heftier and come in an array of colors. The quality of these is surprisingly good, and are currently on sale for $5 each (regular price is $8.50, still fairly cheap), making it an excellent time to stock up. I got two in dark gray and two in a heathery cream that is typically called oatmeal. These are good colors to have when you want to wear something other than basic gray or white. They also come in black, navy, red, and a few other colors.
I take a similar approach with briefs, which I also prefer in gray. Several years back I discovered that the late, lamented Filene's was carrying something called Hanes Ultimate. Of course this was just marketing spin, but I hadn't seen them anywhere else and they were on sale, so I decided to try them out, and I liked them so much I bought several more packages. When Filene's closing was announced, I ran all over the metro area, buying up as many of the briefs as I could find in my size, and I still have five or six unopened packages tucked in a corner of the closet, so hopefully I'll be set for a few years yet.
As for socks, you get the idea: multi-packs of black, gray, and khaki athletic-type socks with extra cushioning for comfort. I have some socks in other colors, but they were bought in pretty much the same way, and in one or two cases I have another package of the same socks in reserve for when the others wear out. I wear white socks only in the summer with white sneakers, either the short ankle-high kind or the no-show kind. (I recommend the Macy's house brand, which are nice and plush, amply cushioned, made in the USA, and can sometimes be found on sale.)
Practicality, comfort, and value, with the least possible amount of fuss, are my primary motivations.
I find that somewhat interesting, because I've always taken care of that sort of thing myself and I have a hard time imagining the Mrs. buying undershirts (or any other item of clothing, for that matter) for me. But everyone's different; APB's spouse is a busy guy, and so he's lucky to have someone to worry about such things for him.
My stance on undershirts is that I consider them to be more or less disposable, and therefore I buy them as inexpensively as possible. Same goes for underwear bottoms and socks. That doesn't mean I buy the cheapest ones I can find, because that's almost always a bad idea. Saving a couple of bucks doesn't do you any good if the things fall apart after a few washes, or shrink to child size, or stretch out too much. You need to find the right balance between thrift and value.
Most of the time, a multi-pack or two of Hanes or Fruit of the Loom T's is all you need. You can easily find these at the local department store or mega-discount emporium of your choice, and nowadays a lot of CVS and Walgreens stores carry them too. In my case that doesn't quite fill the need, because most of my undershirts are gray rather than white. As with so many other things, I have to be a bit of a contrarian about my undershirts; I do have a few white ones, but I prefer gray, and it's harder to find those in multi-packs.
For the past couple of years I've been buying them at Old Navy. For whatever reason they come in packages of only two, so I wait for sales and buy a couple of packages, adding them into the rotation and disposing of any that have gotten too ratty. But at the moment they are also selling basic T-shirts that are slightly heftier and come in an array of colors. The quality of these is surprisingly good, and are currently on sale for $5 each (regular price is $8.50, still fairly cheap), making it an excellent time to stock up. I got two in dark gray and two in a heathery cream that is typically called oatmeal. These are good colors to have when you want to wear something other than basic gray or white. They also come in black, navy, red, and a few other colors.
I take a similar approach with briefs, which I also prefer in gray. Several years back I discovered that the late, lamented Filene's was carrying something called Hanes Ultimate. Of course this was just marketing spin, but I hadn't seen them anywhere else and they were on sale, so I decided to try them out, and I liked them so much I bought several more packages. When Filene's closing was announced, I ran all over the metro area, buying up as many of the briefs as I could find in my size, and I still have five or six unopened packages tucked in a corner of the closet, so hopefully I'll be set for a few years yet.
As for socks, you get the idea: multi-packs of black, gray, and khaki athletic-type socks with extra cushioning for comfort. I have some socks in other colors, but they were bought in pretty much the same way, and in one or two cases I have another package of the same socks in reserve for when the others wear out. I wear white socks only in the summer with white sneakers, either the short ankle-high kind or the no-show kind. (I recommend the Macy's house brand, which are nice and plush, amply cushioned, made in the USA, and can sometimes be found on sale.)
Practicality, comfort, and value, with the least possible amount of fuss, are my primary motivations.
29 March 2009
This Week in Awesome (3/29/09)
Or perhaps in this instance, it's more accurate to say "awesomely bizarre": once again courtesy of The Soup Blog, we are presented with an ad for something of questionable usefulness... but who am I to decide such things? Watch the clip (approx. 1:30) and make up your own mind.
Also, this week's episode of 30 Rock was completely jammed with laughs, and was perhaps their funniest episode yet. The only problem with that? It sets the bar awfully high. I couldn't single out just one clip, so you can watch the whole episode here, if you're so inclined.
Also, this week's episode of 30 Rock was completely jammed with laughs, and was perhaps their funniest episode yet. The only problem with that? It sets the bar awfully high. I couldn't single out just one clip, so you can watch the whole episode here, if you're so inclined.
26 March 2009
Brackets
Ha! You probably thought I was going to talk about the basketball tournament. Screw that noise, because I couldn't care less. When I heard that some of the games were going to be played here in Boston, my first thought was, "Great, traffic and crowds--stay away from the Garden this weekend." Now that might seem harsh, but there's no point in being dishonest about it: basketball just doesn't interest me.
The brackets I'm referring to are the ones the dentist put on my teeth six weeks ago. For the most part things have been fine, except for two that refuse to stay attached. I went back the day after they were first put on to have them redone, and they came right off again. I went back the following week, and that time they lasted three days. After that I didn't even bother calling or going back; I decided I'd just wait until this week's visit, the main purpose of which was to change the wire to a slightly thicker one.
I thought eating was causing the brackets to dislodge, but the dentist said he could see that the adhesive was still on my teeth, so the failure was between the adhesive and the brackets. On my way home from his office on the T, approximately 30 minutes later, I felt one of the troublemakers pop off, and the other one did the same thing about an hour later. So I've dutifully put in the call to the office, and I'll probably have to go back in a couple of days. Fortunately the office is only a 20-minute walk from where I work.
Otherwise, the braces are doing what they are supposed to do. He compared my teeth to the models he had made before the braces went on, and said that my upper bite has widened slightly more than 1.5 millimeters in the past six weeks, which is right on target for expected progress. It might seem hard to believe, but I can feel the difference, and my sister, who works for a dentist, said that she thought she could see a slight difference. In six more weeks the lower braces will go on, and I'll have another progress report.
The brackets I'm referring to are the ones the dentist put on my teeth six weeks ago. For the most part things have been fine, except for two that refuse to stay attached. I went back the day after they were first put on to have them redone, and they came right off again. I went back the following week, and that time they lasted three days. After that I didn't even bother calling or going back; I decided I'd just wait until this week's visit, the main purpose of which was to change the wire to a slightly thicker one.
I thought eating was causing the brackets to dislodge, but the dentist said he could see that the adhesive was still on my teeth, so the failure was between the adhesive and the brackets. On my way home from his office on the T, approximately 30 minutes later, I felt one of the troublemakers pop off, and the other one did the same thing about an hour later. So I've dutifully put in the call to the office, and I'll probably have to go back in a couple of days. Fortunately the office is only a 20-minute walk from where I work.
Otherwise, the braces are doing what they are supposed to do. He compared my teeth to the models he had made before the braces went on, and said that my upper bite has widened slightly more than 1.5 millimeters in the past six weeks, which is right on target for expected progress. It might seem hard to believe, but I can feel the difference, and my sister, who works for a dentist, said that she thought she could see a slight difference. In six more weeks the lower braces will go on, and I'll have another progress report.
24 March 2009
Back to Work
Well, the Mrs. is going back to work this week. She found herself a real job again, almost a year and a half after quitting her previous one due to dissatisfaction, stress, and all those other things that tend to make people want to quit jobs. She's been home the past two months after finishing a five-month temp job, so having a steady income again will be welcome.
Of course, given the state of the economy some compromise was inevitable, and she will be making significantly less money than before, but it's full-time work in her chosen field, work that has meaning for her and helps others, and an opportunity for her to gain valuable experience in a more administrative role.
In any situation like this, it takes a week or two to adjust to having to get up and successfully execute a morning routine after an extended period of leisure. But I think the dog is going to have to undergo the biggest adjustment: her favored person has been home with her nearly every day, and now she's abruptly going to be left alone for most of each day. She spends most of that time asleep, so it's not quite as traumatic as it might seem.
Of course, given the state of the economy some compromise was inevitable, and she will be making significantly less money than before, but it's full-time work in her chosen field, work that has meaning for her and helps others, and an opportunity for her to gain valuable experience in a more administrative role.
In any situation like this, it takes a week or two to adjust to having to get up and successfully execute a morning routine after an extended period of leisure. But I think the dog is going to have to undergo the biggest adjustment: her favored person has been home with her nearly every day, and now she's abruptly going to be left alone for most of each day. She spends most of that time asleep, so it's not quite as traumatic as it might seem.
21 March 2009
This Week in Awesome (3/21/09)
Last weekend we were away, so I didn't have a chance to post another edition of This Week in Awesome, but I think this will make up for it.
This is kind of the mash-up to end all mash-ups. This guy who goes by Kutiman collected a bunch of YouTube videos of people playing instruments, and edited them into songs. It must have been a lot of work, but the results sure are impressive. I really hope some record company executive has the sense to sign Kutiman to a contract.
So, I hope you enjoy ThruYou.
This is kind of the mash-up to end all mash-ups. This guy who goes by Kutiman collected a bunch of YouTube videos of people playing instruments, and edited them into songs. It must have been a lot of work, but the results sure are impressive. I really hope some record company executive has the sense to sign Kutiman to a contract.
So, I hope you enjoy ThruYou.
18 March 2009
Maybe Next Time...
One thing the Mrs. and I share is a love of sweets, treats, and goodies. We have been known to structure a Saturday around a trip to the Flour Bakery down near the waterfront, or to Lyndell's in Ball Square.
We've heard from several people that we have to try the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village. On our visit last summer we attempted to do so, only to find the line out the door, around the corner, and a good way down the block. It was around 8:30 on a Saturday evening in June, so it was definitely prime post-dinner walk-around-and-get-a-cupcake time, and we probably should have known better.
This time we decided to try again on Sunday evening, hoping the place wouldn't be quite so mobbed, and we did in fact make it in the door, but just barely. Just ahead of us there was a cluster of maybe five mewly, bratty kids squirming around with a couple of bored-looking downtown moms. Then I noticed that the trays of cupcakes were set out in the window, the idea being that you're supposed to make your selections and then wait to pay. I started thinking about how many of the cupcakes those kids might have touched, and suddenly I didn't want a cupcake anymore.
We've heard from several people that we have to try the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village. On our visit last summer we attempted to do so, only to find the line out the door, around the corner, and a good way down the block. It was around 8:30 on a Saturday evening in June, so it was definitely prime post-dinner walk-around-and-get-a-cupcake time, and we probably should have known better.
This time we decided to try again on Sunday evening, hoping the place wouldn't be quite so mobbed, and we did in fact make it in the door, but just barely. Just ahead of us there was a cluster of maybe five mewly, bratty kids squirming around with a couple of bored-looking downtown moms. Then I noticed that the trays of cupcakes were set out in the window, the idea being that you're supposed to make your selections and then wait to pay. I started thinking about how many of the cupcakes those kids might have touched, and suddenly I didn't want a cupcake anymore.
16 March 2009
Overheard: Available Only with a Prescription Edition
We just got back from a few days in New York, and while we always enjoy the people-watching, we also enjoy people-listening. It amazes me what people say when they don't realize (or care) anyone else is listening. I think it's partly because so much of our communication today takes place on cell phones, and it's kind of an automatic tendency to raise one's voice, especially when talking outdoors, in an effort to be heard.
Saturday night at a restaurant in Tribeca, we were treated to two young ladies discussing all sorts of things about their families and significant others. They were sitting two tables away, but the restaurant wasn't too busy and we could hear just about everything they said (which the Mrs. likes to refer to as "dinner and a show"). Just as we were getting up to leave, one said, about her live-in boyfriend, "He only takes them once in a while, so it's not like they're habit-forming. And besides, he writes so much better when he's on Ambien."
Saturday night at a restaurant in Tribeca, we were treated to two young ladies discussing all sorts of things about their families and significant others. They were sitting two tables away, but the restaurant wasn't too busy and we could hear just about everything they said (which the Mrs. likes to refer to as "dinner and a show"). Just as we were getting up to leave, one said, about her live-in boyfriend, "He only takes them once in a while, so it's not like they're habit-forming. And besides, he writes so much better when he's on Ambien."
12 March 2009
Good Shows, Bad Networks, Part 4: A New Hope?
Well, I guess I got a little carried away. I didn't intend to go on so long about this stuff; it started as a simple post about the cancellation of a TV show I like, but the ideas kept coming and I had to divide it up. This is it (for now)...
The broadcast networks need to stop looking at each pilot as the next potential number one hit show, and expect it to be so five minutes after the show hits the air. Statistically it isn't going to happen, and often the shows that end up becoming hits don't look like hits early on. Now-revered shows like Seinfeld, The X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond, and even CSI took a year or more to really catch on with viewers.
While they're at it, the broadcast networks also need to acknowledge that too many shows outstay their welcome. ER is finally going off the air in about a month, after how many seasons? 15! (I had to go look that up, as I stopped watching it years ago.) From what I've read, the critical consensus is that the show should have concluded four or five seasons ago, but like Detroit's automakers, NBC didn't have a plan for the future; instead of investing in finding another tent-pole drama to supplant ER as the big draw on Thursdays, they chose to milk as many seasons out of the show as they could. What now, NBC? What if you had been willing to end ER in 2004 and start airing Lost on Thursdays at 10 PM instead? The two shows draw about the same number of viewers these days, but which one has had more buzz over the past five years?
I became a fan of The X-Files as soon as I made its acquaintance in the fall of 1993, but even as a fan of the show who stuck with it all the way to the end, I feel it stayed on the air probably two seasons too long (Doggett and Reyes just weren't the same as Mulder and Scully), and when it finally ended I think most fans were relieved. Last year's poorly-received and poorly-reviewed movie indicated that the franchise has probably run out of gas, which is sad, because I'd like to think that an entity as special as The X-Files was at its peak could sustain itself in some form for a while longer.
For a long time British TV networks have developed limited-run, closed-end shows developed to play out over the course of a couple of seasons. This approach to programming gives show creators a framework on which to build a story with a beginning, middle, and end (the original UK versions of The Office and Life On Mars ran this way). Another BBC template is to introduce a central character or set of characters in a movie- or miniseries-length program like Prime Suspect and revisit those characters every year or two. CBS is currently doing this with a series of movies featuring Robert Parker's small-town sheriff Jesse Stone. The reviews are positive, and the fans look forward to each new installment.
Speaking of Lost, it started out as a show without a known end date, but during its third season in 2006-7, its creators took the unusual step of announcing that they had a plan to end the show after three more seasons. They were justifiably afraid that the onus of stringing the many strands of its extremely complex plot through an unknown number of additional seasons would weaken the show creatively; indeed, some argue that the show did weaken creatively during that third season and that's precisely what brought them to their decision.
Lost's creators also opted for shorter seasons that would run uninterrupted each winter and spring, which allowed the storytelling to thrive without the inevitable gaps necessitated by spreading out the episodes over a full eight-month season. So not only do the fans get more sustained doses of their beloved show, but they know that their investment is going to pay off by the spring of 2010, when the show is set to conclude. And let's give credit (for a change) to ABC for airing Lost in the first place, but more importantly, for agreeing that these were the right creative choices for the show.
Miniseries flourished in the 1970s, and there's no reason they couldn't do so again. CBS (again, hmm) has a self-contained program starting in April. Harper's Island is being billed as a 13-week "mystery event." It's basically Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None updated to the 21st century: a group of guests arrives on an island for a wedding, and soon the bodies start to pile up. Knowing the story has a finite structure makes me much more likely to watch it, because I know I won't have to wait more than a couple of months for the answers.
I think the approach to advertising and sponsorship needs to change as well. People have been skipping commercials since VCRs came into common use 20-some years ago to record programs to watch later. You can even program a button on your TiVo remote to skip ahead 30 seconds each time you push it. The networks' response to this is to try to develop ads that show up on top of the program being fast-forwarded and that cannot be avoided or turned off. This is exactly the wrong thing to do, as it's likely to alienate viewers further. Another network response, stepped-up product placement, can be even more bothersome, as arguably more viewers have experienced it than have a mandatory fast-forward ad. Personally I hate product placement, mainly because it always feels phony and it breaks the suspension of disbelief.
Fox is experimenting this season with two shows, Fringe and Dollhouse, that have shorter "pods" (the network term for commercial breaks). When the show goes to commercial, the screen says "(show name) will be back in 60 (or 90) seconds." Two or three commercials air, and then it's back to the action. Even if you use a DVR, this is more palatable because there's the added benefit that you get more show, about seven or eight minutes' more program than on a typical one-hour show. Naturally, FOX is charging more for the ads in these shows; they are telling their advertisers that viewers are more likely to remember ads when there are only two or three in a pod. Who knows if that's true, but I suppose it could be; more importantly, I give them credit for being willing to try a different approach.
Another related idea that I think deserves some consideration is to revisit the concept of single-advertiser sponsorships of programs, like in the 1950s. Some of the NBNs have used such sponsorships to present commercial-free season premieres of anticipated shows. I think this works best when it's presented as a sort of badge of prestige, i.e. only the better-quality programs are deserving of such an arrangement. I'm in favor of this sort of sponsorship, as long as the sponsor doesn't get any undue control of program content.
Either the threshold of expectations must be lowered, fundamental ideas about how to program need to be altered, or the Big Four should just stop bothering with new shows, because they appear to be unwilling to give them a chance to develop an audience. Ironically, ABC (the network I was directing my initial anger at) seems to have more new shows on tap for this spring than any other network, but I doubt I'm going to watch any of them.
The broadcast networks need to stop looking at each pilot as the next potential number one hit show, and expect it to be so five minutes after the show hits the air. Statistically it isn't going to happen, and often the shows that end up becoming hits don't look like hits early on. Now-revered shows like Seinfeld, The X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond, and even CSI took a year or more to really catch on with viewers.
While they're at it, the broadcast networks also need to acknowledge that too many shows outstay their welcome. ER is finally going off the air in about a month, after how many seasons? 15! (I had to go look that up, as I stopped watching it years ago.) From what I've read, the critical consensus is that the show should have concluded four or five seasons ago, but like Detroit's automakers, NBC didn't have a plan for the future; instead of investing in finding another tent-pole drama to supplant ER as the big draw on Thursdays, they chose to milk as many seasons out of the show as they could. What now, NBC? What if you had been willing to end ER in 2004 and start airing Lost on Thursdays at 10 PM instead? The two shows draw about the same number of viewers these days, but which one has had more buzz over the past five years?
I became a fan of The X-Files as soon as I made its acquaintance in the fall of 1993, but even as a fan of the show who stuck with it all the way to the end, I feel it stayed on the air probably two seasons too long (Doggett and Reyes just weren't the same as Mulder and Scully), and when it finally ended I think most fans were relieved. Last year's poorly-received and poorly-reviewed movie indicated that the franchise has probably run out of gas, which is sad, because I'd like to think that an entity as special as The X-Files was at its peak could sustain itself in some form for a while longer.
For a long time British TV networks have developed limited-run, closed-end shows developed to play out over the course of a couple of seasons. This approach to programming gives show creators a framework on which to build a story with a beginning, middle, and end (the original UK versions of The Office and Life On Mars ran this way). Another BBC template is to introduce a central character or set of characters in a movie- or miniseries-length program like Prime Suspect and revisit those characters every year or two. CBS is currently doing this with a series of movies featuring Robert Parker's small-town sheriff Jesse Stone. The reviews are positive, and the fans look forward to each new installment.
Speaking of Lost, it started out as a show without a known end date, but during its third season in 2006-7, its creators took the unusual step of announcing that they had a plan to end the show after three more seasons. They were justifiably afraid that the onus of stringing the many strands of its extremely complex plot through an unknown number of additional seasons would weaken the show creatively; indeed, some argue that the show did weaken creatively during that third season and that's precisely what brought them to their decision.
Lost's creators also opted for shorter seasons that would run uninterrupted each winter and spring, which allowed the storytelling to thrive without the inevitable gaps necessitated by spreading out the episodes over a full eight-month season. So not only do the fans get more sustained doses of their beloved show, but they know that their investment is going to pay off by the spring of 2010, when the show is set to conclude. And let's give credit (for a change) to ABC for airing Lost in the first place, but more importantly, for agreeing that these were the right creative choices for the show.
Miniseries flourished in the 1970s, and there's no reason they couldn't do so again. CBS (again, hmm) has a self-contained program starting in April. Harper's Island is being billed as a 13-week "mystery event." It's basically Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None updated to the 21st century: a group of guests arrives on an island for a wedding, and soon the bodies start to pile up. Knowing the story has a finite structure makes me much more likely to watch it, because I know I won't have to wait more than a couple of months for the answers.
I think the approach to advertising and sponsorship needs to change as well. People have been skipping commercials since VCRs came into common use 20-some years ago to record programs to watch later. You can even program a button on your TiVo remote to skip ahead 30 seconds each time you push it. The networks' response to this is to try to develop ads that show up on top of the program being fast-forwarded and that cannot be avoided or turned off. This is exactly the wrong thing to do, as it's likely to alienate viewers further. Another network response, stepped-up product placement, can be even more bothersome, as arguably more viewers have experienced it than have a mandatory fast-forward ad. Personally I hate product placement, mainly because it always feels phony and it breaks the suspension of disbelief.
Fox is experimenting this season with two shows, Fringe and Dollhouse, that have shorter "pods" (the network term for commercial breaks). When the show goes to commercial, the screen says "(show name) will be back in 60 (or 90) seconds." Two or three commercials air, and then it's back to the action. Even if you use a DVR, this is more palatable because there's the added benefit that you get more show, about seven or eight minutes' more program than on a typical one-hour show. Naturally, FOX is charging more for the ads in these shows; they are telling their advertisers that viewers are more likely to remember ads when there are only two or three in a pod. Who knows if that's true, but I suppose it could be; more importantly, I give them credit for being willing to try a different approach.
Another related idea that I think deserves some consideration is to revisit the concept of single-advertiser sponsorships of programs, like in the 1950s. Some of the NBNs have used such sponsorships to present commercial-free season premieres of anticipated shows. I think this works best when it's presented as a sort of badge of prestige, i.e. only the better-quality programs are deserving of such an arrangement. I'm in favor of this sort of sponsorship, as long as the sponsor doesn't get any undue control of program content.
Either the threshold of expectations must be lowered, fundamental ideas about how to program need to be altered, or the Big Four should just stop bothering with new shows, because they appear to be unwilling to give them a chance to develop an audience. Ironically, ABC (the network I was directing my initial anger at) seems to have more new shows on tap for this spring than any other network, but I doubt I'm going to watch any of them.
Jingle Mind Control
I'm feeling oddly drawn to that strange song in the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish commercial. It's irrational, I know, but I kind of like it. And I'm not alone; the traffic guy and the weather guy on NECN busted out singing it this morning. It's insidious...
09 March 2009
Good Shows, Bad Networks, Part 3: Rebuilding the Beast
But wait, there's more... I could probably keep going like this for a week or so, but I want to pull back a bit and (at the risk of getting carried away) look at the bigger picture and, instead of just complaining, offer some ideas. If the broadcast networks hope to remain even slightly relevant in the future of TV, they need to examine how their competition is doing things, and how that compares to how they have been doing things for decades.
Many of the non-broadcast channels (i.e. anything that isn't ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, or CW) are producing top-quality programming, and not just pay channels like HBO and Showtime: FX, TNT, TBS, USA, SciFi, AMC, even ABC Family are following the path of the pay channels and are now in the original-programming game for real. They have reached a point where the quality, variety, and year-round scheduling of the shows they are producing represent a real threat to the hegemony of the old guard.
I don't feel any special allegiance to the traditional broadcast networks. It makes no difference to me what network a program airs on; if I like the show, I'm going to watch. In fact, NBNs (non-broadcast networks) understand that their audiences are inherently smaller due to their somewhat more limited availability, so they have lower expectations and are more likely to give promising shows the time needed to develop and flourish, in addition to having fewer restrictions on content. Many TV writers and producers now feel their ideas are better served by NBNs.
The "big four" networks are no longer quite as big as they used to be. (Merging the WB and UPN into the CW may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's never going to amount to more than an also-ran so I don't count it as one of them.) The majority of Americans have cable, satellite, or fiber coming into their homes, and many shows (though not all) can be watched online as well. In fact, if you really set your mind to it, and are willing to accept being a little behind on the watercooler talk, a Netflix subscription and a broadband internet connection can provide you with a happy, satisfying TV existence without watching TV on TV at all. That really scares the crap out of the networks.
The networks need to acknowledge that the television landscape has changed irrevocably over the past decade or so and, to appropriate a well-used phrase, ten million is the new 20 million (viewers). The days of a top-rated hit show consistently drawing 20, 22, 25 million viewers a week each week are long gone, simply because the television landscape is now far more fractured. The most popular scripted programs on broadcast TV are currently averaging around 18 mIllion viewers per week, and even that is more of the exception these days. (Even that singing show is down in the ratings this year.)
So, let's play armchair network exec: what to do? First of all, the notion of a season that is eight months long (roughly mid-September to mid-May) but only has 22 weeks of new, original programming is as dead as Chuckles the Clown and needs to be discarded. The corollary, that a season must be 22 episodes long, is also past retirement age.
Back in the 1970s, the three broadcast networks had what amounted to a captive audience, making it possible to sustain viewer interest over the course of an entire season, plus shows tended to produce more episodes in a given season, meaning fewer weeks when repeats were needed. Today there is plenty of programming available elsewhere, and NBNs offer fresh programming year-round, so broadcast networks dumping a stinking pile of juvenile, insulting reality shows on viewers each summer is not going remain tenable as any kind of long-term strategy.
For most of its seven-season run, The Shield aired its new episodes January through March or March through May. And when summer rolls around, I look forward to new seasons of The Closer, Burn Notice, Mad Men, and now Leverage, which just completed its first season on TNT and will begin its second season this summer. These are not deeply intellectual shows (well, you could make the argument that Mad Men is at least thought-provoking) but all of them have two things in common, besides being highly entertaining: they all air on NBNs, and their seasons range from 13 to 16 episodes, which tend to run uninterrupted.
But not always. USA started the "split season" a few years back with Monk, and now uses it on most of its original shows; Burn Notice (also on USA) and The Closer (on TNT) did the same thing this past season. Basically, the season starts in the summer and goes for X number of weeks, then picks up again in the winter for another batch of episodes that concludes the season. I'm not a fan of this approach, but it does have some merit. Even if the season is conceived to run this way, I think it breaks the momentum of the major story arcs. On the other hand, waiting nine months between the end of one season and the start of the next is worse, and this way TNT can remind viewers that "The Closer will be back in June," which is now less than three months away.
Many of the non-broadcast channels (i.e. anything that isn't ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, or CW) are producing top-quality programming, and not just pay channels like HBO and Showtime: FX, TNT, TBS, USA, SciFi, AMC, even ABC Family are following the path of the pay channels and are now in the original-programming game for real. They have reached a point where the quality, variety, and year-round scheduling of the shows they are producing represent a real threat to the hegemony of the old guard.
I don't feel any special allegiance to the traditional broadcast networks. It makes no difference to me what network a program airs on; if I like the show, I'm going to watch. In fact, NBNs (non-broadcast networks) understand that their audiences are inherently smaller due to their somewhat more limited availability, so they have lower expectations and are more likely to give promising shows the time needed to develop and flourish, in addition to having fewer restrictions on content. Many TV writers and producers now feel their ideas are better served by NBNs.
The "big four" networks are no longer quite as big as they used to be. (Merging the WB and UPN into the CW may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's never going to amount to more than an also-ran so I don't count it as one of them.) The majority of Americans have cable, satellite, or fiber coming into their homes, and many shows (though not all) can be watched online as well. In fact, if you really set your mind to it, and are willing to accept being a little behind on the watercooler talk, a Netflix subscription and a broadband internet connection can provide you with a happy, satisfying TV existence without watching TV on TV at all. That really scares the crap out of the networks.
The networks need to acknowledge that the television landscape has changed irrevocably over the past decade or so and, to appropriate a well-used phrase, ten million is the new 20 million (viewers). The days of a top-rated hit show consistently drawing 20, 22, 25 million viewers a week each week are long gone, simply because the television landscape is now far more fractured. The most popular scripted programs on broadcast TV are currently averaging around 18 mIllion viewers per week, and even that is more of the exception these days. (Even that singing show is down in the ratings this year.)
So, let's play armchair network exec: what to do? First of all, the notion of a season that is eight months long (roughly mid-September to mid-May) but only has 22 weeks of new, original programming is as dead as Chuckles the Clown and needs to be discarded. The corollary, that a season must be 22 episodes long, is also past retirement age.
Back in the 1970s, the three broadcast networks had what amounted to a captive audience, making it possible to sustain viewer interest over the course of an entire season, plus shows tended to produce more episodes in a given season, meaning fewer weeks when repeats were needed. Today there is plenty of programming available elsewhere, and NBNs offer fresh programming year-round, so broadcast networks dumping a stinking pile of juvenile, insulting reality shows on viewers each summer is not going remain tenable as any kind of long-term strategy.
For most of its seven-season run, The Shield aired its new episodes January through March or March through May. And when summer rolls around, I look forward to new seasons of The Closer, Burn Notice, Mad Men, and now Leverage, which just completed its first season on TNT and will begin its second season this summer. These are not deeply intellectual shows (well, you could make the argument that Mad Men is at least thought-provoking) but all of them have two things in common, besides being highly entertaining: they all air on NBNs, and their seasons range from 13 to 16 episodes, which tend to run uninterrupted.
But not always. USA started the "split season" a few years back with Monk, and now uses it on most of its original shows; Burn Notice (also on USA) and The Closer (on TNT) did the same thing this past season. Basically, the season starts in the summer and goes for X number of weeks, then picks up again in the winter for another batch of episodes that concludes the season. I'm not a fan of this approach, but it does have some merit. Even if the season is conceived to run this way, I think it breaks the momentum of the major story arcs. On the other hand, waiting nine months between the end of one season and the start of the next is worse, and this way TNT can remind viewers that "The Closer will be back in June," which is now less than three months away.
07 March 2009
This Week in Awesome
Time for some fun... these are the three four most awesome (unrelated, but still fun) things I've seen this week:
4. Sneaking in just under the wire, this is not your everyday limo. (Jalopnik)
3. The uniforms for these pizzeria employees in San Francisco are the most brilliant bit of snark I've seen in ages. (Consumerist)
2. This TV station in Cincinnati has an interesting approach to morning traffic reports. Just click and you'll see, and be sure to watch all the way to the end (the clip is only two minutes long), when the anchor delivers a pretty good punch line of sorts. (The Soup Blog) This was going to be number one until I saw...
1. ...Jon Stewart rip CNBC about a dozen new assholes on Wednesday's Daily Show. This one runs eight and half minutes, but it's so glorious you have to watch it.
4. Sneaking in just under the wire, this is not your everyday limo. (Jalopnik)
3. The uniforms for these pizzeria employees in San Francisco are the most brilliant bit of snark I've seen in ages. (Consumerist)
2. This TV station in Cincinnati has an interesting approach to morning traffic reports. Just click and you'll see, and be sure to watch all the way to the end (the clip is only two minutes long), when the anchor delivers a pretty good punch line of sorts. (The Soup Blog) This was going to be number one until I saw...
1. ...Jon Stewart rip CNBC about a dozen new assholes on Wednesday's Daily Show. This one runs eight and half minutes, but it's so glorious you have to watch it.
06 March 2009
Good Shows, Bad Networks, Part 2: Vampires and Swingers
No, I'm not done griping about TV yet. On Wednesday I singled out ABC for its recent record of puzzling/annoying/stupid programming decisions, but ABC is certainly not the only network guilty of handling shows poorly.
CBS's vampire drama Moonlight started promisingly in the fall of 2007. It came back after the writers' strike and completed 16 episodes. CBS held off on a renewal announcement, and for a while things were looking hopeful, but then yoink! Was there closure to the story lines? I'm not sure, because at the time I wasn't watching, but SciFi is kindly running the whole season in order this winter, on Friday nights at 9 PM (not so coincidentally, its time slot when it was on CBS). It's no Buffy, but I'm liking the show (with the exception of the reporter character, who's really annoying) and wishing I'd watched it the first time around. My mother did, and although our TV tastes are considerably different, I should have listened to her on this one.
For a while there were whispers that another network would acquire rights to the show and produce new episodes. SciFi was most frequently mentioned, but nothing came of it. Once again, I find myself wishing a network had been willing to show enough respect for its fans to just let a show be. For one thing, Friday at 9 isn't exactly a super-competitive time slot these days. Since it's Friday, let's take a little detour over to the TV Guide web site and see what's playing tonight at 9, shall we? (Keep in mind the sort of folks who are likely to be at home on a Friday night.)
Our friends at ABC have two hours of 20/20, featuring Siegfried and Roy's reunion/farewell performance (well, um, there's really nothing I can add to that); on NBC there's a new episode of Friday Night Lights (the show has been critically lauded from the beginning, but I have never been able to muster an ounce of interest in watching it); Fox has Buffy/Angel/Firefly auteur Joss Whedon's new scifiish-actionish series Dollhouse, which is still sorting itself out (only three episodes have aired); CW has two hours of America's Next Top Model (zzzzzz....); and over on CBS, in Moonlight's old slot, is Flashpoint, a Canadian import about a critical-incident/hostage-rescue team that I've seen about five minutes of (it reminded me of the old show S.W.A.T. that was on briefly when I was a kid, but I guess it kind of matches up well in terms of potential audience with Numbers, which follows it at 10 PM).
I should also point out that Flashpoint was not the show CBS originally had in mind to fill this slot after canceling Moonlight. That distinction went to The Ex List, an Americanized version of an Israeli show about a woman who is told by a fortune teller that a man from her past, someone she has already dated, is her soul mate and future husband, and that she has one year to figure out which ex was the one or she will never find true love. CBS had high hopes for this one, looking to draw female viewers with complementary programming that would match up well with Ghost Whisperer, which led into it at 8 PM, but it lasted for only four episodes back in the fall before they pulled the plug and all the Moonlight fans went, "Dudes, you canceled our show for that? Lame."
Flashpoint was a summer show that CBS acquired (relatively) cheaply through a production partnership with a Canadian network. I don't know whether or not they expected it to become part of the regular-season schedule, but after The Ex List tanked CBS had a hole to fill. A lot of times a network will fill such spaces in its schedule with reruns of its other hit shows. (that's pretty much what's happening on all the broadcast networks on Saturday nights these days) and that's what CBS did for a short time. I imagine they were already thinking about bringing Flashpoint back, and just moved up its return so they could charge more for the ad time (ads in reruns are cheaper, and therefore bring a network less revenue).
Which brings me to Swingtown, another 2008 summer show and recent CBS casualty. I liked Swingtown, a serious, adult show about changing social and sexual attitudes in the mid-1970s, and I blame Flashpoint for Swingtown's cancellation. Both shows started around the same time last summer, Swingtown on Thursdays in the 10 PM slot after reruns of CSI, while Flashpoint was put on Fridays, borrowing the Numbers slot. But after a few weeks, Flashpoint was drawing much better ratings than Swingtown, which was expected to draw better numbers because CSI tends to repeat well and they figured people would just stick around for something that wasn't a repeat.
CBS then flipped the two shows' time slots--Flashpoint to Thursdays, Swingtown to Fridays--thereby pretty much guaranteeing Swingtown's ratings would get even worse, which of course they did. At least CBS aired all 13 produced episodes. Then, as with Moonlight, there were months of speculation as to whether the show would return, or perhaps might find a home on another network. Maybe its provocative themes scared off some viewers; maybe it belonged on a non-broadcast network where it wouldn't be subject to FCC rules and could explore those themes more provocatively.
In January, CBS officially announced that Swingtown would not be returning anywhere, though Bravo bought the rights to rerun the episodes. So CBS gets a show that draws decent ratings in the time slot, but it's about the most generic show imaginable. And even though I didn't need another reason not to watch Flashpoint, I got one anyway.
CBS's vampire drama Moonlight started promisingly in the fall of 2007. It came back after the writers' strike and completed 16 episodes. CBS held off on a renewal announcement, and for a while things were looking hopeful, but then yoink! Was there closure to the story lines? I'm not sure, because at the time I wasn't watching, but SciFi is kindly running the whole season in order this winter, on Friday nights at 9 PM (not so coincidentally, its time slot when it was on CBS). It's no Buffy, but I'm liking the show (with the exception of the reporter character, who's really annoying) and wishing I'd watched it the first time around. My mother did, and although our TV tastes are considerably different, I should have listened to her on this one.
For a while there were whispers that another network would acquire rights to the show and produce new episodes. SciFi was most frequently mentioned, but nothing came of it. Once again, I find myself wishing a network had been willing to show enough respect for its fans to just let a show be. For one thing, Friday at 9 isn't exactly a super-competitive time slot these days. Since it's Friday, let's take a little detour over to the TV Guide web site and see what's playing tonight at 9, shall we? (Keep in mind the sort of folks who are likely to be at home on a Friday night.)
Our friends at ABC have two hours of 20/20, featuring Siegfried and Roy's reunion/farewell performance (well, um, there's really nothing I can add to that); on NBC there's a new episode of Friday Night Lights (the show has been critically lauded from the beginning, but I have never been able to muster an ounce of interest in watching it); Fox has Buffy/Angel/Firefly auteur Joss Whedon's new scifiish-actionish series Dollhouse, which is still sorting itself out (only three episodes have aired); CW has two hours of America's Next Top Model (zzzzzz....); and over on CBS, in Moonlight's old slot, is Flashpoint, a Canadian import about a critical-incident/hostage-rescue team that I've seen about five minutes of (it reminded me of the old show S.W.A.T. that was on briefly when I was a kid, but I guess it kind of matches up well in terms of potential audience with Numbers, which follows it at 10 PM).
I should also point out that Flashpoint was not the show CBS originally had in mind to fill this slot after canceling Moonlight. That distinction went to The Ex List, an Americanized version of an Israeli show about a woman who is told by a fortune teller that a man from her past, someone she has already dated, is her soul mate and future husband, and that she has one year to figure out which ex was the one or she will never find true love. CBS had high hopes for this one, looking to draw female viewers with complementary programming that would match up well with Ghost Whisperer, which led into it at 8 PM, but it lasted for only four episodes back in the fall before they pulled the plug and all the Moonlight fans went, "Dudes, you canceled our show for that? Lame."
Flashpoint was a summer show that CBS acquired (relatively) cheaply through a production partnership with a Canadian network. I don't know whether or not they expected it to become part of the regular-season schedule, but after The Ex List tanked CBS had a hole to fill. A lot of times a network will fill such spaces in its schedule with reruns of its other hit shows. (that's pretty much what's happening on all the broadcast networks on Saturday nights these days) and that's what CBS did for a short time. I imagine they were already thinking about bringing Flashpoint back, and just moved up its return so they could charge more for the ad time (ads in reruns are cheaper, and therefore bring a network less revenue).
Which brings me to Swingtown, another 2008 summer show and recent CBS casualty. I liked Swingtown, a serious, adult show about changing social and sexual attitudes in the mid-1970s, and I blame Flashpoint for Swingtown's cancellation. Both shows started around the same time last summer, Swingtown on Thursdays in the 10 PM slot after reruns of CSI, while Flashpoint was put on Fridays, borrowing the Numbers slot. But after a few weeks, Flashpoint was drawing much better ratings than Swingtown, which was expected to draw better numbers because CSI tends to repeat well and they figured people would just stick around for something that wasn't a repeat.
CBS then flipped the two shows' time slots--Flashpoint to Thursdays, Swingtown to Fridays--thereby pretty much guaranteeing Swingtown's ratings would get even worse, which of course they did. At least CBS aired all 13 produced episodes. Then, as with Moonlight, there were months of speculation as to whether the show would return, or perhaps might find a home on another network. Maybe its provocative themes scared off some viewers; maybe it belonged on a non-broadcast network where it wouldn't be subject to FCC rules and could explore those themes more provocatively.
In January, CBS officially announced that Swingtown would not be returning anywhere, though Bravo bought the rights to rerun the episodes. So CBS gets a show that draws decent ratings in the time slot, but it's about the most generic show imaginable. And even though I didn't need another reason not to watch Flashpoint, I got one anyway.
04 March 2009
Good Shows, Bad Networks: Another One Bites the Dust
ABC has announced the (inevitable) cancellation of Life On Mars. It was one of the more intriguing TV show premises to come along (even if it was a copy of the British show of the same name), and I have definitely been enjoying it: a New York detective gets hit by a car in 2008 and wakes up in 1973, where he finds himself still in New York and still a detective. Good writing, great cast, and a nostalgic, authentic look to the show thanks to New York location shooting.
Supposedly the show's creators will be able to craft an ending to the show that hopefully will resolve Sam Tyler's time-travel mystery. Forgive me for being skeptical, but ABC hasn't had a good track record with canceled shows recently: Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone. And if you go back a couple of years, ABC also mistreated The Nine and, worse, allowed Invasion to run for a whole season that ended with multiple cliffhangers, then didn't renew it (which, now that I think about it, was certainly a foreshadowing of the current mess).
After their strike-shortened first seasons in the fall of 2007, ABC made a big deal about bringing back Pushing Daisies (which I loved) and Dirty Sexy Money (didn't watch it, but I know others enjoyed its juicy soapiness). Then both shows were yanked off the air a couple of months into this season, along with Eli Stone, which premiered last spring, found a modest audience, and was also renewed. Later ABC announced that all three of these shows had been canceled.
That was about three months ago, though in mid-January ABC did announce that the shows would return this summer to, in the charming parlance of the TV business, "burn off" their remaining episodes. Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, who has gone back to Heroes (where he worked during its first season) to try to resuscitate its recent lackluster performance, was quoted as saying that Daisies' major story lines, which will mostly still be unresolved by the end of the completed episodes, would eventually be concluded in a comic book.
A comic book? Wow, thanks Bryan. That's exactly what I was looking forward to. Look, I know ABC hasn't treated your show and the others the way it should have, but as much as I love Pushing Daisies, I have zero interest in tracking down a comic book. However, if you or the network were to make this comic available to read on the web, say via a Flash player, then I might make the effort to read the end of the story.
But Bryan Fuller isn't really the one to blame here, ABC is. Why go to the trouble of renewing these shows in the first place, only to then cut them off at the knees and then make things worse by mistreating the loyal fans looking for an ending? If a show really bombs and is canceled four or five episodes into its first season, that's one thing, but if a network allows a show a full season, it owes to viewers and producers alike the opportunity for closure, which simply means, if you're not going to invite 'em back, at least have the decency to make the decision known in enough time so the show can provide some answers to the viewers... which isn't going to happen with Pushing Daisies.
As I wrote in a comment in the Boston Globe's TV blog, "It's getting to the point where I will have to think twice about getting invested in a new show if it's going to air on ABC... Memo to ABC: Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are already past their freshness dates, and eventually, people are going to get tired of the dancing and the nanny and the bachelors and bachelorettes. What will you do then?"
Supposedly the show's creators will be able to craft an ending to the show that hopefully will resolve Sam Tyler's time-travel mystery. Forgive me for being skeptical, but ABC hasn't had a good track record with canceled shows recently: Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone. And if you go back a couple of years, ABC also mistreated The Nine and, worse, allowed Invasion to run for a whole season that ended with multiple cliffhangers, then didn't renew it (which, now that I think about it, was certainly a foreshadowing of the current mess).
After their strike-shortened first seasons in the fall of 2007, ABC made a big deal about bringing back Pushing Daisies (which I loved) and Dirty Sexy Money (didn't watch it, but I know others enjoyed its juicy soapiness). Then both shows were yanked off the air a couple of months into this season, along with Eli Stone, which premiered last spring, found a modest audience, and was also renewed. Later ABC announced that all three of these shows had been canceled.
That was about three months ago, though in mid-January ABC did announce that the shows would return this summer to, in the charming parlance of the TV business, "burn off" their remaining episodes. Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, who has gone back to Heroes (where he worked during its first season) to try to resuscitate its recent lackluster performance, was quoted as saying that Daisies' major story lines, which will mostly still be unresolved by the end of the completed episodes, would eventually be concluded in a comic book.
A comic book? Wow, thanks Bryan. That's exactly what I was looking forward to. Look, I know ABC hasn't treated your show and the others the way it should have, but as much as I love Pushing Daisies, I have zero interest in tracking down a comic book. However, if you or the network were to make this comic available to read on the web, say via a Flash player, then I might make the effort to read the end of the story.
But Bryan Fuller isn't really the one to blame here, ABC is. Why go to the trouble of renewing these shows in the first place, only to then cut them off at the knees and then make things worse by mistreating the loyal fans looking for an ending? If a show really bombs and is canceled four or five episodes into its first season, that's one thing, but if a network allows a show a full season, it owes to viewers and producers alike the opportunity for closure, which simply means, if you're not going to invite 'em back, at least have the decency to make the decision known in enough time so the show can provide some answers to the viewers... which isn't going to happen with Pushing Daisies.
As I wrote in a comment in the Boston Globe's TV blog, "It's getting to the point where I will have to think twice about getting invested in a new show if it's going to air on ABC... Memo to ABC: Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are already past their freshness dates, and eventually, people are going to get tired of the dancing and the nanny and the bachelors and bachelorettes. What will you do then?"
03 March 2009
Winter Ain't Over
Yesterday turned out to be more of a snow day than I expected. I knew I would have to shovel us out before heading to work, so I emailed my boss Sunday night to say that I expected to be in the office by late morning. But I didn't finish shoveling until almost noon, and I probably wouldn't have made it to work until 1:30 or so. At that point it seemed not worth the trouble, so I ended up taking a personal day. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching stuff off the TiVo and generally doing nothing, which is what a snow day should be.
After it almost hit 60 last Friday, I wanted winter to be over as much as anyone else. I wanted to believe it was over, but I knew it wasn't. On February 11th I said in an email to a friend, "I'm sure we're going to get at least one more snow storm." Because that's just how things go around here. I'm not ready to put away the shovels yet.
Yesterday's storm left about nine inches at our house, putting us somewhere north of five feet so far this winter, which doesn't come close to comparing with the winter of 1995-96, when we got a total of over eight feet of snow through the entire winter. At least this time the snow had a chance to melt before we got hit again, though in our back yard and on the curbs in front of the house, it just finished doing so on Friday, just in time to start over again.
Back in '96 on our little dead-end street in Somerville, we literally ran out of places to put the snow because it just kept coming, storm after storm, until we ended up throwing some of it over the fence into the back yard of a house on an adjacent street that backed up against our place. Those neighbors weren't too happy about that, which was kind of ridiculous given the circumstances. And they weren't exactly ideal neighbors themselves; these were the same people that would do yard work starting at around 7:30 AM on Saturdays in the summer, inevitably waking us up with either their constant bickering or the growl of their lawn mower.
Anyway, it's supposed to get up into the 40s by Saturday, so maybe this batch of snow will melt a little quicker. The Mrs. and I are heading to New York for a few days on the 13th, and we're really hoping the weather isn't sucky. We went in March back in 2002, and aside from being cold it was all right. Another storm would seriously spoil the fun.
After it almost hit 60 last Friday, I wanted winter to be over as much as anyone else. I wanted to believe it was over, but I knew it wasn't. On February 11th I said in an email to a friend, "I'm sure we're going to get at least one more snow storm." Because that's just how things go around here. I'm not ready to put away the shovels yet.
Yesterday's storm left about nine inches at our house, putting us somewhere north of five feet so far this winter, which doesn't come close to comparing with the winter of 1995-96, when we got a total of over eight feet of snow through the entire winter. At least this time the snow had a chance to melt before we got hit again, though in our back yard and on the curbs in front of the house, it just finished doing so on Friday, just in time to start over again.
Back in '96 on our little dead-end street in Somerville, we literally ran out of places to put the snow because it just kept coming, storm after storm, until we ended up throwing some of it over the fence into the back yard of a house on an adjacent street that backed up against our place. Those neighbors weren't too happy about that, which was kind of ridiculous given the circumstances. And they weren't exactly ideal neighbors themselves; these were the same people that would do yard work starting at around 7:30 AM on Saturdays in the summer, inevitably waking us up with either their constant bickering or the growl of their lawn mower.
Anyway, it's supposed to get up into the 40s by Saturday, so maybe this batch of snow will melt a little quicker. The Mrs. and I are heading to New York for a few days on the 13th, and we're really hoping the weather isn't sucky. We went in March back in 2002, and aside from being cold it was all right. Another storm would seriously spoil the fun.
27 February 2009
The Virtues of Thrift, Part 5
I have to confess that I don't have an item for today. When I started putting this together at the beginning of the week, I decided to split up the posts because the ideas were turning into too much for just one post. I assumed that by the time I got to today, I would have thought of something.
Well, here it is Friday afternoon and inspiration hasn't struck. But that's okay; I can still offer a couple of quick tips. First, some of the Stop & Shop supermarkets in our area have gas stations, and if you have one of their rewards cards you get something like five cents per gallon off the posted price. But periodically they run promotions where, over a certain period of time, each dollar you spend on groceries earns a point, and when you reach a certain number of points (100, I think) you get ten cents off per gallon on your next fill-up. I don't drive, so I don't buy gas, but this discount seems to make the Mrs. happy.
In a similar vein, warehouse clubs like BJ's and Costco sell gas at discounted prices (though not in our part of the country). That's just one of many reasons why joining one of these facilities can be beneficial. But how do you know if a club membership will be worth it to you? It depends on where you live (whether or not a club is conveniently located); how often you shop and how much you buy; whether or not you have the room to store bulk quantities of cheese, toilet paper, cat litter, or whatever; the size of your family, etc.
If you have a friend who belongs to a club, ask to tag along so you can get a look at the merchandise and the prices. Also, I know that BJ's frequently sends out free trial membership offers that give you 30 to 60 days to shop and evaluate. Or maybe your employer (like mine) offers discounted memberships as an employee benefit. Clubs in some parts of the US (but again, not in New England) also sell wine, beer, and liquor. Oh, how I wish...
But above all (and I've said this before, but it bears repeating) you need to know what stuff costs in order to know if you're getting a good deal. This is true not just for warehouse club shopping, but everywhere you spend money. You have to do your homework. If you're not willing to invest even a little time and effort, you're probably going to end up spending too much.
Well, here it is Friday afternoon and inspiration hasn't struck. But that's okay; I can still offer a couple of quick tips. First, some of the Stop & Shop supermarkets in our area have gas stations, and if you have one of their rewards cards you get something like five cents per gallon off the posted price. But periodically they run promotions where, over a certain period of time, each dollar you spend on groceries earns a point, and when you reach a certain number of points (100, I think) you get ten cents off per gallon on your next fill-up. I don't drive, so I don't buy gas, but this discount seems to make the Mrs. happy.
In a similar vein, warehouse clubs like BJ's and Costco sell gas at discounted prices (though not in our part of the country). That's just one of many reasons why joining one of these facilities can be beneficial. But how do you know if a club membership will be worth it to you? It depends on where you live (whether or not a club is conveniently located); how often you shop and how much you buy; whether or not you have the room to store bulk quantities of cheese, toilet paper, cat litter, or whatever; the size of your family, etc.
If you have a friend who belongs to a club, ask to tag along so you can get a look at the merchandise and the prices. Also, I know that BJ's frequently sends out free trial membership offers that give you 30 to 60 days to shop and evaluate. Or maybe your employer (like mine) offers discounted memberships as an employee benefit. Clubs in some parts of the US (but again, not in New England) also sell wine, beer, and liquor. Oh, how I wish...
But above all (and I've said this before, but it bears repeating) you need to know what stuff costs in order to know if you're getting a good deal. This is true not just for warehouse club shopping, but everywhere you spend money. You have to do your homework. If you're not willing to invest even a little time and effort, you're probably going to end up spending too much.
26 February 2009
The Virtues of Thrift, Part 4
Check your clearance. Clearance shopping can be something of a sport for some people (APB, I'm looking in you...) and about as much fun as a root canal for others. But if you have the inclination you can find excellent deals, especially at the end of a season when stores are trying to get rid of what's left to make way for the new stuff.
It also helps if you're an odd size. Logically, the more average sizes tend to be gone first, but if you happen to be very small or somewhat larger than average, you may find things left in your size after everything else is gone. Also, consider that many clothing lines tend to run small these days; you might think you're a large, but if extra large is all that's left, try it on anyway--it might be the size that fits you best.
It can be useful to get on email lists for stores whose clothing you like. That way you'll get first notice when sales or markdowns occur. Be aware, though, that the same item can be one price on the store's web site and a different price in the store. Sometimes you have to make the purchase whatever way you're getting the best deal.
Sometimes you'll see an item at the beginning of a season and decide you don't think it's worth the asking price, but if maybe a couple of months later you're back in the same store and that same item is now 50% or more off, the value equation changes somewhat.
I don't make a habit of buying a lot of clothing at Target, but I do find things there occasionally. And I usually take a spin through the clearance racks when I'm in the store, because you never know. A couple of months back I found a nice shirt on a Target clearance rack for $6.24, which was 75% off its original price. For about what I pay for lunch on a typical day, I would have been foolish not to buy it.
It also helps if you're an odd size. Logically, the more average sizes tend to be gone first, but if you happen to be very small or somewhat larger than average, you may find things left in your size after everything else is gone. Also, consider that many clothing lines tend to run small these days; you might think you're a large, but if extra large is all that's left, try it on anyway--it might be the size that fits you best.
It can be useful to get on email lists for stores whose clothing you like. That way you'll get first notice when sales or markdowns occur. Be aware, though, that the same item can be one price on the store's web site and a different price in the store. Sometimes you have to make the purchase whatever way you're getting the best deal.
Sometimes you'll see an item at the beginning of a season and decide you don't think it's worth the asking price, but if maybe a couple of months later you're back in the same store and that same item is now 50% or more off, the value equation changes somewhat.
I don't make a habit of buying a lot of clothing at Target, but I do find things there occasionally. And I usually take a spin through the clearance racks when I'm in the store, because you never know. A couple of months back I found a nice shirt on a Target clearance rack for $6.24, which was 75% off its original price. For about what I pay for lunch on a typical day, I would have been foolish not to buy it.
25 February 2009
The Virtues of Thrift, Part 3
I've realized that perhaps I was unintentionally being a bit misleading by referring to these ideas as "thrift." I don't consider myself thrifty, even though my mother is (and her mother was) an enthusiastic practitioner of thrift. But I do consider myself a smart consumer, and one of the things I'm always trying to do here is help you spend your money more wisely.
Web savings. If you're going to shop online anyway, why not get a little something extra out of it? Several months back, a friend suggested I sign up for Ebates, a site that offers money back on your web purchases. When you sign up, they start you out by giving you (and the friend who referred you) $5. Then, when you want to shop on the web, you first go to the Ebates site and click on the link for the sites you want to visit, which is how the purchases get tagged to your Ebates account.
It takes a little while to get used to doing your online shopping this way, but it's worth it. I just received my rebate last week, which amounted to around $36. Normally the rebate covers a three-month period, but this one went back to when I had signed up during the summer. The rebate comes in the form of a PayPal payment, or you can choose to have them send you a check.
Many online retailers pay for referrals, which is where the rebate money comes from. Ebates claims that they are simply passing that money along to their members instead of keeping it. Works for me.
Web savings. If you're going to shop online anyway, why not get a little something extra out of it? Several months back, a friend suggested I sign up for Ebates, a site that offers money back on your web purchases. When you sign up, they start you out by giving you (and the friend who referred you) $5. Then, when you want to shop on the web, you first go to the Ebates site and click on the link for the sites you want to visit, which is how the purchases get tagged to your Ebates account.
It takes a little while to get used to doing your online shopping this way, but it's worth it. I just received my rebate last week, which amounted to around $36. Normally the rebate covers a three-month period, but this one went back to when I had signed up during the summer. The rebate comes in the form of a PayPal payment, or you can choose to have them send you a check.
Many online retailers pay for referrals, which is where the rebate money comes from. Ebates claims that they are simply passing that money along to their members instead of keeping it. Works for me.
24 February 2009
Unwanted
I went into CVS to get a birthday card for my mother, and I came out with "Dance into the Light" stuck in my head. Is that one of the so-called "bonuses" you get for having a CVS card? Yeah, thanks for that.
The Virtues of Thrift, Part 2
Get changed. Perhaps you've noticed those green Coinstar machines at the front of your local supermarket (these days, likely being used by an older person trying to scrape together enough to buy some saltine crackers and a scratch ticket). Not everyone is aware of this, but these machines also offer gift cards from several major retailers, both brick-and-mortar stores like Lowe's and online-only retailers like Amazon. Coinstar charges a transaction fee of around 9% if you turn your coins into cash, but if you turn them into a gift card no fee is charged, so you get the full value of your coinage.
In the mood for a cup of coffee? You can turn your pennies into a Starbucks card. Want to see a movie? Get a card for AMC Theatres. Itching for some new music? They even have iTunes gift cards. Other choices include Eddie Bauer, Old Navy, Borders, CVS, Overstock.com, and a few more. I'd imagine that Coinstar is actively pursuing other such partnerships, so the selection is likely to improve over time, though when I was using the machine at our local Stop & Shop, the Mrs. wondered why you couldn't redeem coins for a Stop & Shop gift card, which is a very good point.
I am one of those people who tends to save up change for a long time. I used to then put it into rolls and deposit it in my bank account. Thanks to the Coinstar machine, I was able to avoid that huge waste of time; I had enough change to get an Eddie Bauer gift card that I used to buy a badly-needed pair of shearling-lined slippers, and I paid only the shipping charge (because the slippers were on clearance, I was afraid they would be gone if I waited for the next free shipping promotion, which would have made it an even better deal).
You do have to have at least $5 in change to get any sort of gift card. One other potential drawback worth mentioning is that you kind of have to know in advance what you want, or at least what store you want to shop at. Also, the selection of gift card choices can vary from machine to machine; your best bet is to use the Coinstar web site to search for machines in your area (the site tells you what cards are available in each machine, which is actually pretty handy).
It's also worth noting that Coinstar recently purchased Redbox, the company behind those other machines at the front of the supermarket, so I would think that you'll be able to turn your loose change into movie rentals at some point in the not-too-distant future.
In the mood for a cup of coffee? You can turn your pennies into a Starbucks card. Want to see a movie? Get a card for AMC Theatres. Itching for some new music? They even have iTunes gift cards. Other choices include Eddie Bauer, Old Navy, Borders, CVS, Overstock.com, and a few more. I'd imagine that Coinstar is actively pursuing other such partnerships, so the selection is likely to improve over time, though when I was using the machine at our local Stop & Shop, the Mrs. wondered why you couldn't redeem coins for a Stop & Shop gift card, which is a very good point.
I am one of those people who tends to save up change for a long time. I used to then put it into rolls and deposit it in my bank account. Thanks to the Coinstar machine, I was able to avoid that huge waste of time; I had enough change to get an Eddie Bauer gift card that I used to buy a badly-needed pair of shearling-lined slippers, and I paid only the shipping charge (because the slippers were on clearance, I was afraid they would be gone if I waited for the next free shipping promotion, which would have made it an even better deal).
You do have to have at least $5 in change to get any sort of gift card. One other potential drawback worth mentioning is that you kind of have to know in advance what you want, or at least what store you want to shop at. Also, the selection of gift card choices can vary from machine to machine; your best bet is to use the Coinstar web site to search for machines in your area (the site tells you what cards are available in each machine, which is actually pretty handy).
It's also worth noting that Coinstar recently purchased Redbox, the company behind those other machines at the front of the supermarket, so I would think that you'll be able to turn your loose change into movie rentals at some point in the not-too-distant future.
23 February 2009
The Virtues of Thrift
I had hoped to get something else up before the end of the work week, but deadlines took precedence. And it wasn't exactly a hectic weekend, so there wasn't any good reason for me not to post then. Mea culpa.
With all sorts of horrible financial news assaulting us pretty much daily, I thought I would share a few tips on how I lead what I consider a comfortable lifestyle without overspending. I decided to break up the post into daily (sort of) bite-size pieces, and I'll post one every day this week.
Sell some stuff. I recently sold a couple of items on eBay, one of which was a vintage watch that brought in nearly $200. I then used that money, in the form of a PayPal balance, to buy other things. Some of it was stuff I needed, some was stuff I just wanted. Among other things, I got the DVD set of the first season of Mad Men, and a couple of new cashmere sweaters for $20 each.
One caveat about buying sweaters on eBay: a lot of people seem to have a tendency to put their sweaters on hangers, which is terrible, because it causes a sweater to stretch out of shape. A sweater should never be stored on a hanger. Sometimes they do this just to take the pictures, but you can bet sometimes it gets left on the hanger for weeks or months. If it's an extreme case, you may be able to tell just by looking at the photos, but if you think you might want to wear something to work or on any occasion when you want to look good, it might be worth your time to ask the seller how the sweater has been treated. Now, some people might say, "If you're only spending $20 what's the difference?" but it's your money, and a bargain isn't really a bargain if it's all stretched out and fits poorly and you end up not wearing it or having to give it away.
If you use PayPal to make a purchase there is no fee or service charge, but if you are the seller then PayPal does take a cut. Some people bristle at this, but it's a cost of doing business, just like stores and catalogs and online retailers have to pay a credit card processing fee. But the nice thing about having a PayPal balance is that you don't have to use it only on eBay. Many sites now accept PayPal as a form of payment, so if you've been a lucky seller you have some flexibility. I was able to use part of my PayPal balance to add an auxiliary hard drive to my TiVo, which roughly quadrupled its recording capacity. Just what he needs, you're thinking, and you're probably right, but it's too late.
One other thing about selling on eBay: be very specific about who can, or cannot, make a purchase from you. I learned this the hard way during my most recent couple of auction sales. The high bidder for the watch I sold had a perfect feedback rating, but after the auction ended and I didn't receive payment for a couple of days, I went and checked the buyer information and found that the person had shut down his/her eBay account and disappeared. Nice.
I was able to make a second-chance offer to the next-highest bidder, who happened to be in Spain. I had specified in the auction listing that I would only ship the item to a US address, but now, thanks to an unsavory bidder, I was no longer in control of the outcome. I could deal with sending the watch overseas, or start over with a relisted item. Fortunately, the second-chance bidder was very conscientious about answering my emails, and agreed to pay a higher shipping fee to cover the added costs and the extra time I would need to invest in completing the transaction.
It happened to be during my holiday break, so I had the time to go to the post office and wade through the confusing forms required to send a package overseas. If you're attempting to make a living selling stuff on eBay, you kind of have to be willing to deal with stuff like this, but if you're just trying to sell one or two items, it can be a hassle. You can always specify in your auction listing that potential buyers from outside the US have to contact you first to discuss whether or not you are willing to sell to them, and any additional shipping costs required to do so. Of course this is no guarantee, but chances are if someone is willing to take the time to email you, he or she is serious about purchasing your item.
This is something I found out during my next auction, which was for a pair of insulated boots that didn't bring in nearly as much as I expected. On the last day of the auction, I was contacted by a guy from Canada who was interested in bidding on them, but this time I had set up the auction so that people from outside the US could not even place a bid. I told him to go ahead and bid and we would work out the additional fees afterward if he won, but I forgot about the restriction I had set, plus the auction ended while I was on my way home from work that day, so I couldn't have changed it in time even if I had remembered.
Would he have been the winner? No way to know, but he almost certainly would have outbid the eventual winner at least once. Then, the person who did place the winning bid contacted me a week or so after I sent off the package to inform me that the postal service mishandled the package after I sent it, and it was at a dead mail recovery center (which was eerily similar to my own experience a few months back with a package sent to me that was mislabeled by the postal service with a zip code that was off by one digit, and spent the better part of two weeks ping-ponging between Albany and Springfield before finally making its way to me). I just checked the status of the package I sent, and it did finally reach its destination, a mere FOUR WEEKS after I sent it. Crap, I could have walked it there faster. I may have to think about getting a FedEx account or something...
With all sorts of horrible financial news assaulting us pretty much daily, I thought I would share a few tips on how I lead what I consider a comfortable lifestyle without overspending. I decided to break up the post into daily (sort of) bite-size pieces, and I'll post one every day this week.
Sell some stuff. I recently sold a couple of items on eBay, one of which was a vintage watch that brought in nearly $200. I then used that money, in the form of a PayPal balance, to buy other things. Some of it was stuff I needed, some was stuff I just wanted. Among other things, I got the DVD set of the first season of Mad Men, and a couple of new cashmere sweaters for $20 each.
One caveat about buying sweaters on eBay: a lot of people seem to have a tendency to put their sweaters on hangers, which is terrible, because it causes a sweater to stretch out of shape. A sweater should never be stored on a hanger. Sometimes they do this just to take the pictures, but you can bet sometimes it gets left on the hanger for weeks or months. If it's an extreme case, you may be able to tell just by looking at the photos, but if you think you might want to wear something to work or on any occasion when you want to look good, it might be worth your time to ask the seller how the sweater has been treated. Now, some people might say, "If you're only spending $20 what's the difference?" but it's your money, and a bargain isn't really a bargain if it's all stretched out and fits poorly and you end up not wearing it or having to give it away.
If you use PayPal to make a purchase there is no fee or service charge, but if you are the seller then PayPal does take a cut. Some people bristle at this, but it's a cost of doing business, just like stores and catalogs and online retailers have to pay a credit card processing fee. But the nice thing about having a PayPal balance is that you don't have to use it only on eBay. Many sites now accept PayPal as a form of payment, so if you've been a lucky seller you have some flexibility. I was able to use part of my PayPal balance to add an auxiliary hard drive to my TiVo, which roughly quadrupled its recording capacity. Just what he needs, you're thinking, and you're probably right, but it's too late.
One other thing about selling on eBay: be very specific about who can, or cannot, make a purchase from you. I learned this the hard way during my most recent couple of auction sales. The high bidder for the watch I sold had a perfect feedback rating, but after the auction ended and I didn't receive payment for a couple of days, I went and checked the buyer information and found that the person had shut down his/her eBay account and disappeared. Nice.
I was able to make a second-chance offer to the next-highest bidder, who happened to be in Spain. I had specified in the auction listing that I would only ship the item to a US address, but now, thanks to an unsavory bidder, I was no longer in control of the outcome. I could deal with sending the watch overseas, or start over with a relisted item. Fortunately, the second-chance bidder was very conscientious about answering my emails, and agreed to pay a higher shipping fee to cover the added costs and the extra time I would need to invest in completing the transaction.
It happened to be during my holiday break, so I had the time to go to the post office and wade through the confusing forms required to send a package overseas. If you're attempting to make a living selling stuff on eBay, you kind of have to be willing to deal with stuff like this, but if you're just trying to sell one or two items, it can be a hassle. You can always specify in your auction listing that potential buyers from outside the US have to contact you first to discuss whether or not you are willing to sell to them, and any additional shipping costs required to do so. Of course this is no guarantee, but chances are if someone is willing to take the time to email you, he or she is serious about purchasing your item.
This is something I found out during my next auction, which was for a pair of insulated boots that didn't bring in nearly as much as I expected. On the last day of the auction, I was contacted by a guy from Canada who was interested in bidding on them, but this time I had set up the auction so that people from outside the US could not even place a bid. I told him to go ahead and bid and we would work out the additional fees afterward if he won, but I forgot about the restriction I had set, plus the auction ended while I was on my way home from work that day, so I couldn't have changed it in time even if I had remembered.
Would he have been the winner? No way to know, but he almost certainly would have outbid the eventual winner at least once. Then, the person who did place the winning bid contacted me a week or so after I sent off the package to inform me that the postal service mishandled the package after I sent it, and it was at a dead mail recovery center (which was eerily similar to my own experience a few months back with a package sent to me that was mislabeled by the postal service with a zip code that was off by one digit, and spent the better part of two weeks ping-ponging between Albany and Springfield before finally making its way to me). I just checked the status of the package I sent, and it did finally reach its destination, a mere FOUR WEEKS after I sent it. Crap, I could have walked it there faster. I may have to think about getting a FedEx account or something...
18 February 2009
Productivity Is Overrated
Say what you will about Saturday Night Live--that it's inconsistent, that it should be funnier, that it should have been yanked off the air ten years ago--one of the best and most consistently funny parts of the show these days is the Digital Shorts.
The site TV Squad (you may have noticed the link to them over on the right) has compiled a list of the top ten Digital Shorts. It's only one person's opinion, but I think it's a decent list, and I present it in the interest of wasting time. Besides, even if you've seen "Dick In A Box" or "Lazy Sunday" a hundred times, they're still worth watching again, and I'll bet there's at least one clip here you haven't seen before.
Most of these are the brainchild of Andy Samberg and his partners in the band The Lonely Island, and if you weren't paying close attention you might mistake them for genuine songs. But in fact they're generally parodies, and sharp ones at that. They have a definite ear for mimicking popular music styles, and the accompanying visuals are pretty spot-on too. Who didn't know a guy or two in college like "Ras Trent"? Think of any random hip-hop video, then compare it to "I'm On A Boat."
As Joel McHale says on The Soup, please to enjoy... Oh, some of these are probably NSFW, so put on your headphones.
The site TV Squad (you may have noticed the link to them over on the right) has compiled a list of the top ten Digital Shorts. It's only one person's opinion, but I think it's a decent list, and I present it in the interest of wasting time. Besides, even if you've seen "Dick In A Box" or "Lazy Sunday" a hundred times, they're still worth watching again, and I'll bet there's at least one clip here you haven't seen before.
Most of these are the brainchild of Andy Samberg and his partners in the band The Lonely Island, and if you weren't paying close attention you might mistake them for genuine songs. But in fact they're generally parodies, and sharp ones at that. They have a definite ear for mimicking popular music styles, and the accompanying visuals are pretty spot-on too. Who didn't know a guy or two in college like "Ras Trent"? Think of any random hip-hop video, then compare it to "I'm On A Boat."
As Joel McHale says on The Soup, please to enjoy... Oh, some of these are probably NSFW, so put on your headphones.
16 February 2009
Lazy Monday
It's been a pleasant long weekend. The weather has been decent for February, though being a lifelong New Englander, I'm not foolish enough to think there isn't going to be any more snow, but at least the bits that are still on the ground have half a chance to finish melting before we get any more.
Anyway, Friday was the 15th anniversary of our first date (in case anyone's wondering, we saw Six Degrees of Separation at the West Newton Cinema, and went for ice cream afterward). Over the years we have treated this as a sort of half-anniversary, so with that in mind I wanted to make it fun and a little more elaborate than usual.
We decided a couple of weeks ago that we would have dinner at Turner's Seafood Grill in Melrose. We've been there one or two times before, and have found the food excellent. I would say it's as good as any seafood place in Boston, and the prices, while not cheap, are comparatively lower. And by going out on the 13th, we avoid the Valentine's Day madness.
I thought that after dinner, it would be nice to spend the night in a hotel. My first thought was to go to Hotwire and find the best deal I could on the fanciest hotel, and I did find a very good rate at what I suspect was the Langham in Post Office Square (when you book on Hotwire, you don't find out the exact property you're staying at until after you pay for the booking, which is part of how they can offer the rates they do).
Now, I have a fascination with hotels that the Mrs. doesn't particularly share. While I didn't think she would not enjoy the place, I know her well enough by now to know she cares more about overall comfort than putative luxury, and I figured her response to a night downtown would be something along the lines of "so where are we going to park?" So I decided to change my approach. I remembered reading last summer about the Aloft hotel opening in Lexington. Aloft is being marketed as a sub-brand of W Hotels, with the intent of providing a boutique hotel atmosphere at a lower rate. I had a look at the site and thought it would be just right. (We'll do the luxe hotel thing another time.)
We stayed in a W once several years ago, so we could see some definite similarities in the room design. The materials and colors are more distinctive than what you find in a typical hotel room. The Aloft rooms have platform beds with down comforters, and the beds face the windows rather than one of the side walls. There's a nice big flat TV on the wall between the windows, and a frosted glass panel next to the bed that lets natural light into the shower stall, which, along with the rest of the bathroom, is on the other side of the wall behind the bed. Cute, a little funky, and comfortable.
We had a friend look after the dog so we could take our time getting home on Saturday morning. I had also ordered Valentine's Day candy from See's, a California company whose stuff the Mrs. grew up with and loves. When the package arrived on Thursday it seemed a little light, and indeed when I opened it one of the items was missing. They sent out a replacement and it arrived today (apparently, UPS doesn't care that it's a holiday).
As for the rest of the weekend, we did a couple of errands, saw Slumdog Millionaire last night, and had a very late breakfast today. The movie was excellent; as the Mrs. put it, "some fascinating storytelling, but also depressing enough that I don't want to see it again."
Anyway, Friday was the 15th anniversary of our first date (in case anyone's wondering, we saw Six Degrees of Separation at the West Newton Cinema, and went for ice cream afterward). Over the years we have treated this as a sort of half-anniversary, so with that in mind I wanted to make it fun and a little more elaborate than usual.
We decided a couple of weeks ago that we would have dinner at Turner's Seafood Grill in Melrose. We've been there one or two times before, and have found the food excellent. I would say it's as good as any seafood place in Boston, and the prices, while not cheap, are comparatively lower. And by going out on the 13th, we avoid the Valentine's Day madness.
I thought that after dinner, it would be nice to spend the night in a hotel. My first thought was to go to Hotwire and find the best deal I could on the fanciest hotel, and I did find a very good rate at what I suspect was the Langham in Post Office Square (when you book on Hotwire, you don't find out the exact property you're staying at until after you pay for the booking, which is part of how they can offer the rates they do).
Now, I have a fascination with hotels that the Mrs. doesn't particularly share. While I didn't think she would not enjoy the place, I know her well enough by now to know she cares more about overall comfort than putative luxury, and I figured her response to a night downtown would be something along the lines of "so where are we going to park?" So I decided to change my approach. I remembered reading last summer about the Aloft hotel opening in Lexington. Aloft is being marketed as a sub-brand of W Hotels, with the intent of providing a boutique hotel atmosphere at a lower rate. I had a look at the site and thought it would be just right. (We'll do the luxe hotel thing another time.)
We stayed in a W once several years ago, so we could see some definite similarities in the room design. The materials and colors are more distinctive than what you find in a typical hotel room. The Aloft rooms have platform beds with down comforters, and the beds face the windows rather than one of the side walls. There's a nice big flat TV on the wall between the windows, and a frosted glass panel next to the bed that lets natural light into the shower stall, which, along with the rest of the bathroom, is on the other side of the wall behind the bed. Cute, a little funky, and comfortable.
We had a friend look after the dog so we could take our time getting home on Saturday morning. I had also ordered Valentine's Day candy from See's, a California company whose stuff the Mrs. grew up with and loves. When the package arrived on Thursday it seemed a little light, and indeed when I opened it one of the items was missing. They sent out a replacement and it arrived today (apparently, UPS doesn't care that it's a holiday).
As for the rest of the weekend, we did a couple of errands, saw Slumdog Millionaire last night, and had a very late breakfast today. The movie was excellent; as the Mrs. put it, "some fascinating storytelling, but also depressing enough that I don't want to see it again."
12 February 2009
Brace Yourselves
On Tuesday I took the first step on a journey that is going to have a profound impact on my life. This is something I have wanted to do for many years, and I finally decided it was time to act.
I got braces. Yes, at age 45, I'm a metal mouth.
When I was a child, braces were not financially feasible for my parents. When I was a teenager I went to a parochial high school, and it was made clear that tuition took precedence over elective cosmetic dentistry, which was perfectly understandable, and at that age I didn't much care how my teeth looked anyway. But as I got older, even as I grew less self-conscious and more comfortable with my overall appearance, I was bothered more and more by the state of my mouth.
I'm very fortunate to have healthy teeth, but they have always been terribly crooked. The bottom teeth are extremely crowded in front, my canines protrude something awful, making me look a little like Spike, and my upper molars are angled inboard of the lower ones, which is called a cross bite. My dentist made molds of my uppers and lowers a couple of weeks ago, and it was kind of shocking to see just how badly messed up my mouth is.
I've been going to the same dentist for more than 15 years, and I think he and all his staff are fantastic. My comfort with and confidence in them is a big part of why I chose to do this. My dentist has spent most of his career learning how to do new stuff, and when he showed me the Damon System braces, which were designed specifically for adult mouths, I could see how excited he was about them. They achieve results faster than other types of braces, and they are not painful.
The upper bracess went on first, because my cross bite needs to be opened up somewhat before the bottoms can be fitted. Little metal brackets were glued to each of my upper teeth, a wire was fed through them, and the brackets were then snapped shut to hold the wire taut and in place. In six weeks I'll go back to get the wire changed to one that is slightly thicker and will thus put a little more tension on the teeth. Six weeks after that, the dentist should be able to put on the lower braces. After that, I only have to go in about every three months to get the wires changed.
It took me only about four hours to dislodge two of the brackets, so I had to go back to the office yesterday to have them reglued. The doc said he didn't do a good enough job attaching one of them, and the other was knocked loose by one of my lower teeth while I was eating, due to my cross bite. To prevent that from happening again, he had to glue pegs onto a lower molar on each side to create some space between the upper and lower teeth. (Fortunately, if a bracket comes loose, it's still on the wire so it can't go anywhere, i.e. you don't need to worry about accidentally swallowing it.)
Eating is now profoundly strange, and awkward, and a little gross. Food feels completely different in my mouth. Chewing is almost an alien activity. Even taking bites has been affected, because the pegs mean my teeth don't quite come together in front the way they used to, and they are a little tingly from having brackets glued to them. As a result, I have to take smaller bites and chew much more slowly and carefully. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I've always eaten too fast and knew that I needed to slow down. Between that and the various snacky things (nuts, caramels, chips) that are now either off-limits or suddenly much more difficult to eat, I have a feeling I'm going to end up losing a few pounds, which again is okay.
Another ancillary benefit is that, as my upper bite is widened, my palate will also be opened, which will help me breathe better when I'm asleep, which may cut down on my snoring. Obviously there's no guarantee, but any gain achieved in this area will make the Mrs. happier.
All of this is going to cost about one-eighth of my gross yearly salary. Crazy, right? Maybe. But people pay far more for nose jobs, breast implants, liposuction, and any number of other cosmetic procedures. Everyone who chooses to do so has a reason, and most of them probably come down to self-esteem. I've never thought of myself as having low self-esteem, but I won't deny that a straighter smile will nonetheless make me feel better about myself. I could live the rest of my life with crooked teeth, but I have the opportunity and the means to correct them, so I'm doing it. Wouldn't you?
I got braces. Yes, at age 45, I'm a metal mouth.
When I was a child, braces were not financially feasible for my parents. When I was a teenager I went to a parochial high school, and it was made clear that tuition took precedence over elective cosmetic dentistry, which was perfectly understandable, and at that age I didn't much care how my teeth looked anyway. But as I got older, even as I grew less self-conscious and more comfortable with my overall appearance, I was bothered more and more by the state of my mouth.
I'm very fortunate to have healthy teeth, but they have always been terribly crooked. The bottom teeth are extremely crowded in front, my canines protrude something awful, making me look a little like Spike, and my upper molars are angled inboard of the lower ones, which is called a cross bite. My dentist made molds of my uppers and lowers a couple of weeks ago, and it was kind of shocking to see just how badly messed up my mouth is.
I've been going to the same dentist for more than 15 years, and I think he and all his staff are fantastic. My comfort with and confidence in them is a big part of why I chose to do this. My dentist has spent most of his career learning how to do new stuff, and when he showed me the Damon System braces, which were designed specifically for adult mouths, I could see how excited he was about them. They achieve results faster than other types of braces, and they are not painful.
The upper bracess went on first, because my cross bite needs to be opened up somewhat before the bottoms can be fitted. Little metal brackets were glued to each of my upper teeth, a wire was fed through them, and the brackets were then snapped shut to hold the wire taut and in place. In six weeks I'll go back to get the wire changed to one that is slightly thicker and will thus put a little more tension on the teeth. Six weeks after that, the dentist should be able to put on the lower braces. After that, I only have to go in about every three months to get the wires changed.
It took me only about four hours to dislodge two of the brackets, so I had to go back to the office yesterday to have them reglued. The doc said he didn't do a good enough job attaching one of them, and the other was knocked loose by one of my lower teeth while I was eating, due to my cross bite. To prevent that from happening again, he had to glue pegs onto a lower molar on each side to create some space between the upper and lower teeth. (Fortunately, if a bracket comes loose, it's still on the wire so it can't go anywhere, i.e. you don't need to worry about accidentally swallowing it.)
Eating is now profoundly strange, and awkward, and a little gross. Food feels completely different in my mouth. Chewing is almost an alien activity. Even taking bites has been affected, because the pegs mean my teeth don't quite come together in front the way they used to, and they are a little tingly from having brackets glued to them. As a result, I have to take smaller bites and chew much more slowly and carefully. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I've always eaten too fast and knew that I needed to slow down. Between that and the various snacky things (nuts, caramels, chips) that are now either off-limits or suddenly much more difficult to eat, I have a feeling I'm going to end up losing a few pounds, which again is okay.
Another ancillary benefit is that, as my upper bite is widened, my palate will also be opened, which will help me breathe better when I'm asleep, which may cut down on my snoring. Obviously there's no guarantee, but any gain achieved in this area will make the Mrs. happier.
All of this is going to cost about one-eighth of my gross yearly salary. Crazy, right? Maybe. But people pay far more for nose jobs, breast implants, liposuction, and any number of other cosmetic procedures. Everyone who chooses to do so has a reason, and most of them probably come down to self-esteem. I've never thought of myself as having low self-esteem, but I won't deny that a straighter smile will nonetheless make me feel better about myself. I could live the rest of my life with crooked teeth, but I have the opportunity and the means to correct them, so I'm doing it. Wouldn't you?
10 February 2009
Cheesecake and Slots
It was a fairly busy weekend for us. "Busy" for us normally means we leave the house some time before dark. But Saturday was filled with errands like dropping off piles of clothing at the Salvation Army and shopping (unsuccessfully, this time around) for a new living room rug at Building 19.
On Sunday we had a little adventure of sorts. For a couple of weeks, the Mrs. has been jonesing for some cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake, but Junior's cheesecake. Junior's is in Brooklyn, but last year they opened a location at the MGM Grand casino at Foxwoods, which is somewhat closer. So she decided that we needed to drive there. Since we would be passing through Rhode Island on our way, she suggested I ask my mother if she wanted to come along with us.
On Sunday we drove down to RI and picked up my mother, and made the 45-minute drive to Ledyard, CT. The complex is about eight miles off route 95 and is very easy to get to, if you're considering a visit. We arrived a litle before 1 PM, and since we hadn't eaten breakfast we headed straight for Junior's, which is just off the main hotel lobby. By this point I was ready for lunch, so I ordered a pastrami sandwich. The Mrs. wanted Junior's famous french toast, but unfortunately they stop serving breakfast at noon on Sundays. She settled for matzo ball soup.
Then she ordered cheesecake, and as soon as she put the fork in her mouth, I knew from the look on her face that something wasn't right. "It's too sweet." While I myself could not taste any difference, that doesn't mean much; her palate is generally more sensitive to differences in sweetness and saltiness. Disappointed, she lost interest in getting a whole cheesecake to bring home, and worried aloud that they had irrevocably changed the recipe. I suspect it's more likely that the difference is due to it being a distant outpost, far from the mother ship. At least I hope so, for her sake.
After lunch we headed to the casino. After a minute or two, I learned that the Mrs., who is also very sensitive to smoke, did not know that people are allowed to smoke in casinos. She offered to wait in the lobby area, which had fresh, cool air circulating, while my mother and I visited some slot machines. That was a bust as well, because we could not figure out how to work the change machines. You're supposed to put in money and get a ticket with stored value, which you then take to the machine of your choice. But between the two of us, we could not understand the process. It was also kind of dark and very noisy, as every single one of those hundreds of machines has a soundtrack of chirps and blips. So we went home. At least it was a nice day for a drive.
I'm not much of a gambler, which I guess is pretty obvious. I've been to Suffolk Downs, Churchill Downs, and Hialeah Park; I used to go to jai alai in Newport a long, long time ago, and I was in Atlantic City for an afternoon once, a quarter century ago. That's the extent of my gambling experience. I learned later that the casino at Foxwoods proper has a non-smoking area, but I don't see us going back. I do imagine a trip to New York is in our near future, to get a definitive answer to the cheesecake question. And some french toast.
On Sunday we had a little adventure of sorts. For a couple of weeks, the Mrs. has been jonesing for some cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake, but Junior's cheesecake. Junior's is in Brooklyn, but last year they opened a location at the MGM Grand casino at Foxwoods, which is somewhat closer. So she decided that we needed to drive there. Since we would be passing through Rhode Island on our way, she suggested I ask my mother if she wanted to come along with us.
On Sunday we drove down to RI and picked up my mother, and made the 45-minute drive to Ledyard, CT. The complex is about eight miles off route 95 and is very easy to get to, if you're considering a visit. We arrived a litle before 1 PM, and since we hadn't eaten breakfast we headed straight for Junior's, which is just off the main hotel lobby. By this point I was ready for lunch, so I ordered a pastrami sandwich. The Mrs. wanted Junior's famous french toast, but unfortunately they stop serving breakfast at noon on Sundays. She settled for matzo ball soup.
Then she ordered cheesecake, and as soon as she put the fork in her mouth, I knew from the look on her face that something wasn't right. "It's too sweet." While I myself could not taste any difference, that doesn't mean much; her palate is generally more sensitive to differences in sweetness and saltiness. Disappointed, she lost interest in getting a whole cheesecake to bring home, and worried aloud that they had irrevocably changed the recipe. I suspect it's more likely that the difference is due to it being a distant outpost, far from the mother ship. At least I hope so, for her sake.
After lunch we headed to the casino. After a minute or two, I learned that the Mrs., who is also very sensitive to smoke, did not know that people are allowed to smoke in casinos. She offered to wait in the lobby area, which had fresh, cool air circulating, while my mother and I visited some slot machines. That was a bust as well, because we could not figure out how to work the change machines. You're supposed to put in money and get a ticket with stored value, which you then take to the machine of your choice. But between the two of us, we could not understand the process. It was also kind of dark and very noisy, as every single one of those hundreds of machines has a soundtrack of chirps and blips. So we went home. At least it was a nice day for a drive.
I'm not much of a gambler, which I guess is pretty obvious. I've been to Suffolk Downs, Churchill Downs, and Hialeah Park; I used to go to jai alai in Newport a long, long time ago, and I was in Atlantic City for an afternoon once, a quarter century ago. That's the extent of my gambling experience. I learned later that the casino at Foxwoods proper has a non-smoking area, but I don't see us going back. I do imagine a trip to New York is in our near future, to get a definitive answer to the cheesecake question. And some french toast.
Oops
I was just watching New England Cable News, and Mike Nikitas was reading a story about a lawsuit against Ticketmaster related to their scalping reselling service, TicketsNow. But he read the name as "ticket snow" twice. Oh well, probably only a few dozen people watching besides me...
05 February 2009
Caution: Hacked Signage Ahead
One of the web sites I read regularly is a car site called Jalopnik. Last week they posted a story about how to hack roadside information signs, and even linked to a site that had posted the complete instructions.
Naturally, it didn't take long for the mayhem to ensue, and for the photographic evidence of said mayhem to make its way back to Jalopnik. They've kindly created a gallery of the images; interestingly, warnings of zombies seem to be the most popular hack, which strikes me as just a bit uninspired. One also says "Harvard sucks dick" which leads me to think it's probably around here somewhere. Has anyone seen it? If so, where was it? Has it been fixed yet?
(Please note: while I am in no way condoning this behavior, or suggesting that anyone should go out and find their own sign to hack, I think you'll agree that the results are pretty damn funny.)
Naturally, it didn't take long for the mayhem to ensue, and for the photographic evidence of said mayhem to make its way back to Jalopnik. They've kindly created a gallery of the images; interestingly, warnings of zombies seem to be the most popular hack, which strikes me as just a bit uninspired. One also says "Harvard sucks dick" which leads me to think it's probably around here somewhere. Has anyone seen it? If so, where was it? Has it been fixed yet?
(Please note: while I am in no way condoning this behavior, or suggesting that anyone should go out and find their own sign to hack, I think you'll agree that the results are pretty damn funny.)
03 February 2009
Gripe of the Moment
Why do MBTA buses seem to have only two settings for the heat: full-on sauna or full-on walk-in freezer?
02 February 2009
Move Along
Today at lunch I took a walk to a supermarket near the office to get a box of Quaker oatmeal breakfast bars. (I try to keep something breakfasty in my desk at work, in case I don't have time to eat breakfast at home.) I'd wanted to get them on the way into work, but I have a 9:30 meeting every Monday morning so I didn't have extra time today.
I got in line behind a senior citizen, who bought a couple bags' worth of groceries. Since I was buying just the one thing, I had my change in one hand and the bag in the other before she was quite ready to go on her way. I stood behind her, waiting for her to move out of the checkout lane. And I continued standing for 20 or 30 seconds while she fiddled with her bags.
Eventually she realized I was there, kind of half-looked at me over one shoulder and said, "Do you want to get by?" My brain cycled through possible responses: "No, I'd like to stand here looking at the back of your head all afternoon." "What do you think?" "Yes, you fucking idiot." I settled on "Please." Even though I kept my real thoughts to myself, she still acted like I was somehow inconveniencing her.
I'm an impatient person in general, and I get that most people don't move as quickly as I do, but the real annoyance is how people just get lost inside their own heads and give up any semblance of paying attention to the outside world, like people who climb to the top of a flight of stairs or an escalator and come to a dead stop because they aren't quite sure which way to go. As Stephen Colbert so aptly put it to Steve Carell on an old Daily Show segment, "What's the weather like up your own ass?"
I got in line behind a senior citizen, who bought a couple bags' worth of groceries. Since I was buying just the one thing, I had my change in one hand and the bag in the other before she was quite ready to go on her way. I stood behind her, waiting for her to move out of the checkout lane. And I continued standing for 20 or 30 seconds while she fiddled with her bags.
Eventually she realized I was there, kind of half-looked at me over one shoulder and said, "Do you want to get by?" My brain cycled through possible responses: "No, I'd like to stand here looking at the back of your head all afternoon." "What do you think?" "Yes, you fucking idiot." I settled on "Please." Even though I kept my real thoughts to myself, she still acted like I was somehow inconveniencing her.
I'm an impatient person in general, and I get that most people don't move as quickly as I do, but the real annoyance is how people just get lost inside their own heads and give up any semblance of paying attention to the outside world, like people who climb to the top of a flight of stairs or an escalator and come to a dead stop because they aren't quite sure which way to go. As Stephen Colbert so aptly put it to Steve Carell on an old Daily Show segment, "What's the weather like up your own ass?"
31 January 2009
Snark Time
It's cold outside, so how about a couple of chuckles?
You've probably seen that crazy commercial for the crazy Snuggie blanket-jacket thing by now. Here's a version with an alternate audio track.
And then there's this clip for a somewhat specialized dating service. It's a few months old, but it just came to my attention recently. Be sure to scroll down and read the comments to get the full impact on this one.
You've probably seen that crazy commercial for the crazy Snuggie blanket-jacket thing by now. Here's a version with an alternate audio track.
And then there's this clip for a somewhat specialized dating service. It's a few months old, but it just came to my attention recently. Be sure to scroll down and read the comments to get the full impact on this one.
30 January 2009
Potty Break
It used to be that when one needed to pay an, um, extended visit to the restroom, one might bring along some reading material. In fact, in a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother, Marshall visited his old apartment to "read a magazine" because he wasn't comfortable doing so at work.
But these days, of course, we have many more options available to us. Recently, on a couple of visits to the restroom at work I have detected the telltale sound (click-click-click...click-click...click-click...click-click-click) of texting coming from inside the stall. Now, I've come to appreciate the value of text messaging in certain situations, but that is not what I would consider one of those.
Then just this morning, I detected a different but equally unmistakable sound, the scritchety one that the little pebble-trackball thing on a BlackBerry makes when you scroll it. So someone was surfing, or emailing, or doing some other BlackBerryish thing while on the throne. That's swell, I guess. Personally, I don't like to even bring my phone into the restroom, mainly because I'm afraid of dropping it into the bowl.
But these days, of course, we have many more options available to us. Recently, on a couple of visits to the restroom at work I have detected the telltale sound (click-click-click...click-click...click-click...click-click-click) of texting coming from inside the stall. Now, I've come to appreciate the value of text messaging in certain situations, but that is not what I would consider one of those.
Then just this morning, I detected a different but equally unmistakable sound, the scritchety one that the little pebble-trackball thing on a BlackBerry makes when you scroll it. So someone was surfing, or emailing, or doing some other BlackBerryish thing while on the throne. That's swell, I guess. Personally, I don't like to even bring my phone into the restroom, mainly because I'm afraid of dropping it into the bowl.
27 January 2009
What Month Is It?
Over the weekend, hearing that another storm was headed our way this week, I decided I wanted to get a snow blower. I actually don't mind shoveling all that much, and the landlord pays me to take care of the sidewalk and driveway, but given the number of times it's already snowed this winter, and the total amount of snow we've received thus far, and that each time it's taken me an average of two hours to complete the task, I thought it was time to enlist mechanical aid. (Also, the neighbors on either side have blowers, so I have a bit of power equipment envy.)
But it was not to be. As far as the stores are concerned, it's already spring. In fact, it's already summer. I saw gardening supplies, patio furniture, lawn mowers, even grills. I have a hard time imagining people thinking about buying this stuff right now, let alone actually buying it. One guy at Lowe's was apologetic. "The merchandise is at least three months ahead of the actual calendar," he said. At least I was able to still buy a snow shovel. With the blowers, the stores get one shipment in the fall, and when they're gone, that's it. They don't want to get stuck with unsold inventory come spring.
In fact, Sears in the Burlington Mall still had two models of snow blowers on display, but it's Sears, so good luck trying to find a human to ask if they still have any in stock. And at 8:50 PM, just as I'd located these two machines, the PA told me that the store would be closing in ten minutes. I'm sure this mall used to be open til 10, especially on Friday nights. Sure enough, I checked the mall web site and they have cut back; the whole mall now closes at 9. Tough times.
But it was not to be. As far as the stores are concerned, it's already spring. In fact, it's already summer. I saw gardening supplies, patio furniture, lawn mowers, even grills. I have a hard time imagining people thinking about buying this stuff right now, let alone actually buying it. One guy at Lowe's was apologetic. "The merchandise is at least three months ahead of the actual calendar," he said. At least I was able to still buy a snow shovel. With the blowers, the stores get one shipment in the fall, and when they're gone, that's it. They don't want to get stuck with unsold inventory come spring.
In fact, Sears in the Burlington Mall still had two models of snow blowers on display, but it's Sears, so good luck trying to find a human to ask if they still have any in stock. And at 8:50 PM, just as I'd located these two machines, the PA told me that the store would be closing in ten minutes. I'm sure this mall used to be open til 10, especially on Friday nights. Sure enough, I checked the mall web site and they have cut back; the whole mall now closes at 9. Tough times.
25 January 2009
Sluuuuurp...
Has anyone else seen the ridiculous Legal Sea Foods commercial that's been running this week? Playing off the inauguration, the ad shows a backdrop of the White House while bragging that Legal's chowder has been served at every inauguration since 1981. Fine, but then we're treated to the disgusting sounds of what are supposed to be various presidents slurping the chowder as their names are displayed on the screen.
Ecch. I thought last year's tempest in a chowder bowl over the Legal ads on the T was a hoot, because the ads were fairly tongue-in-gill and the response to them was (in my opinion) so disproportionate, but I find this ad tasteless. Slurping shouldn't be encouraged, because our culture has enough trouble maintaining its dignity as it is, and this cheapens the great dignity we all witnessed at the inauguration.
I thought we wouldn't have to be subjected to the ad after the inauguration, but it keeps popping up. Hopefully it will run its course in a few more days.
Ecch. I thought last year's tempest in a chowder bowl over the Legal ads on the T was a hoot, because the ads were fairly tongue-in-gill and the response to them was (in my opinion) so disproportionate, but I find this ad tasteless. Slurping shouldn't be encouraged, because our culture has enough trouble maintaining its dignity as it is, and this cheapens the great dignity we all witnessed at the inauguration.
I thought we wouldn't have to be subjected to the ad after the inauguration, but it keeps popping up. Hopefully it will run its course in a few more days.
23 January 2009
Cuz I Kan't Do Math So Gud...
In yesterday's Boston Globe, in the arts and lifestyle section (which is now called "g" or, as I refer to it, "the section with the comics in it"), there was an article about how it's so difficult for people to figure out how much stuff in stores costs, because there are so many discounts on top of discounts, and coupons, and some stuff is on clearance but other stuff isn't, and so on.
Wow, I thought my life was hard. Woe to the helpless shoppers who are struggling so mightily to figure out how much money they're saving. Those poor souls! Apparently none of them ever received any sort of formal education in arithmetic. At least, that's what this retail analyst seems to think:
One enterprising young lady mentioned in the story was using the calculator in her cell phone to determine a sale item's final price. Good for her for figuring out how to avoid using her brain for that pesky math stuff. And let's not forget to give credit to the Globe for aiming high with this story. That's some hard-hitting lifestyle journalism.
I am wondering why no mention was made of the price scanners that now proliferate in most large stores, which are more likely to have multiple levels of discounts and markdowns and additional promotions. The scanners can be wrong, but most of the time they're right. I usually estimate the final sale price in my head, then find a scanner to see if there's the pleasant surprise of any additional amount off.
But seriously, have people really lost the ability to do basic arithmetic? That's just pathetic. If you can't figure out how to take an additional 40% off the price of something that's already been marked down 30%, you deserve to pay full price.
Wow, I thought my life was hard. Woe to the helpless shoppers who are struggling so mightily to figure out how much money they're saving. Those poor souls! Apparently none of them ever received any sort of formal education in arithmetic. At least, that's what this retail analyst seems to think:
"You almost need to be a math major to figure it out," said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics Inc., a market research firm. He provided an example of the kind of calculations confusing some consumers. "You take 40 percent off the original price, then you take 20 percent off that price, which works out to be [a discount of] roughly 52 percent, but the consumer thinks it's going to be 60 percent."But you know, maybe he's right. Our society has certainly gotten dumber in lots of other ways. Ignorance and selfishness rule, so why should we waste our minds on crap like math? There's plenty of other stuff with which to occupy them, like keeping up with the latest antics of those heinous excuses for human beings on The Hills, updating mySpace pages, and playing video games. Math? Please. Math is for dorks and overachievers.
One enterprising young lady mentioned in the story was using the calculator in her cell phone to determine a sale item's final price. Good for her for figuring out how to avoid using her brain for that pesky math stuff. And let's not forget to give credit to the Globe for aiming high with this story. That's some hard-hitting lifestyle journalism.
I am wondering why no mention was made of the price scanners that now proliferate in most large stores, which are more likely to have multiple levels of discounts and markdowns and additional promotions. The scanners can be wrong, but most of the time they're right. I usually estimate the final sale price in my head, then find a scanner to see if there's the pleasant surprise of any additional amount off.
But seriously, have people really lost the ability to do basic arithmetic? That's just pathetic. If you can't figure out how to take an additional 40% off the price of something that's already been marked down 30%, you deserve to pay full price.
21 January 2009
Battle of the Blades
In the interest of public service, I've been conducting a little experiment over the past couple of months. In my ongoing, never-ending quest for a better, more comfortable shave, I have invested a great deal of time, and a not insignificant amount of money, in trying out products. Along the way I've learned that many places (Sephora, Kiehl's) will happily give you a sample, so you can find out whether or not something is any good without shelling out $15 or $20 only to discover that it doesn't work for you. I've also developed a core group of products that I almost always return to because they work best for me.
But I haven't tried a different razor in many years. For a really long time I have avoided using Gillette razors, partly because they tend to be more expensive than competing products, and partly because I felt they did not give me a good enough shave. (I got sucked into the whole "Power" thing when they introduced the battery-operated M3Power a few years back. It didn't give me a better shave, and in fact it irritated the hell out of my neck. I had a similarly unpleasant experience with an electric razor that dispensed an allegedly soothing goo.)
If you have spent any time looking at the razor aisle of your local drugstore, you've probably noticed that it's difficult to buy a razor that isn't a Gillette. Pretty much the only option is a Schick razor, and having always been something of a contrarian, that's what I've been buying for years. But I have to admit that since the Fusion razor was introduced in 2006, I have been very curious about what sort of shave it would give, though I was reluctant to shell out money to try it. A couple of months ago I found a promotional display in my local Target with Fusion razors for $5. At that price point (instead of the usual $8 or $9 for a razor handle and two cartridges) I was willing to give it a try.
At the time I purchased the Fusion razor, I was out of my usual shaving cream, and I was trying to use up some other, lesser stuff in an effort to be a bit more fiscally responsible. The first time using it, I got a pretty good shave, but by the next shave it seemed like the blades had already become dull. I think I managed one more shave before I had to get rid of the first cartridge. Fortunately, I only have to shave a couple of times a week. I went back to my Schick for a few shaves, then when I bought more shaving cream, I got the Fusion back out with the second cartridge. This time things went a little better, though I still managed only four shaves before I had to discard the second cartridge. (I usually get five or six shaves out of one Schick cartridge.)
One thing I didn't like about the Mach3 that has not changed with the Fusion is the way the blade pivots on the handle. Because of the way it's mounted, you have to hold it in your hand in such a way that it's like shaving with a paint brush. This gives you less control, plus it feels really weird. Also, five blades means the head is awkwardly large, making it more difficult to shave certain tricky areas (under the nose, around the ears) closely.
On the positive side, the Fusion did give a nice, close shave when the blades were new, and the head rinsed more cleanly and easily than any other razor I've encountered. But these things were not enough to offset the negatives, especially how quickly the blades got dull. In fact, every time I have used Gillette blades, they have dulled more quickly than comparable Schick products. Even buying in bulk at a warehouse club or on the web, the premium that Gillette charges for Fusion cartridges is a deal-breaker for me. Of course, your mileage may vary. Happy shaving.
But I haven't tried a different razor in many years. For a really long time I have avoided using Gillette razors, partly because they tend to be more expensive than competing products, and partly because I felt they did not give me a good enough shave. (I got sucked into the whole "Power" thing when they introduced the battery-operated M3Power a few years back. It didn't give me a better shave, and in fact it irritated the hell out of my neck. I had a similarly unpleasant experience with an electric razor that dispensed an allegedly soothing goo.)
If you have spent any time looking at the razor aisle of your local drugstore, you've probably noticed that it's difficult to buy a razor that isn't a Gillette. Pretty much the only option is a Schick razor, and having always been something of a contrarian, that's what I've been buying for years. But I have to admit that since the Fusion razor was introduced in 2006, I have been very curious about what sort of shave it would give, though I was reluctant to shell out money to try it. A couple of months ago I found a promotional display in my local Target with Fusion razors for $5. At that price point (instead of the usual $8 or $9 for a razor handle and two cartridges) I was willing to give it a try.
At the time I purchased the Fusion razor, I was out of my usual shaving cream, and I was trying to use up some other, lesser stuff in an effort to be a bit more fiscally responsible. The first time using it, I got a pretty good shave, but by the next shave it seemed like the blades had already become dull. I think I managed one more shave before I had to get rid of the first cartridge. Fortunately, I only have to shave a couple of times a week. I went back to my Schick for a few shaves, then when I bought more shaving cream, I got the Fusion back out with the second cartridge. This time things went a little better, though I still managed only four shaves before I had to discard the second cartridge. (I usually get five or six shaves out of one Schick cartridge.)
One thing I didn't like about the Mach3 that has not changed with the Fusion is the way the blade pivots on the handle. Because of the way it's mounted, you have to hold it in your hand in such a way that it's like shaving with a paint brush. This gives you less control, plus it feels really weird. Also, five blades means the head is awkwardly large, making it more difficult to shave certain tricky areas (under the nose, around the ears) closely.
On the positive side, the Fusion did give a nice, close shave when the blades were new, and the head rinsed more cleanly and easily than any other razor I've encountered. But these things were not enough to offset the negatives, especially how quickly the blades got dull. In fact, every time I have used Gillette blades, they have dulled more quickly than comparable Schick products. Even buying in bulk at a warehouse club or on the web, the premium that Gillette charges for Fusion cartridges is a deal-breaker for me. Of course, your mileage may vary. Happy shaving.
Overheard
Overheard on the Orange Line this morning: "We're packed in here so tightly, I don't have to hold onto anything!"
18 January 2009
Personal (Celtic) Jesus
Yeah, it's been a few days. My monthly work deadline was moved from the 20th of the month to the 15th, so it was a fairly busy week, plus we've put in place some new systems for how the work gets done, so there was some stuff to be learned along the way this time. But everything went pretty smoothly, and the editors are happy, which is usually the most important thing (after the customers, I guess). Knowing I have the extra day off tomorrow is nice.
Not at all related to that, lately we've noticed a vehicle around our neighborhood with an unusual accessory. It's a typical Honda CR-V from a few years back, and it has what at first looked to be a Celtics tire cover on the back, with the cartoon leprechaun logo design. Then a week or so ago, we were behind the car at a light, and the Mrs. noticed that there was something different about the design. Instead of saying "Boston Celtics" around the cartoon, it said "Jesus Saves."
We saw the car again yesterday, and I was able to snap a hasty phone cam picture, but even if I bothered to upload it, I don't think it would be able to show enough detail. But we did learn what street the car lives on, so at some point it may be possible to get a picture with the digital camera. But in the meantime, we have plenty to speculate about.
Is this product an officially licensed Celtics accessory? My gut says no. It seems much more likely that it's a homegrown expression of appreciation for both the Celtics and the Lord. Someone probably went to a fair bit of effort to create this item, and the owner is obviously proud of it, or s/he wouldn't be displaying it on the back of a car. I think that's great; that kind of freedom of expression is what our country is about.
But I'm fascinated by the incongruous nature of the combination. Let's face it, you don't see a lot of sports-faith crossovers in this part of the country. And I suspect there are people who would find this sort of thing blasphemous. But you know, the Celtics won the championship last year, and they're having another great season; who can say whether one fan's expression of faith may have anything to do with that? I'm just saying, there may be something to it. Believe in Boston, indeed.
Not at all related to that, lately we've noticed a vehicle around our neighborhood with an unusual accessory. It's a typical Honda CR-V from a few years back, and it has what at first looked to be a Celtics tire cover on the back, with the cartoon leprechaun logo design. Then a week or so ago, we were behind the car at a light, and the Mrs. noticed that there was something different about the design. Instead of saying "Boston Celtics" around the cartoon, it said "Jesus Saves."
We saw the car again yesterday, and I was able to snap a hasty phone cam picture, but even if I bothered to upload it, I don't think it would be able to show enough detail. But we did learn what street the car lives on, so at some point it may be possible to get a picture with the digital camera. But in the meantime, we have plenty to speculate about.
Is this product an officially licensed Celtics accessory? My gut says no. It seems much more likely that it's a homegrown expression of appreciation for both the Celtics and the Lord. Someone probably went to a fair bit of effort to create this item, and the owner is obviously proud of it, or s/he wouldn't be displaying it on the back of a car. I think that's great; that kind of freedom of expression is what our country is about.
But I'm fascinated by the incongruous nature of the combination. Let's face it, you don't see a lot of sports-faith crossovers in this part of the country. And I suspect there are people who would find this sort of thing blasphemous. But you know, the Celtics won the championship last year, and they're having another great season; who can say whether one fan's expression of faith may have anything to do with that? I'm just saying, there may be something to it. Believe in Boston, indeed.
14 January 2009
12 January 2009
Baggravation
A few days ago I stopped into Staples to pick up a 2009 blotter calendar. It's not for my desk; rather, it hangs on a door in our kitchen, and we use it to keep track of things like the recycling schedule, when the dog needs her heartworm and flea/tick meds, our haircut appointments, and other general household stuff. I like using one of these because it's cheap (less than $5), easy to read, and has lots of space.
In order to make it an easy errand on my way home from work, I went to the store on Winter Street in Downtown Crossing. The in-town Staples stores tend to be small and sort of lame (the one on Park Drive is much bigger, but it's somewhat out of the way), but this is a pretty basic item so I figured they'd have it, and they did.
I took it to the counter to pay. The cashier rang me up, gave me my change, and walked away. She didn't ask me if I wanted a bag, but the calendar is 17" x 22" so I figured she'd gone to get one in a larger size. But she didn't come back at all; instead she busied herself with some other task at the far end of the counter.
There was another cashier down the counter a bit who was momentarily free, so I stepped down to him and held up the calendar. "Do you have a bag for this, please?" He looked at me and, with a completely straight face, said, "No. If you want me to fold it in half, I could fit it in a bag."
I was at a loss for words. I completely didn't know how to respond. First, I couldn't believe he was serious. Second, I couldn't believe that Staples didn't have any bags large enough to hold the calendar. There are plenty of other items in the store that are larger than a standard-size plastic shopping bag, and when I'd bought a calendar last year I was given a large bag. It crossed my mind that maybe they're trying to get by without larger bags in order to save a few bucks.
This experience wouldn't have bothered me so much, but since this store is downtown, I suspect that the majority of people shopping there are either on foot or taking the T. I had to go get on the T at rush hour and make it the rest of the way home with this large, awkward thing under my arm, trying not to hit other passengers with it and hoping it wouldn't get bent.
Well, Staples can get bent. I sent an email to customer service about it, but I've heard nothing in return. Consequently, this reiterates and reaffirms my hatred of Staples, which I mentioned last February. From now on, I'm going to avoid shopping there if at all possible.
In order to make it an easy errand on my way home from work, I went to the store on Winter Street in Downtown Crossing. The in-town Staples stores tend to be small and sort of lame (the one on Park Drive is much bigger, but it's somewhat out of the way), but this is a pretty basic item so I figured they'd have it, and they did.
I took it to the counter to pay. The cashier rang me up, gave me my change, and walked away. She didn't ask me if I wanted a bag, but the calendar is 17" x 22" so I figured she'd gone to get one in a larger size. But she didn't come back at all; instead she busied herself with some other task at the far end of the counter.
There was another cashier down the counter a bit who was momentarily free, so I stepped down to him and held up the calendar. "Do you have a bag for this, please?" He looked at me and, with a completely straight face, said, "No. If you want me to fold it in half, I could fit it in a bag."
I was at a loss for words. I completely didn't know how to respond. First, I couldn't believe he was serious. Second, I couldn't believe that Staples didn't have any bags large enough to hold the calendar. There are plenty of other items in the store that are larger than a standard-size plastic shopping bag, and when I'd bought a calendar last year I was given a large bag. It crossed my mind that maybe they're trying to get by without larger bags in order to save a few bucks.
This experience wouldn't have bothered me so much, but since this store is downtown, I suspect that the majority of people shopping there are either on foot or taking the T. I had to go get on the T at rush hour and make it the rest of the way home with this large, awkward thing under my arm, trying not to hit other passengers with it and hoping it wouldn't get bent.
Well, Staples can get bent. I sent an email to customer service about it, but I've heard nothing in return. Consequently, this reiterates and reaffirms my hatred of Staples, which I mentioned last February. From now on, I'm going to avoid shopping there if at all possible.
08 January 2009
Orange Crush
So, did everyone have a fun time on the Orange Line this morning? Yeah, this one was special. I almost want to suggest that we should be thanking the MBTA for providing us with so much entertainment value, except that, as a transit agency, it's their job to get us where we need to go, not make us laugh (or, for that matter, cry, which I'm sure plenty of people wanted to to today).
I signed up for the T-Alerts program when it was first offered as a pilot test program in late 2007. I think it's one of the smartest moves the T has ever made, and generally it works as it's supposed to. Every weekday morning I check my email right around 7 AM, just as I'm having my first sip of coffee, to see if there's any weirdness going on with either the Orange Line or the bus route I take into Wellington. There have been one or two occasions when the Orange Line was either running with a delay or not at all, and I was able to make an end run around the problem by taking an express bus that runs into downtown via 93. But this involves a ten-minute walk in the opposite direction, so it's best decided upon before leaving the house.
This morning I learned that due to that old wintertime favorite, a "switch problem at Wellington," the Orange Line was "experiencing 20-25 min delays between Oak Grove and Forest Hills." Wait a sec, that's the whole line! Eesh. The alert also noted that this situation had been going on for over an hour (as of the time I was reading it) and that I should "seek alternate transportation to avoid delay." Hmm, that didn't sound good.
Usually I try to check again just before I'm ready to leave the house, to see if problems have been resolved, or if anything new has popped up. The alert was still on and hadn't been updated, but I naively thought, it's been two hours, they must have fixed it by now and just haven't gotten around to posting the update yet. Considering it was again very icy out this morning, I opted not to take the alternate route into work, and blithely headed to the bus stop hoping everything would be fine. I had to meet with a coworker at 9:30 to go over some changes to our content management system, so I was trying diligently to get to work on time. Silly me.
In retrospect, I got to Wellington at just the right time, because I got to witness some T-foolery the likes of which I've never seen, and hopefully won't see again any time soon. As I came down onto the platform and tried to make my way through a crowd I would conservatively estimate at about 500 fellow commuters, the PA told us that a train would soon be coming in on the northbound platform, but from the opposite direction, and that it would be reversing direction and going back up to Oak Grove, and that the next train after that would be going inbound.
As the train came into the station, everyone noticed that it was pretty full, which didn't make a ton of sense if it had come from Malden and was to head back that way. The doors opened, a few people got on, and the train sat for a couple of minutes. The PA announcer came on and said that he had been mistaken, and this train was in fact heading into Boston. The people who had boarded got off the train, looking disappointed, and everyone else surged across the platform to try to cram onto it; I stood where I was, not wanting to be crammed.
The train sat for a minute, and people were starting to wonder why it didn't go on its way. Then the PA announced that this train WAS going back to Oak Grove after all. Everyone oozed grumpily back out of the train and onto the platform, including all those who had been on the train to begin with, and shortly after a second, empty train came in on the opposite platform, again from the "wrong" direction. The PA announced that THIS train was the one going into Boston, and everyone oozed onto that one. I continued to wait and observe, and both trains continued to sit.
After a minute or two the PA guy, who by this point was probably starting to really hate his day, informed us that BOTH trains would be going into Boston (which, to the T's credit, probably made the most sense in terms of serving the riders' needs at that moment). At this point, the original train had only those few poor folks on it who were just trying to get to Malden or Oak Grove. For the second time in less than ten minutes, they had to exit the train and wait for the rest of us to get on our way. But this was actually better for me, because I happened to be standing a bit closer to the first train, so I scooted inside and grabbed a seat.
We were then told that this train would be leaving first, which was another small victory, so to speak. Miraculously, we were underway soon after. The rest of my commute passed without incident, and I was able to send an email to my coworker letting him know that I would be late.
Wow. As an observer, this was a glorious, marvelous little piece of human theater. I can't imagine being provided with a better dose of free entertainment before 9 AM. But as a user of the system, this was a pretty epic fail, as the kids say on the intertubes these days. And this sort of thing happens at least once every winter at Wellington, usually when things get cold and icy. Surely there must be some sort of de-icing compound that can be applied to the switches? Or maybe it's worth it to pay someone to stay at the station and operate the switches continuously all night to ensure that they keep working?
The other question that comes to mind is: given the duration of this episode, why didn't the T start running shuttle buses? I know it takes time to round up a bunch of buses and drivers and get them all to where they're needed, but the first alert email I received was time-stamped 5:40 AM, and the situation still hadn't been resolved nearly three hours later. You'd think someone would have decided that enough time had elapsed to call in the substitute service. It's a good thing it wasn't 15 or 20 degrees colder today.
The T is such a paradox. When it works, it actually works pretty well. But when it breaks, oh boy, watch out. I wonder what the ride home will be like...
Update, 5:10 PM: Just got this email: "Orange Line service experiencing 10-15 minute delays due to a disabled train." You can't make this stuff up...
I signed up for the T-Alerts program when it was first offered as a pilot test program in late 2007. I think it's one of the smartest moves the T has ever made, and generally it works as it's supposed to. Every weekday morning I check my email right around 7 AM, just as I'm having my first sip of coffee, to see if there's any weirdness going on with either the Orange Line or the bus route I take into Wellington. There have been one or two occasions when the Orange Line was either running with a delay or not at all, and I was able to make an end run around the problem by taking an express bus that runs into downtown via 93. But this involves a ten-minute walk in the opposite direction, so it's best decided upon before leaving the house.
This morning I learned that due to that old wintertime favorite, a "switch problem at Wellington," the Orange Line was "experiencing 20-25 min delays between Oak Grove and Forest Hills." Wait a sec, that's the whole line! Eesh. The alert also noted that this situation had been going on for over an hour (as of the time I was reading it) and that I should "seek alternate transportation to avoid delay." Hmm, that didn't sound good.
Usually I try to check again just before I'm ready to leave the house, to see if problems have been resolved, or if anything new has popped up. The alert was still on and hadn't been updated, but I naively thought, it's been two hours, they must have fixed it by now and just haven't gotten around to posting the update yet. Considering it was again very icy out this morning, I opted not to take the alternate route into work, and blithely headed to the bus stop hoping everything would be fine. I had to meet with a coworker at 9:30 to go over some changes to our content management system, so I was trying diligently to get to work on time. Silly me.
In retrospect, I got to Wellington at just the right time, because I got to witness some T-foolery the likes of which I've never seen, and hopefully won't see again any time soon. As I came down onto the platform and tried to make my way through a crowd I would conservatively estimate at about 500 fellow commuters, the PA told us that a train would soon be coming in on the northbound platform, but from the opposite direction, and that it would be reversing direction and going back up to Oak Grove, and that the next train after that would be going inbound.
As the train came into the station, everyone noticed that it was pretty full, which didn't make a ton of sense if it had come from Malden and was to head back that way. The doors opened, a few people got on, and the train sat for a couple of minutes. The PA announcer came on and said that he had been mistaken, and this train was in fact heading into Boston. The people who had boarded got off the train, looking disappointed, and everyone else surged across the platform to try to cram onto it; I stood where I was, not wanting to be crammed.
The train sat for a minute, and people were starting to wonder why it didn't go on its way. Then the PA announced that this train WAS going back to Oak Grove after all. Everyone oozed grumpily back out of the train and onto the platform, including all those who had been on the train to begin with, and shortly after a second, empty train came in on the opposite platform, again from the "wrong" direction. The PA announced that THIS train was the one going into Boston, and everyone oozed onto that one. I continued to wait and observe, and both trains continued to sit.
After a minute or two the PA guy, who by this point was probably starting to really hate his day, informed us that BOTH trains would be going into Boston (which, to the T's credit, probably made the most sense in terms of serving the riders' needs at that moment). At this point, the original train had only those few poor folks on it who were just trying to get to Malden or Oak Grove. For the second time in less than ten minutes, they had to exit the train and wait for the rest of us to get on our way. But this was actually better for me, because I happened to be standing a bit closer to the first train, so I scooted inside and grabbed a seat.
We were then told that this train would be leaving first, which was another small victory, so to speak. Miraculously, we were underway soon after. The rest of my commute passed without incident, and I was able to send an email to my coworker letting him know that I would be late.
Wow. As an observer, this was a glorious, marvelous little piece of human theater. I can't imagine being provided with a better dose of free entertainment before 9 AM. But as a user of the system, this was a pretty epic fail, as the kids say on the intertubes these days. And this sort of thing happens at least once every winter at Wellington, usually when things get cold and icy. Surely there must be some sort of de-icing compound that can be applied to the switches? Or maybe it's worth it to pay someone to stay at the station and operate the switches continuously all night to ensure that they keep working?
The other question that comes to mind is: given the duration of this episode, why didn't the T start running shuttle buses? I know it takes time to round up a bunch of buses and drivers and get them all to where they're needed, but the first alert email I received was time-stamped 5:40 AM, and the situation still hadn't been resolved nearly three hours later. You'd think someone would have decided that enough time had elapsed to call in the substitute service. It's a good thing it wasn't 15 or 20 degrees colder today.
The T is such a paradox. When it works, it actually works pretty well. But when it breaks, oh boy, watch out. I wonder what the ride home will be like...
Update, 5:10 PM: Just got this email: "Orange Line service experiencing 10-15 minute delays due to a disabled train." You can't make this stuff up...
05 January 2009
Two Weeks Off
So, today it was back to work after a two-week holiday break. Getting up this morning wasn't that bad, but the lovely film of ice on every horizontal surface made walking the dog and getting to the bus stop more, um, interesting than usual. (Last night's weather report downplayed the potential for iciness, suggesting it would only be an inconvenience for those located beyond 128.)
For the record, I fell only once, and the dog helped mitigate it somewhat by pulling away from me on her leash, thus providing a sort of counterweight to my descending mass. I don't know how the poor thing remained upright; lower center of gravity, I guess. Needless to say, it was a short walk.
This morning's other bit of fun was getting the Christmas tree outside for pickup. I had finished undecorating it last night, but by then the Mrs. had gone to sleep, and I didn't want to risk disturbing her or stepping on the dog, who has a tendency to get underfoot at the wrong times and is quite adept at sneaking up on us undetected. As it turned out, doing it this morning was the better idea, in spite of the ice. I left the dog to contemplate her breakfast in her crate, so she was out of harm's way, and it took only about 90 seconds to carry the tree outside, dislodge it from its stand, and drop it by the curb.
Two weeks isn't really that much time to be away from work, but it's long enough to pull you out of the rhythm of your typical daily routine, and definitely long enough to get comfortable with the idea of not having a daily routine. Having had a few periods of extended unemployment in my life, I can assure any of you that haven't had the pleasure that not working is just about the best thing ever, except for that pesky little issue of not making any money.
Many times I've heard people say things like, "I couldn't stand not working. I'd get so bored I wouldn't know what to do with myself." This never happened to me, not even once. It seemed like I always had something that needed to be done, whether it was household chores or an errand. And in the absence of either of those, there are the decades worth of books I've never gotten around to reading and movies I've never seen.
No, the worst thing about not working is going back to work. It's like rebooting a computer, only it takes a while longer to get back to a state of readiness. Consequently, today hasn't been terribly productive, though I did manage to attend my one required weekly status meeting, answer a few emails, and produce some actual work content. I imagine I'll be more or less back up to speed in another day or two. Now, when's our next holiday?
For the record, I fell only once, and the dog helped mitigate it somewhat by pulling away from me on her leash, thus providing a sort of counterweight to my descending mass. I don't know how the poor thing remained upright; lower center of gravity, I guess. Needless to say, it was a short walk.
This morning's other bit of fun was getting the Christmas tree outside for pickup. I had finished undecorating it last night, but by then the Mrs. had gone to sleep, and I didn't want to risk disturbing her or stepping on the dog, who has a tendency to get underfoot at the wrong times and is quite adept at sneaking up on us undetected. As it turned out, doing it this morning was the better idea, in spite of the ice. I left the dog to contemplate her breakfast in her crate, so she was out of harm's way, and it took only about 90 seconds to carry the tree outside, dislodge it from its stand, and drop it by the curb.
Two weeks isn't really that much time to be away from work, but it's long enough to pull you out of the rhythm of your typical daily routine, and definitely long enough to get comfortable with the idea of not having a daily routine. Having had a few periods of extended unemployment in my life, I can assure any of you that haven't had the pleasure that not working is just about the best thing ever, except for that pesky little issue of not making any money.
Many times I've heard people say things like, "I couldn't stand not working. I'd get so bored I wouldn't know what to do with myself." This never happened to me, not even once. It seemed like I always had something that needed to be done, whether it was household chores or an errand. And in the absence of either of those, there are the decades worth of books I've never gotten around to reading and movies I've never seen.
No, the worst thing about not working is going back to work. It's like rebooting a computer, only it takes a while longer to get back to a state of readiness. Consequently, today hasn't been terribly productive, though I did manage to attend my one required weekly status meeting, answer a few emails, and produce some actual work content. I imagine I'll be more or less back up to speed in another day or two. Now, when's our next holiday?
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