Watch Wednesday (2/10/10)

I've unintentionally neglected my watch posts since we got back from our trip, so I'm going to make up for it by doing them weekly for the next few weeks.

I had to go and look back at January's posts to see whether the last one was for a vintage or modern watch. It was modern, so we'll go back to vintage for this one.

 

This is another Caravelle, date-coded to 1971. This was one of my earlier eBay purchases, but I haven't worn it for many years. Although the luminous material on the hands and numerals has aged, it still glows when exposed to light. This was considered a military-style watch when it was sold, though I'm fairly certain that by that point watches that were actually worn by enlisted men had 24-hour markings on the dial.

The other thing about this watch is that it's comparatively tiny. Its diameter is 31 millimeters, and it takes a 16 mm strap. After years if wearing larger watches it looks strange on my wrist, but I think it would suit a woman's wrist well.

I also happen to have this same style watch with a cream-colored dial. I couldn't manage to get a decent picture of it, but in the interest of fleshing out this entry I've included it anyway:

It's a couple of years older than the other one, but I bought this one first, then came across the black-dial version a while later. Both watches still run, though I'm sure their insides could use a cleaning.

On the Lamb

A few weeks back I got an invitation to a restaurant tasting event at a place on route 1 in Saugus called ZaZa. I confess that I hadn't heard of it before, and I thought it was interesting that I was invited to the event because, while I do sometimes write about food and eating at places in the area, I'm not a food blogger per se. But free food is free food, and guests were permitted, so the Mrs. and I went.

We were given generous samples of several appetizers, like coconut-crusted shrimp, baby lamb chops, and my favorite, a big spear of artichoke heart with a dollop of goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto. I love all three of these things, but it had never occurred to me to combine them; it was a delicious mix. (Waitstaff also brought around samples of some of the restaurant's martini offerings, but martinis are not my sort of drink at all, so I don't feel I can offer a valid opinion on them.)

Our friend Sandi, who is very much a foodie and food blogger (see her Boston Restaurant Examiner page) was also supposed to attend, but could not. She was on a different mission anyway: to talk to the restaurant's chef about one of ZaZa's special dishes, lamb osso buco. She made arrangements to have an early dinner there that Saturday, and it turned out that we made plans to see a movie with her later that night, so we ended up accompanying her.

Unfortunately, the chef was out of town, but the manager, Chris, took excellent care of us. We shared a tapas appetizer platter containing the shrimp and artichoke items mentioned above, plus crab cakes, gnocchi, and Italian sausage with broccoli rabe. We also tried the arancini, a favorite of mine (I talked about the ones from our neighborhood place just about a month ago). ZaZa makes theirs with peas and asiago cheese, an interesting variation that works nicely.

We were also able to sample the lamb osso buco, which was pretty amazing, but time ran short and we had to leave (Sandi got to take it home). I don't believe it is a regular menu item, but rather an occasional special; if that's what you're interested in, I suggest calling for more information. Chris is an affable and gregarious host, and the staff were highly attentive. This is by no means an impartial review, because that's not what I do, but consider it a recommendation.

Finally Getting Smart

A little over two years ago I decided that I could no longer stand to be without some form of mobile internet access. What I most wanted was the ability to check the MBTA web site for information about delays, and the ability to access my email while away from home or work.

At the time Verizon did not offer any devices that were of interest to me, but I didn't want to switch carriers, so I looked into getting a second device. I found that it was possible to get a BlackBerry with only internet service on AT&T, and they were selling refurbished devices through their web site for only $30. It wasn't the simplest or most elegant solution (the BlackBerry web browser is woeful compared to its competitors), but it gave me what I most wanted and needed at the time.

Except... except for AT&T's notoriously bad service. Roughly 40% of the time I needed to go online to get some info, I could not connect to the data network. Sometimes I could resolve the issue by shutting down the BlackBerry and restarting it, but that was a cumbersome and ridiculous workaround. I was paying $30 a month for service that I often could not make use of.

The smart thing probably would have been to just ditch the service altogether and pay the early termination penalty (Verizon finally came out with its own version of the same device about six months after I'd gotten mine), but I felt nagged by the idea that I would end up stuck without web access (or even theoretically possible web access) in a situation when it was needed. And I had been able to make use of a dedicated Google Maps program for the device on several occasions when the Mrs. and I were driving in an unfamiliar place, so I kept the thing, using it only when it was really necessary.

My contract ended right before Christmas, and I canceled it immediately, because by then I knew that Verizon was launching its version of the Palm Pre in January. The Pre originally launched last June on Sprint, and it had been widely assumed that a Verizon version would be forthcoming. Then Verizon announced the official launch date, January 25th--the day we were flying home from our trip to California.

Monday is an odd day to launch such a device; usually smartphones go on sale on a Saturday to generate buzz and draw out the diehard early adopters. I griped out loud to anyone within earshot that if Verizon wanted to launch the Pre on a Monday, why not do it on the 18th, which was a holiday, so people like me could go get it, and that way I would have had it in time for our trip. But no one from Verizon consulted me about the timing of the launch.

On the morning of the 25th, we had coffee in downtown Santa Cruz before making the drive across the mountains and up the peninsula to the San Francisco airport. Across the street was a strip mall with, among other things, a Trader Joe's and a Verizon store. I mused out loud to the Mrs. that I could probably just go across the street and get the phone. She shrewdly pointed out that if I did that, I would have to pay the much higher California state sales tax, and on the full pre-rebate amount. I thought, what's a few bucks, but then I decided it was probably easier to just wait and deal with it after we got home. I think if we'd been planning to come home on Tuesday, I would have gone ahead and gotten it out there on Monday.

The next day, back at work, I checked the Verizon web site and was reminded of something I'd forgotten since my previous phone upgrade: when you order through their site (instead of going to a store and getting the phone in person), any applicable rebates are deducted from the transaction immediately, saving the trouble of collecting the bar code from the package and filling out the forms and mailing them and waiting six to eight weeks for a check, hoping you didn't make a mistake (believe it or not, rebate processes are designed to trip people up, or be so onerous that people won't bother submitting them at all).

Phones ordered through the web site are also shipped overnight for free, so if you can delay your gratification just a little longer (not always easy for someone like me) it's a pretty good deal. The phone came the next day by 11:30 AM, and all I had to do was call a number to activate the device on my line.

The Pre is a nifty little device. It's smaller than an iPhone (which means it will fit in my pocket comfortably) with rounded corners and edges. It looks like a glossy black stone of some sort. It has a physical keyboard, which was a requirement for me, and a removable battery, which was not crucial but is still nice. It has a touch-screen interface, like many other such devices now do, that is intuitive and easy to learn. Palm's app store has nowhere near the selection of Apple's, but it's growing, and apps are less important to me right now than reliable internet access.

One other thing that's really cool is an optional charging device called Touchstone. The Pre comes with a conventional wall-plug charger, an impressively tiny cylinder (about 1.5 inches high by 1 inch diameter) with flip-out prongs and a USB cord, so you have the option to charge the phone through a computer's USB port. But if you plug the cord into the Touchstone instead of the Pre itself, you can then charge the Pre just by laying it on the Touchstone: there are tiny magnets in the phone's back that hold it in place, and electrical contacts that conduct the charge. So you can leave the Touchstone on a desk or table and park your Pre on it each night. (I bought my Touchstone through Amazon and paid much less than what Palm or Verizon charge for it.)

As you might figure, I'm pretty excited about my new toy, and I'm happy to have finally entered my own personal Smartphone Era. I don't plan to bore you with any further talk of it, unless anything particularly good or bad happens. But this does mean that it should be much easier for me to post while I'm traveling, since now I don't need access to a computer. Lucky you...

This Week in Awesome (2/6/10)

Plenty of good stuff this week...

Does anybody remember that old Bottle Rockets song "Thousand Dollar Car"? Head over to Cars for A Grand, which is going to perplex some and delight others. (Jalopnik)

Weird products: these candlesticks are certainly, uh, unique. (BuzzFeed via Consumerist)

Regrettable products: another commercial for something of questionable merit. This time it's Pajama Jeans. (Videogum)

Worlds are colliding: did you know David Hyde Pierce hosted the Sundance Awards? Did you know there was a Sundance Awards? Don't feel bad, me neither. Regardless, like many award-show hosts, he opened with a musical number, and that's all I'm going to say. (Videogum via Gynomite)

You know what's an excellent way to spend your time this weekend? Watching video clips of a professional demolition company's building implosions. Start at the web site of Controlled Demolition, Inc., then head over to their YouTube channel for lots of entertaining stuff-blowing-up action. (Esquire's Daily Endorsement)

Aren't You Cold?

Okay, seriously, what's up with the weather-inappropriate clothing? I've griped about this before, but it hasn't reared its head for a while.

Right now the Google says it's 26 degrees, and it was a couple of degrees colder when I left the house. Just as the bus was approaching, a guy came around the corner wearing a dress shirt, dark pants, and New Balance running shoes. No coat, no hat, no sweater, no scarf. I see this guy from time to time, and the most I've ever seen him wear is a suit coat over the rest of his outfit. I don't know where he lives in relation to the bus stop, but it seems like he times his arrival for minimum outdoor exposure. I'm not sure how he does this, given the unpredictability of MBTA buses. I guess it's possible he's wearing long underwear under his clothes, but somehow I doubt it.

Then when I got to the platform at Wellington, I saw another guy I've seen on several mornings, wearing what he always wears: a warm-up jacket, knee-length athletic shorts, and work boots. He carries a big duffel bag, so I'm thinking he's either going to or coming from a gym, but still. I don't know how people do this in the dead of winter. I understand that being underdressed in cold weather does not necessarily mean you're going to get sick, but it still has to be pretty damn uncomfortable. When he was younger, my father was one of those people who was seemingly impervious to cold, but he added a layer or two during the winter.

Overheard: Denial of Moral Support Edition

I'd forgotten about this... over the weekend I went to see The Rationales play, at the Rosebud in Davis Square. For those of you unfamiliar, there is a separate bar room tucked in back behind the diner. It has a generous amount of... um, let's say "local flavor."

When I went up to the bar to get a beer, I happened to end up standing next to a couple who were in the midst of some sort of argument. I didn't dare turn my head because I didn't want to end up on the receiving end of a "What are you lookin' at?", so I stared straight ahead as I waited for the bartender to take my order.

I guess I came in near the end of the proceedings, because all I really heard was this, from the woman: "You don't have anything I need. You know what? I'm not gonna go to court with you after all."

Winter Clearance

I had two or three post ideas rattling around in my head while I was on my way to work yesterday, but by the time I arrived I couldn't remember any of them.

Anyway, I guess the perennial fallback topic is clothes and shopping. I've been intending to hit the Wrentham outlets since right after Christmas, but with weather and travel we never made it. By now it may be too late to find anything good. I've been making an effort to be a bit more choosy about what I buy, and since the beginning of the year I haven't bought much (for me, anyway).

Last week I read on a shopping site that all the clearance merchandise at Saks stores around the country had been collected and sent to six stores, and Boston is one of them, so I thought it would be a good idea to pop in and have a look. I don't do much shopping in Saks--I think the only things I've ever actually purchased there are grooming products like shaving cream--but they have a pretty good selection of men's clothing spanning the spectrum from classic Italian suits to more trendy young-dude threads.

I went Monday after work, but unfortunately I was disappointed. Clearance stuff is usually on clearance for a reason, and the stuff on the sale racks was unimpressive. I did, however, see several nice things that weren't on sale, which is pretty much what happens to me everywhere I shop. I guess there's hope that those things might eventually go on sale, or show up on Gilt or RueLaLa.

Since I was on my way home from work, I had to walk through Copley Place anyway to get to the Orange Line, so I stopped in J. Crew. I did pretty well in their stores' sale sections in December, both around here and on my microvisit to New York (the stores in Rockefeller Center and on Fifth Avenue below Union Square have particularly good men's departments), and I was hoping for some additional markdowns.

So I was kind of surprised to find that there was no longer a men's sale section in the Copley Place store. There was a small section of women's sale stuff, and that was it. I guess it's possible for a store to sell all of its sale/clearance merchandise, but I think it's more likely that after a certain date, whatever is left gets sent to an outlet store (so maybe I should get to Wrentham after all).

There was one flannel shirt I really liked from the fall, but it sold out even before December. I know this because it disappeared from the stores and the web site and I couldn't find it anywhere, so I asked a store employee about it. I saw the character Andy wearing it on the show Parks and Recreation, and while I don't think that's why it sold out, of course it only made me want it more. Yeah, I really am that weird about clothes sometimes.

Bore Bar

Sometimes lunch is better in theory than in reality. Today's salad bar had no olives (black or green), no mixed field greens, no pasta option, and perhaps most egregiously, no feta cheese!

I guess in the future I need to look things over before plunging in.

Not Proofed

While browsing RueLaLa, one of the sample sale sites I've mentioned, I came across this briefcase. (I can't just link to the item because the site is invitation-only, and sales stay active for just two or three days.)

Notice anything? Come on, RueLaLa proofreaders, we expect better from you.

This Week in Awesome (1/30/10)

I hope you were able to survive a week without TWiA. I would have liked to set it up ahead of time like I did before, but as of when we left last week I didn't have anything postable. Anyway, onward...

Looks like this trendlet isn't going away anytime soon: in the footsteps of Look at This Fucking Hipster and Hipster Is the New Homeless, I give you Unhappy Hipsters.

And now, the schadenfreude portion of the program (that word's been coming up a lot lately), vehicular division: first, from Chile, an attempt to right an overturned truck goes wrong. (LiveLeak via Jalopnik) Then, from Turkey, a mind-boggling incident involving a dump truck driving with its bed raised, with predictably disastrous results. (Telegraph UK via Jalopnik)

A nod to the iPad (sort of) by way of MadTV from several years ago. (TV Squad)

And finally, if you have aspirations to be a TV news field reporter, this instructional video from UK humorist Charlie Brooker should be extremely helpful. (NewsWipe via Videogum)

Security Advisory

On our trip home from California, the TSA confiscated my pocket knife. It's my own fault, because I forgot to take it off my keys and put it in my checked bag before going through security. But the guy was kind of jerky about it, as though it was a given that I had malicious intent with my tiny little knife and scissors, or I'd just pulled a flask of some sort of bioweapon out of my pocket.

But here's the thing: on our outgoing trip, nobody noticed that I had it. When I took off my shoes and put them through the scanner along with my coat and messenger bag, I didn't see any of those little trays that they use to hold your keys and change and stuff, so it didn't trigger the reminder to take my keys out of my pocket. I went through the scanner and nothing happened. No alarm, no flashing lights, no secondary screening. Nobody noticed, which made the confiscation on the way home that much more aggravating.

It's been my experience over many years of traveling that the things that security claims set off the scanner--keys, belt buckles, watches--do not in fact do so. So what does that mean regarding, you know, actual weapons like knives or guns?

Please Don't Lick the Furniture

A couple of hours ago, while watching TV, out of the corner of my eye I noticed the dog licking something. She often cleans her paws like a cat, so at first I thought that's what she was doing, but when I turned my head I saw that she was licking the side of the console, or whatever you'd call the piece of furniture that the TV sits on, which is right next to her bed.

I have no idea why she was licking it; it has an oiled finish, so it can't taste very good. But I did find her licking the arm of my chair one other time, so maybe it's some dog compulsive disorder or something.

Winter TV Overview

We came to find a small mountain of TV recordings on the TiVo, and we were already a little behind before we left. This is a busy time of year, with many new and returning shows. Many of these are worth your time; others are not. Of course I will share my opinions with you, because that's what I do.

A few shows are back from arbitrary breaks to finish their seasons. In the past I've talked about how I don't care for this practice, but I doubt USA and TNT will be dropping it anytime soon. These shows--Burn Notice on USA, Leverage on TNT--are light and breezy, with action and humor but not too much depth or seriousness, a perfect wind-down after a long day. While they may be slight, they are also pretty entertaining; I wouldn't watch them if they weren't.

To these you can add USA's new show White Collar, which has thematic similarities to both Burn Notice and Leverage but is establishing itself as its own thing. Its vibe is helped in part by its New York setting, where it is also filmed; USA's willingness to finance such productions adds greatly to their atmosphere (Leverage's obviously fake locations (especially the Boston ones) can seem a little cheesy by comparison).

TNT also picked up the cop drama Southland after NBC discarded it despite some critical praise back in the spring. They are in the midst of showing the seven episodes that NBC aired, which will be followed by six more episodes that NBC produced but did not air. Southland is likely to find a receptive audience on TNT; I would love to see it draw higher ratings than it did on NBC, but that's just schadenfreude.

24 is back, and having watched the first five hours of season eight, it may be time for Jack Bauer to hang up his shoulder holster. I had hoped the New York setting would be invigorating to the story, but the action so far seems lackluster; Freddie Prinze Jr. looks really uncomfortable, or constipated, or something; and the subplots (always the show's weakness, but necessary to fill its "real time" hours) have become annoying to the point of aggravation. However, I'm not ready to stop watching... just yet.

Fox has another new show that I'm enjoying, called Human Target. Based on a comic book, it's about a bodyguard for hire. The action is pretty satisfying, and the show reminds me somewhat of the first, great season of Alias. We'll see if this one finds an audience. Fox also has a comedy slated to premiere in March called Sons of Tucson, about a loser who pretends to be the father of three orphaned brothers so they don't have to go into foster care. That might not sound like everyone's cup of tea, but I'm looking forward to it.

Damages returned for its third season this week on FX with a storyline modeled after the Madoff case. The show is continuing with its time-twisting structure (not a surprise) and has lined up a cast that's even more impressive than last season's, with Lily Tomlin and Martin Short in dramatic roles as the corrupt financier's wife and attorney, respectively. Damages can be a bit over the top at times, but it's great television.

And of course, Lost returns next week for its final season. All the mysteries of the island will finally be revealed... or something like that. Actually I'm not expecting everything to be wrapped up neatly, and the show's creators have stated that not every question will be answered, because really, how could they? But I think we can expect a reasonable degree of closure, along with a few more brain-dislocating moments.

Return Trip

We've made it back home, and I'm actually at work today, though I'm not sure how much I'm going to get accomplished. I really don't know why I didn't take today off like the Mrs. did.

The wedding was a great success. The weather was about as perfect as anyone could have hoped for, and everyone had a terrific time. I've never been to a wedding with a frozen-margarita machine before, but I think it should be a mandatory feature at all such events, along with a Wii setup to keep the kids occupied and entertained.

Our trip home yesterday, like our flight out last week, was delayed due to weather, but this time it was the weather on this end causing trouble. The westbound flight each day turns around and flies right back to Boston, and since it was delayed taking off from here, it was late getting into San Francisco, and thus late coming back. This is why we prefer nonstop flights whenever possible. I don't know if the same flight crew does both trips, but if so that's a hell of a long day even without delays.

It's always tough to get back into the normal routine after this type of trip, but I'm sure we'll be settled right back in soon. Semi-regular blog posts will now resume as well.

Chance of Showers

The sun made an appearance today here in Santa Cruz. It's been raining pretty much constantly since before we arrived, so it was a welcome change. However, the wedding for which we're here is tomorrow, and while forecasts earlier in the week promised a decent day, things are not looking as promising now. The ceremony is supposed to take place on the beach, but a backup location has been arranged.

Delayed

Hey guys, it's me! (Well duh, who else would it be?) Yep, I'm hanging out at the SARSiL's house while she and the Mrs. are off doing girly things like manicures, and her place is laptop-equipped and wifi-enabled.

I have to tell you about our travel experience yesterday, definitely not one of my better ones. Way back more than 20 years ago, I missed a connecting flight while on my way to Florida for Christmas because the plane for the first leg of the flight was late getting into Logan due to bad weather. In that instance, when we arrived in Philadelphia, already knowing we weren't going any further that night, the guy ahead of me in line made such a stink about getting a free ticket to compensate for his inconvenience (it got to the point where he was literally standing there going "I WANT A FREE TICKET! I WANT A FREE TICKET!" like a damn five-year-old throwing a tantrum) that I was able to simply coast on his ranting and get one also.

Yesterday's situation wasn't quite that bad. The Mrs. always insists on getting to the airport insanely early, so we left the house via taxi at 6:30 AM for a 9:15 flight. It took less than 30 minutes to get to the airport, check in, and go through security, and I have to admit it was nice to have enough time to have a sit-down breakfast. After we'd been sitting at the gate a while, the gate attendant announced that they had to swap out the plane for a different one, which was going to cause a short delay. Oh, okay, haven't heard that one before. As we were watching them do that, we were told that our departure had been pushed back to 11 AM due to weather conditions on the west coast.

One of the things I hate most in this world is sitting around in an airport waiting to get on a plane, and I was already pretty cranky, having gotten only about four hours' sleep. But weather is weather. We moved to a seating area at another gate that was almost empty and thus quieter, and a little before 11 they boarded us. We taxied out and ended up sitting for another hour while everything out in the San Francisco area sorted itself out, and we finally took off a few minutes after noon.

The rest of the flight was nearly perfect--plenty of legroom, no screaming babies, snacks, no turbulence. I tried to sleep, but I was only able to drop off for a few minutes at a time here and there. (I've never been able to sleep on planes, except for one time when I was flying to New Orleans for Mardi Gras on a late-evening flight; the plane was less than half full, and since I was the only person sitting in my row I was able to lay on my side and doze.) Even the landing was one of the smoothest I've experienced.

Neither of us had ever flown into the San Francisco airport before; we usually fly into San Jose because it's closer to Santa Cruz, but JetBlue is currently not flying there nonstop from Boston (though supposedly they are going to reinstate those flights some time soon). The terminal at SFO is very large, and our gate was at the absolute opposite end of the long, long terminal from baggage claim. Then you get to go upstairs and ride an automated train around the airport to the car rental garage. And by "around" I mean ALL the way around; if the train had gone the other direction, I'm quite sure the rental garage would have been the first stop.

After we checked in at the rental counter, we had one more bit of silliness to deal with. A bunch of the rental companies are now under the same corporate umbrella, but they don't bother to mention this, so you go into the garage looking for your company's signage and find it's all different. We found a guy who explained to us that we were in fact in the right place, and when we got to the section for compact cars we found a situation very much like what happened to us in San Jose a couple of years ago: only two cars left, both kind of crappy, and one technically an "economy" class car. Even more strange, the facing row was for midsize cars, and one of them was the exact same model as the other car in the compact row. While we considered what to do, someone else came along and took that car.

We managed to find another employee (they seemed to be wandering around the garage at random) who told us that this company had done away with the economy class, which seems like a convenient excuse for why you're stuck driving a kleenex box when in fact they should just let you take one from the next class up. As we were preparing to load that car, another employee parked one just like it a few spaces away. The Mrs. went over to look at it to see if maybe it had power windows and door locks; it didn't, but she noticed a "no smoking car" sticker on the dashboard, which she deemed more important, so off we went in our Hyundai Accent. Whee.

Once we got out of the airport and onto the highway, I noticed that over 90 minutes had passed since we had landed. It was also still raining, not steadily but more like in sheets every few minutes, with just little sprinkles in between. Fortunately we are familiar with the Bay Area/Silicon Valley highways from previous visits, so while the driving was somewhat difficult, the rest of the trip was uneventful. I had quite a nice headache going by that point, but food and Tylenol and ten hours of sleep took care of it.

Schedule Adjustment

Things are going to be pretty much offline for the next several days around here. Our flight leaves at 9 AM eastern time. I don't know what sort of internet access we're going to have; I don't travel with a laptop, and I don't yet have a smartphone (more on that soon, though). I may be able to check email from where we're staying, but I'm not even sure about that.

So, I'm afraid there will not be a TWiA this week, and I'm opting to bump this week's scheduled watch post to next week. (Maybe you'll want to use this opportunity to rummage around in the archives?) If things change and I can post I will, but you should probably assume I won't.

And for you fellow winter-sufferers, you should know that I'm heading to northern California, where the forecast is for temperatures in the mid to upper 50s, with at least a chance of rain almost every day, so while it will be better than Boston, it won't be that great.

Back at you soon...

Snow Work/No Work

We got only three inches of snow today, but it took me about three hours to clear all of it because it was really wet and heavy. I acquired a used snow blower a couple of months ago, but I didn't think it would be worth using on such a small amount. But I ache so much that in hindsight that was a poor decision.

I actually enjoy getting outside and shoveling, but I can tell I'm getting old because my hands start to hurt after a while, and tomorrow my arms and hips are going to be feeling really great. The good news is, I don't have to go to work tomorrow, because on Wednesday we're flying out to California (the Mrs' sister is getting (re)married, and it's been almost two years since we've visited anyway) and it seemed silly to go into the office for one day this week--this way I have more time to pack and otherwise get ready.

This Week in Awesome (1/16/10)

This was a busy week for me at work, so I didn't have time to find my usual complement of material for TWiA. But fear not, you won't be leaving empty-handed.

Courtesy of Sandi, the Boston Restaurant Examiner, we have this exercise in cooking various things using a waffle iron.

From Japan, another bizarre product I don't think anyone was asking for. (Consumerist via OhGizmo)

And how about a little schadenfreude? Here's a little compilation of cars sliding on icy roads. (CurrentTV's InfoMania via Jalopnik)

Local Pickup Only

There's no way I could ever find the words to properly express the colossal awesomeness of this, so I won't even try: Conan O'Brien has put The Tonight Show on craigslist. For real. (The ad has already gone away and come back once, so if it goes away again you can see it here.)

That's just fucking brilliant.

Off the Rack

Over the weekend I acquired a new suit. It's not exactly something I was actively looking for, it just sort of fell into my path and was too good a deal to pass up.

One night last week we went on one of our regular supply runs to Target. (We now buy almost all our household needs like cleaning products and toilet paper, as well as the personal stuff we used to buy at CVS, at Target because everything is less expensive there.) I usually take a spin through the men's department; none of the clothes are going to win awards for design or quality, but I have found some useful basics there over the years.

I particularly like to check the clearance racks, because the longer stuff is around, the deeper the markdowns get. Last year I scored a button-front shirt for $6, 75 percent off the original price. This time they had a bunch of suit separates. The last time they had their suit pieces on clearance like this, I missed out on finding a bargain in my size, so I diligently pored through the racks. I found a couple of styles that I liked, but I was unable to find two matching pieces in my sizes.

On Sunday we headed up to the North Shore to take care of a few things, and there happens to be another Target store in the shopping center. This time I was able to find both jacket and pants in the appropriate sizes. The jackets were originally $100 and there were three different orange clearance tags, so I was able to see that the markdowns had been 30 percent, then 50 percent, then 75 percent off. So, $25 for a 100% wool suit jacket. The pants were similarly discounted from $50 down to $12.50.

Even at the original prices, Target's suit separates are a good deal for guys on a budget. The quality is surprisingly good for clothing from a discount store (I've seen worse, selling for more money, at Kohl's). The jackets are fully lined and are reasonably stylish, with side vents and lapels that are neither too wide nor too narrow. The pants are flat-front, have an inner waistband button tab, and are lined to the knee, as is customary on wool dress pants. And buying separates is convenient, eliminating the need for tailoring in most cases. I have no idea how well these pieces are going to hold up, but since I don't often need to wear a suit, it's not really an issue.

At the Nordstrom Rack outlet in the same shopping complex, I saw some really nice Burberry suits, which are made for them in the USA in the same factories that produce Hickey Freeman suits, marked down to $500 from original prices of $1,200 and higher. That's an exceptional deal, and I would have loved to grab one of these, but that's a bit beyond my budget at this point. However, $37.50 for a suit is an expense I can justify. That's probably less than I'd pay in a thrift store, with some of the same thrill at finding a bargain and none of the worry about moth holes or odors.

Gauntlet Thrown

Well, this statement makes the NBC/Conan situation a bit more interesting, huh?

(Image credit: Mike Mitchell)

Dreamy

One of the few things about our neighborhood that is slightly less than wonderful is a lack of little stores and restaurants in the immediate vicinity. I have access to pretty much anything I need, but it's not quite doorstep convenient. Where we used to live in Somerville, I only had to walk to the top of the street and I was on Broadway, with a bank, food stores, a barber shop, cleaners, and lots of other local businesses. (I don't miss a lot about living there, but I do miss being so close to Leone's, who make what I think is the best Italian sub I've had anywhere.)

But one thing we do have is a great Italian salumeria called Il Sogno, which means "the dream." It's essentially a father and son operation; I might have seen one other person working there, once, in three and a half years (probably a cousin). They have the basics, and then some. When we buy cold cuts or deli meat at al, which isn't too often, we buy from here. They roast their own turkey and offer it in three varieties: regular, smoked, or honey.

They have all the typical Italian grocery items like pasta and olive oil, cookies and candy. But what I really love about the place is the prepared food. They make excellent panini, salads, and pasta dishes. An order of ziti, broccoli, and chicken and a salad makes a fine dinner for the two of us, with leftovers. Best of all, they make arancini. These are balls of arborio rice and cheese that are breaded and fried; they typically have sausage or spinach inside, and they are crazy delicious.

(I had one a month or so ago from Modern Pastry in Medford Square; it was the size of a softball, which is too big, and all the cheese was in a glob in the middle, instead of blended throughout. I'll stick to the baked goodies from them.)

Arancini are time-consuming to make, so you don't find them in that many places. Growing up, my grandmother made them maybe once or twice a year on holidays, Christmas Eve or Easter. I mentioned this to the owner once; he said that in the part of Italy he came from, they make arancini all the time, so it feels natural for him to make them daily.

My only wish is that Il Sogno would stay open past 7 PM, even if only on Fridays. The early closing time makes placing a spontaneous order for ziti, broccoli, and chicken difficult, but that's how it goes with small neighborhood businesses. We're still fortunate to have them nearby.

This Week in Awesome (1/9/10)

Welcome to the first full edition of TWiA of the new year. Quite a haul for you this week:

Further mutations of the Snuggie have been sighted: now it's succeeded in growing legs! Run, run for your lives, before it's too late! (Consumerist, Racked)

Some poor fool over in the UK stuck something where it didn't belong. (The Sun [UK[ via The Awl)

The new year always brings with it a batch of dubious ads for exercise and fitness products, but this one is a little different from most (which doesn't make it any less dubious). (TV Squad)

Last week The Soup counted down its top clips of the year. One of the craziest was from a show on Discovery Health called I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. Pretty entertaining on its own, but they added a little extra something to really make it special. (The Soup via YouTube)

And finally, there are many potential hazards to driving on the roads in California--earthquakes, mudslides, brush fires--but this is a relatively recent development brought about by the proliferation of reality shows. (Onion News Network via Fake Steve Jobs, somewhat NSFW/K)

NBC FAIL

By now you've probably heard that NBC is considering throwing in the towel on the Jay-Leno-in-prime-time experiment. Everything is strictly rumor at this point, but given the swiftness with which the story broke, the fact that it went from a post on a small TV industry blog to pretty much every mainstream media outlet in the universe--from my local morning news show to the front page of today's New York Times--in less than 24 hours, you have to figure there's something to it.

This was a desperate, wrong-headed, foolish idea from the start, and I criticized it when it was first announced back in the spring. Not only was it a bad business decision that alienated TV writers and producers (whose scripted programming NBC shunned to make room on the schedule for Leno), but it's a continued slap in the face to Conan O'Brien, who has done everything NBC asked and is getting screwed over for it.

Why anoint someone the chosen successor to the seat behind the desk of The Tonight Show (whether or not you watch it, it's a television institution and an important job) and spend five years paving the way for the transition, then at the eleventh hour pull an end run and give the outgoing host a prime-time slot five nights a week? NBC got nervous about Conan's ability to maintain Leno's ratings; as it turns out, they were right, but that doesn't excuse their behavior. Either you bet on the horse, or you don't, but you can't change or rescind your bet halfway through the race.

And as if that's not enough bad behavior for one network, the scenario now being floated would involve giving Leno a half-hour show after the late news, and moving The Tonight Show to a 12:05 am starting time. Wow. That's hubris, pure and simple. That's saying, "We made a terrible mistake, but we can't bring ourselves to admit it, so we're just going to shuffle the deck chairs on this sinking ship again, and snub you [O'Brien] even worse in the meantime." I hope O'Brien has his lawyers looking for a loophole in his contract that would allow him to get the hell away from NBC.

Here's another question: if NBC does pull Leno from prime time, what are they going to use to fill those five hours per week? They probably have one or two midseason shows on deck, and I suppose they could pad those Biggest Loser episodes more than they already do, and throw on some (more) Law & Order reruns. I'm sure they'd like to rebroadcast Project Runway, but they probably can't because it's no longer airing on corporate cousin Bravo. They could borrow Burn Notice or In Plain Sight from USA, but that might imply that USA's programming is better than NBC's own. Oh, wait, it is. Oops.

I'm not the first person to say this, but Jeff Zucker should be fired over this fiasco. It was his idea, and he should answer for it.

Watch Wednesday Thursday (1/7/10)

Watch time again? Totally sneaked up on me. I would have held today's earlier post until tomorrow. Whatevs...

This is the first chronograph I bought, almost ten years ago now. I have several Timex watches, because they make so many different styles and they are eminently affordable. This was one of their first forays into somewhat nicer territory with correspondingly higher price tags; I think the suggested retail on this was $90 but I got this on eBay (naturally) for around $50 at the time, and it was money well spent. I don't know who supplied Timex with the movement for these, but it's very accurate, and the battery lasted five or six years before it needed to be replaced.

The diameter of the case is 38 millimeters, which seemed huge at the time because I was used to wearing vintage watches that tended to be smaller, but now this almost seems small compared to some of the other chunky modern watches I've acquired since, like those Casios.

This originally came with a strap that resembled kevlar but was really some sort of nylon, and was backed with leather. It didn't prove to be as durable as it looked, and I ended up replacing it with a leather one. Eventually that strap wore out too (my own fault, I bought something cheap) but this one, which is from the previously mentioned Watch Prince in Oregon, is of much better quality.

New York, London, Paris, Munich...

During my lunch today I was reading some stuff on The Awl (I've said it before: you really should be reading this site regularly) and one of the pieces was about a pop singer named Ke$ha (yes, really; it's pronounced "kesh-a"). There are video clips, and a link to a song by a rapper named Flo Rida (it's pronounced like "flow rider," not "Florida") on which she was featured. This young lady broke some sort of record for sales on iTunes the first week her song was available.

It's a good article, but as I watched the clip of her performance on Ellen I was thinking: has the bar really fallen this far through the floor? I know that musical preference is highly subjective, some performers think of themselves more as entertainers than as artists, and not all albums can be Revolver or London Calling, but come on. This is what's passing for popular music these days? It's just...vapid. There's nothing to it.

I can't even tell whether or not Ke$ha (I hope to heaven that's not how it's spelled on her birth certificate) is a good singer, because what's coming out of her mouth can't really be called singing. Say what you want about the traveling freak show that is Lady Gaga, but at least she can sing.

Last week we were at our friends' house for New Year's Eve, and of course they put on the Ryan Seacrest/Dick Clark thing so we could watch the ball drop. But a bit later we were watching The Black-Eyed Peas, and all eight of us, who are in our mid-40s or older (except the Mrs., who's knocking on that door) were sitting there going, "This is music?" I found myself thinking I'd rather be watching Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper on CNN.

[Speaking of BEP, some kids up in Canada made a cool video to go along with one of their songs. It's one continuous, unedited take and is pretty impressive. I recommend watching it with the sound off, though, because it's one of the stupidest songs I've ever heard, and it will get stuck in your brain and make you want to cry. (Video via Fake Steve Jobs)]

There's also a story on The Awl about the band Vampire Weekend, and while they may come off as somewhat more artistic, their music does nothing for me either. I'm an equal-opportunity curmudgeon.

Half and Half

This is the time of year when people make an effort to change their ways. I am not a resolution-maker, but I support anyone who is trying to live a better, healthier, more mindful life. I'm kind of a lazy-ass myself, though I'm pretty sure this isn't a revelation to any of you who visit on a regular basis. I don't exercise in any regimented way; the idea of going to a room full of other people and getting all sweaty and grunty just doesn't compute for me. It might be nice to have a treadmill or stair-climber in the basement, but those things tend to be kind of expensive, and also tend to go unused.

Working in consumer health publishing, I tend to see the same advice over and over in our publications: be more active, pay attention to what you eat, don't smoke. There is no denying that following these basic guidelines will help most people lead longer, healthier lives. After a while even an indifferent sloth like me gets the message. While hardly living what I'd consider a virtuous lifestyle, I've been able to make some positive changes in my habits and behavior.

Being a public-transit commuter means that I spend a portion of each day walking. I enjoy walking, and I often try to add some extra steps to my day (it's more difficult to keep up with this consistently in winter, but shoveling snow is good exercise too). If I leave work and there is no train or bus approaching, I will start walking up Huntington Avenue; occasionally I end up walking all the way to Ruggles station. When I'm entering or leaving a station, I always use the stairs. At work I always use the stairs, and I add steps by going to a higher floor to use the restroom (an idea I got from someone else who works here).

With regard to diet, I started paying more attention to what I ate, and to my total food intake over the course of a day. I've always had a taste for snacks, and that is probably the hardest thing to deal with. It's easier to cut back than to eliminate them completely, and I've also been substituting nuts for chips, things like that. We buy hummus and I eat it with either tortilla chips (which are not quite as bad for you as regular potato chips) or pita chips (which are expensive, but are a much better deal at BJ's than at most other stores). We used to buy ice cream regularly at the supermarket; now I try to hold off and enjoy it once in a while at places like Richardson's, because it's much less of a temptation if it's not in the house to begin with.

I eat oatmeal or a whole-grain cereal for breakfast, with 1% milk (we used to buy 2%). I love fruit, but I don't eat enough of it, so I need to try to work that into the morning. I used to eat a big sandwich every day; now I eat salad for lunch almost every day. I concentrate on things like broccoli, chickpeas or kidney beans, olives, tuna, and other choices that have real nutritional value. And I don't negate the nutritional worth of those veggies by covering my salad in ranch dressing; as much as I love it, I stay away from it and use the Greek dressing instead. It's olive oil-based and lighter, while still being flavorful. I never drink soda; I fill a one-liter bottle with water each day at work, and finish it by the time I leave, and I have probably another liter at home each night. (I'm pretty sure I will never get a kidney stone.)

About a month ago I got on the scale after not having checked my weight for a long time. To my surprise I had lost five pounds. All these little things had added up to a subtraction. But there's one thing that I know is bad for me that I can't possibly give up: cream for my coffee. I didn't know what half and half was until I was probably 17 or 18, because it had never been brought into our house. If you wanted to put a dairy liquid into your coffee, there was milk in the fridge. (Back then it was whole milk.) But once I'd tasted coffee with cream (most likely at Dunkin' Donuts), there was no going back. (I don't use sugar.)

A few months ago, one of my coworkers posted something on the bulletin board about low-fat half and half. I'd always wondered why such a thing didn't exist, especially after the vile fat-free stuff came along. When we went on our next trip to the supermarket, I looked for it, but they didn't have it. I kept looking, and finally last week I found some at the local Foodmaster, so I figured I should try it, if only for research purposes.

The texture and consistency is off. The coffee felt like it wasn't quite thick enough. And then I kept having to add more to get to where I thought the taste was right. Eventually I got to the point where the taste was okay, but it seemed like I was using more than I would have with regular half and half, which kind of defeats the purpose of it. It also costs somewhat more than the regular stuff. I think I'm better off limiting my overall coffee intake each day, as I've been doing for years.

Tales of Takeout: The Follow-Up

Yesterday I wrote about my experience with a Foodler order on Friday night. At the time I wasn't sure whether or not I should name the restaurant in question. Generally speaking, I try to walk a line between expressing an honest opinion and being fair, and based on the incident and the information I had at the time, I decided to identify it.

As it happened, the owner of Eat at Jumbo's uses a Google Alert to track online mentions of his establishment, so when my post popped up he looked at Friday's orders and was able to figure out who I was, and last night he called me to talk about what had happened. He offered me a genuine apology, and said that other restaurants that use Foodler, not just his, do sometimes have problems receiving their orders (when I called to check on my order, it seemed like I was being fed a line to placate me), but Foodler also brings them a lot of business.

But nonetheless, even if my order had not been received by the restaurant, after I called it should have been processed and delivered, and the owner admitted that something had gone amiss there. He said that it was an extremely busy day, and he had taken the day off anticipating that it would be a slow day. He's obviously very involved in running his business, and wants very much for his customers to be satisfied.

I definitely was not looking to slam anyone without justification, I was simply telling a story about what happened. I may have given Foodler a little too much credit, but I felt they did deserve credit for the speed with which my customer service issue was handled. They may in fact be to blame for the restaurant not receiving my order; in the time I've been using them such a thing has not happened (until now), but perhaps there is room for improvement on their side.

At the same time, the proprietor of Eat at Jumbo's deserves credit for admitting a mistake, and for reaching out to a potential customer who had a negative experience. It made me feel like I should give them another chance, but when I do so I'll probably just call in my order, or place it directly through their web site.

Tales of Takeout

Friday was a very lazy day around here, like a snow day except the snow hadn't started yet. The Logo channel was running a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon, and we spent most of the day switching back and forth between that and TiVo-stockpiled episodes of Mad Men that I'd been wanting to watch again before deleting.

Around 8 PM we got hungry. For a couple of years now we've been using a great online service called Foodler. Foodler has arrangements with restaurants to process online orders and forward them on, and they tell me what restaurants in my area are available for delivery service. The great thing about it is that I can place the order online, pay with a credit card, and include the tip, so when the person arrives at our door with the food, I just take it and say thank you.

Because Friday was a holiday, some of our usual places were closed, so I ended up ordering from a place we hadn't tried. But we had received takeout menus from them, so I knew of it and figured it was worth a try. I placed the order, got the email confirmation a few minutes later, and went back to watching TV. After a while I noticed that no car had pulled up in front of the house, but again, since it was a holiday I thought the place might not be at full staff.

A while after that, feeling a little growly in the gut, I went and looked at the time: it was 9:30. We'd had a couple of delayed deliveries, but this was unusual. I looked at the email and called the restaurant. I was put on hold for several minutes, and then was told that they had been having a problem with receiving their Foodler orders, that they would start on my order, and it would be about another 30 minutes.

I went back to the TV, but kept looking out the window. Eventually the Mrs. fell asleep, and I kept getting hungrier. (Sadly, we didn't have anything in the house other than candy and breakfast food.) When I finished the seventh episode of season two of Mad Men, it was 11 PM and still no food. I called the restaurant again, but they were closed (at that point I didn't have any confidence in their ability to resolve the situation anyway).

Feeling a bit light-headed from hunger and not sure what to do, I went back to Foodler to see about contacting them. I saw that another local place that we'd ordered from several times before was still open and delivering until midnight, so I placed a desperation backup order, then wrote to Foodler about the incident. Within five minutes I had received a response, and not one of those stupid computer-generated ones, but a real response, written by a human being, at 11 something on the night of a holiday. He assured me that the order had been confirmed by the restaurant at 8:05 PM, and apologized and issued me a refund.

I'm still hoping they can speak to someone there and find out what happened, but the important thing is that Foodler fixed my problem, and they did it right away. So, not that we're keeping score, but Foodler wins, and Eat at Jumbo's loses. And the other place, Caprese Pizza, did deliver my backup order, right around midnight.

This Week in Awesome (1/2/10)

It's another holidayish week, and as such there hasn't been as much going on out on the intertubes (though I've spent just as much time looking, trust me), but I managed to find a couple of things worth mentioning.

Consumerist did a roundup of the best commercials of the year. Some of you who don't spend as much time near a TV as I do may not have seen some of them. Should keep you busy for a while...

And for the little boys among us, here's video of a semi tractor (without a trailer) being drifted around a slippery roundabout (rotary), presumably somewhere on the European continent. (Jalopnik)

Goodbye and Hello

Time to say goodbye to 2009, and to the decade as well. The passage of time definitely seems to accelerate as you age. Ten years ago I'd been married just over a year, and had spent the previous year working for an e-commerce company, where the notion of getting paid for my attention to detail and the opportunity to learn a bunch of new skills seemed like it was about to change my life.

That job lasted into early 2001, and a year after that the company had folded, but my life did change. Because I started with the company when it was so small, I was in close proximity to its founder, and consequently I learned a trememdous amount about almost every aspect of running a business. That job, and the one I'd had previously, led peripherally into my eventual next full-time job, which ultimately led to the job I have now. And working at that e-commerce company a decade ago is how I met A Proper Bostonian, a friendship I feel very fortunate to have (even if she is a crazy cat lady).

Life does change, usually while you are not noticing it. But the important things tend to stay the same. Last year we were supposed to spend New Year's Eve at the home of my college roommate and his wife, but it snowed that day and the Mrs. did not feel comfortable driving to their house and back (they live pretty far out in suburbia) so we ended up staying home and watching 80's movies on TV. But our friends invited us again this year, and the little dusting of snow we got today isn't enough to keep us home this time.

Happy new year to all of you out there. May 2010 be full of good things for all of us.

At the Door

Funny little story that means nothing: usually my family goes out for dinner on Christmas Eve, but the family has been shrinking a bit over the years. My sister now spends the evening with her boyfriend's family, and this year my brother had to work. (He's a restaurant manager.)

My mother made a lot of phone calls to find a place that was open and serving dinner past 6 PM, but had no luck. We had suggested going to where my brother works, but it's a 40 minute drive from her house, and she was worried about what the weather might be doing, so she found a place whose kitchen was staying open long enough for us to get takeout. Everything was very good.

We had settled down to eat when there was a very faint tapping at the front door. Now, I should explain: a few years ago my mother installed those wireless doorbells, but they would ring almost every time the wind blew, so she removed the batteries and put up little signs that say "please knock." So it seemed likely that someone was indeed at the front door, though no one was expected. Her dog, who barks at everyone and everything, never noticed or moved from his perch just outside the kitchen. I guess he was too focused on our food.

I got up to have a look, and my mother called after me, "Use the peephole." I looked through the glass and saw the top of a very short person's head, which wasn't too helpful, so I opened the door. There was a small woman standing there with a bright red food container in her hand. I said, "Can I help you?" She kind of squinted up at me and eventually said, "I don't know you." I offered, "I don't know you either." She thought about that for a moment and countered with, "Is Val here?" So she was known to the household after all, just not to me.

Turns out she lives next door, and was bringing over banana bread and fudge. That house is an unusual two-family rental in a neighborhood of single-family owner-occupied homes, so it's been decades since I had any idea who was living next door. Also, according to my mother, the elfin woman kind of likes to drink, and clearly she was already well into her personal Christmas Eve celebrating, which would explain the slow reaction time and the general sense of puzzlement. But for a moment it seemed like something out of bizarro Dickens: The Ghost of Christmas Drunk.

This Week in Awesome (12/27/09)

Hi everybody. Hope you've enjoyed this holiday week, and that you've been fortunate enough to spend some time with loved ones and good friends. I come bearing gifts, of a few bits of amusement...

David Letterman showed a clip from a slightly tweaked version of A Charlie Brown Christmas. (CBS via TV Squad)

This picture of Larry King and his... family (?) defies explanation. (Put This On)

Finally, it's... um... something, and it goes on your head, I guess. You've been warned. (Racked)

Watch Wednesday Thursday (12/24/09)

I should really be finishing up my packing and the last few things that have to be wrapped, but last night, just as I was settling down in bed, I remembered that it was time for a watch post. This will be the last one of 2009, but the feature will continue in the new year, on the same biweekly schedule. [Side note: don't you hate when people say "biannual" when they really mean "semi-annual"? No? Just me? Okay, whatever...]

This is the first Timex I've featured, which is funny, because even though I have a particular affinity for the Accutron/Bulova/Caravelle offerings, there wouldn't be a Caravelle if it wasn't for Timex (Bulova felt they needed a lower-priced line to compete effectively with Timex), and it was a Timex that first put me on the path to collecting. One day in the early '90s, I happened to go to a flea market that used to be held in the parking lot of the Building 19 in Lynn. Amongst all the junk, I found an old Timex (not this one) that I bought for something like 75 cents, or maybe a dollar at most.

If you are interested in collecting vintage watches, Timex is a great place to start. There is a great variety of styles, they were made in huge numbers so it's not that difficult to find one in good mechanical and cosmetic condition, and they were not expensive watches when new, so they don't cost much now. If you are very interested, there are a couple of sellers on eBay that specialize in them that I could recommend.

I don't exactly remember how I came to acquire this watch, but I think I may have purchased a lot of watches from someone and this was part of it. I approximae its age to the late 1960s, due to the styling and the automatic movement. When I look at this watch, I can't help thinking that Timex was trying to copy the look of more expensive watches of the period, which makes sense. The rolled edge of the dial gives it a raised appearance, the chunky applied hour markers scream Omega, and the cross hairs, which we've already seen on my Accutron Deep Sea and Omega Seamaster, again give a little flair to a rather sedate dial.

This watch is not in the best cosmetic condition; you can't tell from this crappy photo, but there are marks on the dial from the hands, from lack of movement. This is fairly common with older watches; I have no idea what that luminous material is composed of, but I suspect it's pretty toxic.

The strap is a Speidel that I added myself; I can't remember if this watch came with no strap at all, or had one of those stretchy metal Speidel bands that were popular when it was new. The color is just a bit darker than it appears here (natural light, no flash) and works well in summer with similarly colored shoes and belts. I don't usually go for brown straps, but this one spoke to me. Plus, my maternal grandfather spent a good part of his adult life working in the Speidel factory in Providence, so I've always felt an affinity for the brand, even though I don't care for metal bracelets.

And as always, I want to say thanks for stopping by, and wish all my readers joyful holidays.

Gifted

I'm back. The streets in Manhattan are slushy and a bit tricky to navigate, but otherwise it's business as usual. The toughest part for me was dealing with the constant struggle between cold and heat: outside you have to be bundled up, but that means as soon as you step inside, you get overheated. Multiply that by 40 or 50 over the course of an average day.

Gifts for my family were all taken care of before I left, so I didn't have the opportunity to shop for them there. (Truth is, I spend a lot more time shopping for myself this time of year, regardless of whether I'm in New York or at the Burlington Mall.) Over the years, it's gotten to the point where we pretty much tell each other what we want, or my mother supplies the info about what to get my siblings. This eliminates a lot of fretting and guesswork, and avoids disappointment.

Since no one in my family reads this, I thought I'd run things down quickly, in case you happen to be stuck for an idea. My brother wants to get an Xbox, so I was told to get him a Best Buy gift card. That hardly even needs to be wrapped. My sister always wants gift certificates to her favorite salon/spa. That required just a phone call, because they don't sell them through their web site (yet, but I keep hoping).

My mother never used to give us any clues or ideas, but she started making a list a few years ago, and my siblings and I divide it up. A while back my sister got my mother one of these charm bracelets called Pandora: all the charms are threaded, so when you screw them all together they make a sort of bead bracelet. So a charm is always on the list for Christmas, her birthday, and Mother's Day. We have a few other things to give her, including a couple of books, ornaments, and two pounds of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (this started as sort of a joke because the Mrs. couldn't stand the Walmart store-brand coffee my mother is in the habit of buying, and now my mother kind of expects it every year).

My father is much more difficult to buy for. He's kind of grumpy all the time, and just isn't interested in things the way most people are. A while back we all kind of gave up and started getting him gift cards for either Home Depot of Walmart. He uses them, but it's not very interesting, and I don't want to give any of my money to Walmart anyway. For the past couple of years the Mrs. and I got him gift cards to Shaw's, but this year I thought I could do better.

I remembered that nine or ten years ago, I'd gotten him an Omaha Steaks gift assortment for a birthday present, and he really enjoyed it. One day last week there was an Omaha Steaks ad in the paper. One nice thing about OS is that they have a lot of variety, and I was able to get him an assortment with sirloin steaks, pork chops, chicken breasts, stuffed sole, burger patties, hot dogs, and even baked potatoes. My dad lives alone and doesn't do much cooking, so now his freezer is stocked and he has the basis for a couple of months' worth of meals. I paid a little extra for gift wrap, for that holiday touch.

Having a small family helps, obviously. If you're not sure what someone on your list wants, ask around among some other family members or friends.

Out of Town

No, I'm not going back in time to write about the season premiere of Mad Men. I'll be away until Tuesday evening. It's a long and somewhat silly story, but the short version is that I'm zipping down to New York on a hastily-arranged visit to see a friend who now isn't going to be there, thanks to the storm. But there doesn't seem to be a point to wasting a bus ticket and a hotel room, and I'm sure I can find plenty to amuse myself.

This Week in Awesome (12/19/09)

Happy holidays, everyone. I can't guarantee there will be a TWiA next week. Certainly not for lack of ambition, but it's more a matter of not being sure I'll have the time, not being sure I'll have enough material, and some appalling computer problems at my mother's house that make getting on the internet far more of an ordeal than it should be. But who knows? Stay tuned.

Having said that, let's dig into this week's offerings. Things are unintentionally a bit weighted toward broadcast television this week, starting with Craig Ferguson, host of CBS's Late Late Show, telling a funny story about a not-so-funny airline experience. (CBS via Consumerist)

Here's the poster for The Simpsons 20th anniversary episode. Prepare to squint. (Hollywood Reporter via TV Squad)

I don't watch Letterman much anymore, mostly because I don't stay up that late, but on Thursday's show he was doing a gift segment, and took a $25,000 cupcake car (I think it's something you can buy from the Neiman Marcus catalog) for a spin around the stage, with predictable results. (CBS via TV Squad)

Dock of the 'Bay

I know I haven't posted much this week. That's because as we head into the holidays, my office will be closed for winter break, and I'll be using vacation time to bump it up to a full two weeks off, so I need to get my monthly deadline stuff squared away before heading out the office door this evening.

I've also been making a little extra scratch for holiday gifts by selling some stuff on eBay (including stuff that I bought on eBay that didn't quite work out for one reason or another), which takes up a fair bit of time. First you have to take pictures of whatever it is you want to sell (in my case, it's mainly clothing, shoes, and a couple of watches that have fallen out of the rotation). It amazes me that 15 years into the existence of eBay, there are still people who think it's possible to sell something without providing a picture of it. Or, you get one blurry shot from too far away, with a description that reads like this: "Coat, black. Worn only a few times."

Thanks so much, that was really helpful. That leads to step two: a detailed, informative description. I like to put a bit of my personality into this part, including information about where I got the item, how long I've owned/used it, its original retail value. What I NEVER do is say how much I paid for something, because that's irrelevant. What matters is how much you can get someone to pay for it now. Knowing what the item was once worth is a good way to frame your opening bid as a bargain while making sure the auction is worth your time (assuming the item sells).

A couple of months ago, I had an urge for some now boots (I believe I mentioned this in my post about boots from a few weeks ago). During that time I bid on some US-made Red Wing boots that were not really what I was looking for, but were nice-looking and in good condition. I have a tendency to place bids on items that I'm only semi-interested in, figuring that fate will decide whether or not I'm supposed to own them. In this case I won the auction, but the boots just didn't quite fit me right (which is why I didn't include them in the boot post).

So last week I finally got around to taking some pictures and posting the auction in an attempt to turn them around and find them a good home. Within a few hours I'd received a message from a guy in the United Kingdom who was interested in the boots, asking if I would consider opening the auction to bidders from outside the US. Generally speaking, I try to avoid this, because it makes things more complicated, and because the likelihood of being a victim of fraud is much higher with international bidders. That's not intended to be derogatory or prejudiced; it's simply an unfortunate fact of trying to do business on eBay.

In this case, the guy's feedback profile had almost 2300 entries, with a score of a perfect 100%, so I figured I was safe letting him bid. Apparently Red Wings are a big deal in the UK, and are hard to get there. As soon as I'd adjusted the auction, I was contacted by someone in Japan with the same request. This person also had 100% feedback, but only 10 feedbacks. This can be a red flag for trouble, or it could just be someone new to eBay. I stalled by answering that I would take 24 hours to consider the request and research shipping costs. The next day I received another request from Japan, this time from another seasoned bidder like the one from the UK. I decided to go ahead and open the bidding to Japan, figuring that with so much interest, the boots were bound to sell.

The auction closed last night, and the winning bidder turned out to be from Virginia, making my life a little easier. The boots sold for $76 plus shipping, which is 50% more than what I paid for them (though I don't always get so lucky). The other cool thing is eBay's arrangement with the US Postal Service regarding shipping. Typically I get the item packaged up the night the auction closes, then the next day, after receiving payment, I print a shipping label and stop at the post office on my way home from work and use the automated postage machine.

Now I don't even have to do that: from the eBay site you can buy postage using PayPal (essentially withdrawing against what you've just been paid by the buyer) and print the label. At that point the package is ready to go, and you can drop it off at a post office or, if you are using USPS-supplied boxes, which are free, even call for a pickup.

The biggest problem for me is refraining from using the ensuing PayPal balance to buy more stuff on eBay.

What Army?

So ABBA gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but KISS doesn't? That's just not right. I don't care what kind of music you liked in the '70s (if you're old enough to have lived through it), KISS is just way more rock & roll than ABBA could ever hope to be.

Thrifting and Sleuthing

I haven't really been big into thrift-store shopping for a number of reasons, but mostly because I tend not to find anything that I like. This has to do with fit, quality, style, taste, and the fact that I'm a very fussy human being regarding my clothes.

But since I came across the blog An Affordable Wardrobe a while back and saw that its creator lives and thrifts in the Boston area, and has similar taste, I have been thinking that this is something I should be more open to exploring. I'm also seriously jealous of some of the deals Giuseppe at AAW has scored, like a pair of Bill's Khakis, new with tags, that retail for $98, for $1. Yeah, a dollar. Are you kidding me?

So on Saturday we went over to Davis Square for some sustenance in the form of burritos from Anna's. Next door, where there used to be a video store, there's now a place called Buffalo Exchange that opened a couple of months ago. This is a national chain of stores that buy and sell gently used clothing. I'd never heard of it before it landed in Davis, but it certainly seems like a logical location for it.

We weren't in any hurry, so we went in to have a look. At first I wasn't even sure they had any men's clothing, but a quick walk down to the back revealed the men's racks. I saw some fairly high-end stuff I wasn't expecting; I recognized one Italian brand that I think is sold at Louis, or at least used to be, and one fashion-forward and pricey UK brand with a store in New York that I've never bothered to visit.

I was almost finished going through a rack of shirts when I found a traditional button-down (the collar, not the front) in narrow red and white stripes. The cloth was finer and nicer than oxford cloth, and the tailoring was a notch above the usual (you don't see a two-piece back yoke on a typical department store shirt). It was even my size, but there was no brand tag. None of the other shirts had missing tags, so it wasn't like a Building 19 situation where they are not allowed to reveal the brand in order to protect its prestige.

There was a tag that said "all imported cotton" inside the collar, a laundry tag on the end of the hem, and a small size tag at the neck that also said "made in USA." Well, how about that? The shirt, like all the other long-sleeve shirts I'd looked at, was priced at $17. Not exactly what Giuseppe (or anyone) would consider a thrifting bargain, but Buffalo isn't really a thrift store in the traditional sense. Regardless, it was a decent price for an American-made shirt, and I still got the feeling that I should go ahead and buy it.

When I got home I took a closer look at the shirt. Sometimes there are markings on the buttons, sometimes there is a secondary laundry tag on one of the inner side hems, sometimes there is a season tag telling you when a garment was produced and sold. The shirt had none of those. But all the tags were green, which was ringing some sort of bell in my head, and the style of lettering on the "cotton" one looked familiar. Older J. Crew clothes had green tags, but this seemed too nice for J. Crew, and I didn't think they had manufactured in the US in a really long time, if ever.

There was one other clue: the laundry tag had an RN number. Maybe you've never noticed this, but all clothes have it. It's a way to identify the manufacturer. I remembered seeing a reference a while back on a blog to a Federal Trade Commission database where you could look up these numbers. I just couldn't remember on which blog I'd seen it. I knew it wasn't AAW, so I spent a little while going back through some of the other style blogs I frequent, and eventually I found the link, on The Trad.

The database revealed that the shirt was made by Gitman Bros. of Pennsylvania. They've been around for over 60 years, and still make all their shirts in the US. I used to see their shirts at Syms when they had a store downtown; if you look at the lower right corner of their home page at that link, you can see their logo on a green background, which is what their labels look like and why this shirt was seeming familiar to me. I could still see the thread holes in the shirt from where the label had been removed. Maybe it was irritating to its former owner's neck?

Domestic manufacturing is of course now more costly than having your products made overseas, so Gitman's shirts sell for north of $100 each. So I guess I ended up getting a pretty good deal after all.

(If you're interested in doing some sleuthing of your own, the database can be found here. Of course, your mileage may vary.)

This Week in Awesome (12/12/09)

I had intended to post yesterday, but apparently my brain didn't have anything useful to contribute. No matter, as today I have what may be the biggest TWiAs ever. Back the truck up...

A Toyota dealer in Silicon Valley somehow got Steve Wozniak to participate in one of its commercials. The result is unquestionably one of the strangest things I've ever seen. (Fake Steve Jobs)

Toshiba attached a bunch of helium balloons to a chair and released it up into the sky (to show off its video camera technology, I think). (YouTube via Very Short List)

More cool camera stuff, this time a clip with some nice time-lapse footage of New York. (Digital Urban via New York Times City Room blog)

Now we move on to revisit the part of the segment that's more awful than awesome. But I do this as a public service, if only so you'll be informed, and know how to protect yourselves. I'm sure by now you've heard about MTV's new show Jersey Shore, which is just like all their other "reality" shows except for the setting (which you can guess from the title) and the fact that all the participants are Italian-Americans.

If somehow you've managed to remain unaware of this cultural watershed, I've thoughtfully prepared a little primer for you. You'll want to watch this clip first, then this one, this one, and finally this one. (Soup blog; note that a short ad plays before each clip)

Next, you're ready to check out a Jersey Shore nickname generator (Rum & Monkey via The Frisky). Not enough for you? Here's another one. (Unlikely Words)

Now, as a sort of mental palate cleanser, you should go watch these funny commercials from Scarlett Johansson's appearances on Saturday Night Live. (Hulu)

Finally, for some context, a column from Thursday's New York Times on the show.

I suppose I should be offended by the perpetuation of these stereotypes, but I can't muster enough energy to be bothered by them. I am sad for our society in general, though. And I have to say, the guidettes frighten me far more than the guidos.

Watch Wednesday Thursday (12/10/09)

This time I didn't forget, I was just otherwise too busy. Last night I was doing laundry, loading and running the dishwasher, and taking photos and preparing some eBay listings (trying to get rid of some stuff and capture some holiday sales). I managed to shoot this picture, but it was closing in on midnight and I didn't have it in me to do the post.

This is a relatively recent addition to my collection (from eBay, of course). There are three or four companies that sell what they claim are "Swiss Army" watches. I have no idea if any one is more official than any other one, or even if such a thing as "official Swiss Army watch" exists.

I was drawn to this watch because of the simplicity of its design: the big round case, the big white numerals set against the black face, the way the bottom parts of the hands are painted black so they seem to float on the dial. I do, however, think there ought to be something printed below the center of the dial to better balance the overall appearance of the face.

Suggested retail on this watch is around $200 ($225 on a metal bracelet), but you can find them for much less. Last time I was in Kohl's, they were selling a watch like this for $90; I spent a few days looking on eBay and got this one for $45. It had been used in a store display window, but had not been worn, and came with its accompanying boxes, manual, and usual assorted paperwork.

I'm not a huge fan of the brown strap, but it will do, and it's a weird size (21 millimeters wide--watch straps are more typically an even width like 18, 20, or 22 mm) so the effort I'd have to expend to find a replacement is probably not worth my time.

Update: I went on eBay to look for a strap, just out of curiosity. Apparently one of the high-end Swiss brands makes watches that take 21 mm straps, and I found a really sharp-looking black one with red stitching.

Cheese to Go

I took care of a couple of errands on the way home from work tonight, so I was a little later than usual. At North Station I switched from Green to Orange, and as I was walking across the upper level of the station, there was a table right in the middle. I thought it was one of the people who sells Celtics or Bruins stuff before games, so I breezed on by without really paying any attention. Just after I'd passed I heard the guy behind the table say, "Free cheese!"

Wait, what? There was no train coming, so I turned and circled back around to the front of the table. Free cheese is almost as good as free beer. Turned out he was handing out samples of Cabot cheese, little flat slabs in cute packages.

The one he handed me was mild cheddar, so I traded it for the "seriously sharp" variant. Having had it before, I knew I preferred it. When I got home, I ate it with some roasted-garlic flavored Triscuits. Mmmm.

Holidazed

Still catching my breath from the weekend. New York in December may not have been the best idea. There were teeming hordes everywhere. I don't teem; it's bad for my skin. Plus it rained all day Saturday.

It was still fun, but I have to temper my enthusiasm. We viewed the Rockefeller Center tree from across Fifth Avenue in front of Saks; we couldn't get any closer because the sidewalk on the other side of the street was completely filled with people. The city had put up those metal things they use to hold people back during parades and such, and it's a good thing, because otherwise people surely would have been falling into the street.

By comparison, parts of the city that are normally kind of crazy, like Soho on a Saturday afternoon, didn't seem as bad. And we spent a very pleasant hour at the Strand Bookstore later that night, where the store was certainly busy but was still rather hushed and civilized. So it's a mater of perspective.

This Week in Awesome (12/5/09)

While I'm away, I've left you some goodies to enjoy over the weekend...

For those of you who just don't know what to do with your piles of money, a compendium of outrageously expensive high-fashion holiday gifts. Don't forget who tipped you off to this valuable resource... (Refinery29 via Racked)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, and in the tradition of Look at This Fucking Hipster, we have Hipster Is the New Homeless.

And here's another video mashup for those of us of a certain age who fondly remember a cheesy 1970s sci-fi show (starring Martin Landau, no less) called Space: 1999. (TV Squad via James Lileks)

Overheard: Glazed Cruller Edition

As the Orange Line train was pulling in this evening at the Massachusetts Avenue station, two guys came down the stairs and passed behind me, engrossed in a conversation. Just before I boarded, I heard one say to the other, "Remember that girl you were supposed to sleep with at the Dunkin' Donuts?"

I almost didn't get on the train so I could hear what came next, but the desire to get home won (barely). Is that some sort of secret menu item you hve to know how to ask for? Was he supposed to have sex with the girl at Dunkin' Donuts? Did she work there? Would doughnuts be involved somehow? The mind reels...

Charlie's Trip

Most people in the Boston area have at least passsing familiarity with the old folk song "Charile on the M.T.A.," but did you ever wonder how the song came to be?

On Monday the New York Times published the obituary of Bess Lomax Hawes, of the eminent Lomax family of folk-music scholars, who passed away last week. In the 1940s she performed in a folk group with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and later co-wrote the song (its official title is "M.T.A.") that became a hit for The Kingston Trio in 1959. But the song's origins are somewhat surprising, and if you hit that link above you can find out more.

(Related trivia: the head of our department took banjo lessons from Ms. Hawes as a boy in Los Angeles in the 1950s.)

Season's Greetings

On Sunday I accompanied friends on a visit to the Enchanted Village, newly installed at Jordan's Furniture in Avon. This was largely for the benefit of a six-year-old boy whose mother is trying to instill and foster a sense of wonder and joy regarding the holiday season that is centered on more than just toys and goodies.

The Village is a throwback, a reminder of a simpler time in many ways. It was commissioned by the late Boston department store Jordan Marsh (no connection, and the source of many radio-ad jokes over the years) and was first displayed in 1958 (the link above has a somewhat more detailed history). For a lot of people of a certain age who grew up in this area (including the boy's mother), a visit to the Village was an annual tradition. I am of the right age, and I grew up in Rhode Island, which is not that far away, but I come from a family (and a state with a cultural quirk) that did not like to go far out of its way if it could be avoided, so I never experienced it.

After Macy's bought Jordan Marsh in the late 1990s, the city of Boston bought the Village, but after a few years they could no longer afford to display and operate it. Jordan's bought it at auction and restored it, and is displaying it in an effort to revive a local holiday tradition, so parents can share their memories with their own children.

So what was I doing there? I'm not a parent, and I don't even like kids all that much. Why would I stand in line for 90 minutes (!) to look at a bunch of mechanically "animated" figures in scenes that look like Norman Rockwell paintings and would have been considered quaint when first shown over 50 years ago? Curiosity, mostly. Obviously, people have fond memories of the Enchanted Village and feel a strong connection to it, and even if I missed out on the experience when I was young, I can still appreciate its spirit. I don't think I need to go back and see it again, but now I can say I've seen it.

Of course, the Village was also a marketing tool for Jordan Marsh, just as it is for Jordan's Furniture today. Even so, people who experienced the Village as children identify with it on that level, just as we all identify with other seasonal traditions that have nothing to do with gifts. I enjoy giving and receiving gifts as much as anyone, but it's important to remember that this time of year is about much more than that.

In my own family, decorating the house inside and out was a ritual nearly on the level of going to church. It's what people mean when they refer to the "spirit of the season." It's that feeling I get when, heading home from work in the dark of December, I get off the bus and I can see decorated houses lit up all the way down my street. We want to share that warmth with others.

[So, since it's December first, is it okay for me to plug in the holiday lights I have strung on my cubicle?]

This weekend, we're going to New York (yes, again) with the same friends. We're going to take the boy to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (something I've never done, so I'm looking forward to it), and we're going to walk along Fifth Avenue and look at the holiday displays in the store windows, and all the lights and decorations, and we're going to love it. Except maybe the Mrs.--she's kind of a Scrooge where the holidays are concerned. But we're working on her.