Car Stuff: Family History #2

(This post was delayed due to technical issues: our printer has become extremely temperamental about scanning things, so I was forced to take pictures of this picture with my phone.)

This was my family's 1970 Plymouth Sport Suburban, which my parents acquired early in 1972, when this picture was taken. It was our "family truckster" for a number of years at a time when full-size station wagons were at roughly the height of their popularity.

Prior to getting this car, we'd had two Chevrolet wagons, a 1965 Bel Air in "Artesian turquoise" (which was closer to aqua) and a 1966 Caprice in white with wood siding (very much like this, but with a blue interior). The Plymouth also had the distinction of being the newest car my parents had owned up to that point.

Although this was Plymouth's top of the line wagon for 1970, it was not equipped with lots of the stuff we take for granted as standard on our cars today. It didn't have air conditioning, the radio was AM only, the windows were manual (except for the one in the tailgate); such luxuries were still optional on most cars at that time. Since it was a used car, my parents did not have the choice of whether or not to get the third seat; this car didn't have one. It was not strictly necessary, as we were perfectly content to ride in the "way back" sitting on the hard floor, but I'm sure if it had had the third seat, we would have made use of it.

I remember being pretty excited about it when we got it; about the only thing that I thought was cooler at the time was the new 1972 version, which I'd seen an example of either in the showroom at the dealership or on the lot, plus in the brochures I enthusiastically took home; even though I knew our budget would not allow for the purchase of a new car, I guess my young brain wanted to imagine the possibility of a quick trade of this car for an even newer one.

In hindsight the '70 was much better looking than the '72 (see for yourself). With the passage of so many years, it's become my favorite car of all the ones we had while I was growing up. That's partly because I like how it looks and partly because we went so many places in it: Disney World, Cape Cod, Lake Winnipesaukee. There's one other picture I was able to scan, from our Florida vacation:

That's my grandmother, who accompanied us on our voyage. This was taken at a rest stop/welcome center just over the border when coming into the state from Georgia on route 95. Taking family trips by car is one of those things that it seems people don't do as much anymore, but when I was growing up it was much more common than traveling by air, at least for average families like mine. (I did not travel on an airplane until I was nearly 21.)

This Week in Awesome (9/7/13)

It's not very often that the Red Sox and Patriots play games at the exact same time, so get your channel-flipping thumbs limbered up...

Another TV mashup brings together two of my favorite shows. (Uproxx via Basket of Kisses)

This week's time-lapse: building the new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. (Laughing Squid)

This one's a bit long, but definitely worth it for movie fans. I've never seen the movie in question, but it's now conveniently available on Netflix streaming, so I'm going to remedy that soon. (BuzzFeed via The Hairpin)

Is it worth 20 minutes of your time to watch bloopers from season 5 of Parks and Recreation? If you're a fan of the show, definitely. (Uproxx via Videogum)

And finally this week, a bit of a deep dive into local infrastructure, specifically a highway that did not get built. Ever wondered about the mural on the back of Micro Center in Cambridge? This will explain it. It is interesting (though not necessarily in a positive way) to think about what our area would be like if these projects had been completed. (Cambridge Historical Society via Universal Hub; if you really want to get lost for a couple of hours, the original UH post that led me to the CHS site is here)

Retro Video Unit (9/6/13)

In the portion of the internet's attic where old music videos are stored, there are songs that I've always liked for which there are videos that I have never seen. That's the case with today's nugget, "Fade to Grey" by Visage.



I'll admit to knowing very little about the group itself, but I've been familiar with the song for more than 30 years. The video certainly has its share of oddness, but I think it makes quite an interesting cultural artifact from the early 1980s.

Rooftop with a View

Last Friday we were in the city with our house guest. She was taking the ferry to Hingham to see some other friends, so we walked around the waterfront for a while. After she went to board the boat we headed back across the channel via the Seaport Boulevard bridge, heading toward South Station.

As we turned onto Atlantic Avenue I remembered reading that the office building on that corner has an observatory that is open to the public, so I mentioned this and we went inside. We had to show IDs and the guard took down our names, then we were directed to take the elevator to the 14th floor.

Once there we turned a corner and saw a door leading outside. The "observatory" is just an open area of the roof, which was fine that day (though it was warm and quite humid) but would be something to keep in mind if you're thinking about visiting.

It's not nearly the tallest building in the area, but how often do you get to go on the roof of any downtown building? I did take a few photos with my phone camera.

This is the view looking roughly north over the Rose Kennedy Greenway, with the off- and on-ramps for route 93 in the foreground. The Harbor Towers buildings are in the middle, with the New England Aquarium behind them (out of view from this direction) and the Marriott Long Wharf hotel just barely visible in the background.

The view to the south is somewhat more open (for now at least):

 

This area certainly looks quite different than when I worked over here in the 1990s. The open spaces have been gradually filled in by development. I would imagine that the parking lots between Northern Avenue and Seaport Boulevard will eventually be replaced by buildings as well.

If you are interested in visiting this site yourself, it's open during business hours Monday to Friday. The building is at 470 Atlantic Avenue, adjacent to the Intercontinental Hotel.

Milestone

I turned 50 last week. There's a lot of significance attached to that, whether we like it or not. When you turn 40 you figure that, roughly speaking, you've reached the approximate halfway point of your life. Add another decade to that and, on average, most people will be past their halfway point.

Of course there are exceptions. My paternal grandmother lived to 90 and her mother lived to her mid-90s, so genetically I have some longevity in my favor. But the odds are also much higher that one's quality of life in the "second half" will be worse than the first. It's hard not to start taking stock of one's health, and all the things that could go wrong.

I don't smoke and I drink responsibly and in moderation. My blood pressure is reasonably low, my cholesterol numbers are decent (but could be better), and I don't have arthritis or any bad joints (yet). On the other hand, I am lazy and don't exercise. I am slightly overweight, though my weight has been stable for nearly a decade. My father developed diabetes in adulthood, as did his mother, so I have to watch out for that possibility, but I don't have the greatest diet and I snack a lot.

I'm at much higher risk for skin cancer than the average person, so I have to be vigilant and see a dermatologist twice a year. (I hate heat and humidity, so not going outside isn't a problem for me.) Both my grandfathers died of lung cancer; as a child both my parents smoked and I was exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke, before anyone realized how harmful that is.

I could arrange these things on a board in pro and con fashion, to see the bigger picture. My lack of physical activity will probably end up affecting my quality of life in twenty years or so in terms of mobility, and may also put me at higher risk for heart disease. This is serious, and I know I should do something about it.

But today, right now, I feel good. I have minor issues, but overall my health is good. I know people who have had hip replacements before reaching 50, and thankfully I haven't had to deal with anything like that. It's somewhat true that age is not a number but a state of mind; there are things we can't control, and things we can.

Part of me wants to see what would happen if I just kept going the way I am, without making the effort to exercise, but it's not like I'd get a do-over. I guess it's time for me to think about taking better care of myself.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #4

I've been away from the blog for a few days, as we had a house guest and a bunch of activities going on through the long weekend. Those of you who may have found your way here via Universal Hub and decided to have another look are about to find out what else I ramble about...

This is another neighborhood find, a mid-1960s Ford pickup that I pass by while walking to the grocery store. It's registered and has plates, and I know it is driven because I've seen it parked facing toward the street as well as like this.

I would venture that the paint is not an original color. It seems more like a 1950s color (I remember seeing 1950s Chevy pickups painted this shade), but you never know. The wheels could have come from the factory painted red, or these might be from a completely different vehicle.

(Edit: a google search says turquoise was available, but it's a somewhat deeper shade; this is definitely more of what I'd call aqua.)

This basic design was around for model years 1961-66, but the first three years had side sheet metal that was integrated into the cab; the gap between cab and bed identified this one as at least a '64-'66, and the side trim pegs it as specifically a '64. There was an all-new design for '67, and my father had one of those for a while, the kind with the bulging rear fenders and flat interior bed sides.

Some time after I took this picture, I passed by it again on my way to the store, and I was going to get another shot of the front, but the whole front half of the truck was covered by a tarp, so either it's being worked on or there are water leakage issues in the cab. Those old rubber window seals can dry up and turn to dust after half a century, after all. I should go investigate again and see where things are.

Driver's Ed

Boston drivers are notorious for their lack of patience. If someone behind us beeps when a traffic light turns green, the Mrs. typically makes a comment to herself, or me if I'm in the car.

Yesterday, though, was different. We were at a T intersection, coming up the vertical part of the T and waiting to turn left. This particular intersection is tricky, and it should probably have a traffic light, but around here things often stay uncorrected like that a long time. (How long did it take for a signal to get installed at Packard's Corner?)

Without a light, we were forced to wait until the road was clear. A car came up behind us and before long the driver beeped the horn. Then again, then again. Beep. Beep, Beep. The Mrs. leaned out her window and yelled back at the other driver, "I can't go! There are cars turning in front of me!" (Her argument was bolstered at that exact moment by a car that turned and came past both of us. She gestured at it in case the other driver somehow hadn't seen it.) "If you don't feel like waiting, feel free to go past me!"

No more beeping.

Instructions

I'm enjoying finding these random signs. I'll keep posting them as I find them. I spotted this one at Commonwealth Books downtown:

No nonsense, no apologies, to the point. But of course, in a better world such a sign would not be necessary.

Buyback Blues

A couple of weeks ago I happened to catch a TV news report about turning in older electronic gadgets for cash. Today as I was doing some house cleaning I came across a couple of my older gadgets and decided to look them up. I like the idea that unused electronics can be reused or at least recycled instead of just being discarded.

One of the better-known sites for buying back used electronic items is Gazelle, which happens to be based locally. I went on the site to look up a smartphone, but it's not one of the brands they currently accept for trade. I looked for a different phone, but while they do take the brand, they don't take this particular model.

And so it went with an older iPod and a Palm PDA. It's sort of our modern equivalent of the old textbook buyback game from when I was in college. There may be other sites that would accept some of my items in trade, but I haven't explored further yet. I guess I tend to hold onto my electronics too long. Maybe I'll have better luck trying to sell them myself.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #3

I love that there are cars like this around my neighborhood:

The land barge above is a 1965 Chrysler 300 four-door hardtop. You know, "I got me a Chrysler, it's as big as a whale/and it's about to set sail..." This is quite possibly what they had in mind when they wrote the song.

I see a car like this sitting in a driveway and assume that someone inherited it from a grandparent. Clearly someone cares enough about it to invest in a garage for it. Maybe it wasn't in such great condition when they got it; it has definitely been repainted, because I can assure you that shade of blue is not a color Chrysler offered in '65. And those aftermarket exhaust pipes indicate that it has probably also undergone some engine modifications. Speaking of which, these things had enormous standard engines, with an even larger one available; either way, the owner is spending dearly on fuel.

I would prefer to see a car like this brought back to its original condition, but if the choice is between modified and sent to the scrap yard, I'll take modified. And this one is close enough to original that its alterations are not egregious.

This Week in Awesome (8/24/13)

Whoops, pretty much forgot about this all weekend...

If you prefer your designs minimalist you should enjoy these posters, which are available to purchase. (Deadspin via Kempt)

Think about how many outfits James Bond has worn over the course of all the movies, then go have a look over here. (Laughing Squid)

How's the weather up there? (BuzzFeed)

Cats and boats? That just made my day. PB, what do you think? (Dappered Weekend Dossier)

And finally this week, it's easy to forget that any city is constantly changing and evolving. Being able to look back at how things were before helps put the past and present in perspective. The city of Boston has posted a batch of pictures showing the construction of many of the buildings around Government Center, and some of the demolition that had to occur to make way for them. (Note: some of the thumbnail images aren't loading on that page, but the full-size images appear if you click on the smaller ones.) (City of Boston archives on flickr via Universal Hub)

Retro Video Unit (8/23/13)

I'd imagine everyone has seen this one, but that's no reason not to post it. "Sledgehammer" was pretty impressive technically when it premiered in 1986, and it's still a good song. (Isn't it about time for tab-collar shirts to make another comeback?)

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Have you ever broken up with a website?

Until quite recently I was an avid reader of Jalopnik, a car news and enthusiast site. Their editorial approach and attitude are informative but also irreverent, and a thriving community of commenters always adds value to the stories the site posted. The rapid pace at which Jalopnik posts content meant I had to visit the site several times a day to keep up.

Jalopnik is part of a company called Gawker, which runs more than half a dozen other sites covering the media, celebrity gossip, computers and tech, sci-fi, and other topics. The design of all the sites is governed by a corporate template, which is redesigned frequently—too frequently, in my opinion.

The previous redesign resulted in a terrific look, with a wide text area and ample amounts of space between and on the sides of posts as they ran down the main page. Headlines were large and easy to read, and images were even larger. Information about the articles' authors and the categories of the stories was logically arranged and clearly presented just under the images, and it was quite attractive.

And then they broke something that didn't need fixing. Stories got crammed closer together, images shrank back to thumbnail size, the entire left third of the main page was given to a column of "top stories" links, which resulted in everything else being squeezed over to the right. Some stories have links to one or two related stories with thumbnail images, which intrudes on the text from the right side of the page and pushes it to the left. Article author and category/tag information has been shrunken down and is rendered in a gray text that now sits above stories rather than below; it's much more difficult to see against the site's light gray background. It's a complete disaster.

I've been reading and enjoying Jalopnik for at least five years, but this redesign is so dismal that I've decided to stop visiting. This isn't an easy decision; websites get redesigned all the time, but usually it's to make them better. This has the feeling of change merely for the sake of change, and even if that's not true, it still makes the site far less pleasant to view and read and, unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that it's no longer worth my time.

It's hard to disengage from something that's become a habitual part of my daily web reading, but I visit a number of other car-related sites as well, so I won't miss anything important. I will miss the specific Jalopnik tone, but I guess I'll get over that with time. This happened once before with the tech site Engadget, and I've done fine without visiting that site. And of course, there will inevitably be another Gawker redesign at some point down the road, so perhaps they will eventually undo what they did this time around.

Back to the Shack

We hadn't been back to Shake Shack since it opened back in the winter, but I had definitely been thinking about going. Yesterday the Mrs. made the suggestion out of the blue, and of course I wasn't going to object.

We arrived right around 5 pm and there was no line, only a couple of people ahead of us. This is probably because it was early for dinner, the fuss had died down somewhat, and it's the time of year when many people are on vacation. The wait seemed about the same as we were leaving.

On my first visit the "house beer" brewed for Shake Shack by Brooklyn Brewing was not yet available, so I got to have that this round. It's perhaps somewhat reminiscent of Brooklyn Lager, but that's certainly not a bad thing. They also have Peak Organic Ale and a selection of bottled beers.

So if you haven't tried it yet, this is a good time to go. Don't forget to check the Custard Calendar (or just check the menu on the wall) for the special daily flavors, because you'll probably want dessert. It's frozen custard, which is kind of like a thicker, richer soft-serve (though my description isn't really doing it justice).

Helpful

I saw this sign at a Stop & Shop a couple of nights ago:

It's nice to know they are looking out for their customers, trying to help us remember the things we need.

Car Stuff: Family History

Recently I had the opportunity to go through some old family photo albums. There are a few pictures of the cars my parents owned when I was growing up, which I brought home and scanned. These were not high-quality images to begin with, and are at least 40 years old, but at least they were kept in albums, which limits fading somewhat.

My parents got married in September 1960. For their honeymoon they drove to Florida. At the time the interstate highway system was a new endeavor, and route 95 was still either under construction or in the planning stages, so they took US 1 all the way.

Both my parents had cars at the time, but they sold both and pooled the money to buy a newer used car in hope of having a mechanically trouble-free trip. (As far as I know, they did.) This is the car they bought, a 1957 Chevrolet two-door sedan:

And that's my father, age 20, sitting on the roof while the car is parked on Daytona Beach.

I had always thought this car was a Bel Air due to its side trim, but I learned only recently from reading comments on Curbside Classic (but can't recall the specific post where I read them) that the Two-Ten, the middle model in the range that year, was available with the same trim, minus the horizontally ribbed metal panel that went inside the wedge area at the rear (Two-Tens with this side trim had the wedge area painted to match the car's roof, as seen here).

These Chevys were immensely popular cars when new, and have always been of the most popular choices for hot rodding or customizing (more so when I was growing up). Today it's probably more difficult to find an example that has been kept in original condition, though those definitely show up at car shows. There are far more interesting old cars, but few as well-known and recognizable.

This Week in Awesome (8/17/13)

Today I couldn't get back to sleep after getting up to walk the dog, but I'd had only five hours of sleep before getting up to walk the dog. Does not compute...

Probably the last Breaking Bad-related thing I will link to, but I reserve the right to change my mind. (Slate via TV Tattle)

If you're into etymology you will probably find this interesting. The only specific one I can remember from my time in school is "burnouts." (The Morning News via The Hairpin)

Are mashups the internet's most lasting contribution to our culture? Probably not, but some of them are still clever. (Laughing Squid)

I have recommended checking out Grantland in the past, and here's another reason why. (Note: probably of interest mainly to TV fans.)

And finally this week, another excellent TV-related article, definitely of interest to fans of Mad Men, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and The Wire. Let the debate resume. (Oh look, I mentioned BB again after all...) (The Hollywood Reporter via TV Tattle)

Closet Annex

You all know I have a lot of clothing. Our apartment has minimal closet space, so I gradually gave up on the idea of being able to keep everything in one place. I bought a pop-up closet so I could store suits and other things I don't wear often in the basement. Later I added a second one for winter coats and other out of season items.

But I bought cheap ones, and I made the mistake of overloading them. Gradually their top frames warped from the weight, one tipped over, and the other blew out its back seam. A couple of months ago I bought two replacements from The Container Store that have heavier-weight canvas exterior shells. I put them in the basement and kind of forgot about them.

With the very pleasant weather we've been having this week, it's nice and comfortable in the basement, so I decided Thursday that I had procrastinated long enough, and headed downstairs to put the things together. While doing so I also set aside some things that I no longer want, and some things I want to try to sell. I also did a little reorganization of how I was storing things.

The new pop-ups have the same sort of frames as the old ones, so I decided to pay more attention to how much I put in them so they are not overloaded. My suits and sport coats are now hanging with enough space that they won't get wrinkled. Plus, after shifting everything around, I realized that I had enough usable pieces left over from the two old ones that I was able to cobble together a third unit, which I'm using to hold all the things that are going to be sold.

The new units also came with corrugated panels for the tops and bottoms, so it's possible to store things that are in boxes, like a couple of straw hats I have. Again I wouldn't use these "shelves" for anything heavy, but it's nice to have the additional area.

It felt good to do something productive, but I still have a lot of stuff downstairs that I have to deal with.

Stars & Barfs

Remember when I was talking about Bonobos? Here's something to haunt your dreams: they are also responsible for these:

Who would wear these pants, Keith Lockhart? Also, this guy might want to get his hemmed, or consider a shorter inseam.

Dog Days

Yesterday was our dog's 12th birthday. We know her exact date of birth because she was a racing dog and all their biographical data is carefully maintained.

She has slowed down somewhat with age; getting down and getting up again require visibly more effort for her. We've been giving her a joint supplement for over a year, and it helps to an extent. I ordered a different kind that is intended specifically for senior dogs, and as soon as her other one is finished in a couple more days we'll start her on the new one and see if there's any additional boost.

Her appetite has also decreased slightly, causing her to lose a couple of pounds and look more bony than she did before, so we've been augmenting her food with things like scrambled eggs and banana slices. Shredded cheese always works, too.

But for her age, her health is quite good. She still enjoys getting outside and sniffing as much of the neighborhood as possible, she enjoys her daily treats, and she enjoys sleeping on the couch. We've had her for seven years, and she's having the comfortable, lazy retirement she deserves. We think we're lucky we got her.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #2

I've been grabbing pictures with my phone of old cars that I've come across, and now I have a use for them. I'll be posting them here on Mondays, though some weeks I will deviate and do something different.

I came across this relic of the 1980s in the parking lot of our local Ocean State Job Lot three or four months ago. It was the middle of the afternoon and the lot was pretty empty, but this car's owner has seemingly parked it strategically to avoid potential contact from an adjacent car door.

This is a Pontiac Safari; this basic vehicle was produced from model years 1977 to 1989, but the fact that its side says only Safari and it wears no other nameplate, such as Grand Safari, Bonneville Safari, or Parisienne Safari, indicates that it's from one of the final three years of production, 1987-89. By that point minivans had become quite popular for families that needed both passenger and cargo space. They were smaller and more efficient than older designs like this, while offering comparable interior space. Large wagons like this were fading away, but were kept in the lineup because they had long since earned back their tooling costs and any sales, even just a few thousand per year, were profitable.

But in the late 1970s, cars like this were everywhere. I used to get a ride to school sometimes from a classmate whose father had a version of this car in pale yellow, but without the fake wood adorning the sides. This car was also available at the time as a Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, or Buick Estate Wagon, and later I rode with another classmate who drove his mother's Buick version, white with the woodgrain sides and a plush red cloth interior, quite a classy ride.

The front fender of this car shows discoloration of the vinyl applique; it's possible the fender was replaced and this is from a different vehicle. The rear wheel opening also shows signs of some work, possibly body filler. But the wheel covers are nice and the dark blue looks good under all the dust; it wouldn't take too much effort to get this car cleaned up and looking sharp.

This Week in Awesome (8/10/13)

We saw The To-Do List last night, which takes place in the summer of 1993 and has lots of good music from that time period... I was especially psyched to hear "I Don't Know Why I Love You" by The House of Love; look for it as a future Retro Video.

This week's time-lapse focuses on European architecture. Cool. (Vimeo Staff Picks)

I'm sure almost all of us can relate to the sentiment behind this. (Well Spent)

There have been plenty of Breaking Bad parodies floating around (the show's final eight episodes begin Sunday), but I particularly enjoyed this one. (Funny or Die via TV Tattle)

And finally this week, Nick Offerman helps you get caught up on your summer reading assignments. (Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Retro Video Unit (8/9/13)

Some old songs have videos that I wasn't aware of, like this one from Toronto band Martha and the Muffins. Yes, it's "Echo Beach":

Silly Monkey

I've been getting catalogs from Bonobos lately. If you don't know, Bonobos is a men's clothing brand that started up a few years ago, promising to offer better-fitting pants. I believe they have succeeded, if you are under 35 or have a very athletic build.

Since then they have expanded their product line considerably, now offering a wide selection of dress and business casual shirts, suit separates, pants in a less trim fit, jeans, outerwear, and plenty of shoes and accessories. They seem to be aiming to position themselves as a one-stop shopping solution for men who want to step up their wardrobe without expending too much effort. Okay, fine. I admit that I am somewhat turned off by this approach, but I am an exception with regard to shopping. I haven't paid much attention to what Bonobos was doing because I felt that, as with many other brands' offerings, I have aged out of the target market.

That's not all. They opened a store on Newbury Street a while ago (last year, I think), but as with all their other brick-and-mortar locations, you can't actually buy anything there. It's what they call a "guideshop," where you can try on items, get advice, and then place an order for what you want. (Isn't that what Dell did back in the "Dude" days?) I don't know, I guess it eliminates having to keep a substantial inventory on hand, but this just seems needlessly complicated to me considering you can order from their website with free shipping and free returns and try on your purchases in the comfort of your home.

They got a fair bit of style-blog coverage a couple of years back when they launched a collection of American-made jeans priced at $125. I'm sure that seems like a lot to some of you, but compared to what else was available at the time, it was a reasonably impressive effort.

(You might remember that I wrote a while back about Lands' End's American-made jeans for $95, and suggested you use one of their plentiful coupon codes; those jeans have since been marked down to an eye-opening $55, and LE is currently offering an extra 30% off one item, which would bring them to less then $40! As of now all sizes are still available in both washes.)

But back to Bonobos. (Have I mentioned that I think that's a really stupid name for a clothing line?) I got a catalog a couple of days ago. I decided to give it a quick glance before putting it into the recycling container, and found these "weekday warrior" non-iron cotton pants:

That's right, the days of the week are embroidered into the inner waistband. Five colors, five work days. (I am highly disappointed because the catalog has a group shot of all five that I wanted to show you, but I can't get my scanner to work at the moment.) I guess it's just a goof. I mean, I hope so. I really do.

By the way, these cost $98 a pair, so if you really want to outfit yourself for the whole work week with day-labeled pants from Bonobos, it will set you back just under $500, which seems pretty silly to me.

Update: after some further fiddling, my printer decided it would scan to a flash drive but still not to my desktop, but I now have the image I originally wanted to share:

Sale Still in Progress

Nearly a year ago, I posted some items for sale on Style Forum, mainly some nice pieces of outerwear that had belonged to my father-in-law. These were nice items, many of which still had tags on them. My father-in-law had a thing for outerwear, even though he lived in southern California; either he was planning to pull a Grizzly Adams and live in the wilderness, or possibly he thought he might end up moving back to the east coast someday.

I didn't get any responses initially, and kind of stopped thinking about it. Nearly two months later a guy contacted me with interest in two of the coats. Since he happened to be local, we arranged a time for him to come by the house and try them on. We worked out a deal for buying both items, and he went home happy.

A few days ago, someone else contacted me with an offer for one of the remaining items. By now I had really forgotten about it, but I had removed the others from the listing when they sold, so I knew that anything he was asking about was still available. He came over this evening and bought the coat.

There are still a few items left, including a vintage Burberry single-breasted trench coat and a vintage cashmere topcoat that I wore in college (that needs a little attention from a good tailor). Take a look at the listing, and if you're interested in anything get in touch.

You Can Say That on Cable

Stephen Colbert gives a demonstration (with a little help from Hugh Laurie) of why broadcast TV networks want to be freed from content restrictions.

(Edit: sorry about the autoplay business, let's try this instead.)

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #1

I should have realized a long time ago that it was a good idea to include car stuff here. The car show posts and last week's celebration of the '61 Chrysler station wagon finally got it through to me.

As it happens, I have some pictures I've collected on my phone of interesting cars I have come across in various places, so that's where I'm going to start. I may also intersperse those with other content depending on how I'm feeling on a given Monday. All right then...

That's a 1965 Ford Falcon Futura convertible that I spotted on a street in Winthrop, MA last summer. The back bumper has clearly had more than incidental contact with a solid object, but otherwise the car looks pretty good for going on 50 years old.

Ford introduced the compact Falcon for the 1960 model year, right around the time General Motors was bringing out the Cheverolet Corvair and Chrysler was debuting the Valiant (which would soon become the Plymouth Valiant). By the time this car came out, all of the "Big Three" would also have intermediate-size models—bigger than the compacts, smaller than their full-size cars.

Ford also found huge success with the Mustang, which was a humble Falcon under the skin, just dressed up in nicer threads. The Mustang was so popular that people lost interest in the sportier Falcon models like this one. When the Falcon was redesigned for '66, it came only as a two-door or four-door sedan or a station wagon. The same thing happened with the redesign of the '67 Valiant (hardtops and convertibles wore their own sheet metal and became Barracudas) and the '68 Chevy Nova (the Camaro had come out in '67), and both the Valiant and Nova did away with their wagons as well.

Still, this is a nice-looking car, its mechanicals are dead simple, it would be a blast to run around in for the summer, and it shares a lot of parts with its Mustang sibling, for which there are all kinds of reproduction parts available. If you were looking for a way into vintage car ownership, a car like this would be a far less painful (and less expensive) way to start compared to many other choices (like, um a '61 Chrysler Town & Country?).

This Week in Awesome (8/3/13)

Shark Week has arrived, as well as the runup to the final Breaking Bad episodes, so something for everyone coming up this week, more or less...

A trailer for a fake movie based on a cartoon that aired on MTV in the '90s. Got it? It's basically an excuse for Aubrey Plaza to bring to life an animated character to which she has an uncanny resemblance.(College Humor)

Speaking of MTV, they just marked their 32nd birthday, and boston dot com was nice enough to remind us of the first 15 videos they played back in 1981 (most people know what the first was, but I didn't know any of the others).

Do you like maps? I like maps. I even like maps of things that never got built. (Wired via Universal Hub; the blog from which that material came is here, if you're interested in more)

Speaking of Breaking Bad, someone went to a great deal of trouble to create this (admittedly very condensed) recap of what's happened on the show. (Laughing Squid)

And finally this week, I don't usually go in for this sort of thing, but these kids are amazing. (The Hairpin; more here)

Fan Fail

Have you ever heard the thing about reversing the direction of your ceiling fan? You are supposed to run it counterclockwise in warm weather to facilitate cooling.

I was having an email conversation with APB about air conditioning and fans, and she mentioned this. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, at least not in our apartment. We have one ceiling fan, in the kitchen. I use a stand fan next to the AC unit in the room adjoining the kitchen to try to move some of the cooler air into the kitchen.

I tried running the ceiling fan along with it, but it made the kitchen warmer. And out of curiosity, I switched the fan back to clockwise and tried it again. It also caused the kitchen to get warmer, but not as quickly as when it was going counterclockwise. If the room was larger, or if the opening between the rooms was wider, I think the results might be different.

Beer Hunting

Late last year, Narragansett Beer started releasing "private stock" limited-edition craft brews, beyond their seasonal offerings like Porter and Summer Ale. I managed to miss both of the first two; I went to both of the large local stores I tend to buy beer at, and neither one had either of them.

Then I happened to be over in Somerville's Ball Square one day and went into Ball Square Fine Wines, where Giuseppe from An Affordable Wardrobe works when he's not out scouring thrift stores for overlooked gems. He told me that his store had carried both of the previous limited editions, and observed that "this neighborhood is full of beer geeks."

The third limited beer, Imperial Black Steam, was released a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to make my way over to Ball Square again last Saturday and got a bottle. I enjoyed it last night with a burrito from Anna's. It was a lot like a stout, though at about 9% alcohol by volume it was definitely stronger than Guinness. A bit heavy for summer drinking, but still worth tasting.

An Observation

Hiccups seem to go away as soon as you stop thinking about trying to get them to go away...

Nine-Passenger Awesomeness

The car show pictures from a couple of weeks ago got a decent response, and I will try to do more of that sort of thing if opportunities present themselves. Naturally there are plenty of websites dedicated to old cars, and I frequent a few of them.

My favorite is Curbside Classic, which has been around for a couple of years. Apparently all older cars go to Eugene, OR to live on forever, based on the volume of vehicles the site's founder finds and photographs in his daily travels. But there are other contributors to the site who live in other parts of the country and find cool stuff as well.

CC does occasional themed programming, and this week they are highlighting vintage products from Chrysler Corporation. I have a personal bias toward anything From Mopar (that's a colloquialism for a Dodge, Plymouth, or Chrysler), having grown up riding around in a Plymouth station wagon and a Dodge Polara (among other cars). You may remember that my car show posts featured a Chrysler 300E, a Dodge Polara, an Imperial Crown, and a Plymouth Satellite; I was pleased that I was able to get pics of at least one model from each brand.

The basic body style worn by the 1959 300E carried through the 1961 model year, before the fins finally got clipped for '62. Today on CC there is a magnificent 1961 Chrysler Town & Country station wagon from a car show in Moline, IL. I love station wagons in general, but I'm going absolutely nuts over this one.

I personally prefer the 1960 models, which look similar but have much more attractive front ends (those angled headlights on the '61 spoil it for me). But back to this wagon. What an incredible shade of blue—according to the brochure for that year, it was called Capri Blue and the top is Parisian Blue. And of course the interior is a matching shade of blue. That's one of the things I miss most about cars: interiors that aren't gray, beige, or black.

Only 760 of the three-seat models were made for model year 1961, which isn't surprising considering this was an expensive car at the time, listing at nearly $5000 before options. People who bought station wagons were somewhat less likely to care about luxury (that sure changed with SUVs), and people who bought luxury cars were less likely to want or need a station wagon.

Go look at it again. LOOK AT IT. It's 219 glorious inches long! It's so hard to believe that cars like this were ever made, and people drove things as big and outlandish as this as just their everyday cars. Look at the details: those doors have no frames around the windows, and there is no center pillar between them. That's right, this is a pillarless hardtop station wagon. Chrysler wasn't the first to build such a car, but I'm pretty sure they were the last.

Check out those chrome handles on either side of the rear window, the rear view mirror mounted on the dashboard, the nine decorative trim pieces on each side behind the rear wheels (because I guess eight would look too plain, but ten would be overdoing it). The steering wheel is clear lucite, for crap's sake. People sat around and thought of this stuff, and it got put on the car. Oh, and there's no shift lever coming out of the steering column because the automatic transmission was operated via pushbuttons on the left side of the wheel (out of view in the interior pic, but you can see them in this picture to the left of the speedometer and behind the steering wheel).

With modern cars, it's "if we make the tail light lenses out of a slightly thinner plastic, we can save six cents per car." And "beige and gray interiors go with everything so those are the only two choices we need, and let's only offer six color choices for the outside because everyone's going to want silver, white, or black anyway." I know Detroit's old ways were not sustainable, but this is some car. For what you paid for it, you really got something special.

(There are some additional pictures of this Chrysler, from a different event, here.)

Addendum: following up on my remark above about new-car colors, I just saw this chart that backs up my assertion. Over 60% of new cars bought worldwide in 2012 were white, black, or silver; if you include gray, the number jumps to 76%. Boring.

This Week in Awesome (7/27/13)

Couldn't we have a few more days like Thursday and Friday?

Another Archer-based mashup, this time with animation from a different show. (Blastr via TV Tattle)

I feature a lot of stuff about Boston and New York, but Los Angeles is another American city that has long held a fascination for me, so I was pleased to learn of this site. (Hemmings Blog)

Speaking of Boston, there's a new blog on boston dot com that looks back on some of the area's older, less gentrified days.

This week's time-lapse is definitely not the usual stuff. (Laughing Squid)

And finally this week, Jalopnik's Patrick George takes a look back at BMW's "The Hire" series of short films, starring Clive Owen as "The Driver," which began appearing in 2001.

Retro Video Unit (7/26/13)

Sometimes I just remember old bands and songs out of nowhere, with no prompting or a coincidental hearing of a song on radio somewhere—that's how this one got here. The band is Our Daughter's Wedding, and the song is "Lawnchairs" from 1981. I had a friend in college who was particularly fond of this one...

Paying to Shop?

So Gilt is having one of their periodic warehouse sales in Boston tomorrow, but they want me to pay $10 to get in? The only things I've ever bought from them are undershirts that I ended up returning because the website had misstated the fabric content, and a casual shirt that I only wore for a couple of years.

Maybe if the admission fee was going to a charitable organization like the Jimmy Fund it would feel worth it, but even then I feel like I would be unlikely to find anything good enough, at a good enough deal, to make me feel like it was time and money well spent. I suspect that fashion-loving ladies probably get the better end of the deal.

Suit Drive

Do you have unused men's dress clothing taking up space? You could donate it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, but wouldn't it be better if you knew your donation would directly benefit people in need?

Men's Wearhouse has an annual suit drive for usable business-attire clothing that they donate to various organizations that help men get outfitted for job interviews. It's going on this month: you can drop off suits, dress shirts, dress shoes, and outerwear at Men's Wearhouse locations. I just donated three suits, three dress shirts, and a trench coat. You get a tax-deduction receipt and a coupon good for 50% off regular-price merchandise for one month.

I should have mentioned this a while ago, but there's still time for donations this year. And I suspect that if you missed it and went into a store in August, they would still accept your donations.

Watch Wednesday Follow-Up: The Departed

Over the years I've been writing this blog, I have posted around three dozen watches in my Watch Wednesday series, and that's only counting ones that I own, or owned. (I didn't know the exact number, so I had to go back and count the posts.) Over time I decided to sell a few of them, and there were a couple of others that I never posted because they were already in line to be sold for one reason or another.

Writing yesterday's post reminded me that there are a few watches that I'd posted that I no longer own, and that led me to the idea of doing a quick review of the ones I no longer have. Going back to look through the posts from the beginning, I posted a Seiko 5 automatic in May 2010 that I had purchased just a couple of weeks prior. It was a case of liking the look of it more than I ended up liking the actual watch. I didn't care for the hands, and it wore a little small on my wrist. I sold it not long after I posted it.

Then there was a quartz chronograph that I bought in 2008 and featured in June 2010. I wore it off and on for about four years, and it always ran perfectly, but by this past winter I was looking to sell some stuff on eBay and decided I didn't need to hang onto it any longer. It found a good home.

There was another Seiko automatic that I didn't like as much after I'd had it for a while, and that ended up selling this winter as well. Yesterday's watch is more or less replacing it, and I'm much happier with it overall and plan on keeping it a long time.

There are a few others that I still have, but have stopped working or are problematic in some other way. This Casio chronograph receives time setting signals every day via a radio frequency, but after I had to get the battery replaced it would not set properly. It's now running about four hours ahead of where it should be, and the only way to get it to the correct time is to set it to a different time zone (there is no crown to set the time manually).

A couple of my many old Timex watches are also no longer working properly. I like this automatic a lot, but it was never in especially good condition and I'm probably lucky it kept acceptable time for as long as it did. It's not worth spending whatever it would cost to get it running properly again. Then there was an old Timex Carriage quartz that looked just like the ones J. Crew was selling for $150 (they recently dropped the price to $98, which is still too high). For a watch that cost no more than $20 new it lasted a long time, but even with a battery replacement it just stopped running one day, so that's that.

I'll be putting a couple of my other watches up for sale soon, and will post a link when I do so.

Watch Wednesday (7/24/13)

What's this? Someone in my financial situation shouldn't be buying a watch. Well, I got this one back during the winter, with the money the landlord pays me to clear the snow. You may recall that we had a lot of snow this winter, so it was kind of like getting a bonus. I only just realized that I had never posted it here.

I'd had my eye on this Seiko chronograph for some time, since I first saw it back in the October issue of Esquire. Right after that, Dappered did a comparison between it and a Citizen chronograph, with the Seiko coming out slightly ahead in their opinion. I started watching it online, and over the next few months the price drifted downward another $25 or so, which worked in my favor. During that time it also went in and out of stock a lot on various websites, suggesting to me that it was popular.

This watch isn't as large as the picture makes it look; the case is 41 mm across not counting either crown. 42 mm is about the largest watch I can wear that doesn't make my wrist look like that of a nine-year-old, so a watch like this looks substantial without being excessive.

It has the sort of large-numeral dial that I've mentioned my fondness for, plus a rotating compass bezel inside the crystal. It's also solar powered, but that had no bearing on my purchase, nor did the compass. In fact the compass is a superfluous feature to me, and the crown that rotates it (the one adjacent to the 10 o'clock marker) gets moved at the slightest brush, so I end up adjusting it constantly. It would have been better if Seiko had made this one screw-down, or at least made it so the mechanism required a little more force to turn.

I also didn't care for the tan strap that came with it (shown at the above link). I was hoping it would look better in person than in pictures, but it's just too light and orangey for my taste. This is mainly why I tend to stick with black straps for my watches—it's really difficult to find attractive shades of tan or brown. In addition, this watch takes a 21 mm strap, which is one of the hardest sizes to find.

I ended up doing something I don't like to do: I bought a 22 mm strap and squeezed the edges in a little before putting it on the watch. It fits fine and I don't think anyone could tell if I didn't mention it, but as someone who likes to customize his watches with specific straps, the odd sizes are another barrier to getting it just right. (Ask anyone who owns a Rolex or Tudor that takes 19 mm straps.)

Birds at Play?

The Mrs. did a window display for our local coffee shop, Mystic Coffee Roaster in Medford Square:

It's just an informal arrangement, she enjoys doing it and it helps the shop fill its window space.

This Week in Awesome (7/20/13)

The heat wave may be over, but it doesn't feel any less humid here, at least not yet...

Jimmy Kimmel and his writers are obviously fans of Schoolhouse Rock. (TV Tattle)

Coming soon: more stupid reality shows. Tastefully Offensive)

Great illustrations of classic unibody Mac models. (Cult of Mac)

Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Die Hard. Read a critical appreciation of the movie (Unlikely Words), and see a list of the 25 best action movies that have followed it (Vulture). (Be prepared to dispute some of the choices on that list and/or their placement.)

And finally this week, if you have an hour or so to spare and like Talking Heads, you'll want to check out this concert program from the BBC that was broadcast in 1984. (Laughing Squid)

How's the Weather?

This week, miserable. All week. I don't enjoy summer the way most people do. Even when the weather is more tolerable, I'd rather be inside. I've just never been an outdoors person, and I consider the sun to be an enemy in roughly the same way a vampire does. Growing up we had a pool in our yard, but if I wasn't swimming I was indoors, either reading or building model cars in the basement, where it was cooler.

So when it's this hot and humid, we leave the house only when necessary. We also have to manage our dog's time outside; she's almost 12 and has always been sensitive to heat, but she isn't smart enough to realize that she shouldn't be outside on days like today. The poor thing is wiped out after only a couple of minutes of walking, even in the shade.

We've had another issue this week: flies. Since Sunday we've had nearly a dozen of them in the house. We don't know where they are coming from or what's attracting them, but we have a suspicion that it may have something to do with the folks upstairs, who disposed of some truly vile-smelling garbage last weekend. When we take the dog out there are flies in the back hall, which suggests that they may be making their way downstairs from above.

I've Been Waiting

Good news, finally: a new Arcade Fire album will be released on October 29th.

False Alarms

Our upstairs neighbors (three single adults share the apartment) have had a couple of incidents lately setting off the smoke alarm while making food. This wouldn't necessarily be a big deal, except that any such occurrence triggers the alarms in the whole dwelling, including the ones in our apartment, the basement, and the front and back stairways leading to the upstairs unit.

These are the LOUDEST smoke alarms I have ever heard. They are piercingly loud, obviously meant to awaken sleeping residents immediately, and in addition to the beeping there's an electronic voice that repeats "FIRE!" Fortunately they haven't gone off while we are asleep, but when we're awake they just startle the crap out of us, and they are so loud we are forced to cover our ears. There's one about six feet from the desk where my computer is, so if I'm sitting here it's essentially right above my head, which is what happened the last two times.

They have gone off twice in the past week or two, and in both cases it seems one of the upstairs folks put something in the toaster oven and then returned to his bedroom, forgetting about the food until it was too late. (I was able to figure this out because, mixed in with the alarm sounds, I could detect his footsteps as he hurried from his room at the front of the house to the kitchen at the back.)

More Vintage Wheels

I have more pictures from the car show I attended on Sunday. Yesterday's batch ended up being roughly chronological, so let's continue that way.

By the end of the 1950s, the American car companies realized that they needed to offer smaller vehicles to compete with the growing threat from companies like Volkswagen. The result was the first generation of American compacts like the Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant. These were simple, practical cars that usually resembled scaled-down versions of their full-size siblings, and they can still serve as economical daily transportation today (if one is willing to overlook the absence of a few modern safety features).

As you can see from the front plate, this is another Pontiac, a 1962 Tempest coupe. This is another of my favorite old cars, though I prefer the station wagon version. The Tempest was more technologically advanced than most other American cars of the time, offering a four-cylinder engine, a flexible drive shaft, and a rear-mounted transmission that resulted in perfect front-rear weight distribution (which theoretically improved handling).

Ah, this is the shot where I cut off the front of the car. I had just taken a shot from a few steps further back, and immediately realized that a person passing by was blocking a good chunk of the car, so I hurriedly moved forward and snapped another shot without checking to see if I'd framed it properly.

Anyway, this is a 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special, once upon a time the pinnacle of the Cadillac lineup and still an impressive-looking ride. This one is a bit unusual in that by '68 they were more commonly seen with a vinyl roof covering, and this one is also missing its badges and bright trim along the bottom of the body sides, but it may be a restoration in progress. The color does seem to match up with the choices available that year, so the owners could have had it repainted recently.

Paging Don Draper... oh wait, no, he dumped the Jaguar account. Regardless, it's always a pleasure and a thrill to see an XKE, and I couldn't resist three of them parked together. I have a relative who owned one of these, a white over red convertible, and I was fortunate enough to get a ride in it once—I think I may have been ten or eleven at the time.

Okay, now we're onto something good: a 1969 Dodge Polara two-door hardtop. The big Dodges, Plymouths, and Chryslers were all redesigned for '69, and the absence of vent windows on this car indicates it was equipped with air conditioning. It also has the rarely-seen Super-Lite option, a single high-intensity driving light mounted in the grille. Those road wheels are pretty sweet, too. (Behind the Polara is what I believe is a 1968 Plymouth Belvedere.)

I knew someone in high school who had a car similar to this, a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme convertible, except it was maroon with a black interior. It's nice to see one that's been preserved, and not turned into a hot rod or a 442 "tribute."

I took this picture mainly because I recall A Proper Bostonian telling me that someone in her family had one. It's a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, one of the first-generation cars (1970-72). I didn't even bother to look at the grille to determine exactly which year it was, but I'm going with '71 or '72 based on the color, which I think is Placer Gold.

The Plymouth Satellite had gotten rather bloated by 1973 (this could also be a '74; they looked exactly the same). I took this shot because I liked the color (definitely not an original factory choice) and because my brother had one of these for a while, that he'd acquired from a family friend.

And finally here's a Triumph TR6, probably a 1974-'76 based on the big rubber bumper guards and the Union Jack decal on the rear fender. I always liked these and hoped I might have one someday.

I was also surprised by the cars I didn't see at this show: not a single 1960s Lincoln Continental with suicide doors; no Thunderbirds newer than 1966; and hardly any station wagons (besides the Nomad). We didn't get to the show until around 1, and I think some of the cars had already started to leave. It opens to the public at 8 am, and if I go back next year I'll definitely try to get there before noon, if not earlier.

And there was one car I meant to go back and get a picture of but forgot, a 1958 Edsel with the retractable hardtop from a Ford Skyliner. It must have taken a fair amount of work to create that car, and it was quite well-done.

Vintage Wheels

I enjoy going to classic car shows, but I haven't been to one in a long time. I happened to remember that a local club holds a big show each year in July, one that I'd been to once, decades ago. I looked online and quickly found the info; this year's show was yesterday.

Like much of this summer, it was uncomfortably hot and humid yesterday, but I'd gotten the idea of going into my head and decided to brave the heat. We drove to the Endicott Estate in Dedham, which is the home of the Bay State Antique Auto Club and the site of the annual show.

A lot of the motivation for going to car shows is the presence of less common vehicles that I'm unlikely to see in any other context. Muscle cars like GTOs and Road Runners are common enough sights; I'm always more interested in seeing more of what people used as everyday transportation 40 or 50 years ago. The best thing about old cars, to me, is seeing them cared for and enjoyed.

I remembered my camera, which is more versatile than my phone's camera. I am not an especially good photographer, but I can handle aiming at a car and pushing the shutter, and in most cases I was able to fit the whole car in the frame and avoid shots with people walking in front of my chosen subjects.

I took this shot for a couple of reasons: it's a 1957 Pontiac, and Pontiac no longer exists. It's also one of the earliest four-door hardtops, a body style that no longer exists (except rarely in Japan) and that has always been of my favorites. The color is really nice, too.

A 1966 Pontiac (also a four-door hardtop) happened to be parked next to it, which makes for a nice look at how far styling evolved over just nine model years.

The Nomad was a sporty two-door wagon offered by Chevrolet from 1955 to '57. (Pontiac had its own version, called the Safari, that's even rarer.) It's probably the most interesting to me of the '55-57 Chevys, which are among the most commonly seen classic cars. (I had the Hot Wheels version of this, in red.) I was also drawn to take this photo by the coral color, which was popular for cars in the Fifties. It's often seen in a two-tone combination with black, gray, or ivory.

That's a 1959 Chrysler 300E, a lavishly-appointed (for the time), expensive, high-performance "banker's hot rod" built in very small numbers. The 300's design managed to stay relatively clean and restrained while Chrysler (and all the other American manufacturers) got weirder and weirder in the late '50s. The 1960 version of this car is one of my all-time favorite vintage cars (so much so that I have a die-cast scale model of one), and I was hoping there might be an example of that year at this show, but this was the only 300 in attendance.

This 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 shows what I meant above about weird, and this is its good side. Still, there's something about the batshit exuberance of cars like this one that I can't help but love.

Just three model years later, this Pontiac Bonneville (a corporate cousin of Olds) looks much more restrained and dignified. I didn't realize I'd taken pics of so many Pontiacs, but they had some of the best designs of the '50s and '60s, until GM bloat set in.)

But not everyone got that memo... this is a 1963 Imperial Crown, which was Chrysler's answer to Cadillac and Lincoln. The following year the Imperial would get a very tasteful redesign, though one heavily influenced by the 1961 Lincoln Continental (in fact, the same man was responsible for both designs).

Now here's something you are unlikely to see many more of, a 1964 Studebaker Avanti. Studebaker was one of the second-tier car companies struggling to hang on in the face of the product onslaught from bigger car companies, and the Avanti was an attempt to build something like a four-passenger Corvette, a gutsy move for a company on the verge of collapse (Studebaker would cease building cars in 1966). I'm pretty sure those wheels are not original to the car (they look like Buick road wheels, even if the center caps say Avanti), but they look pretty good on this car.

I'll have more car show pix tomorrow...

This Week in Awesome (7/13/13)

I let this slip by last weekend, because it was a holiday week and I'd found only a couple of things I wanted to post. So I've carried those over into this week and added a few more...

This was supposed to tie in with Independence Day, but it's still worth a look. (McSweeney's via The Hairpin)

Also from last week: one man's ranking of cheap beers. Let the arguments begin. (Deadspin)

I haven't quite finished watching the new episodes of Arrested Development yet, but you only have to have seen the first couple to get this visual joke. (Vulture)

I imagine everyone has seen this by now, but if you haven't... it's pretty weird. I'm still trying to decide if she's aware of that or not. Of added note, this is from a TV station in my hometown. (Gawker, Tastefully Offensive, Guyism, etc.)

And finally this week, a slice of New York City life in 1969. (Life magazine via BuzzFeed)

Retro Video Unit (7/12/13)

I thought of this band for no particular reason. A lot of their videos were kind of boring, at least this one has some camera movement, and this is arguably the song that put them on the map anyway, several years before the John Hughes movie borrowed the title and featured a reworked, inferior version of this song on its soundtrack.

So, here's "Pretty in Pink" by The Psychedelic Furs:

Caught in a Downpour

Near the end of last summer, I got a pair of Vans that I really like. The Era 59 style is trimmed a little differently than the regular Era, with a leather heel tab, round laces instead of the usual flat ones, and better cushioning inside (at least my feet think so).

A couple of weeks ago I got caught in a thunderstorm while walking the dog. I was wearing my Vans because we'd been out and it was well past the dog's normal afternoon walk time, so as soon as we got home I rushed back outside with her, forgetting that it was about to rain and that I should change my shoes to the junky ones I wear to walk the dog.

The Vans got quite dirty, and since they're off-white it's very obvious. Because the insoles are not removable, they can't go in the washing machine, so I'm at a loss for how to clean them, or if it's even possible. It's unlikely that I could get another pair, as the 59 styles tend to be issued in a certain color combinations for only a few months each.

I applied some Oxy-Clean stain-removal gel and worked it into the uppers with a wet toothbrush, but I didn't get any noticeable results. I welcome any suggestions. If I can't clean them up, they may have to be relegated to permanent dog-walking shoe status.

Screamy

You wouldn't necessarily expect that a coffee counter in a supermarket would be a place that you'd find really good soft-serve ice cream, especially when the coffee sold there is downright mediocre (I'm sorry, New England Coffee; I know your roasting plant is less than a mile from my house and I can smell it sometimes when I'm out walking the dog at night, but your coffee just isn't good).

We were shopping at the big ol' Market Basket in Chelsea today, we had just checked out and I was waiting for the Mrs. I rolled the cart over by the coffee counter and a sign for soft-serve caught my eye. I've always loved soft-serve ice cream and I try to have it at least a couple of times a summer, but I hadn't had any yet this year and there it was right in front of me and it was so muggy outside, so I gave it a try and it was excellent, way better than most of it that I've had.

I don't know what makes theirs so good, but it's worth getting if you are in the market and maybe worth going there to get if you aren't. A generously sized cone is a mere $2 plus tax.

Spoiled

We've spent years avoiding the trap that many dog owners fall into. We've never allowed our dog to beg for human-food treats. We've even refrained from giving her affection in the kitchen, and she is not allowed to hover when we are in there preparing food. She gets yogurt with her food, but other delicacies like cheese and chicken are given rarely and as a surprise, so she doesn't get used to the idea of having them.

But now that she has aged into a senior-citizen couch princess, we're getting soft. Some time ago the Mrs. started giving the dog the milk left in her bowl after eating cereal, and you probably remember the picture I posted back in December when I let the dog lick the inside of the empty ice cream container. Predictably, the dog is now starting to expect these treats as her dog-given right, and it's our own fault.

Last week I was enjoying some ice cream, while confronted with this visage staring at me the whole time:

"Let me know when you're finished with that, okay?"

Just Browsing

I've never had a job where I had to wear dress clothing. Well, I did some office work back in the '80s where I did the tie-but-no-jacket thing that I now realize is a terrible look, and in the mid-'90s I spent a couple of years working a part-time second job on the house staff of a theater company, but that was a sportcoat-and-khakis kind of thing.

So why have I spent so much time over the past several months looking for dress shirts and ties on eBay? I have plenty of outfits that are suitable for job interviews, and bolder shirt and tie choices that would easily take me to a wedding or other semi-formal event. Do I on some level want a job where I have to dress up every day?

I don't think that's it. I do enjoy getting dressed up, but I'm sure if I had to do it daily it would cease to be enjoyable. I think it's just that I like clothes, and my interest in various items of clothing tends to run in cycles. While I've been looking for these items, I've barely looked for shoes, which I need none of at the moment.

Summer Activities, Indoor Version

We had a quiet day yesterday. It's just too hot and humid to spend any significant amount of time outside, something the dog still doesn't seem to grasp. Her desire to be outside, sniffing around the neighborhood, outweighs almost any weather conditions.

I've never been an outdoor person. When I was growing up my family had a pool, which made summer fun as close as the backyard. But if I wasn't swimming, I was hiding out in the basement (where it was cooler) building model cars.

With the big trial going on here this summer, I remembered that several years back I had acquired a copy of Black Mass, about the relationship between the FBI and Whitey Bulger, at a used book sale. It seemed like an appropriate time to finally get around to reading it, so I've been spending time on that. I have plenty of other books lined up too.

Kitchen Tools

I have a bit of a thing for OXO kitchen utensils. Not everything we use is from that brand, but when something needs replacement I tend to look for an OXO version.

I think it started with replacing an old, poorly made ice cream scoop with a spade, which has a wider, flat blade that makes it easier to shave off a portion from the top surface of the ice cream. After that it was a cheese grater and a pizza cutter, and I was hooked. The thick, rubberized handles are just much easier to grip and use.

When OXO expanded to other product lines, I followed. I have a couple of canisters with locking lids for storing things like coffee beans. A quick look in the kitchen drawers reveals that we also have a vegetable peeler (OXO's first product), a garlic press, and a potato masher (I don't remember purchasing that one). I also just replaced a junky old spreader that I'd found somewhere (probably a dollar store) with an OXO counterpart that has a longer, sturdier blade that is much more effective.

Recently I added a couple of small knives. I prefer working with shorter-bladed knives for things like chopping and slicing, as long as the food being cut is small enough. OXO makes a nice little mini santoku that's great for chopping veggies like carrots and cucumbers. I also got another knife with a thin, straight, serrated blade that is good for cutting tomatoes. And this measuring cup is so easy to use because of its clever design: you can see the markings while looking down on it from above.

As a side note, I read that the man who started the company passed away recently. The idea for the distinctive handles came about because of his wife's arthritis. He had been in the kitchenware business previously, running the company Copco for a couple of decades; he also had an uncle who was the founder of Farberware.

Don't Let It Happen to You

Nothing says "I've given up," style-wise, quite like a middle-aged guy wearing Crocs.