Eyeglasses for Less

Do you need glasses? Not so much meaning "are you in need of corrective lenses?" (you should probably see a doctor if this is an issue), but more "are you in need of a new pair of glasses?" Because if you are, I have a site you should check out.

I bought a pair of glasses online a couple of years back (if you are thoroughly bored, or just new here, you can use the right-side navigation to go back to January 2008 and read the whole saga starting with the post called "Seeing Red"). It went okay, all things considered: the glasses cost half of what I would have paid in a local optometry shop, but Frames Direct did screw up the first time around, forgetting the anti-reflective coating and adding another couple of weeks to the whole process.

Some time later I came across a blog called Glassy Eyes (link over there on the right) dedicated to helping consumers avoid getting ripped off at places like Lenscrafters, a noble mission that I certainly support. Out of curiosity I visited all the sites that Glassy Eyes recommends and links to, and I could not find one pair of glasses, regardless of price, that met my needs in terms of shape, size, and style. Not a single one. Granted, I'm incredibly fussy, but still.

In December I was browsing Frames Direct after receiving an email from them, and I spotted a pair of frames I really liked. They were acetate, in a decidedly retro style. I hadn't had frames that were not metal in over twenty years, so I thought it might be time for a change. But I wanted to see if maybe I could find them for less somewhere else, so I spent some time searching online, and came across another online eyeglass site called CoolFrames.com.

Their total cost on the frames and lenses worked out to about half of what Frames Direct would have charged. It took longer for them to make the glasses (I suspect they order the frames from manufacturers only when a customer orders the glasses from them), but they were optically correct, which is what's most important. (As an added bonus, I now look more like my cartoon avatar up there in the top right corner.)

I'm happy with these glasses, but even so, I find myself wishing I'd had more options. There's the bottom end, represented by places like 39DollarGlasses or EyeBuyDirect; if you just want the cheapest possible glasses, and you aren't too fussy about shape or color, you can do well at sites like those. If you are looking for something more specific, you can take the routes I've used. But it would be great if there was a middle ground of sorts, a place that offered more stylish options at a lower price point.

There's a feature on eyeglasses in the March issue of GQ, and it mentions a new company called Warby Parker. They are taking a very customer-friendly approach to selling glasses online. All styles cost $95, including prescription lenses. If you are not sure what styles will look good on your face, they will send you up to five frames to try on, free of charge. You get a prepaid return label and seven days to send them back. If you decide to order glasses, those will also be free of shipping charges, and they will also include a return label in case anything is not to your liking. If you don't have the details of your prescription, they will contact your eye doctor.

This is all brilliantly simple, and I wish I'd known about them before I ordered my most recent glasses. There's no guarantee they would have what I wanted, but a couple of their styles are pretty close to what I ended up getting. At the moment their selection is a bit limited (currently 19 styles for men, 27 for women) and there's no way to get prescription sunglasses, but I imagine that as time goes by, they will add some new styles and colors.

By the way, I'm not shilling for Warby Parker or anything like that. I don't know them, and they don't know me. I just think this is a good idea that deserves some notice. Everyone likes getting a good deal, and I like sharing good deals with you. I may give them a try at some point anyway, to see if they are as good as they sound.

This Week in Awesome (2/27/10)

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's afternoon goof-off posts, but don't worry--there's plenty more where those came from...

Have you ever been stuck in an airport for hours with nothing to do? All night, alone? I didn't think airports let people hang around the gate areas overnight anymore, but apparently this one did. (YouTube via Consumerist)

Have you ever watched The Office and thought about the colossal legal minefield that Michael Scott and the various other Dunder Mifflin minions tiptoe through week after week, with seemingly no consequences? You're not alone. That's What She Said is written by a group of employment lawyers who do writeups of each episode from their perspective. (Hat tip to SM)

Have you ever wished someone would change the music on the NBC commercial for Jay Leno's impending return to The Tonight Show, to more accurately reflect how most people feel about him now? You're in luck. (YouTube via Consumerist)

And finally, have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch an athletic young woman crush watermelons between her thighs? You haven't? What's wrong with you? (Videogum)

More Friday Funnies?

Oh hell yes. (This is what I get for posting the other thing before looking at The Awl today.)

This is just so amazingly awesome, and it's not even the news story itself (a nudist church, big whoop), but the anchors' discussion of it afterward, that takes it to a whole 'nother level.

Now, those of you who live in the Boston area may be familiar with Scott Montminy, who gives rather colorful traffic reports in the morning on New England Cable News. (I was going to link to his facebook page, but since I'm not a member of facebook, apparently I can't do that. Fine, screw you, facebook. Whatevs.) Well, the traffic reporter in this clip, a young woman named Jennie Stencel, is certainly giving Scott a run in terms of colorfulness. Why isn't more news like this?

Friday Funnies: 'Sup, Bro?

I'm not sure if this is going to become a regular feature or not, but let's see how it goes...

Back at the end of October in TWiA, I linked to The Ed Hardy Boyz on Funny or Die. The second episode finally hit this week, and as you'd expect it's at least as outrageous as the first one, if not more so. Please to enjoy...

Gates and Passes

Back in the very early days of this blog, I wrote about my special MBTA pass and the limitations imposed on its use by the T when they installed their new fare collection system. Basically, I have an unlimited-use pass that could only be used at specific gates in stations, and I thought that was kind of a stupid way of doing things.

Apparently someone at the T also finally concluded that it was stupid. On a recent evening I was on my way home. As I entered the station, people exiting a train were coming through the gate I needed to use, so I stood to one side, waiting for them to pass through. There was a T employee standing on the other side of the gate. He saw me waiting and motioned for me to use one of the other gates.

I explained to him that I couldn't, and showed him my pass so he would understand what I meant. I said, "It won't work at any of the other gates." He said, "Yes it will." Obviously this was news to me. I asked, "When did this happen?" He said, "A while back."

Of course, this is the T, so as far as I know the change was never publicized. I don't remember seeing anything about it on the T's web site. And, you know, the T sent me the pass in the first place, so I know they have my name and address on file, but I guess it's asking too much to expect them to inform me (and other people with these passes) about something that's directly relevant to my use of the pass, something that would make my everyday life a bit easier.

And since behavior patterns tend to get pretty ingrained over time, I'm finding it difficult not to keep using the restricted fare gates in my daily commutes. I think on some level I just don't quite trust that the pass will work on the other gates. But I'm trying.

Watch Wednesday (2/24/10)

 

Can you stand one more Bulova product? I hope so. (I do have a couple more.) This is my only other Accutron. I bought it about ten years ago from an online dealer somewhere in the midwest, but that was at least two computers ago; I neglected to save the bookmark, and I can't remember the name of the place. I do remember that their site was kind of primitive, with all the watch info was laid out in table grids that grew hard to look at after a while.

This is a 1967 watch, with the second generation Accutron movement. One of the biggest shortcomings of the original movement was that it did not offer a date function. The Bulova people were kind of hoping that everyone would be so impressed by the scope of their technological achievement that they wouldn't notice the lack of a date, but after a while they had to offer it in order to remain competitive.

The dial on this watch is a champagne color that did not photograph especially well, but I think you can get the idea. I also like how the "Accutron" is applied to the left side of the dial. Some watch manufacturers were starting to experiment with asymmetrical dial elements at this point in time, opening the door for the increasingly outlandish designs of the 1970s. This watch is not currently running, but all it needs is a fresh battery. I need to take it in to get one installed.

As with the Accutron Deep Sea I featured back at the end of September, the crown is at the 4 position. I have no idea if this served some mechanical or technological purpose, but it looks cool, and quite a few Seikos of the same era also have the crown at 4 (though those have automatic movements and their crowns are more recessed into the side of the case). I've been after a Seiko Sportsmatic of this vintage for a while, but I haven't found the right one yet.

This watch also has a signed Accutron strap and buckle. It's not original to the watch; I found it on eBay shortly after purchasing the watch. Most Accutron straps from this period were lizard grain and had a very glossy finish. This style took a little more searching, but it's more subdued and more to my taste. It may not be exactly like the one it left the factory with, but at least it's close in terms of age, and it may add a little to the value if I ever decide to sell it.

Extra Edition

I've been reading a daily newspaper since I was around ten years old. We always got the paper delivered; back then the Providence Journal published two editions each weekday, and we got the afternoon/evening one.

I remember that when I started college I used to buy the late edition of the Boston Globe out of habit, but eventually multiple daily editions disappeared and I got used to reading the paper in the morning, typically on the commute to work.

I remained a loyal Globe reader for a long time, until some time in the mid-90s. By that point the paper had declined so much that I could no longer tolerate the daily typos and grammatical errors, the stories that didn't provide the information I was looking for, and the complete lack of coverage of certain things. I switched to the New York Times, and it's been my paper of choice ever since.

You can call me a liberal, elitist snob if you want (I don't pretend not to be any of those things). And maybe the Times has lost a little luster too, but it's still an excellent paper. Their coverage of business, the arts, health and science, even their sports writing is top-notch.

But I really missed one thing about reading the Globe: the comics (though, before the Sidekick and "g" sections existed, they were never consistently in the same part of the paper, which was really aggravating). Because the Times Corporation owns the Globe, I soon learned that I was eligible to get the Globe in addition to the Times for a very low weekly rate, less than I'd been paying for just the Sunday Globe. I did it basically so I could read the daily comics again.

[Tangent: when I was about fourteen I got to go with my parents to a family wedding on Long Island. We stayed with my dad's cousin who lived on the outer edge of Queens, and I remember looking through her copy of the Times and asking why the paper didn't have any comics, and her awkwardly trying to explain to me why.]

So I've been getting both papers for over a decade, but I hardly ever look at anything in the Globe other than the comics, though the other sections do come in handy for cleaning up after the dog. But last week I got a letter telling me that my bargain rate on the Globe is going away as of next week. The new rate will be 50% off the cover price, but it would still be a significant monthly jump in cost, and I just don't think it's worth it to pay for a daily paper that I don't read. So I'll have to get used to reading the comics online, at least until those get put behind a paywall.

A Different Kind of Curling

 

She's really good at it...

(Some of you may have already seen this picture on the Mrs.' facebook page, but it was my idea to take the shot and caption it this way, so I claim joint use rights.)

The Razor's Edge

From time to time here, I've talked about various aspects of my grooming regimen. I keep it occasional because I don't want to go overboard, but such things are indeed relevant to men (and women) of style.

A little over a year ago, I visited the topic of shaving, primarily focusing on which razor gave me the best results. I'm pretty consistent with the rest of my shaving habits, but I'm always interested in trying new products. However, I'm not interested in shelling out money to try new products that almost always end up being a letdown. So I approach such decisions carefully.

For quite a while I was a firm adherent of shaving cream applied with a brush. It feels great going on, and the ritual itself is pleasant and masculine. But when I switched to shaving in the shower, the brush thing didn't quite work. Not only was it cumbersome, but the high moisture content of the cream (regardless of which brand I was using) made it too runny to stay put on my face in the shower. I spent a lot of time searching for something thick enough to stay on my face, but still with enough moisture that it wouldn't dry out.

After a lot of trial and error I found Zirh. Their shaving cream is a thick, pale blue paste; a thin layer is all that's needed, and it stayed moist on my face. (They also make a shave gel, but it turns clear when applied to the face, which isn't helpful to someone like me with poor vision; it's meant more for guys who need to work around partial facial hair. I do, however, like their facial cleanser and moisturizer.)

I used Zirh for several years, but I noticed that it was taking a long time to rinse out of my razor, even under the pressure of the shower head, so when I finished my last container, I decided it was time to check out some other products.

I'm a big fan of most things that Kiehl's makes, so it was logical to try their shaving cream, which somehow I'd never done. It's suitably rich, but the shaves were a lot less comfortable than I was used to. With the Zirh cream, I almost never got any nicks or abrasions, but with the Kiehl's they were abundant (and I was using the version formulated for sensitive skin). Chalk it up to the ingredients, I guess.

Burt's Bees started selling a line of men's products a couple of years back. The shaving cream was a huge disappointment, but all the products have a very distinctive, unusual fragrance that I really like. The soap (bar or liquid) is very nice, and there's also a cologne that I will be wearing come spring. You can find the line at Whole Foods, among other places.

Another product I stumbled across on drugstore.com that gave me much better results is something called Cremo Cream. I'd never heard of it before, but a tube was only $8 and it came with a free mirror. It's not much more than a piece of coated cardboard, but that means it's light and I've made good use of it while traveling (it has a suction cup so I can stick it on a hotel bathroom's shower wall). Cremo initially has a cloyingly sweet scent, but it dissipates quickly, and it gave me good shaves.

I had read about a line called Billy Jealousy (a couple of years back Esquire named their Hydroplane shaving cream the best product of its kind), but never saw it for sale anywhere. After reading a couple of other endorsements, my curiosity got the better of me and I ordered some online. It comes in a hard plastic container with a flip cap on the bottom so you can stand it up and open it with one hand.

While not as pastelike as Zirh, it's still very thick and rich. As soon as I spread it on my face the first time, I knew I'd found what I'd been looking for. It's not the absolute closest shave I've ever had (that was courtesy of the old-school Italian brand Proraso, but it also made my face sting something awful), but it's definitely the smoothest.

The before and after phases of shaving are almost as important. I wash my face beforehand with an exfoliating cleanser (the Bigelow brand sold at Bath & Body Works is good, but you can get decent alternatives from Neutrogena or Nivea at the drugstore for less money), then I apply a pre-shave oil. This step isn't necessary for everyone, but I find that it helps keep the razor gliding smoothly. I recommend Em's Place in Oregon for a natural, reasonably-priced oil that can also be used as a massage oil (nudge nudge...). Emily also sells lots of other neat products for men and women.

After shaving, a post-shave soother is a must (for me, anyway). I've tried literally dozens of these, and have almost always been disappointed--too much stinging, not enough soothing. The one product that consistently gives me great results with minimal discomfort is Jack Black's (no connection to the actor) Post-Shave Cooling Gel, which contains aloe, sage, lavender, and other good stuff.

Hopefully my experimenting will be helpful to some of you. And as I've mentioned before, stores like Kiehl's and Sephora (which carries Zirh and Jack Black, among other lines) will provide samples so you can try before you buy. At other stores your mileage may vary, but it never hurts to ask. And if you've used something that you think is really good (or really bad), by all means, sound off in the comments.

This Week in Awesome (2/20/10)

Hi there. You may have noticed that I was just kind of throwing links at you there for a bit. Well, into every life a little work must fall, and as in each month, this was my busy/deadline week at work. But now it's finished.

Lots of good stuff to keep you occupied and (hopefully) amused this weekend, but you know, the weather around here is pretty nice (for February), so why not get outside, and come back to look at this later?

I love the idea of these pet peeve cards, but I think you'd have to be very careful whom you choose to hand them to. Having said that, the "you walk too slow" card featured in the large photo is definitely one of my biggest pet peeves. (Collect3d via Kempt)

Do you know the IKEA song? It's pretty groovy. (Atom Films via Consumerist)

In the grand internet tradition of "you're doing it wrong," give it up for You Suck at Craigslist.

And finally this week, the more skeptical among you may think this isn't real, but I think most of us know better. First instance I've seen of the coined word "cramazing," meaning crazy and amazing. I don't always support this kind of word blending (I'm looking at you, "ginormous"), but I approve of this one. (Videogum)

Friday Funnies: Stupid Ash

Sometimes I come across things that are too good to save until Saturday's TWiA posts. (I know it's only one more day, but just go with it, okay?) This is one of those.

The morning show Good Day LA is often unintentionally hilarious. I know this because of the frequency of clips from it that show up on The Soup. I really kinda wish I lived out there so I could watch it every day, but this is precisely why we have an internet.

But this time the Good Day LA hosts are turning the tables and goofing on a British broadcaster who forgot what day Wednesday was in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. Please to enjoy...

An Appropriate Farewell

This is now about a week old, because when I first saw it I wasn't quite sure if or how I wanted to feature it. But, for lack of any other relevant thoughts at the moment, this will do nicely...

Dan Neil has been writing about cars for the Los Angeles Times for the past seven years or so. He recently accepted a position with The Wall Street Journal. This is the email he sent out to the Times newsroom staff on the eve of his departure. We should all hope to be so eloquent if/when the time comes.

Watch Wednesday (2/17/10)

Let me begin by stating the obvious: I did not take this picture. My little pocket-size digital camera, for whatever reason, will not focus this close to an object. Perhaps I should have considered that before buying it...

But I do own this watch, or more accurately, one just like it. About seven months ago I got an email from my friend DC with this picture attached, and the title "wow, that's vivid." My response was that I liked it and would wear it. A few days went by, and I found myself thinking about the watch. It has one of those self-winding mechanical movements that I've mentioned in previous watch posts, and I'd been wanting to add a modern watch with a Swiss movement to my collection.

I went to the Hamilton web site, and was surprised to learn that the watch was supposedly not sold in the US. But a little more poking around on the interwebs revealed a few places that sold it. But a Swiss-made automatic watch is a little outside my normal price range, so if I was going to splurge on something like this, I wanted to be able to do it in person. The internet is great for many things, but sometimes you want to see a thing in front of you and hold it before buying it.

A short time later I happened to be in a jewelry store, and I saw a different but similar Hamilton. I tried it on, and felt it was close enough. I started looking on eBay and within a couple of weeks I had found one that was slightly used. As soon as it arrived, I knew I'd made the wrong choice. It just didn't have the zing of the orange accents and the huge 12, 3, 6, and 9. I was able to resell it for 80% of what I'd paid. I looked around a little more. I found a store downtown that claimed they could order it, but I couldn't get anyone to return my messages.

A few weeks later, around the end of August, the Mrs. and I went to the mall one night, and I wandered into Tourneau. Tourneau is a big-time watch palace: they carry all the fancy stuff, and if they don't have it, they can most likely get it. I have mixed feelings about the place; I love going in there and looking around, but it's also somewhat depressing to look at amazing stuff that I'll never be able to afford, and once or twice I've been given icy treatment by staff who felt it was their job to affirm that I was unsuited to shop there.

I had checked one of their other locations and they didn't have it, so I was surprised to spot this watch in the display case. It was right before my birthday, and I was feeling like I wanted to get myself a present. The clerk gave me their price. I knew from looking around and talking to people that other jewelry stores typically offered bigger discounts off list price on Hamilton watches. I'd also read an article on Consumerist about how stores were more willing to bargain or haggle due to the recession.

I used this knowledge and information and told the clerk the best price I had been quoted elsewhere. She wanted to know how serious I was about buying it. I told her it depended on the price. She stepped away for a moment to speak to a manager, and I thought, this is like what people go through when they're buying a car. She returned with a number that was within $20 of the one I'd given her, which was close enough. I guess they wanted to make the sale.

It's a heavy sucker, and it has three (?!) crowns. The one by 2 does the usual time-setting, the one by 4 turns that outer ring, and the one on the other side, by 9, turns the dial inside the outer dial, the one with the place names on it. (I keep it set to New York.) It's kind of silly, but it's also kind of cool. And the strip of numbers on the inside next to the 9 is for a second time zone, which is handy when you're traveling to the west coast.

Mardi Gras Memories

Happy Mardi Gras! I had the good fortune to be able to attend the festivities back in 1989, but getting there wasn't so easy, so I thought it might make a good story for today...

A friend had been to New Orleans during the summer of 1988, and made some acquaintances who invited her to return for Mardi Gras. I got invited to go along, but because of my work schedule I could not travel with the others who were going, so I made arrangements to arrive a day or two later. It was suggested that I bring a sleeping bag, as the accommodations would be somewhat spartan.

My flight from Boston to New Orleans was on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, leaving around 6 PM and connecting through Dallas. For once, the weather here was not an issue; I went from work directly to the airport and got on my way easily. But just before I left, the southern part of the country was gripped by unseasonably cold temperatures. I had assumed it would be warm in New Orleans (compared to the weather at home), so I didn't really pack appropriate clothing.

When my flight landed in Dallas later that night, the temperature was 17 degrees. The one other time I'd passed through the DFW airport, during the previous summer on the way to attend a friend's wedding in Los Angeles, it was 107 degrees. Fortunately, I didn't have to venture outside either time, since I was changing planes within the same terminal. I passed by one of the doors leading outside and got a blast of the cold air, and that was more than enough.

The flight from Dallas to New Orleans left around 11 PM, and it was less than half full. (This was the time I was able to lie on my side across the three seats in the aisle and sleep, which I referenced in one of my recent posts). No one was able to pick me up at the airport, but I had been instructed to catch a shuttle van that ran to some of the downtown hotels (about a 30-minute ride, and the least expensive option) and catch a cab from a hotel to the house where we were staying. This was a good idea in theory, but getting dropped off alone, with heavy luggage (no wheels back then) and my silly sleeping bag, in the middle of the French Quarter, in the midst of teeming throngs of Mardi Gras celebrants, in the prime drunkness hours after midnight, was disorienting and a little unnerving.

These days it's highly unlikely I would find myself in a completely unfamiliar place without any resources, but I wasn't yet a seasoned traveler. I didn't have any maps, I didn't have any sort of guidebooks, and I didn't have any sense of which direction I needed to be going. The few taxis that I saw already had passengers in them. I didn't panic, but I was at a bit of a loss. But I did have enough sense to figure out that I would be better off getting away from the crowds.

After going a couple of blocks away from the center of the revelry, I was finally able to wave down a taxi. I gave him the address, and before long I was being dropped off. The other part of the instructions from my friends was that when I arrived, they would most likely be out at one of the big balls given by the krewes (the social organizations that sponsor and organize the Mardi Gras parades), but that someone would be at home to let me in. So I'm sure it's no surprise to you that no one was home.

So, just to recap, it's now around 2 AM, I'm standing on the porch of this empty house (which, while locked, has lights on in every room that I can see), I have no idea what sort of neighborhood I'm in, I'm tired, it's cold (not as cold as in Dallas, but maybe 35 degrees), and I don't have a winter coat. Now I admit, that part was really stupid. For whatever reason, I'd decided to travel wearing a shirt, sweater, and denim jacket. It's a long time ago, so I don't remember all the details, but it's possible we'd caught a slightly warmer spell at home, or I just didn't want to be burdened with a heavy outer coat.

But I did have my stupid sleeping bag. I'd brought another light coat with me, so I put that on on top of my other layers, got inside the sleeping bag, assumed a sitting position on the porch with my back against the house, and eventually fell asleep. My friends and the people who lived in the house rolled in around 5 AM. They assured me that when they had left, there were other people still at the house so they thought I'd be able to get in.

The rest of the trip was great; by that evening I'd forgotten all about my unexpected, improvised camp-out.

Shopping Roulette

As someone who approaches shopping as part sport, I frequently have to "stalk" particular items that I'm interested in, by waiting for them to go on sale, or by locating them through an alternative source such as eBay or Style Forum. Sometimes, none of these options is successful.

Back in the fall J. Crew had some flannel workshirts. The fabric didn't really feel like traditional flannel to me, but it was still nice and soft, and I liked the patterns, particularly a light gray plaid accented with red. (Gray is pretty much my favorite color for clothing.) I figured I'd pick one up after Christmas when everything from the fall got marked down, but the shirt was sold out on the web site and in stores by around Thanksgiving.

I don't know if this is normal or not, but I suspect that maybe a buyer underestimated the shirt's popularity. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago in another post, and I thought that was the end of it. But one day last week, while poking around the sale section on the J. Crew web site, the shirt was back, and the only available size was my size, so naturally I ordered one right away.

After I'd placed the order, I wondered if I would actually receive it, because it was sold out again a short time later, and I know that weird things can happen when inventory gets low. I've read stories about canceled orders on blogs like J. Crew Aficionada. (Yes, there are people who devote their time to blogging about one particular store's merchandise, and there are people like me who read such blogs. Deal with it.)

The next day I got the email saying my order had shipped, and I more or less stopped thinking about it. I mean, there's always a chance that the UPS truck could crash, but something like that's pretty remote. On Friday I checked the tracking and saw that that package would be delivered that day. Someone in my office brought it by my desk around 3 PM. I opened the package and... they had sent me a different shirt. Not just a different one, but one I'd never seen before on the web site, in a catalog, or in a store. It was a flannel shirt, but it wasn't gray, and it was a completely different style.

I called customer service, and sadly the shirt I wanted was not available anywhere, but since they had made a mistake they refunded my shipping cost, and I returned the wrong shirt to the Copley store on my way home from work. Guess I'll just have to keep looking.

This Week in Awesome (2/13/10)

Whoops, had that feeling I was forgetting something... ah well, kind of a busy day.

So, you know how when you type something into the Google, it offers suggestions based on other people's searches? That's called auto-complete, and there's a site that collects them. (Consumerist)

I fear the day is coming when Auto-Tune will rule the world, but for now it's good for some fun. Someone with more free time than you or me has been auto-tuning news clips, with suitably amusing results. (YouTube via Cult of Mac)

In the UK, a web site renamed the country's most accident-prone street Accident Avenue, and shrouded everything on it in bubble wrap. (Confused via Autoblog)

Someone took an ad for a furniture store with merchandise of dubious taste, and dubbed in their own audio track. (Consumerist)

And finally (just in time for Valentine's Day, I suppose), a compilation of 10 exceedingly strange men's underwear commercials. (The Frisky via Racked)

Progress Report: Braces

Today marks a year since I got my braces. I was scheduled to go into the dentist's office a week from Monday to get my wires changed, but as it happened, my upper wire shifted a few days ago and the right end was poking me, so I went in yesterday after work. He went ahead and changed the upper wire, and now I don't have to go back for another month.

The dentist is quite pleased with my progress; he said my teeth are 90 to 95 percent of the way to where they ought to be, and he expects that I'll be able to get the braces off in four or five more months. That's actually a little sooner than I'd expected, but I will be happy when they are finally removed. Eating is still more challenging than it used to be.

One byproduct of this process is that I am now much more attentive to how long and how thoroughly I brush my teeth, and I'll continue that after the braces come off.

Peace, Love, and Soul

I don't bother with any of the pocket lint that's normally shown on VH1, but they did a very worthwhile documentary about Soul Train that premiered over the weekend. I should have clued you into it ahead of time, but I didn't know about it myself until after it had aired. I was able to record one of the subsequent showings and we watched it last night.

The first music I recall from my childhood is Motown--The Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Jackson 5. My dad loved R&B and soul, so we also had Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Marvin Gaye, and Sly & The Family Stone on regular rotation in our house. Naturally Soul Train was a show my dad would want to watch.

I can't say I remember us watching it every week, but that was probably because my father was a police officer, and often worked nights and weekends. So we were probably catching the show if it was on when he happened to be home. But I do remember being ten or twelve and getting an introduction to the idea of live performance and the visual aspects of music along with an appreciation of the artists and their work.

The VH1 show, Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America, did a nice job of placing the genesis of Soul Train in the context of the larger social and cultural changes taking place around the beginning of the 1970s. It was first nationally syndicated in 1971, and stayed on the air for 35 years. As of now the documentary does not appear to be scheduled to air again, and I don't think it's available anywhere to watch online, which is unfortunate. If I find it in the listings again I'll post an update.

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)