Wretched Excess Unit

Sometimes I see things that are just so completely insane, I have to make note of them. This is a perfect example.

I collect watches. I've talked about this before; I have a particular fondness for mechanical (winding) watches from the 1960s. At the beginning of that decade, that most likely meant a watch you wound by hand every day, but within a few years automatic models, which are wound by the motion of your arm, became popular. Unfortunately, within a few more years they would be rendered technologically, if not functionally, obsolete by quartz watches, which are far more accurate than mechanical watches.

If you're the sort of person who cares about this type of thing, chances are you have more than one automatic watch (I have a few myself), but I mean more along the lines of Rolex, TAG Heuer, Omega, Breitling, etc. Fancy stuff. Spendy. You get a few of those, you'll want to keep them wound, because if left unworn (and thus unwound) for long periods of time, the precision of the moving parts can suffer.

It's also a huge drag to contemplate your vast collection of luxury timepieces, trying to decide which one you feel like wearing on a given day, only to realize that the one you're in the mood for hasn't been worn recently and therefore has to be wound and set to the correct time and date. Sigh...

To alleviate such stress, someone invented this thing called a watch winder. It's typically a box made of wood or leather, with a little stand where you park your watch that's attached to a motor that simulates arm movement. These things typically run at least a hundred bucks apiece, but can cost a lot more. Of course, if you can afford a $4000 watch, you can afford the gizmo to keep it wound. (It's analagous to the idea that people who can afford $100,000 cars can also afford to insure and run them.)

Eventually the watch winder people figured out that people with collections of fancy watches might be interested in winders that could hold multiple watches, which led to things like this, and this, and ultimately this: a free-standing floor cabinet for winding up to 56 automatic watches.

And it's only $166,000.

I guess there really are some people who have so much money they don't know what to do with it. If you are in fact the sort of person who has a genuine need for an item such as this, you could pay someone $40K a year, not even one-fourth of what this costs, to keep your watches wound for you. I suspect that person would feel fortunate to have a job, and you'd be doing your bit to boost the economy.

By the way, I don't own any watch winders. Maybe I should, if only to take better care of my vintage pieces, but seeing things like this makes me kind of disgusted by the whole idea.

Fashion Violation

On my way home tonight, I got on the bus and noticed that T-Mobile guy I talked about yesterday, only it must have been his day off, because he wasn't in his fuchsia shirt, so it took me a moment to realize it was him.

Then I got a look at what he was wearing: a long-sleeve knit top (kinda warm out for that, maybe?) that had a pattern that reminded me of a sponge-painted wall, very light-blue jeans with rather wide legs (possibly a thrift-shop find?), and shiny silver sneakers. If this is what he chooses to wear on his day off, maybe he should just stick to the uniform.

Color Keyed

About a month ago I noticed a guy on my morning bus wearing a fuchsia shirt. I'd read a lot of stuff recently about how bright pink was going to be a hot color for guys this year, so I thought he was just being fashionable. He had a shaved head, funky rectangular glasses, and just had a general look of being trendy.

On a different day I noticed he was again wearing the fuchsia shirt, with a black jacket (it was one of those damp days before it got hot) that set it off nicely. I thought, good for you, not afraid to dress sharp. I imagined that he worked at an ad agency or was some sort of web developer.

Yesterday I saw a coworker on my way into the T station, and we started talking. When we got down to the platform, I noticed the guy was standing next to us. Then I noticed that his fuchsia shirt had a big "T-Mobile" above the pocket. Suddenly it all made sense, just not in the way I'd thought.

I think what threw me off was that it was a button-front shirt, because when I think of a typical cell-phone store guy, or even a typical electronics-store guy, I always think of someone wearing a polo shirt. It is kind of the default uniform; for a while I even worked at a such a job and had them. But we also had long-sleeve, button-front shirts with the brand logo embroidered above the pocket, and I'd simply forgotten about that. (Well, let's face it, I've tried to block as much of it as I can.)

This Week in Awesome (7/18/09)

I had a very hectic week at work, more so than usual, but never fear, I still have the goods...

I'm tempted to just post this clip without saying anything else about it. Near the end there's a shot of what looks a lot like the Zakim Bridge, which doesn't make any sense. (Very Short List)

This one is slightly more self-explanatory... eventually. (EA Games via YouTube via Jalopnik)

What is it about road signs that attracts those with mischievous intent? Oh, Canada! (Jalopnik again)

And finally, I'd like to introduce you to my new favorite snark site, The Hater, brought to us by the folks at The Onion's AV Club. It is to pop culture what Go Fug Yourself is to celebrity fashion commentary. Be sure to read the story about how Jon Gosselin is pimping out his kids to Ed Hardy...

Steamed

I hope all of you people who were bitching about the weather are happy with today, because I'm miserable, and so is the dog.

A Piece of the Rock

I'm stuck in deadline week, but I do want to throw my $0.02 on the WBCN story, even though it's now a couple of days old. For those of you who are not in the immediate Boston area or who may not have heard for some other reason, CBS Radio has decided to pull the plug on "The Rock of Boston" after 41 years, replacing it with a sports-talk station as of August 13th.

(The situation is actually slightly more complex than that: the new station will take over the 98.5 FM frequency, and the CBS-owned "Mix" station currently at that spot on the dial, the one that plays music for people who don't really care that much about music, will assume WBCN's 104.1 frequency. Why they couldn't just put the new station at 104.1 is best left unasked, I guess.)

I first became aware of WBCN around 1979, and it was responsible for a significant degree of my adolescent musical awakening. As a bored teenager growing up in suburban Rhode Island, after seeing artists like Elvis Costello and Talking Heads on Saturday Night Live, and then discovering a syndicated show called Rock World, a late-1970s precursor to MTV that showed the early video work of groups like Devo and The Vapors, I was eager for an outlet that would expose me to this sort of new music for more than an hour or so per week (and, since Rock World aired after SNL at 1 AM Sundays, one that would allow me a little more sleep).

One afternoon after school, I was idly fiddling with the radio in my room, searching for something interesting. I have to be honest: given that it was 30 years ago, I can't remember what song was playing when I first stumbled across WBCN on the dial, but I am fairly certain it had to be something adventurous that other radio stations would not have been playing at the time. At first, I was actually a little more impressed with the fact that I was pulling in a Boston radio station from 50-some miles away.

I quickly realized that WBCN was just the sort of station I'd been looking for. There was a Providence station, WBRU, that played much of the same music, but what they were missing and 'BCN had in abundance was attitude: young, brash, rebellious, alluringly cool. Not only did I feel like it was my station, that it belonged to me, but I felt like I belonged to it, that I was part of a club, and cooler for being part of that club. When I decided soon after to go to college in Boston, I felt that listening to 'BCN gave me an advantage over the other incoming freshmen, because I was already tapped into the cultural landscape of the city that I was about to become a part of.

Back then WBCN was considered cutting-edge, and other stations around the country followed their lead. They were early supporters of acts that went on to become worldwide stars, including The Cars and U2. In the spring of 1981 I was one of three people in my high school senior class of about 260 who had heard of U2; I'd heard them played on 'BCN and rushed out to buy Boy.

I stuck with the station through college and the rest of the '80s. I remember they used to sponsor free lunchtime concerts. I went to quite a few of these, back when it was still legal, normal, and cool to do stuff like give away free drinks. You'd get free music, free hot dogs, and one free beer. I recall going to one such concert--the Del Fuegos, I think--before an afternoon final exam in December of 1984, and I went into that exam feeling like the beer had put me in a suitably relaxed frame of mind to properly focus on the test. It did.

Later on, under corporate ownership, WBCN tried being less alternative and more like a competitor to WAAF, the hard-rock station. That's about the time I moved on to WFNX. These days I hardly listen to radio at all. Perhaps if I commuted by car I might behave differently, but at work I'm more likely to open iTunes and fire up an internet streaming radio station. WBCN will continue to exist online in this form, so I'll give them another listen, but it will be more for the sake of nostalgia than anything else.

Radio has become much more of a business than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Everything is so packaged and focus-grouped, which may increase profits but also has the unfortunate effect of making it less interesting and appealing to listen to. I understand the business side of the decision, but emotionally it doesn't make the loss any easier to take. The WBCN I loved ceased to exist a long time ago, which is why I haven't listened in a long time.

Life is about change, and as we get older, the people, places, and things that mattered to us tend to go away, and usually they don't come back. But I'll always have great memories of the years when The Rock of Boston ruled the local airwaves.

Annals of Flawed Logic

While reading the paper on my way to work this morning, I was a little confused to see this headline in the section of little one-paragraph stories: "Arizona: Gun Rules Eased for Bars."

Then I read the story, and went from confused to, well, kind of appalled and scared shitless at the same time, if that's possible: "Arizonans with concealed weapons permits will be allowed to take a handgun into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, under a bill signed by Gov. Jan Brewer. The measure, backed by the National Rifle Association, will require bar and restaurant owners who want to ban weapons to post a no-guns sign next to the business’ liquor license."

Drinking and guns--what a superb idea, because clearly the bar fights out there weren't violent enough already. This is why I prefer to stay in our little ivory-tower corner of the country.

Crumbling Façade

I managed to miss the excitement on Huntington Avenue this morning. I used to catch the 39 bus at Back Bay Station to get to my office near Brigham Circle, but now that I walk the dog in the morning, I leave the house a bit later and catch a later bus, and from past experience with the 39 it gets increasingly unreliable after 8:30 AM, due to increased traffic on Back Bay streets. So now I stay on the Orange Line and go to Ruggles, where any of five or six bus routes will get me close enough to the office.

A coworker came in around 9:15, having been stuck in the traffic backup caused by the debris, and explained what was happening. Strangely, there was nothing on boston.com at that point, and it took them a long time to post any information about the incident, compared to other local media outlets' web sites. I'm glad I didn't get stuck, and I'm also amazed and happy to hear that no one was injured by falling building chunks.

This Week in Awesome (7/11/09)

Jalopnik gave us plenty of good material this week. First, there are these two videos of police chases (Dallas, then Houston, hmmm....) from Fox News Channel. The only reason they were posted to Jalopnik in the first place, and the only reason I'm posting them here, is because of the insanely surreal commentary by one of the anchor dudes. (Apparently this is his specialty over at the creepy channel.)

Moving on, we have this series of photos from an, um, unusual accident scene in Virginia, but what really makes this one special is the accompanying analysis from one of that state's transportation engineers.

Changing gears, so to speak, there's the story of a guy named Dave whose guitar was rather badly broken by United Airlines baggage handlers, in full view of him and many other passengers on his flight. His attempts to get United to own up to the situation and provide some recompense were unsuccessful, so being a musician, he wrote a song about it--a pretty decent song, in fact--and put it on YouTube. Of course, this got United's attention, but it's been more than a year, Dave doesn't even care about the money anymore. (Consumerist)

That's all for now. Enjoy the weekend.

Act Now, Yesterday Only

You know how you sometimes make a purchase at a web site and then get emails from that site forever? That's how it is with me and Live Nation, the concert promoter/ticket seller.

I do tend to look at these emails, to see if there are any shows coming that I might want to see. This morning I found a message titled "Wed Only: $29.99 All-In Concert Experience." I had heard that Live Nation was doing a series of promotions this summer to try to make attending concerts less financially painful.

Out of curiosity I clicked on the message. "No Service Fee Wednesday. Lawn Ticket - Hot Dog - Soda All-In $29.99. July 8th 24 Hours Only." The time stamp on the message was 2:26 AM, today, July 9th., Oops.

Now, I don't care about seeing Toby Keith or Creed or, god help us, 311. And on the rare occasions that I've gone to the arena formerly known as Great Woods, I didn't sit on the lawn because, well, it rains sometimes, and who wants to sit with all the unfortunate plebes who couldn't afford better seats? I really prefer to sit on an actual chair, and I wouldn't be able to see anything from way back there anyway.

But it just looks bad, you know? It gives the impression that your big PR campaign for more affordable entertainment is just a load of crap. Maybe it's time to unsubscribe from those emails.

This Week in Awesome: Bonus Bit

I don't know how I forgot about this. It was on The Soup last Friday, and I should have checked immediately to see if it was on their blog site so I could have included it over the weekend.

Anyway, it's way too awesome to wait until next week. This clip is from the MTV show 16 and Pregnant, which I've heard has been given a second season. Lucky us...

Minty Fresh

I'm the sort of person who tries to have mints on me at all times. I hate the idea that I might be inflicting bad breath on someone, but I was never really much for chewing gum.

Over the years I have carried many different mints in various flavors. The main requirements are that they be easily portable, taste good, and not make noise when I walk. This means Altoids are out, and that's fine because I don't really care for them. They are certainly strong enough to eliminate odors, but their flavors are just so overpowering they are not enjoyable.

For a long, long time I bought multi-packs of Breath Savers wintergreen flavor mints. (The warehouse clubs carry these in packages of 24 rolls, which kept me minted for a couple of months.) Over a year ago, I found myself mintless in Santa Cruz while we were there visiting the Mrs.' sister. We stopped at a local market to get some lunch, and while wandering around the store I discovered cinnamon-flavored mints made by Newman's Own Organics.

I love anything cinnamon (especially cinnamon rolls), but the cinnamon Altoids had been as much of a disappointment as their other flavors. Still, I thought I should give these upstart mints a try, and I loved them. They are not particularly strong, but they do freshen the mouth. The only drawback was that, like Altoids, they came in a metal box (which, strangely, describes them as "hot" but they are the farthest thing from it) with an illustration of a ferocious tiger on it.

When we got home I found that the mints were available locally at Whole Foods stores. I also found that they sold a different variety of the mints in rolls; they are larger than the tinned mints and have a slightly different taste (also not hot). I've taken to buying both kinds; I keep the tin on my desk at work, and carry a roll in my pocket for mobile breath cleansing.

This Week in Awesome (7/4/09)

In honor of our nation's birthday, I thought I'd post a sort of public-service TWIA today.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission wants you to use fireworks cautiously, and to that end they have produced some videos showing the potential dangers of being careless. (There were two more of these, but they aren't working now, bummer.) (Gizmodo)

And for all you dog owners, here's another in our ongoing series of bizarre commercials for bizarre products. Note: if you watch this video and might actually be considering buying this product, you should know that there have been numerous complaints against the company selling it; apparently they thought it was a good idea to take orders for the product before they had product to ship, and they are just now getting around to filling orders from six months ago. Way to go, Potty Patch. (Consumerist)

Have a fun and safe holiday, everybody.

Dance Party in Aisle 5

A few days ago I was in the Whole Foods in Woburn, picking up coffee (you really should try the organic Mexican beans) and a few other things. The store's sound system was playing a fun mix of classic disco songs, like "Get Up and Boogie" (Silver Convention), "I Want Your Love" (Chic), "Boogie Nights" (Heatwave), "Let It Whip" (Dazz Band), even the instrumental "Love's Theme" by the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and others I can't recall now. (I had to look up some of those artists, but being of a certain age, I remembered some of them.)

I grew up listening to these songs, because they were all over Top 40 radio in the 70s. The Mrs. is a bit too young to remember most of them. I don't know if this music comes from a compilation, a satellite music service, or if the store actually employs a DJ (not too likely), but I'd like to tip my digital hat to Whole Foods for not subjecting us to the "light rock" or "adult contemporary" that you're more likely to hear in a store. Someone is thinking about the shopping experience. (On a previous visit to the Medford store, they were rocking the 80's alternative: The Cure, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Thompson Twins.)

While we're on the subject, let's take a moment to acknowledge the place of disco in music history. Disco was certainly derided and even reviled back in the day, and I'm not sure it's really ever gotten its due, but I'm not embarrassed to say that as a teenager I was a big fan (at least until I saw Elvis Costello on Saturday Night Live and realized there was a whole other universe of music awaiting my discovery). In addition to Top 40 radio, I grew up listening to a lot of my dad's Motown, Sly & the Family Stone, Wilson Pickett, and other soul and R&B acts, so it isn't that surprising that I gravitated toward disco.

I'll be the first to admit that a lot of disco music was lyrically slight (as was, to be fair, plenty of other 70s music), but what I think people tend to forget is that many of the groups were formed around studio musicians and backup bands for solo singers. people who had years of solid playing and performing experience. Chic is an excellent example, as is KC and the Sunshine Band. "Get Down Tonight" is kind of silly, but if you listen to the instruments--the bass, the horns, the electric piano--it kicks ass.

The disco performers just wanted to make music that would make people dance and have fun. I'm going to head to iTunes to look over some disco compilations.

How to Say It

Re: the previous post, be careful not to mispronounce "Oregon" in the presence of an Oregonian. You will be corrected, and quite possibly berated. It does not rhyme with "autobahn," but is almost exactly like saying the word "organ" except with an extra "uh" in the middle.

Similarly, a coworker who lived in Reno for 20 years informed me that the correct pronunciation of "Nevada" should rhyme with "claddagh" and not "armada."

Of Course It Comes with Fries

Kind of a quiet week, leading into the holiday weekend. Work has been slow, which gives me time to troll around the web and find little gems like this.

A diner in Portland, Oregon is serving a cheeseburger on a doughnut. I suppose I could be talked into trying that. Once. Reminds me of those mega-meals I linked to the other day.

And in the same vein, just in case you haven't seen it already, there's this frightening site.

This Week in Awesome (6/28/09)

Damn, I almost forgot again. It's not like I've been so incredibly busy; we went grocery shopping, and when we came back I put out the trash and recycling, then I had dinner and watched some TV... and here we are.

Regardless, let's go. We're all over the place this week. First, an artsy-craftsy person got hold of a stash of unused auto upholstery from the 1970s and is using it to make some pretty bitchin' handbags.

I guess the folks at Consumerist were getting a little hungry, because they started talking about ways to get your entire day's worth of calories in one meal. But I don't think they mean for you to really do it.

Weird products: at first it seems that this video couldn't possibly be real, but it's just too bizarre to be fake. The web site it's from contains a second video for a slightly more specific part of the target audience. But really, who thinks of this stuff? Somehow I suspect it wasn't a woman.

And finally, our old friend Fake Steve Jobs resurfaced this week, first to talk about his new liver, then to post this curiously touching tribute to the celebrities who passed this week.

Driving While Stupid

Every single one of you should go have a look at this article over at Car and Driver magazine's site. (Well, maybe not you, PB, because like me, you don't drive.) They devised a test to compare driving while drunk to driving while reading and sending text messages. Interesting results, to say the least.

Since our society is apparently too self-absorbed and stupid to realize just how dangerous this is (and people who do it will likely end up hurting or killing an innocent person while emerging unscathed but just as self-absorbed and stupid), I really wish some state government had the balls to pass a law making this behavior punishable by something like 90 days in jail and a $5000 fine. (While we're at it, I'm sure drunk driving laws could stand to be strengthened in most places.)

Beer Me, Marge

Over the weekend I attended the American Craft Beer Festival. I was fortunate enough to go as the guest of my friend Sandi, who covers food and drink as Boston Restaurant Examiner. Along with a couple thousand other beer enthusiasts, we filed into the World Trade Center on Saturday afternoon and received our two-ounce plastic tasting vessels.

Actually, they held about four ounces, but there was a two-ounce line marked on them where the breweries were supposed to stop pouring. With unlimited tastings available over the course of three and a half hours (depending on how many times you were willing to stand in line), watching one's overall consumption was a good idea. I also ate a big sandwich beforehand, which helped to absorb some of the beer's effect.

Nearly 80 breweries were in attendance, and nearly 30% of those were Massachusetts companies, which isn't terribly surprising. Other states with strong representation were California, New York, Maine, and Colorado. Given the size of the crowd and its inevitable intoxication, everyone was relaxed and genial; there was no jostling while waiting in line, and periodically someone would initiate a mass toast, resulting in raised arms and a whoop that passed through the crowd like the wave at a ballgame.

Due to the size of the crowd (to say nothing of the body's alcohol tolerance), it was impossible to visit every booth, and equally impossible to try every beer offered at a given booth. Inevitably I missed a few beers I'd wanted to try, but I still found a few choice ones. Bear Republic from Sonoma County, CA makes a mean IPA called Racer 5, as well as other interesting brews. Ommegang, from near Cooperstown, NY, works in Belgian styles, normally not my favorite, but their Witte was subtle and citrusy, and almost didn't taste like beer. Rogue of Oregon is known for its Dead Guy Ale, but its Shakespeare Stout was wonderfully rich and complex.

Probably my favorite of the beers I tried was Sword Swallower Steel Hop Lager from a line called Coney Island Craft Lagers, which is brewed by the people who make He'Brew, The Chosen Beer. The beers are really interesting, and the labels are colorful and evocative of Coney Island's storied history. I'll be picking up some 22-ounce bottles of this one at my local "packie," and from looking at the brewery's events calendar, it looks like they make fairly regular tasting appearances at Boston-area bars and liquor stores, so you too may have a chance to try it soon.

America may no longer be the industrial behemoth it once was, but craft brewing is thriving, and it's obvious from meeting various brewery representatives that they put a great deal of passion and desire for excellence into their work.

This Week in Awesome (6/21/09)

A belated Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there. And it's a belated TWIA as well, because (a) I was visiting my own dad yesterday, and simply forgot about it when I got home, and (b) I was a little light on content this week. But never fear, the awesome is here...

Supposedly the creator of this colorful bit of roadside art was arrested for his creation. You'd think the highway department would have hired the guy to be its PR liaison, or something. (Jalopnik)

Way, way back in the paleolithic era of television (otherwise known as the 1950s), Jim Henson's Muppets were eking out a showbiz living as advertising spokespuppets (one of them looks a lot like a proto-Kermit). These ads are seriously strange, in a wonderfully twisted way. Just try to imagine a company wanting to run ads like these today. (TV Squad)

The new season of Top Gear premiered last night in the UK. For those of you who don't know, Top Gear is a BBC show about cars that's really more about being ridiculously entertaining than anything else. The Mrs., whose interest in cars covers only that her own car is safe and has gas in the tank, thinks it's terrific. I guarantee you you'll find it far more satisfying than any ludicrous "reality" trash. If your cable or satellite company has the BBC America channel, you can find Top Gear on almost as often as Law & Order reruns are on TNT, USA, Bravo, etc. Anyway, BBC did a couple of cute promo spots for the new season, with boys representing younger versions of the three hosts. (The one in the helmet is their test driver.) (BBC via YouTube)

Another Close Shave

Recently I started noticing that drug stores were no longer carrying my trusted Schick razor, and some of them stopped carrying replacement blade cartridges. I was in need of a new razor handle anyway, so I thought it might be time to revisit the razor question.

I still don't want to use Gillette products, because in my past experience they have gotten dull much too quickly, and I just can't get past the notion that they might be doing that on purpose. (I even keep my razor in a solution called RazorGuard that purports to prolong the life of blades, but with Gillette blades it makes no difference.)

I came across a reference to a Waltham, MA-based company called Preserve that is manufacturing razor handles and toothbrushes out of materials like recycled yogurt containers. I decided to try out the razor, and picked one up at Whole Foods. I wanted to like it, but I could barely get two mediocre shaves out of one blade cartridge. I'm hoping they'll keep trying and will find a way to improve their blades.

My next thought was to go back to Schick and try the Quattro, the four-blade razor that is gradually edging my three-blade out of existence. It was better than the Preserve, but I still wasn't wild about it. I found the solution at BJ's. They're still carrying my preferred razor; in fact, they had so many that I wondered if maybe that's why I can't find it anywhere else. Each package contains a handle and twelve cartridges. Since I only shave a couple of times a week, that will last me a year or so, for $13. Maybe I should buy two, just in case...

El Pollo Local

Last night while watching a Family Guy rerun on TBS, we saw a commercial for the fast-food chicken place El Pollo Loco. I've never had it, but The Mrs. grew up in southern California and has fond memories of it.

Commercials for stuff we don't have around here are nothing new (Sonic comes to mind, though they are scheduled to open on route 1 in Saugus in a couple of months), but neither of us remembered seeing commercials for El Pollo Loco before, and this commercial said "come visit us on Revere Beach Parkway in Chelsea." It seems it was a locally produced ad, and for now there's only the one location, though apparently Tewksbury is getting one soon. Let's hear it for franchsing. Anyway, the Mrs. immediately said that we needed to go eat there tonight, and who am I to argue with such things?

The restaurant is in a newly built plaza adjacent to route 16 just before the Revere line, so unfortunately it's not exactly T accessible. They have quite a large and varied menu (though if you're not into chicken I suppose you're out of luck), with sandwiches, salads, and burritos in addition to the "flame-grilled" chicken, and even the decor is much nicer than a typical chain fast-food place. And if you order your food to eat there, someone brings it to you at your table.

The Mrs. opted for a traditional two-piece chicken meal with sides of refried beans and rice. I went for the chicken tostada bowl, which had pinto beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, and sour cream, and came with a side of creamy cilantro dressing. Yuh-hun. All their chicken is marinated in a blend of spices and citrus, making it moist and very tasty. Everything is really fresh, nothing tastes artificial or processed. And yes, I ate the tostada bowl. In fact, I broke it up into pieces and dipped them in the dressing.

I would definitely rank El Pollo Loco miles above the swill served at Taco Bell, and I would also choose them over Qdoba (where I've always been made to feel like they're doing me a favor by serving me). I'm already looking forward to our next visit.

This Week in Awesome (6/14/09)

I didn't forget, but I am thinking of posting these on Saturdays instead of Sundays, so visitors might have more time to check them out during the weekend.

What was the best-selling car in the United States in 2008? The answer may surprise you. (Autoblog)

Here's a cool little video making clever use of sticky notes, that was done as an art school project. (Dvice)

Another product of dubious usefulness, but with an awesomely bad commercial. (Consumerist)

Shopping Tips

In my ongoing mission to help you spend your money wisely, I feel compelled to pass along info about noteworthy sales and discounts. If you or a male person you know is in need of anything along the lines of inexpensive basic clothing, you might want to head to the nearest Old Navy store between now and Father's Day (which is next Sunday, in case you needed reminding) because all men's clothing is 50% off. Yeah, all of it. I picked up some more T-shirts (for $4 each), but there are also khakis for $15, polo shirts for $7.50, and so on.

I probably should have mentioned this one earlier, but Lord & Taylor is having a "friends and family" sale (which means you have to sign up to receive their emails) through Sunday June 14th. Bring the coupon in the email you'll receive and get 25% off all regular and sale prices. Their typical bonus coupon discount is 15%, so this is a decent deal and they only offer it a couple of times a year. What makes this offer better is that they are also taking 10% off cosmetics and fragrances, which is almost unheard of. Better move fast, though.

Now, an unrelated story: today, in the course of our typical weekend errands, we went to a Target in Woburn, where I've been a few times but where we don't go regularly. As soon as I walked in I knew something was up, because there were lamp shades directly ahead of me, where the men's department usually is. After walking around for a couple of minutes it became obvious that the store is in the midst of a rather extensive remodel. Nonetheless, I overheard a fairly exasperated woman berating a staff person: "I can't find anything! Nothing is where it's supposed to be."

And of course, being me, I immediately thought, is it not obvious to you this is because they're in the process of redoing the whole goddamn store while keeping it open for ungrateful pinhead wretches like you? I think it's highly possible that woman is also one of the thousands of people who woke up today and couldn't figure out why all her TV channels had turned to static.

The High-Low, Part 2

A lot of the clothing I've bought in the past few months has come from eBay, which is kind of like a giant online thrift store or rummage sale. There are thousands of bargains just waiting to be discovered, and some of them are fixed-price listings, so you don't even have to wait around for an auction to end and worry about bidding. Some auctions also have a "make an offer" option that effectively allows you to haggle with the seller, and can lead to some unexpected deals.

This method of shopping can be time-consuming (I tend to browse during my lunch hour), but eBay gives you the tools to save specific searches, which makes it easier to keep track of new listings in categories you're interested in (for example, you can set up a search for V-neck cashmere sweaters in only certain colors or from specific brands). And many people are offering free shipping these days, or building it into their selling prices, making some items an ever better deal.

Obviously, with any online clothing purchase, sizing is crucial. Brands you already own or are familiar with are safer, certain items tend to have more consistent sizing than others, and sellers should provide thorough size info and measurements. However, lot of people just toss auction listings on eBay without putting a lot of thought or effort into them. Sometimes that's okay, but with clothing, photos and descriptions are very important, and should match. Make sure if a seller says an item is NWT (new with tags), the photos do in fact show the tags.

Look over everything carefully, and figure out what information the seller might have neglected to include. If you need to know something that's not in the description, send a polite email, ask your question as clearly as possible, and try to be considerate: don't ask a question 45 minutes before an auction ends and be upset if the seller doesn't respond to you in time. Believe it or not, not everyone has round-the-clock access to their email.

Also, in my own experience, even if the seller claims the item comes from a smoke-free, pet-free home, there's a decent chance it will arrive smelling of something, so be prepared to launder it or hang it outside for a few hours, or both. I have one shirt I bought on eBay that still smells faintly of an extremely strong laundry detergent, even after several months and numerous washes using our own fragrance-free detergent.

A few months ago I saw a red and white striped Tommy Hilfiger shirt in a store, but when I went back to look at it again it was already gone. I decided to take a quick look on eBay and found it NWT for $10. (For those of you who might not have noticed, Tommy has toned down the branding quite a bit recently, and this shirt has only a tiny embroidered flag logo on the left sleeve placket, which is unobtrusive enough for me.)

Sometimes I search for specific items, but I've also stumbled across things while not actively looking for them. Cargo shorts are kind of necessary in summer, when you don't have coat pockets but you need to carry your phone, sunglass case, and assorted other stuff (I usually carry that stuff to work with me in a messenger-style bag, but I like to give myself weekends off from carrying it). Eight or nine years back, Ralph Lauren made some really nice cargo shorts (before cargos got all crazy-looking and huge, with all the drawstrings and zippers and crap). They had plain, flat side pockets with no pleats or gussets, set-in back pockets with no flaps, and a very small, subtle label above the back pocket.

I had a pair of these that I got at the late, lamented Filene's Basement downtown store, and I loved them dearly, because they fit well and were appropriately mature-looking. But my waistline expanded and I could no longer fit into them. Last week I came across a pair of these shorts in my current size. There were four bids, but mine was the highest; I got them for $13.50, certainly less than I'd pay for a decent pair of shorts elsewhere.

Other good recent finds: cashmere sweaters for $20, two corduroy sportcoats (one was $16, the other was $10), a bright pink Ralph Lauren shirt with a pocket (always harder to find than the ones with horses) for $9, Banana Republic khakis for $8, and my favorite deal of the past six months or so, a J. Crew suede sportcoat for $22. A great deal of this stuff was worn by someone a couple of times at most, then hung in a closet for a couple of years before being put up for auction or sale.

Of course, not every purchase is a success. A few weeks ago I thought I'd lucked out when I found a listing for off-white L.L. Bean jeans in my size. Bean stopped making these a few years back, right before I started looking for them. The starting bid was only 99 cents, so I added the auction to my watch list and waited. Several days later there were still no bids. I ended up being the only bidder, so I got them for a buck plus shipping. When they arrived, they fit great but were about an inch too short, and it was my own fault because I never asked for actual measurements. Just because the seller says "the tag reads 36 x 32" doesn't mean those are the actual measurements, especially on items that are a few years old and have been through the wash a number of times.

One other thing you notice shopping on eBay is that a lot of sellers have a seriously overinflated idea of what their items are worth. This can sometimes be amusing, but more often it's annoying, especially when it's something you've been searching for that happens to be scarce. Just because an item sold for $150 new doesn't mean it's worth $150, or even half that much, three or four seasons later. And if it's a current-season item, then a seller probably ought to know what it's currently selling for elsewhere; those $80 pants someone is trying to sell for $60 may have already been marked down by 50 percent or more out in the stores. As a consumer, you need to do a bit of homework so that you know the cost of an item, the current value of that item (not necessarily the same thing), and what it's worth to you.

The High-Low

I've been on one of my periodic clothing acquisition sprees, though not really so much specifically for summer items, since I have more than enough polo shirts and shorts to cover work and weekends. I did pick up a very nice pair of white jeans at Target, of all places. I've been looking for a pair of off-white jeans for several years, and while these were described as "ecru" on the tag, they're closer to white, which I guess will have to suffice.

The fabric is of an appropriate summer weight, the cut is relaxed (I had a bad experience two years ago with some off-white jeans from Uniqlo that unfortunately were way too snug and low-waisted), and they are better made than you might expect (in Egypt, interestingly), all for only $25. If they had a Gap label they'd be at least twice that, and I've seen similar stuff going for as much as $100 (I don't know anyone who pays a Franklin for jeans, but I guess some people do).

I also ordered a pair of Born fisherman sandals from the REI outlet site, which has some decent deals. If you are not in a big hurry and there's an REI store close to you, you can have your order shipped to the store for free and pick it up; mine took just over a week. The sandals are too big (this often happens when footwear comes only in whole sizes) but I went back on the site and the sandals are still available, plus they are now offering an extra 20% off one outlet item, so I just ordered another pair in the smaller size, and I'll return the first pair and end up saving more.

Beyond that, I've been experimenting with shopping some new sources. A couple of months ago I saw something online about web sites that offer an online equivalent of the sample sales that take place all the time in New York. Coincidentally, that same day the Boston Globe ran a piece about the same sites. I decided this was a sign that I needed to check them out. The two biggest are Gilt and RueLaLa (the latter is part of the locally-based SmartBargains group, where I briefly worked a few years back).

Each day I receive emails telling me what is going on sale that day, and each sale lasts a couple of days. The discounts off original retail prices are significant, but prices can still be pretty steep, depending on how ridiculous the starting prices were. One thing to consider about pricey designer clothing is that regardless of where you buy it or how much you end up paying, you should expect high quality of materials and construction; if you buy something and are not satisfied with it, these sample sites do allow returns, but only for site credit.

Of the two sites, Gilt has more men's merchandise, but in both cases much of it is more trendy or fashion-forward than my tastes. I have yet to buy anything from either site; however, these sites do offer an opportunity to get a look at clothing from labels I'm not familiar with or might not otherwise be exposed to, and some of it is worthwhile.

For example, Rag & Bone is sold at stores like Barneys, where I rarely venture, but the clothes are tasteful and low-key, and the whole line appears to be made in the United States. If I find the right item at the right price, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. And I've learned about a guy named Billy Reid. The only thing that kept me from buying one of his shirts off Gilt was some funky contrast stitching that was a little too noticeable, but I liked his clothes in general, and most of them seem to be made in Italy. He has a store in New York, and last week they threw a party to celebrate the opening of another store in his hometown in Alabama: any place that gives out free fried chicken, bourbon, and beer is worth considering as a place to shop.

This Week in Awesome (6/7/09)

Let's see, what sort of awesome did the internet fairies bring us this week?

You may have heard about the band Weezer endorsing its own version of the Snuggie. I tried to think of it as analagous to when high-end designers do collaborations with mass-market stores like Target or H&M. Then I remembered that I don't really care about Weezer either way. (Consumerist)

Now that summer is more or less upon us, sometimes you come across a person who chooses to disregard the typical way of dressing for the season. This site has lots of them. (Racked)

80s TV, as those of us who were around to watch it can tell you, is an endless source of amusement. This is another of those videos that someone really put a lot of work into. For extra fun, the second clip shows a side-by-side comparison with its original source. One caveat though: if you watch with the sound on, you run the risk of having a theme song embedded in your brain all day. (TV Squad)

And if you really have some time on your hands, there's this advice column on boston.com. I don't make a habit of reading it, and it's a bit out of the range of my usual stuff here, but the other day Universal Hub linked to someone who linked to a discussion that was going on about whether or not a partner's distaste for a certain intimate act was reason enough not to marry that person.

Because it's a family newspaper/web site, the moderator substituted an amusing euphemism for the act in question, making for a particularly surreal round of commentary as this euphemism grew and took on a life of its own. Let's just say you may not look at a certain food item the same way after reading it. Also, there are a couple hundred comments by now, so if you don't want to get wrapped up in this all day, I suggest skimming them.

How's Your Weekend Going?

Hey, you know what's really fun? When your hot water heater decides to take a leak all over your basement floor, and you haven't even gotten to take a shower yet. Yeah, lotta fun.

Being renters, a call to the landlord was the first order of business. He's already been through this once, since the water heater for the upstairs unit gave out a couple of years ago. He's hoping he can get the same guy to come back and take care of ours, but it's probably not going to happen until Monday morning, because plumbers tend to charge extra when they are called to work on a weekend. That's understandable, but it does make things a bit more inconvenient for us.

The hygiene issues were addressed with the equivalent of a sponge bath, using water heated on the stove. Wow, it's like living in the old West, or something. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Get Burned

Tonight is the welcome return of one of television's most enjoyable hours of pure escapism: Burn Notice revs up its third season on USA (at 9 PM Eastern time). If you are not familiar with the show, it's a perfect summer blend of Alias (spies, personas, disguises), MacGyver (improvised gadgetry), and The Equalizer (helping people in need who can't always go through normal channels), stirred with a dash of romantic tension, lightened with a touch of humor, and aided and abetted by a series of gorgeous, authentic Miami locales (you do realize that CSI: Miami is not actually filmed in Miami, right?).

Former spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) has been cut off by his shadowy employers (the title refers to the spy world's equivalent of a pink slip) and left in his former home town without ID or means of support. Gradually Michael has found his way by acting as a sort of unlicensed private eye, bodyguard, occasional mercenary, or whatever gig will get him paid without crossing the lines of his moral code. The mystery of who had Michael burned, and why, was a thread running through the first two seasons, but took a background role to his weekly adventures.

Ladies like the show because Michael is easy on the eyes, he's a snappy dresser, is loyal to his friends, and looks out for his mother Madeline ('80s TV icon Sharon Gless). Guys like the show because Michael's primary partner in crime, ex-IRA operative Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar), is equally easy on the eyes, because Michael has a cool vintage Dodge Charger, there's lots of action and, on average, something gets blown up (usually by Fiona) about every other episode. Michael also has the assistance of Sam Axe (the great Bruce Campbell), a former military man whom he worked with many times in his former life.

Really, what more could you ask for from summer TV? It's all here. If you're looking to sit down at the end of your day and be entertained, this is a show to check out.

False Alarm

Around 11:30 last night, as I was loading the dishwasher and getting ready to go to bed, the smoke alarms went off. I say "alarms" because the house has a hard-wired system (as opposed to ones that run on batteries) with detectors on each floor, including the basement and the attic. If one goes off, they all go off.

These alarms are frighteningly, ear-piercingly loud. I sleep quite soundly knowing that if there is ever an actual fire, we will all get out safely. But when they do go off, as they did one other time, it's so loud it's literally painful. The dog came into the kitchen, whining because of the noise. The Mrs. had been asleep, but she scurried out of bed, grabbed the dog's leash and the dog, and headed outside. Not for a moment did I think there was a fire; I was more concerned about what did set off the alarms.

I quickly checked the stairs heading down to the basement: no smoke, but I caught a whiff of what I thought was a toaster oven type of smell from the upstairs apartment. I was on my way outside when the alarm stopped. A moment later it started again, then stopped after a few seconds. We went back in the house, and a minute later there was a knock at the back kitchen door. One of the upstairs neighbors wanted to know if everything was okay. I mentioned the smell, and he said, "Oh yeah, I had the oven on its cleaning cycle. Do you think that could have set off the alarm?"

I suppressed the urge to say something mean, and suggested that in the future he might want to make sure he opened a window before running that cycle. The dog settled back down, the Mrs. went back to bed, and I followed soon after.

This Week in Awesome (5/31/09)

Why yes, I do have some good stuff for you this week. Let's begin with our (okay, my) continuing fascination with anything and everything ShamWow-related. I'm pleased that someone finally decided to spoof it properly. (Consumerist, as usual)

We all know, or have at least encountered, a dude like this at some point. (CasualMafia)

And from the same people, a little dig at both hip-hop and hybrid-car righteousness.

Back in the (Warehouse) Club

A good while back, I talked about my affinity for warehouse clubs, and Costco in particular. But after the Mrs. left her previous job her Costco membership, which she'd gotten through the employer, lapsed.

For a while we were clubless. It didn't matter much at first, but as time went by I started to miss things like the two-pound blocks of Cabot aged cheddar (called "special reserve" or some such nonsense), the razor blade cartridges in packs of 12 or 16 that would last me a year, the five tubes of toothpaste for $9, and other such things.

I looked into my benefits at work and found that I could get a membership to BJ's Wholesale Club at a discount, so I signed up. One nice thing about BJ's is that there is one within walking distance of our house, though depending on how much I buy, carrying home a bunch of club-sized mega-packages on foot isn't necessarily the most convenient approach. If I walk there I just have to be mindful of how much I can carry, and for bigger loads we can plan ahead and take the car.

After two visits I'm giving them a mixed report card. BJ's does carry things that Costco did not, like the brands of toothpaste and certain other household items we use, and they have a very nice in-house bakery department (Costco had some baked goods, but it seems like BJ's has more). But I am starting to feel that the membership might not be as worthwhile as I once thought it was.

Razor blades are definitely a good deal (the only place you'll find them priced as low is on eBay, and who knows if those are real or not) but with each package of 12 blade cartridges you get a new razor handle, which is silly and wasteful. A three-pack of anti-perspirant was $10, but I recently got it on sale at CVS at two for $7, which is basically the same deal give or take a few cents, and even that is only slightly less than what I normally pay at Target, so not really that impressive.

I think bigger-ticket items like TVs and outdoor furniture can be better deals, and certainly if you have a large family you can save on food at a warehouse club. Sometimes it's just handy to be able to get a large quantity of something all at once so you don't have to buy it as often, provided you are able to store it. But I think the idea of the warehouse club is more enticing than the reality of the place. It seems like I go there with visions of deals that never materialize, and you also have to factor in the cost of the membership, which is a better deal if you shop there frequently, not such a good deal if you don't.

Since I paid for my membership and it's valid for more than a year, I will continue to make use of it, if only for the three-pound tubs of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. But when it expires, I don't think I will renew it.

This Week in (Possibly Not) Awesome (5/24/09)

Given that it's a holiday weekend and I've been out most of the day, this is going to be more like "This Week in Mildly Amusing." In fact, I admit that this week's entries are leftovers from previous editions that I didn't think were quite worthy, sort of the JV squad of TWIA. Like I said, it's a holiday weekend. I reserve the right to be lazy.

Signspotting is, well, a blog of funny signs.

I didn't realize bands still bothered to make videos, but I liked this one.

The note I made for this site is "crazy suits," so I guess that's what you'll find. (Note: I was asked to remove the link, for an unspecified reason and FIVE YEARS LATER.)

Heading into the Weekend

This morning's commute was... shockingly normal, in all respects. The bus came when it was supposed to, the traffic on the Fellsway was normal, the train rolled into the station just as I reached the platform, it moved at typical rush-hour speed and did not make any unexpected stops. I actually got to work before 9 AM. Small miracles.

Now things are winding down here at the office, heading into the holiday weekend (wait, it's Memorial Day weekend already?). I'm planning on partaking in some retail therapy at the Kittery outlets, either tomorrow or Sunday, depending on the Mrs., who is getting over her first work-derived cold from her new job. Two whole months before getting sick, that's longer than I expected. And I hope to get to see Star Trek over the course of the next three days.

One more thing: I haven't geeked out over Mad Men in a while, mostly because it's been off the air between seasons (the show is back in production on its third season, which is supposed to start in August). However, I still check the official AMC Mad Men blog a couple times a week, and on Tuesday they posted an interview with a young lady who goes by Dyna Moe. Dyna has done a series of illustrations, one for each episode of the two seasons of MM, which are posted here on Flickr. These are extremely cool, and, even better, are available to purchase as prints, cards, and such here.

MBTA Blues, Continued

It seemed like things were starting to get a little better with the commuting, though on Tuesday and Wednesday there was terrible traffic on the Fellsway. I don't know why; maybe people were getting fed up with the Orange Line fiasco and decided to drive instead? The bus trip to Wellington station from my house, that usually takes about ten minutes (about half of which is spent getting through the light at Wellington Circle) took 25 on Tuesday and 20 on Wednesday.

Yesterday I somehow still managed to arrive at work only a few minutes after 9, so I thought today would be more or less the same. That was my mistake: getting overconfident too quickly. Today we were rolling along on the Green Line when we stopped just outside Arlington station, and sat. And sat. And sat for a good fifteen minutes, with occasional announcements about "signal problems" ahead. I could see out the front of the train that there was another train just ahead of us, waiting in the station. What fun.

Eventually we were allowed to move forward into the station, but were told that the problems were affecting the entire Green Line, and that once we got to Copley the train would be sitting for an indefinite period of time, and we might want to consider getting off the train and making other arrangements. Luckily I was able to walk the two blocks down to Copley Square and catch a 39 bus down Huntington Avenue, but it was still nearly 10 AM when I arrived at work.

Of course, we now know that not just the Green Line but the whole system was affected, by a maintenance crew's error. Whoopsie. Not a real good week for the T. One thing about dealing with more than a week of transit problems is that I've been able to detach from concern about what time I'm going to get to work. When there's nothing you can do about it, the best thing to do is stop worrying and let it go.

One other bit of weirdness this morning: as I came out of the Berkeley Street exit of Arlington (the main entrance has been closed for a couple of years while they redo the place) and crossed the corner in front of Shreve's, I saw a youngish woman, her cell phone pressed to her ear, burst into tears and start crying loudly, right on the street corner. I couldn't help but wonder what sort of bad news she had just received. (I assume she wasn't crying about the T's problems.) Did she just get dumped? Not so likely at 9:30 AM. A lost pet? A death in the family seemed the most likely explanation. I felt badly for her, but before I could even stop to see if I could help in any way, she had already turned her back and moved into a corner of the building, to be as alone with her grief as possible on a busy street.

MBTA: MayBe Train Arrive?

The level of suck on the Orange Line is reaching epic proportions. Since last Wednesday, the morning and evening commutes have been disastrous.

This morning started on a wrong note even before I even reached the train. My usual bus was 15 minutes late (the usual gap between buses in the morning is 20 minutes). When I reached the platform at Wellington I saw a coworker (we are our office's only two Medfordites), and we immediately noticed how crowded the platform was. After almost 30 minutes and two trains that were too full to contemplate boarding, we were able to squeeze onto the third.

We switched to the Green Line at North Station, and eventually made it to the office at 9:35. I left my house at 7:50, so that's one hour and 45 minutes. On a good day, with fortuitous connections, I can make the trip in 50 minutes; on a more typical day, one hour. Today I need to get home to tend to the dog, so I'm wondering what time I should leave work.

I don't know what is wrong with the Orange Line's signals (since that's where they keep telling us the problem lies), and I don't know why it's taking the T so long to diagnose and fix it. I do remember a few years back, being inconvenienced for months at a time while the signal system on the Orange Line was supposedly being upgraded.

Regardless, the situation is unacceptable, and the T is not helping matters by not giving the riders any useful information. Cryptic robo-announcements about "signal problems" don't do us any good. Telling us to use the Green Line doesn't do us any good if we're stuck at Wellington.

This Week in Awesome (5/17/09)

After my last check-in, the rest of the work week turned out to be about the same. Things should calm down in a couple of days, and I have some stuff that I've started working on but just haven't had time to complete.

Meanwhile, on to the awesome...

There's definitely some schadenfreude to be found in looking at these pictures, but who among us doesn't have similarly awful stuff in their past?

Someone has way too much time on their hands... apparently there's a whole series of these clips on YouTube, but since the titles (and all the toy vehicles) are in Japanese, I'm at a bit of a loss to decipher the sequence. If you too find yourself with an abundance of free time, perhaps you could watch them all and report back?

Whatever you think of TV pitchman Vince, the products he hawks, or his extracurricular activities, you have to admire the effort and talent that a guy named Steve Porter put into this "remix" of the Slap Chop infomercial. (The Auto-Tune is truly a wondrous thing, especially if it can make someone "sing" who wasn't singing in the first place.) Of course, there's also one for the ShamWow; the consensus seems to be that it's not as good, but I'll leave that for you to decide. And if you're lucky enough not to know who this guy is, then I salute you.

That Bites

I know I haven't posted anything this week. Things have been a little bit pressurized at work, which is unusual, and it's distracting me from my ongoing mission to deconstruct the concept of productivity.

However, I find myself with a bit of time at the moment. I had my lower braces put on last week, and a slightly thicker wire put on the top ones. No problems so far, other than the end of the bottom wire giving the inside of my mouth a good gouging, but a quick visit to the dentist's office yesterday took care of it.

But he also put a block behind my two front upper teeth to prevent my bite from closing all the way, so as not to hit the bottom braces with the top teeth. This has made eating weird all over again, because I can't use my front teeth to bite into things like I normally would. Very frustrating, and it's also more difficult to chew food as thoroughly as I should. Consequently, I'm trying to eat soft foods whenever possible, and to avoid sandwiches and things that require biting, but there's no way I'm giving up Anna's burritos.

This Week in Awesome (5/10/09)

We're just overflowing with awesome this week, so let's get right to this week's goodies:

3. I may have said this before, but I love locally produced commercials. However, this one creeps me out. (AdFreak via Jalponik)

2. Ever wondered what scenes from classic movies would be like if the dialogue were performed by an Amazon Kindle and an Apple iPhone? Wonder no more. (DVICE blog)

1. This clip gives a whole new meaning to the words "car jack." You probably don't want to watch this one at work, and it's probably not appropriate for kids either. (Break.com, also via Jalopnik)

Vinyl Junkie Extraordinaire

In my basement I have around 250 vinyl LPs (and a couple dozen 12" singles) in storage, representing the focus of a good deal of my leisure time from the mid-1970s through the late 1980s (I got my first CD player in '87, but I kept buying vinyl for a while after that). Unlike a lot of other people, I didn't sell or discard my records after switching to CDs. One friend's husband is an extremely avid collector, and he owns several thousand LPs, which take up quite a bit of space in their home.

But the king of vinyl has to be Bob George, the co-founder of a recorded music archive that is profiled today in a story on the New York Times City Room blog. Mr. George's archive contains more than two million recordings from 1950 to the present. His efforts have led to a partnership with Columbia University (coincidentally the alma mater of the Mrs.' father) that opens the archive to research and classroom use.

Those of you who are into collecting music, regardless of format, will likely appreciate this story and Mr. George's dedication to preserving a piece of cultural history. The story also has a sidebar featuring some of the archive's music.

Reuse, Retread, Recycle

Time for another TV rant; this time NBC's going to be the target of my disapproval. The Peacock made some announcements yesterday regarding their fall plans. They stopped short of detailing their full schedule, but outlined the new shows in the works.

First, there's Jay Leno. I have nothing against the guy, but his show is boring, and I think giving over five hours of prime-time real estate to what will essentially be the same show he's been doing since 1992 is a bad idea. It's a cop-out, and it might as well be a white flag from NBC, because there's no way Jay is going to draw more viewers than CSI: Extra Cheese or other competing shows at 10 PM.

So, what else does NBC have lined up for us? Not one but two medical dramas, trying to fill that ER void, I guess. One is called Trauma and focuses on EMTs, the other is called Mercy and focuses on nurses. How long until we get Hospital Accounting or a gritty drama about the travails of candy stripers? Yeesh.

Also, there's another attempt to do a series based on the 20-year-old movie Parenthood. I'm completely baffled by why anyone would think this is a good idea, especially since the first attempt, which I was not aware of (I had to go look it up on IMDB) was a miserable failure. I guess I'm not the target audience. They're also prepping a post-apocalyptic drama called Day One, which sounds an awful lot like CBS's Jericho from a couple of years ago, and we all know how well that worked out.

If you prefer comedy but don't get why people like those shows on Thursday without laugh tracks, you might enjoy Community, starring... wait for it... Chevy Chase, as a later-life student at a community college. Wow. I mean... wow. (Are we sure he's not a teacher?) I just have to think someone spiked the water cooler at NBC's programming offices with peyote. This one also stars The Soup host Joel McHale, probably because they owe him for not moving forward with the US version of The IT Crowd that he was slated to be in. There's one other comedy, 100 Questions, something about dating. I wouldn't even mention it, except that behind-the-scenes TV comedy legend James Burrows is somehow involved. And of course there are more crappy reality shows.

But what I'm really bitter about is that NBC did not see fit to renew Life. (Some other shows are still on the bubble as far as renewal, but I'm not invested in any of them.) Life wasn't a great show, but it was pretty entertaining, and it was an attempt at a police procedural that was a bit different than most, which probably made it too quirky to succeed. It would be a natural fit on parent company NBC Universal's USA cable network, but don't look for such a miracle to happen, because if it was going to happen, they would have already arranged it and announced it.

At least I know that, aside from the Thursday comedies and Sunday night football games, I won't have to concern myself with NBC come September.

This Week in Awesome (5/3/09)

I can't believe I forgot to do this over the weekend... my apologies. I don't want to deprive anyone of their weekly dose of awesome.

After the president's news conference once again disrupted the prime-time TV schedule last Wednesday, the ABC show Better Off Ted, which was one of the preempted programs, released a tongue-in-cheek commercial response in the guise of Veridian Dynamics, the fictitious corporation portrayed in the show. This is a very funny show, in the vein of Arrested Development but with a vibe of its own. Some of their other fake commercials are here. (TV Squad)

Have you seen those Microsoft ads where supposedly real people (who are quite obviously actors) go computer shopping? Someone did a parody of them. (Landline TV)

And in the never-ending parade of stupid criminals, we have some video from the Houston Police Department. The Houston cops have been using bait cars to battle car theft, and these cars have cameras mounted inside. Not only does this help the conviction rate, it provides some amusing moments for us. (Houston Chronicle)

Cheesy Chunks

Just got back from dinner at good old Cambridge Common. They have something on the menu called "mac & cheese bites." Basically they cut mac and cheese into chunks about an inch across, bread them and fry them. Interestingly, our friend's young son tried them but didn't like them.

First, how can a kid not like that? Second, while the menu says, "answering the question: can mac & cheese really get any better?" the first thing I thought of was, they found a way to make mac & cheese even less healthy than it already is.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

Given that we're about to hit (and possibly surpass) 90 degrees this afternoon, I felt pretty bad about leaving the dog home alone today. We don't have the air conditioners in yet, so the best I could do for her was to leave a fan running, pointed directly on her. And after this evening, things will be much more comfortable, for her and for us.

Speaking of warm weather, I've been looking around for a summer suit. I'll have more to say about this in due time, but for now I want to sort of circle back to last week's post about pants, and warn everyone about something even more hideous and appalling. Over the weekend I wandered into an H&M. This is a store I don't normally bother going into, because even though their clothes are inexpensive, they are also cheaply made and aimed at a younger, thinner audience. But I was in a mall, saw the store, and thought I'd remembered seeing something in a magazine about an H&M suit.

I didn't find what I thought I'd seen, but I did see something so horrifying that I made an audible exclamation of shock. Fortunately, no one was near me at the time. The source of this distress? A striped seersucker sport coat and MATCHING SHORTS. (Fortunately for the rest of you, the H&M web site doesn't have any images of it.) Now, I've already made my feelings clear about this incredibly awful look, but I guess it won't die. But guys, if I see any of you wearing this outfit later on in the summer, I seriously cannot be held responsible for what I might do.

This Week in Awesome (4/26/09)

Whoops, I almost let the weekend slip by without posting this...

This is a strange little video about a horse that has some very, uh, un-horse-like behavior. The Mrs. thought this was amusing enough to post on her Facebook page, so if you've already seen it I apologize, but she only knew about it because I showed it to her. And yes, I want the credit, and yes, I am just that petty, sometimes. (Next time I'll wait until after I've posted it first to show her...)

Vintage commercials are the best.

Someone out there doesn't care for hipsters. I laughed at this, and you probably will too.

This last one is also a commercial, though a contemporary one. But it sure doesn't look like one, and it's so cool you won't care anyway.

A Sure Sign of Spring

With today's beautiful weather and the even warmer days expected this weekend, I was just thinking about this, and then Esquire goes and articulates it so concisely for our benefit.

Thank you, ladies, thank you all. Now, let's see how long it takes until I see last summer's favorite confusing female fashion choice, the sundress worn with cowboy boots (see #7 here).

Update, 2 PM: Well, that really didn't take long... just got back from getting lunch, and walking down the "Pike" (central corridor) in Brigham & Womens was a woman wearing exactly what I'd described above.

Frankenpants

I don't follow high fashion, but I do pay attention to what is being offered to men of average means and tastes. I do this for a number of reasons: I just like to shop, I care about my appearance and I like to know what's out there, I like to observe how trends make their way into the culture, and I like to have some advance warning about things that are horrible and wrong and should not be suffered by any man.

It's that last part that leads me to today's example of What Not to Wear: The Guy Edition (with apologies to Clinton and Stacy, but I suspect they wouldn't mind). For more than four decades, Lands' End has been dressing men (and women) who want to look presentable at work but don't want to put any effort into thinking about it. There's really nothing wrong with that. They serve a need, and their clothing tends to be fairly priced and decently made.

But a while back I noticed something in the Lands' End catalog called "trouser jeans." Basically these are pants that combine the front half of a pair of khakis (a flat front with pockets on the side seams) with the back half of a pair of jeans (a seamed yoke below the waist and sewn-on back pockets). This is the sartorial equivalent of a mullet (business in the front, party in the back), and an answer to a question that never should have been asked.

As soon as I realized what I was looking at, my first thought was, Why? I can't help but wonder what the designers were thinking. It's so wrong on so many levels. Jeans may be a little more comfortable than khakis, but it's not like the typical pair of khakis is constricting; if yours are, you are either buying the wrong size, or you're shopping in the wrong place. If you work somewhere that doesn't allow you to wear jeans, how is this any better? The only difference is that these are made out of twill or canvas, but it's not difficult to find jeans that are made that way. They could be worse, but only if the front was pleated.

The more I thought about it (and I couldn't stop thinking about it, although I certainly tried), the more I felt that if anything, this unholy hybrid pant should have been done the opposite way: jeans in the front, khakis in the back. Why? I think the front pockets of jeans are easier to use because the opening is horizontal instead of vertical, and the set-in rear pockets are neater and more presentable. Then I decided I was nuts for thinking about it so much.

If you clicked on the link above, you may have noticed that these pants are now on sale. We can only hope that Lands' End has learned its lesson and is getting rid of them for good.

The Endorsement: Merrell

For a long time I've had problems with my feet. I've had to put some sort of cushioning insole in several pairs of my shoes (even ones that are supposed to be extra-comfortable), and sometimes I get a very painful cramp in my right foot, depending on how much standing or walking I'm doing. If I take off the shoe and stretch out my foot, the cramp tends to go away, but it isn't always convenient or dignified to do that. The problem is not confined to one particular type or brand of shoe, so I know that my foot is the problem, not the shoes. I know that I should see a podiatrist about it, but I feel like I can barely manage my time as it is.

One problem is that shoes frequently don't start to cause me trouble until I've had them for a while, at which point they can't be returned. A notable exception to this is L.L. Bean. For generations outdoorsmen, thrifty Yankees, and countless others made mail-order purchases from Bean with confidence because of the security of the company's guarantee that if a customer was unhappy with any product, for any reason, at any time, they could return it.

I have been a Bean customer for nearly 30 years. I've bought just about every article of clothing they offer, and I never had a problem with anything I purchased, until a couple of years ago. I bought a pair of casual shoes to wear to work, and I found that after a few hours, the shoes were causing sharp pains in my legs. This was different from the foot cramp, and worse. The shoes had to go back. The clerk at the store was extremely apologetic. I thought it was a fluke occurrence, and didn't give it much more thought after that.

Each year after Christmas, Bean has a big clearance sale to get ready for spring. I was in need of a pair of outdoorish shoes, what most people would call a trail shoe. This is a type of shoe I like to wear on weekends in spring and fall, something a bit more rugged than a typical sneaker, maybe something with waterproofing or at least water resistance. I'd looked at Bean's trail shoes a couple of times, and when I saw that they were 30% off their regular price in the post-holiday sale, I ordered a pair.

The first few times I wore them they were fine, but then I started to have pain similar to what happened with the other shoes. Not quite as severe, and more in the ankles than the legs, but significant enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to keep wearing them. I fear that Bean is making products to hit a target price point, and that quality is suffering as a result. It doesn't mean that I'm giving up on them completely, but I don't think I can keep buying shoes from them, which is unfortunate.

That still left me in need of a trail shoe. One reason I'd liked the Bean shoes was that they were fairly low-key in appearance; a lot of the other shoes I looked at resembled lumpy spaceships. So-called trail running sneakers were even worse. Somehow I stumbled onto some Merrell shoes on the web. I always thought that Merrell made shoes for serious outdoor types like rock climbers, or those slip-ons for older folks who can no longer bend down to tie their shoes, so I just never paid much attention. I was even more interested when I learned that certain styles were available in wide widths.

Eventually I decided on the Moab, which is available in two versions. One is ventilated and I guess is meant to be worn in warmer weather; the other is waterproof, making it much more practical for year-round wear. I went to several shoe sites and read customers' reviews, and found that this shoe was generally very favorably reviewed, a good sign. It's very light compared to other shoes I've seen in this style, and the interior cushioning is made of a very dense foam; I have some other shoes with this type of insole (Rockport's XCS line has it), and they have been among my more comfortable and less troublesome shoes. It's also available in four colors, which made it easier to find one I liked (I chose the gray/black combo that Merrell calls "beluga").

I wore the shoes all day Saturday and all day Sunday: no cramping, my feet did not hurt at all, and neither did my ankles or legs. This is a big relief, and gives me confidence that there will be other pain-free shoes in my future.

This Week in Awesome (4/19/09)

A bit of a theme to this week's entries, though I wasn't trying for one; it just sort of came together that way. You'll see what I mean...

3. We begin with a piece about Harlequin romances that ran on Nightline at the beginning of the week, though I found the clip on Consumerist. The "readings" are cute, but what I found most interesting was that Harlequin publishes a series of books aimed at female NASCAR fans. Who knew?

2. Over in Norway, a couple were apparently so into each other that they couldn't wait until they got off the road and out of their car to have sex. Hope it was worth it.

1. Finally, folks in South Bend, Indiana prefer not to have sex while driving at excessive speeds, but that doesn't mean they aren't having sex in other inappropriate places. Apparently the restroom in one local fast food place is the hot spot for Hoosier swingers.

Taxed

We left our taxes until last night. I don't know why; it's not like we owe money. It's just one of those things that's easy to forget over the course of weekend after weekend, until the deadline is at hand. We're not getting back as much as last year, but that's mostly because the Mrs. only worked for about one-third of 2008.

For a number of years we have been able to file our Massachusetts state taxes over the phone, but now they have an online system. It was pretty simple, except I had to enter all the W-2 information for each form. This wasn't horrible, but if you have more than one job, and your spouse has more than one job, it could get pretty tedious pretty fast.

This Week in Awesome (4/12/09)

I'd meant to get back in the habit of posting this segment over the weekend, but we were gone most of yesterday, and then at around 10:45 PM my computer decided to devour a blank CD that I was attempting to burn some music onto. I spent about 45 minutes trying unsuccessfully to get it to eject the disc, then gave up and went to bed.

Anyway, a few blips of awesomeness did cross my radar screen last week.

3. This rap video (by a white guy named Zach) is either a very clever spoof, or just too depressing to contemplate. I recommend not watching more than the first minute or so--that's long enough to get the idea--or at least watch it with the sound off, so you don't do any permanent damage to your brain. (Unlikely Words, via Universal Hub)

2. Want to feel a little better about yourself? Read this story, then this one. (both via Jalopnik)

1. And finally, an online tribute (celebration? commiseration?) of some of life's more embarrassing moments. I have no idea if these are real or doctored, but really, who cares? (Thrillist via Racked, which is not what you think at all, you dirty-minded guttersnipes, but rather a shopping blog)

Color Them Bad

Add one more item to the rapidly-growing list of Every Single Eighties Fad That's Coming Back From The Dead Like A Zombie And Getting Recycled This Year: boat shoes. Not only are they apparently back, but they are proliferating in a rainbow of ungodly colors, as evidenced here and here and, perhaps most painfully, here.

These shoes were popular when I was in high school, but they only came in one color, dark brown. I'm definitely in favor of variety, but more importantly, the examples above are not colors that should be seen on the feet of any self-respecting man. Guys, if your significant other attempts to buy or get you to buy boat shoes for the spring and summer, PLEASE stand up for your dignity and insist that they be a tasteful, grown-up color, like these.

And one more thing: no socks. Boat shoes are meant to be worn without socks, okay? If I see you on the subway wearing these things with socks, I'm going to laugh and point, but if I see you wearing one of those silly colors, I'm going to cry.

Giving It Away

[CAUTION: Spoiler alert! This post contains information about Monday's episode of House. If you have not watched the episode and do not want to have a major plot point spoiled for you, please don't read any further.]

Now that the public service warning is out of the way, I have a couple of things to say about this week's episode. Not so much about the story line itself, though it was certainly a twist I didn't see coming. Viewers now know that the actor Kal Penn left the show to take a position in the Obama administration. I learned this from reading an Associated Press story yesterday morning on boston.com, before I'd seen the episode. Near the end of the article it also said, "His 'House' character committed suicide in Monday's episode."

WHAT?! Thanks a lot for ruining that for me, AP. (Oh, and by the way, AP, titles of television shows are supposed to be in italics, not in quotes. "AP style," my ass.)

I tried to find a statistic regarding the percentage of US households with digital video recorders; one estimate from September puts it at 27%, which is good enough for my argument. Monday's episode of House drew 13 million viewers, so let's say that 27% of those, including me, recorded the episode to watch later. That's well over three million people that potentially had the episode's plot spoiled for them. TV-oriented web sites have learned to be more respectful of viewers, placing spoilery information on inside pages. Does no one at the AP use a DVR?

The other thing about this whole scenario that is a bit odd is that, at the end of the episode, following a public-service ad for a suicide-prevention organization, Fox encouraged viewers to visit a memorial web site for the character played by Penn on the show. The Mrs. said, "That's creepy." I just think it's strange. Characters die on television shows all the time, sometimes by their own hand. But for a television network to create and promote an online memorial for a fictitious character is just a little too... meta for me, I guess.

One other thing about the memorial site that I think is amusing: there are handwritten notes from the other characters on the show, each one on personalized stationery. What a lovely, quaint anachronism. Does anyone bother to get personalized stationery made anymore? I know at one time it was considered obligatory for adult professionals and folks who considered themselves part of polite society. I'm not maligning it; rather, I've always thought it was a very grown-up and dignified thing to do, but I can't even remember the last time I wrote a note to anyone on paper. I guess the show's producers were simply looking for a visual hook for the memorial page.

Overheard: Offspring Edition

A couple of bits from my weekend visit to the Bass Pro Shop...

1. Father to daughter, perhaps six or seven: "Where's your sister?" Daughter: "She's in the tree." (There are trees inside the store.)

2. In the restroom there were large, deep metal sinks nearly two feet square. Teenager, enthusiastically: "Dad, these sinks would be great for gutting fish!"

Adventures in Outdoorland

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.

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."