Walking Shoes

During the cold months, when it's not wet and sloppy or extremely cold I spend most of my time in Caterpillar work boots that I've had for years. They are neither insulated nor waterproof, but they are comfortable for walking and their thicker soles and ankle coverage help keep my feet from getting cold.

But every once in a while we get a week in January like the one we've just had, where it's above 40 every day and sometimes hits 50, and I don't always feel like wearing my boots. Back in the spring I got these shoes from L.L. Bean, and they have turned out to be the best walking shoes I have owned.

They are meant to look like the old-school hiking shoes that have recently come back into fashion, but functionally they are more of a general-purpose shoe. They're a bit funny-looking, but not nearly as bad as the puffy "mall-walking shoes" you tend to see older folks wearing. (I'm not ready to give in to those yet.) I also like that they are quite plain, devoid of unnecessary detailing.

Although I kind of like the tan, I went with the gray, which is more low-key. The blue laces are anything but subtle, but fortunately they came with a second pair of laces in matching gray. The blue pull tabs on the back aren't so noticeable, so I don't mind those. They aren't available in wide, which I tend to find more comfortable, but these are wide enough that it's not an issue.

I've had some foot issues over the years, including a cramp/nerve-pinch thing in my right foot that tends to manifest after I have been walking or standing for a while. It doesn't matter what shoes I am wearing, so whenever I wear new shoes during a day of walking I expect the cramp to show up. But with these shoes, no cramp. I have no idea why, but I think it may have something to do with the footbeds. When I first put them on they tend to feel a bit strange, but as soon as I start walking everything feels fine.

Bean happens to be offering 10% off all orders through next Wednesday (1/22), and these shoes are already marked down $10 from their original price, so you could get them for $63.

Overheard: We've All Wondered About It Edition

While I was riding the bus today, a woman boarded with a small boy of three or possibly four. They sat a couple of seats behind me. A few minutes later I heard the boy ask his mother, "Is it going to be the same driver on the way back?"

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #18

Sometimes I seek out certain cars where they live after I've noticed them parked in the same place on different occasions; other times, those cars find me.

Back in the fall I was heading to an appointment one morning when I found this car parked across the street from the bus stop. I had passed it at least a dozen times in the car, parked several streets away, when we were driving to Medford Square. I kept meaning to go over there and take pictures of it where its owner presumably lives, but then on this particular day it was right in front of me, saving me the effort.

This is a 1986 Pontiac Parisienne, and you are forgiven if you've never heard of it. In the 1960s the top of the line Pontiac was the Bonneville, but in 1971 they added the Grand Ville at the top of the lineup. When General Motors' full-size cars got downsized for 1977, the Grand Ville was dropped and the Bonneville once again became the top-line Pontiac ride. Meanwhile up in Canada, what was called a Bonneville here was called a Parisienne, dating back to 1958 (which, coincidentally, is when the Bonneville was first introduced).

But wait, it gets more confusing: due to declining sales, the full-size Bonneville was dropped after 1981; Pontiac took what had been a mid-size LeMans, gave it a different front end, and slapped the Bonneville name on it. Almost immediately they regretted the decision, but up north they were still building the Parisienne. Since they had already given the Bonneville name to another car, they imported the Parisienne and kept its name.

For the final bit of weirdness, the Parisiennes sent here for sale in 1983 and '84 were really just Chevrolet Caprices with different grilles, tail lights, and trim. But for 1985 Pontiac went back to using the body panels that had been used on the Bonneville and Parisienne back in 1981, which differed from those on the Caprice, mainly at the rear of the car. See how this car has the gently sloping rear fenders and trunk lid? That's the older/newer version.

So how do I know this isn't a Canadian car from '81? Because it has the government-mandated center stop light, which first appeared on American cars for the 1986 model year.

As you can see, this car has been pounded on and is still going. Oxidized paint, missing trim, a vinyl top that appears to have psoriasis, a dented door, some sort of Pep Boys wheel covers—this is a true beater, and has earned the right to be called one.

Last Week in Awesome (1/11/14)

Okay, this is getting a bit silly... but in my defense, I was busy most of the day Saturday, then of course I had to watch the football game. Yesterday just kind of got away from me entirely; before I knew it, it was 10:30 pm and I still hadn't done my weekly TV lineup for The Longfellow Bridge.

Michelle Dockery was game for some spoofing of both her Downton Abbey character and American cop shows, with an assist from Michael Chiklis, seemingly reincarnating Vic Mackey from The Shield. (Funny or Die)

On the eve of the release of his new album, an assessment of Bruce Springsteen's body of work in typically exhaustive Grantland fashion. (Grantland via Kempt)

Words are awesome, but sometimes the right word for expressing a certain concept or feeling doesn't exist in our native tongue. Fortunately there are words in other languages that can provide an assist. (Mental Floss via the Dappered Weekend Dossier)

And finally this week, a music nerd writes for other music nerds on "bands that were good, but blew it." (The A.V. Club via Unlikely Words)

Retro Video Unit (1/10/14)

I've been up in the (YouTube) attic again, digging around for one of those rare power-pop nuggets. And I found one, all right, though in this instance it's more about the song than the video clip.

The Monroes were a San Diego band that had a moderate hit in 1982 with "What Do All the People Know?" They were on their way to what could have been a very successful run when the Japan-based label with which they had chosen to sign decided to abandon the American market, leaving the band without the ability to promote its recently released EP. (Info courtesy Wikipedia)

The entry says this happened while the band was working on ideas for a music video for this song, which means there isn't an official video. There is, however, a live appearance on The Merv Griffin Show that showcases the song pretty well:

Point of View

Since I walk around with a decent camera on me most of the time, I've been attempting to make use of it beyond taking pictures of old cars. You have already seen some of these experiments, such as this Orange Line train, construction in Downtown Crossing, or these rooftop shots.

T stations are not the most photogenic locations, but waiting around for 20 to 30 minutes for a bus can be a catalyst for creativity. The other day I was standing next to a concrete pillar at Wellington when I noticed a pipe running down it, and a groove in the concrete where the sections of concrete were joined together. I leaned over and looked through the space between the pipe and the groove, and then thought to take a photo of it:

I think this would have come out better if I had a more sophisticated camera like a digital SLR, but considering that the iPhone's camera has a fixed lens I think it's all right. Also, there is a bus shelter directly across from where I was aiming, so that's the blurry thing you are seeing at the end of the groove; I think the shot may have worked better if that area was open. There are now lens attachments for smartphones that offer wide-angle and macro capabilities, and I may give them a try at some point.

Last Week in Awesome (1/4/14)

Arrrgh... I had a full complement of TWiA ready to go for this past weekend, but I admit I got caught up in the NFL playoff games and before I knew it, the weekend was gone.

This one isn't of interest to me, but I bet a bunch of people would enjoy being able to play hundreds of classic console video games in a web browser. (Business Insider via Boy Genius Report)

Speaking of flashbacks, have a look at an L.L. Bean holiday catalog circa 1983. (Heavy Tweed Jacket; thanks to DC)

I suppose it was inevitable: there's a Downton Abbey LEGO set. (Vanity Fair via TV Tattle)

And finally last week, a collection of some of last year's outstanding online writing. (The Verge)

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #17

Some of the cars in my neighborhood are regularly parked in front of their owners' homes, but I'm not always on foot when I see them. This week's example is a car that I tend to pass while riding in our car or on the bus, so when I happened to walk this route one day I was ready to get these shots.

If you remember the light blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera from back in November, this is its Buick counterpart, the Century. Just about everything I wrote about that car applies to this one as well. Now I just have to spot a Chevrolet Celebrity and a Pontiac 6000...

I think this one may be a year or two newer than the Olds; they were built through the 1996 model year, and something about this car has an aura of finality about it, both in the sense that it's from near the end of the car's production run, and in the sense that its owner, whom I suspect is an older person, seems to have decided that this would the last car s/he bought.

It's certainly well kept for a car around 20 years old, which suggests that it is driven infrequently. It also looks like it has those passive seat belts that used to be installed on cars before they had been updated with air bags. (Also, I need to remember to try to get interior shots.)

I'm pretty sure there are no longer any American cars offered with a front bench seat. Now that cars like this one, and others that appealed primarily to car buyers of a certain age like the Mercury Grand Marquis, are no longer in production, I do wonder what sorts of cars those approaching retirement age are buying. I think the closest current analogue to this car may be the Toyota Camry. Reasonably sized, comfortable, economical to buy and own, bland to the point of numbness...

Dog Dosage

Our dog turned 12 in August. She's been on a joint supplement for the better part of two years to help with movement. She does not have arthritis as far as we know, but she has been having a little trouble getting up the stairs when we come back from walks.

The other day we were getting ready to reorder the supplement and were comparing its ingredients to a different one that some dog owners on an email list had recommended. As I was looking over the small print on the outside of the container I noticed this: "give one tablet daily per 25 pounds of body weight."

The dog weighs around 55 pounds, but we've been giving her only one tablet per day since she started taking this particular kind back in August. Oops. The dosage on the other kind she was getting before was one per day, and it never occurred to either of us that it would be any different for these. So the replenishment order is on the way, but of course this dosage means that she will go through them in half the time. The joys of being a pet owner...

Annals of Puzzling Human Behavior

I know I should no longer be surprised when I see people who are ill-dressed for the weather, but I always end up wondering what's going on with them and how they can tolerate the conditions.

It's snowing lightly here today; the brunt of the storm will be coming through later tonight, and by tomorrow we should have a foot of snow. But it's very windy today. One of my eBay items sold last night, so I had to go out this morning to bring it to the post office. I figured it was better to get it into the system today, because I'll be spending a good chunk of tomorrow clearing snow and I don't know how quickly conditions will be returning to something near normal. I promise buyers that I will generally be able to ship their purchases within one business day, so if I want positive feedback it's in my interest to get their packages out quickly.

The two post offices that are easiest to get to are in Medford Square and downtown on Milk Street. Getting to the Medford post office requires more walking when leaving my house and coming back, as the bus route I take to get there is about eight minutes' walk away. Getting downtown requires less time outside: the stop for that bus route is only a minute from our house, and the post office is just around the corner from the State T stop, so today I decided to head downtown.

After I left the post office I saw a guy walking toward me, wearing only a short-sleeve polo shirt and jeans, and some sort of light-duty hiking shoes. His shoulders were hunched and his hands were stuffed into his pockets, and he ducked into a restaurant across from the post office. I suppose he had come from one of the nearby office buildings and figured he didn't need to bundle up to go and get his lunch.

But come on, it's 25 degrees outside and the wind is blowing at around 25 miles an hour. Short sleeves? And maybe this is my own judgmental nature at work, but when I see someone underdressed in such a way in such conditions, I tend to think it makes that person look at least a bit unhinged, as though he had spontaneously decided to wander away from his treatment program.

Resurrection of the Phones

Happy new year to everyone out there. You may remember a few months ago I posted a photo of sad pay phones in the Wellington T station. I was passing through the other day and noticed that things aren't so sad after all:

It appears that the phones were being installed, not removed. There's a third one hiding behind that Gronk sign; looking at it now, it's kind of in the way of passersby where it is and should be moved back next to the phone.

(Sorry for the iffy exposure, but MBTA employees have been known to exhibit selective awareness of the policy that specifically permits taking photos on T property, so when I do take them I try to do so quickly, to avoid attracting the attention of station personnel.)

And yes, this is one of the ugliest stations in the T system.

Overheard: Future Dr. Evil Edition

On Sunday afternoon we were at the Flour bakery off Congress Street in the Seaport District. It's near the Children's Museum and the parking garage that its visitors use, so there are always lots of families around.

I was standing outside, waiting for the Mrs. to come out and eating a doughnut I had purchased. My back was to the people passing by (in case I made an embarrassing mess while eating) so I didn't get a good look at this future mad scientist, but as one family passed behind me a boy of maybe eight was chanting in a singsong voice, "I have a bio-weapon!" I'm guessing this was in reference to something he'd acquired from the museum gift shop, filtered through an overactive imagination.

(Side note: that doughnut? Insane. It's $3, but it's also roughly the size of a softball and filled to bursting with delicious raspberry goo.)

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #16

Some people will only photograph cars that are parked on the street, but if I can see it, I'll attempt to grab a picture of it. I found this car parked in a driveway in my neighborhood, on a day I decided to take a walk in a different direction and ended up on a street I had not explored before.

I wasn't going to walk up into someone's yard, so that's why I got only the one shot of this Oldsmobile Delta 88. This car is a close under-the-skin relative of the Chevrolet Caprice I posted about two months ago. The tail lights say this is either a 1984 or '85 model; the car was completely redesigned for '86. The two-door version of this car is a lot less common than the four-door, which may explain why someone appears to be putting effort into fixing up this one.

The badge on the vinyl roof says "Royale"; at one point this designated a higher-trim Delta 88 model, but by '84 all Delta 88s were Royales. The badge on the trunk may say "Brougham," which took things a notch higher, and the wire wheel covers were indeed part of the Brougham package. "Royale Brougham" is a bit of a mouthful, but in '85 they added an even higher trim level, the Delta 88 Royale Luxury Sedan.

Notice also the green-letter license plate. These were last printed in 1987 and have largely been replaced by the red-letter "Spirit of America" design, but the state grudgingly allows motorists to keep the "greenies" as long as they are still legible (more on the green plates here). This car has probably had the same plate affixed to it since it was first registered, which is kind of cool.

This Week in Awesome (12/28/13)

The interwebs were a little light on newness during this inter-holiday week, but then again so am I...

Have I mentioned that I'm a fan of design? It's always been an area of interest, making a blog like this an especially welcome discovery. (BuzzFeed)

I also enjoy learning about the complexities and variations of our language. The New York Times offered this recent quiz about dialect and word usage, and Mental Floss (via Dappered) compiled a brief list of unusual localized words.

And finally this week, go make some music. It's fun, try it. (Shake Shack's tumblr)

(By the way, a little spoon told me that the Harvard Square Shake Shack has soft-opened, meaning they are serving only frozen custard treats for the time being. 92 Winthrop Street, at the rear of the Galleria building.)

Retro Video Unit (12/27/13)

Most people don't think of The Ramones as a video band. They were hardly photogenic relative to other early MTV faves, but they made their share of clips. In 1980 the band released an album produced by Phil Spector, End of the Century, which produced the single "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?"



As music videos go this is pretty simplistic, but the use of the TV set as a framing device, with the band members watching themselves and others on the screen, is a knowing wink to the fact that MTV viewers were sitting in front of their TV sets watching the videos.

Grandma Got the Guest Room

Our Christmas visit was very brief; the Mrs. had to work today so we drove back from RI last night. But we had plenty of great food and a nice time with my family.

Last week I mentioned the "H&M" short as one of the high points of this season of Saturday Night Live. Well, the bar has already been raised again with this minor masterpiece from last weekend's Christmas show, featuring host Jimmy Fallon. (Adult content, generally)

Car Stuff: Need a Ride?

Have you heard of Uber? If you live in or near a city of moderately large size, there's a decent chance Uber is operating there. It's a car service that lets you summon a ride by using a smartphone app (or by text message for those with regular cell phones). You set up an account and provide your credit card information, so that when you use the service no cash changes hands; the rides are billed to your credit card, and the gratuity is included in the fare.

I am not a frequent taxi user, but as someone who doesn't drive, there are times when I need another option for getting home (or to a destination other than home) besides the T. When Uber first came to Boston it operated as a "black car" service (think prosperous business types with expense accounts), but later they began offering a lower-cost option called UberX that is priced competitively with taxis. UberX drivers use regular cars, which are still way nicer and more comfortable than most cabs. (As a bonus, UberX fares were lowered a couple of months ago, making it likely that an UberX ride will now be cheaper than a cab ride.)

I first used the service in July when I needed to go to a medical appointment in Watertown and the Mrs. was not available to drive me. I could have gotten there via the T, but it would have taken an excessive amount of time and I didn't feel like setting out from home two hours ahead of the scheduled visit. I had a code for a discount on the first ride so I signed up and summoned my driver via the app.

For me, one of the more interesting things about using Uber is getting to ride in a variety of cars. When your ride is confirmed, the Uber app shows you the driver's name and what type of car they are driving. I suppose the intent is to give you an idea of what car you should be watching for, and I imagine this information is lost on many people who don't pay attention to cars or have a particular interest in them, but for me it's been a new, fun surprise each time.

I've used the service a total of five times so far, and each time I've ridden in a different type of car. My first ride was in a Volkswagen Passat, not the version currently on sale but the older one, which was still quite comfortable. (The Mrs. ended up having a current Passat as a rental in September while her car was being repaired, so I've been in one of those too.) Next was a Dodge Avenger, which is kind of generic and ugly and plasticky inside, definitely not a car that's going to impress anyone but probably a perfect car for this sort of situation.

My next ride was in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but one that had been in use for a while. By my estimate it was about ten years old, and I was a little surprised that Uber would let a driver use a car of that age, but it got me home. In October I needed to get home from downtown on a Saturday afternoon, and the bus to our house runs only every 30 minutes on Saturdays so I decided to summon an UberX ride. This time my driver was piloting a nearly new Toyota Venza, which would be called a Camry wagon if Americans still cared about station wagons.

A couple of Mondays ago I had another medical thing, this time in Davis Square. That's a little less than 3.5 miles from our house, but getting there is convoluted. I have to allow at least an hour of transit time, plus whatever I have to add on to allow for the less than frequent bus where we live. It was raining steadily that morning, and I didn't get ready as quickly as I should have, so I ended up missing the bus I had intended to catch. UberX was the solution; my ride was a Ford Fusion, again the previous generation but immaculately kept and much nicer than the Dodge. The ride took all of 11 minutes, even in the rain. (After each trip you receive an emailed receipt with the distance traveled, time, and total charge.)

I have to make one observation about the drivers: many of them use GPS, which makes complete sense. But some of them lean on it a little too heavily, in my opinion. On my last trip I told the driver I was going to Davis Square. This is a prominent location, and anyone who lives around here and drives a car should have some idea of how to get there. The driver needed a street address to input the destination and start getting directions. I knew the name of the street but not the number, so I had to look it up on my phone. Then he said the GPS couldn't locate that street, but I think he may have mistyped it because on the second try it started telling him where to go. On some of my other rides the drivers were fine with me giving them verbal directions, like you would with a taxi driver.

There are always tradeoffs, and I find UberX to be highly preferable to a dirty, ancient cab with a worn-out suspension, where you have to ask the driver to turn on the air conditioning. In the future I will have a physical address ready in case a driver asks me for it.

(By the way, this is not a sponsored post, nor is it an endorsement. Other than the initial discount code, I've paid for my Uber rides with my own money. I'm sharing my experiences so that others can decide if Uber is something they are interested in using.)

Last Week in Awesome (12/21/13)

Damn, the weekend slipped past me again... early resolution: try to post TWiA on Saturdays.

This is old now (in internet terms) so some of you probably already saw it, but for anyone who is interested in the process behind how the things we buy are made and gotten to stores, it's worthy of your time. (NPR via Put This On)

Here's one for the word nerds. (Oxford English Dictionary via Laughing Squid)

Old postcards are admittedly a filtered view of reality, but they are still a fascinating window into the past, particularly of our cities. (Neat Stuff via Hemmings Blog)

And finally last week, the HBO show-children's book series crossover we were all waiting for? (Best Week Ever via Videogum)

Futility

Comcast has been carpet-bombing us with letters asking us to call for an "account review," promising to give us more for our money. We get one about every two weeks. The cost of our cable and internet has crept up and up over the past several years and it would be nice to have that bill reduced if possible, so the Mrs. asked me to call them.

I was reluctant to call for a couple of reasons. I don't care for the idea that there's some sort of special discount that may be available, but the only way i can find out about it is if I call the provider. Big companies like Comcast expend most of their effort toward getting new customers, whether that means luring people away from their competition or expanding the areas where they offer their services. Longtime customers should be rewarded for their loyalty, and it should be really easy for me to find out what those rewards are, like going into my account online.

Beyond that I suspected the call would be a waste of time. I called yesterday, and I was right. I was hoping for some sort of discount or variation on our current package that would lower our bill, and I made it clear at the start of the call that I was not interested in adding any other services (they sell all kinds of other crap now like home monitoring, which I'm sure is great for some people). The only offer the rep was able to offer was the addition of HBO and Starz, for about the same amount as we're paying now, but only with a package that includes a home phone line that we neither need nor want.

When I pointed this out to the rep, she actually said something like, "You don't have to activate it." How incredibly pointless and stupid is that? Especially now, with people turning away from cable TV but keeping internet access in order to use streaming services, you would think companies like Comcast would be trying to do more to hold onto the customers they have. I believe it's time for us to consider other provider options.

Tie Game

For those of you who first came around here because of something that I wrote about clothing, shoes, or shopping, I haven't forgotten about you. My financial situation over the past year or so has made it harder for me to shop with the same fervor I used to have, but every now and then I'm still going to have something to say about an item of clothing.

I occasionally go on job interviews and attend events that require getting dressed up, so I need ties. I like ties; I wore them in high school. I have about 30 of them, which some might think is too many for someone who isn't required to wear them to work daily, but I've found that having choices works better for me when I'm trying to put together an outfit.

I just bought two ties from The Tie Bar, an Illinois-based online store. They first came to my attention several years back because of their tie bars, which are featured in the fashion layouts in nearly every issue of GQ. They also offer a wide selection of inexpensive pocket squares (around $8 for the cotton ones).

And for ties, they are a terrific resource. They have a huge variety of ties, almost all of which are $15 each (extra-long styles are $20). Many are offered in a choice of standard or skinnier widths. They also sell other accessories like cufflinks, socks, and suspenders. Standard shipping is a flat $5.99 for any size order, and with prices as reasonable as theirs, it makes sense to order several items at once.

You might think a $15 tie would be a piece of junk, but part of what makes The Tie Bar an appealing place to shop is that their products offer excellent value and are nicely made for the price. You could go to Macy's and pay $40 to $50 for a tie with some designer's name on the label, and there wouldn't be any difference in quality between it and a tie from The Tie Bar. I'm not saying their stuff is on the same level as something by Ferragamo or Zegna, but it sure costs a hell of a lot less.

These are the two ties I got last week. I have never cared for striped ties; I tend to favor geometrics, paisleys, or solids with texture. For the past several years I've been inclined toward simpler designs, and both of these are definitely in that vein.

It's difficult to go wrong with a polka-dot tie (unless you choose a weird color); while I've never liked navy, I really like royal blue, and I've been wanting a tie in this color for a while. The silver tie has a very fine basket-weave texture that catches the light nicely. This would be a great choice to wear to a wedding, with a dark pinstripe suit and a white shirt. As a bonus, it also works well with some of my striped dress shirts (if you're going bolder with your shirt, then you should probably go more subtle with the tie).

Shoppin'-Ass Ninja

When Andy Samberg left Saturday Night Live to star in a sitcom (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which has turned out to be pretty good), it seemed that the Digital Shorts (pre-taped segments usually constructed around a song by Samberg and his cohorts in The Lonely Island) would go with him. The title is gone, but the show continues to produce segments that are very similar in spirit and arguably just as good.

Earlier this fall when Kerry Washington hosted, the joke song "The Fox" by Ylvis got morphed into "What Does My Girl Say?" (check it out over here on Hulu). This past weekend John Goodman hosted, and I think the show hit a new high with this clip, called "H&M," featuring Goodman and Jay Pharoah, with some help from Taran Killam and several other cast members (there are an awful lot of them these days).

I think this one benefits from watching it more than once; I've watched it three or four times and I'm still laughing at it.

Car Stuff: Car Show Outtake

When I posted pictures from the car show I attended back in July, I covered every car i had photographed except one. I came across it while looking for something else in iPhoto. I'm not sure why I didn't include it; maybe I thought I had featured enough cars in the two posts. Regardless, I had this one left over and decided to feature it today.

This is a 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass coupe with the 4-4-2 package, customized by Hurst. At the height of the muscle-car era in the late 1960s the 4-4-2 was a separate model in the Cutlass lineup, as its cousin the GTO was the high-performance version of the Pontiac LeMans. The 4-4-2 was sometimes referred to as a "gentleman's hot rod" because Oldsmobiles were considered more refined than Pontiacs (and cost more).

By the early 1970s the muscle car was all but dead due to emissions requirements and insurance concerns. Big engines were still available, but they made far less horsepower than their predecessors, and cars like the 4-4-2 were relegated to option packages, more about show than go.

Hurst Performance was a Pennsylvania company that supplied parts to auto manufacturers and offered its own performance upgrades. They were involved in the production of performance versions of cars for several auto brands. The Hurst/Olds first appeared in 1968; for 1974, 1800 were built, making this a pretty rare car even when new. The gold striping and wheels were the most distinctive parts of the package, along with the black roof band and hood louvers. (A modified version of this car, with the roof removed in front of and behind that band, was the pace car for the 1974 Indianapolis 500 race.)

This Week in Awesome (12/14/13)

We didn't get that much snow, and it turned to rain this morning as the temperature climbed into the 30s. Unfortunately I didn't realize it was going to drop again so quickly, and by the time I got outside around noon, everything had a nice crust of ice on top of it. It took me about 3-1/2 hours and I didn't even finish the back of the house because my arms were worn out (possibly from having to use the metal shovel, which is much heavier).

Anyway, on to this week's bits of joy...

I don't know whose idea this was, but it's kind of fascinating and horrifying at the same time. (BangShift via The Truth About Cars)

Here's a Christmas wrapping lesson for one of those oddly shaped objects that can be tricky to wrap. (Hint: it's not a golf club.) (Death and Taxes via Videogum)

Billy Eichner enlisted Amy Poehler to engage unsuspecting pedestrians in some impromptu caroling. (YouTube via Jimmy Kimmel Live)

And finally this week, if that didn't put you in the Christmas spirit, well... we've been regular viewers of The Daily Show for a long time, and this segment (which is in two parts) is a perfect example of why we keep watching.

Retro Video Unit (12/13/13)

I had hoped to find something Christmasy, in the vein of previous selections "Fairytale of New York" and "Christmas in Hollis." I was really hoping for a video of "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses, but there doesn't seem to be one. There are all kinds of fan-made videos, which I find to be just too weird to contemplate in any depth.

So we'll have to go in a different direction. Some bands merit revisiting, so today we have another song from Blondie, "Dreaming" from their 1979 album Eat to the Beat. I've always had a thing for bands with keyboards, and I also believe that Clem Burke is one of the best rock drummers ever.

New Phone, New Case

I ended up getting a new iPhone last week. I wasn't planning on upgrading until I had a more consistent source of income, but a visit to the Verizon website indicated that the trade-in value of my 4S was equivalent to the upfront cost of a new 5S, excluding the tax. So I ordered it up and it arrived in a couple of days.

Right after that came the padded envelope to submit my old phone for its trade-in assessment. Off it went the same day (it's nice when our mail gets delivered early enough in the day to accomplish things like that), and yesterday I got an email confirming the appraised value, which I will receive in the form of a Verizon Wireless gift card, which I can apply to my balance.

I knew that when I eventually upgraded my phone I would need to get a new case, because the 5S, like the 5 before it, is taller and slimmer than my 4S. As much as I liked my book-style case from Pad & Quill, I had decided that I didn't want another of the same thing, but I still wanted to be able to remove the phone from its case fairly quickly and easily, mainly because I'm so much in the habit of doing so.

Bumpers and molded cases are meant to stay on the phone all the time, so I knew I didn't want to go in that direction. I had bookmarked a few styles that I had seen and liked, so I started going back and evaluating them more carefully. Twelve South, the makers of the BookBook case, also have a very minimal leather cover that adheres to the phone but can be removed, and also folds back to make a stand so you can watch videos without having to hold the phone. At first I thought I was going to get this, but I realized that it would probably end up annoying me.

Ultimately I decided on a vertical sleeve style, with an opening at the top that the phone slips into. Many of the cases I saw of this type also have an opening on the bottom for connecting the charging cable, but I always remove my phone from its case to charge it in a desktop dock so I did not want or need this feature. Many cases of this type also have a pocket on the outside, or sometimes more than one. I understand the utility of this, but I didn't want that either.

After some more pondering and google searching, I chose a case I had bookmarked some time ago, from a Texas company called Castello DaVarg. They craft all their products in the US, and use only leather from US tanneries. My case arrived yesterday, and their commitment to craftsmanship and quality is evident in the finished product.

My only real objection is that they deliberately choose not to offer their products in black. The color I chose, a dark tan that features orange stitching, is quite lovely, but I would have liked the option of a black case, if for no other reason than my iPhone is black and I prefer things to be coordinated when possible.

Inappropriately Dressed

Yesterday as I was waiting for a bus outside the Davis T station during the afternoon's rain, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a tall guy heading into the station wearing a long black trench coat. My brain suggested to me that something was off about the image my eye had just processed, so I turned and took a second look. I then saw that the guy was wearing black shoes and socks. I was able to see that he was wearing black socks because he wasn't wearing any pants.

I do occasionally see burly he-man types wearing shorts on cold days; they generally appear to be heading to or from a gym. This may have been the same type of situation, but the long coat made him look suspicious and creepy. Alternately, that annual no-pants subway ride is coming up next month; maybe he was getting in a practice run, figuring out his route?

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #15

When I say "random," sometimes it's really random. Today's found car was spotted on a side street in Cambridge between Central Square and Trader Joe's. Normally when we go to TJ's we're driving from home, so we take Memorial Drive. On this particular day I met the Mrs. at her office because it was near the store, and as we drove she turned onto this street by mistake. But when I saw this car I knew instantly what it was, and asked her to pull over because I couldn't pass it up as a subject.

It's an Edsel, Ford's doomed attempt to make its lineup of brands more like that of its main competition, General Motors. For decades GM's lineup of brands was intended to be aspirational: GM hoped that customers who bought Chevrolet as starter cars would then move up through its hierarchy of more prestigious brands (Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, then Cadillac) as their material fortunes improved, since the brand of car one buys was and is an indicator of one's prosperity.

Ford had Mercury and then Lincoln for its buyers to move up to, but they perceived a gap in the market between Ford and Mercury that someone believed needed filling. But when they launched the line in the fall of 1957, the country was in the grip of a significant recession that caused car sales to drop industry-wide, plus the Edsel's styling was—there's no way to sugar-coat it—dreadful. (The entire car industry was going through a difficult period of gaudy, overdone styling; offering yet another bad example was not a prudent course of action.)

This one is a 1959, the second of Edsel's brief, three-model-year existence. The '59s were toned down compared to the previous year, but it was already too late to matter. By the time the 1960 models reached showrooms, with styling that shared the bulk of its sheetmetal with that year's Fords and still managed to look pretty good compared to some of the other cars available that year, the whole brand was DOA. The '60 cars were produced for just over two months, and only 2,846 cars were built.

Now any Edsel is rare and sought-after, a bitter irony in light of how the car was mocked and shunned when new. This car has plates and appears to be driven at least occasionally, and overall it looks far better than one might expect given its age. On the rear side you can see the "Ranger" script  that indicates this would have been the lower of the two model lines offered this year. There were four lines offered in '58, but the car did so poorly so quickly that the offerings were curtailed the following year.)

Early on, some Edsels were built at a Ford plant in Somerville, MA, but it was closed in October 1957. That's how the Assembly Square Mall (and later, shopping center) got its name—it occupies the site of the former plant.

This Week in Awesome (12/7/13)

I know TWiA has been a bit erratic lately, but I'm going to try to get it back on track.

Have you ever thought about which actors might be chosen to portray puppet characters from a certain children's TV show? Someone has. (TV Tattle)

In the realm of personal technology and computers, there are a number of symbols that we have become accustomed to seeing, but where did they come from? (visual.ly via Laughing Squid)

The Blues Brothers is one of my favorite movies, and one of my favorite parts is the chase through the shopping mall. Here it's been painstakingly recreated. (BangShift via Mpoar Blog)

And finally this week, you don't have to be a parent to appreciate these video shorts, but I'm sure it makes them even funnier: parts 1, 2, and 3, plus the associated tumblr site. (Tastefully Offensive)

Retro Video Unit (12/6/13)

(I overlooked this last week due to the holiday, so we'll have one today and one next Friday to get back on schedule...)

I've had this one in the back of my mind for a long time, but I'd never been able to find a decent clip of it. Someone finally obliged me by uploading this a few months ago. I'm betting very few of you have ever heard of this band, let alone heard this song, "Love and Loneliness" by The Motors:



The Motors were a British band that popped up around the same time as a bunch of other artists from the UK in the late 1970s (Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, Joe Jackson). When it became apparent that new wave as a music genre had staying power, record company executives scrambled to sign whatever performers they could find that were unfamiliar on this side of the Atlantic.

While this isn't much of a video, it serves the song well. The LP it came from, called Tenement Steps, had an unusual cover with a black-and-white graphic of steps. The upper left and lower right corners of the cover were cut off intentionally to blend in with the graphic. I still have a copy of this album, and I've been thinking it may be time to consider trying to sell some of my old LPs.

Perhaps I Can Interest You in Some Fine Merchandise?

In the past I've written about selling stuff on eBay, and occasionally suggested that some of you might be interested in what I have for sale. I've ramped my selling activity back up this fall; over the past month I've sold three pieces of outerwear and a pair of boots.

Since Christmas is approaching, it seems like an opportune time to list as many items as I can. At the moment there are only two listings, a vintage wool-blend coat from Brooks Brothers and a 1960s Accutron watch (this one), but I will be adding items pretty much every day until I've exhausted the sellable stuff around here. Please have a look at my listings here. Thanks.

Turkey, Revisited

I know Thanksgiving is behind us, but if you're a fan of the animated comedy Bob's Burgers and/or the band The National, then you'll probably enjoy this:

Car Stuff: Random Sightings #13 & 14

Sometimes I'm able to get only one picture of a car, so for today I thought I'd combine two of those into one post.

There are a lot of old Cadillacs being used as daily drivers around here. Some of them belong to seniors and have been babied since new; others have been used hard. They are easy to overlook, but also easy to notice if you're looking for them. These two cars are only a few years apart, but they look quite different.

I spotted this early-'90s Sedan DeVille at the Wellington T station one day as I was boarding a bus. I got this picture from my seat, and tried to get a shot of the front end as the bus drove past, but that one didn't come out well enough to use. From where it was parked, I think it may belong to an MBTA official.

These DeVilles were somewhat unpopular when they appeared for 1985, because General Motors switched them (along with platform cousins, full-size Buicks and Oldsmobiles) to front-wheel-drive. They were roomier inside and rode better, but buyers disdained them because they looked small. The Cadillacs got a wheelbase stretch for 1989 that made them look somewhat more Cadillac-like. Based on the exterior trim details and wheel covers, this one is probably a '91 or '92. While I think it's a nice-looking car, the squared-off, upright styling is very '80s and already looked dated by the time this car was sold.

For contrast, this DeVille is from a little later in the '90s. It's definitely less dated-looking, but not necessarily more attractive. To my eyes it looks bloated, and the closed rear fender openings don't help. This was another styling cue shared with big Oldsmobiles of the same period, as well as the Chevrolet Caprice. It was used from 1994 to '96, which is as precise as I can get.

I'm sure you noticed this car is parked in a handicap spot. I look for older cars like this in the spaces closest to the entrances of supermarkets and other stores. (This one was at the Market Basket in Chelsea.) Years ago I found two 1980s-era Dodges parked next to each other outside my local Stop & Shop. I took pictures, but then mistakenly erased the memory card they were on, and I'm still bummed about it.

Holiday Travel Memories

Many of us traveled somewhere to visit our families this week. The other day while I was volunteering, I was reminded that the building we were in was on the site of what used to be the old, decrepit bus station on St. James Avenue near Arlington Street and Park Square. It prompted me to reflect on more than three decades of going home for holidays.

For me, a big part of going to college was moving away from home. Like many young people I wanted to experience independence, but I didn't want to be prohibitively far away. Even as a freshman I met people who had to travel as far as California for the brief Thanksgiving break. But since I was from Rhode Island, home was just an hour's bus ride away. The station was primarily for Greyhound buses, but the Providence route was operated by a company called Bonanza.

That old bus station was grimy and run-down, and typically had an assortment of questionable people hanging around. But bus service to Providence ran pretty much hourly, so it was usually not necessary to spend any significant amount of time waiting in the station. The station in Providence was also not a place one would want to spend any time, but I knew that a ride would be waiting when I arrived, or I could walk a couple of blocks and catch a local bus the rest of the way.

A few years later, I discovered the pleasures of taking Amtrak from Boston to Providence. (This was still during the 1980s, prior to commuter rail service; later, after that service was established, it was initially not available on weekends.) Wider seats with more room to stretch out, freedom from traffic issues, the bar car—it was a much more hospitable ride.

But the train was more expensive than the bus, so I continued to use both. At some point (maybe the early '90s?) Providence got a new bus station, north of downtown and adjacent to route 95, so the bus drivers didn't have to navigate narrow streets. Originally the bus company operated a shuttle from the station to downtown for people who needed to make other transit connections, but I don't know if that is still in effect.

Boston's bus station moved also, to a spot adjacent to Dewey Square. I think it had something to do with the merger of two bus companies, because the terminal had been there for some time but I had never had occasion to use it. It was convenient to the subway at South Station, and to where I was working at the time, but it was just as dreary and forlorn as the one I had been using for years.

But time passes and things change. By the mid-1990s I was living with the Mrs. and we were driving to RI for holiday visits. Had it existed in the 1980s, commuter-rail service to Providence would have been very convenient; the recent extension to Green Airport would have been even more so, as my family's home is only about a mile from there. Today the bus terminal sits above the train tracks at South Station, with dedicated highway ramps for bus use. It's not fancy, but it's a far more pleasant place to wait for a bus than the ratty old Greyhound terminal.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #12

This is a good one, and I've had it in the queue for a couple of months. It belongs to a friend of a friend, who has taken it over from his father. It has led a relatively pampered existence, and it shows.

It's a Chevrolet El Camino, the car-based pickup that was pretty popular for a while in the 1970s. The origin of the vehicle dates back to 1959 when it was introduced as a reaction to Ford's Ranchero, which first appeared for 1957. The original El Camino went away after just two model years, but was reestablished on the General Motors midsize platform along with the introduction of the 1964 intermediate models. It stayed in production through 1987. (The Ranchero didn't have any production gaps but was moved to the new compact Falcon for 1960, then aligned with the El Camino on Ford's midsize platform in 1966, where it remained until production ended in 1979.)

I neglected to ask the exact year of this car, but the front-end design puts it at '82 or later. It's highly optioned (relative to how people typically purchased cars at the time) with features like power windows and door locks, those chromed tiedown rails, and a small V-8 that was the largest available engine at the time. But it also has the ritzy Conquista trim package, which included the two-tone paint with chrome moldings separating the colors, whitewall tires, and wire wheel covers.

Look at that: an interior that isn't beige or tan or gray or black. This is one of my big peeves about how cars are built now; of course, it's about money—those colors (especially black) go with the widest variety of exterior paint colors. But it used to be that if you wanted a blue car, you could get a matching blue interior, and I miss that. Here and there carmakers are starting to offer choices like blue or red for the seats and maybe inserts on the door panels (particularly if leather is offered), but everything else is still black. You have to spend serious money now, like upwards of $100K, to get real color choices.

And then there's the bed cap, a practical option if you haul stuff frequently enough to have to contend with bad weather. This car came up from North Carolina, so it may have been to protect the contents from rain more than anything else. Personally I'd prefer the car without the cap, but it's pretty nicely integrated into the overall design. It's great to see this somewhat uncommon young vintage car on the road and being enjoyed.

Note to Self

It's not a good idea to try to eat a bagel in an outdoor area where a large number of birds are lingering.

Last Week in Awesome (11/23/13)

Hi. So I've been kind of busy lately. I had planned to do a TWiA after missing it last week, but a little thing called Sunday Night Football got in the way, and as we all know that didn't finish up until well after midnight. So I think I'll just go ahead and do this now, and I'll do my regular Monday car post tomorrow.

Remember Billy Squier? If you were listening to the radio or watching MTV in the early '80s you probably do; significantly younger and you may never have heard of him. But hip-hop artists know him, or at least the beats from his songs. (New York Post via The Awl) (Note: I was completely unaware of the infamous video referenced in this article.)

Speaking of the '80s, there's some great sociocultural photography here. Who knows, you might spot yourself in one of the pictures. (Laughing Squid)

And maybe we'll just stay with the '80s: movie buffs will want to check out the 50 minutes of deleted scenes from Blue Velvet, which apparently were missing for some time. (If you have seen the 25th anniversary edition of the movie, these are included.) Flavorwire goes one better by annotating the whole thing. (Laughing Squid)

And finally this week (and admittedly a bit late), a couple of weeks back an ad appeared online for European Volvo trucks that featured Jean-Claude Van Damme performing a split between two trucks moving backward (to show off their smooth ride and precise steering). This was followed a few days later by a response, of sorts, from Channing Tatum. (Tastefully Offensive)

Mind Wanderings

When you ride public transit regularly, you see a lot of weird and unusual stuff. Sometimes it's a situation, sometimes it's an object. I was going through the pictures on my phone and found this, which I took on a bus a couple of years ago:

You see things like this, and naturally they cause your mind to start wondering: was this forgotten, or was it left there on purpose to evoke reactions, like a YouTube video?

I've seen other abandoned objects that perplexed me, like canes and wheelchairs. How do you forget a cane, if you need it to stand up and walk around? How do you suddenly no longer need a wheelchair in the middle of the street (unless it was stolen and taken for a joyride of sorts)?

Thought for the Day

Chips without dip? Perfectly acceptable.
Dip without chips? A sad situation.

Light Out

You know how sometimes a street light will suddenly go out, then come back on very dimly a few seconds later, and gradually return to its full brightness? I think most people have seen this happen at least once.

But this is getting weird: when I take the dog out for her "last call" walk around 11:30, we always walk the same way: around the corner and down the street, crossing over about halfway down the block and coming back up the other side. For the past several nights running, I have seen the same street light go out as we approach it.

To my knowledge I have not come in contact with any electromagnetic fields, so I don't have any explanation. And I'm not the sort of person who gets creeped out easily, but this is strange, and seeing it happen several times has me more puzzled than anything else.

Unintended Outcome

A few months ago I acquired an inexpensive jacket from Old Navy. I had been looking for a lightweight cotton jacket with some vaguely military detailing. I definitely didn't want an M65, but was thinking along the lines of something that would look like it had been influenced or inspired by one. And I wanted it to be cheap.

Over the past year or so I've seen numerous styles of this general design available. I was hoping to find one in gray, but black was close enough. I don't shop at Old Navy often, other than for things like T-shirts, socks, and underwear—stuff I consider essentially disposable. (A lot of people consider everything that ON sells disposable, but I try not to be judgmental in that way; sometimes I find useful things there.)

One advantage to shopping at Old Navy is that they tend to offer significant discounts, which is how I ended up with my jacket. But the fabric felt odd to the touch, as though it had too much dye on and in it. Worried that it might transfer to other clothing, I washed it. I followed the instructions carefully: cold water, gentle cycle, didn't put it in the dryer.

When it was done it had definitely lost its excess-dye look and feel, but it came out looking distressed, with slightly more dye missing from some areas than others. I was a bit upset and considered returning it, but then I thought about it for a bit. The distressing, though unintentional, gave the jacket a broken-in look that could be considered desirable, and given how little I had paid (around $25, I think), it didn't seem worth the effort to return it.

I decided to embrace the randomness of what had happened. A few days ago an acquaintance told me she liked the jacket, so I told her the story. She agreed with me that it looks better the way it turned out.

If anyone else is interested in trying this, the jacket is still available at Old Navy, though I can't guarantee that others will get the same results.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #11

Since it's harder to get pictures of moving cars from inside another moving car, I look for subjects while out walking around my neighborhood. For today I have a car that I had passed on many a dog walk, and it doesn't appear to move frequently so I knew I could go back without the dog and get a few pictures of it.

This is an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, another one of those General Motors cars that was built for a long time. In this case they were around from 1982 to 1996. Initially the car was available in two-door and four-door body styles; a wagon was added for 1985, and the coupe was dropped after 1991. Its platform cousins were the Chevrolet Celebrity, Buick Century, and Pontiac 6000. (The Celebrity went away after 1990, the 6000 after '91; the Century hung on as long as the Ciera did.)

The basic design of these cars never changed during their run, but they did receive styling changes along the way. So how to pin down this car's year? The roofline of the four-doors was revised for 1989; it's hard to tell from the angle of this pic, but this car has it. Beyond that, there was a tail light change for '91, and there's an "S" model designation on the fender badge, which puts it between '90 and '94. I'm inclined to think it's from the latter end of that range, but regardless it's at least 20 years old. (Love the "aged to perfection" plate, though cars in Massachusetts are supposed to have front license plates.)

These cars are sometimes referred to as "cockroaches of the road," partly for how many years they were in production, and partly due to how popular they were when new, a combination that resulted in a lot of these cars still in use. So I wasn't too surprised to see this blue Ciera tucked away in this neighbor's driveway. I've seen other variants on the roads in our area, and I would have liked to get a picture of one of each model for this installment but I wasn't quite that lucky. Of course it's always possible I'll spot them later.

I said this car doesn't seem to move much; I have a feeling someone is holding onto it for sentimental reasons. But it does get driven, as I found one day last week when I passed the house:

Update, 11/21: I've been by the house several more times over the past week, and it appears that the Olds is gone for good.

Retro Video Unit (11/15/13)

This time around I'm heading in a slightly different direction. Once upon a time I was able to enjoy some rap and hip-hop; back in 1979, "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang caught on fairly early where I lived. It was an adjunct to the disco era because it sampled the bass line from Chic's "Good Times." I was into the early stuff from Run-DMC and I liked De La Soul, the Beastie Boys, and even some Public Enemy.

I'll admit that I always liked the music part of hip-hop better than the lyrics, probably because the idea of sampling and reconstructing bits of songs into a new song appealed to the music-liking part of my brain. Now I'm quite a bit older than I was back then, and hip-hop has evolved into something that I can't make any sort of connection with. I can still appreciate the artistry that goes into a backing track (like, say, this one), but as soon as the artist starts rapping I'm lost.

I happened across this song as part of a playlist. I hadn't thought about it in a long time, but I really liked it back when it was new. In fact, I had the 12" single version, and still do; it's packed away in the basement with all my other vinyl. So let's flash back to '87 with "Paid In Full" by Eric B & Rakim:

Follow-Ups

Please allow me the indulgence of addenda to some of my recent posts:

Comedy Central's @Midnight completed its four-week trial run this week, and the network was so pleased with the show's performance that they have ordered a full year of the show. New episodes will begin airing on January 6th.

We didn't have to wait long for our street to be paved. The crews started today around 7 am, and their work was complete by about 11:30. Traffic was driving on it a couple of hours later; asphalt cools more quickly when it's not as warm outside.

When Netflix says a movie or TV show is available to stream "until" a certain date, what they really mean is "until the beginning of" that day, and not "until the end of" that day. And I suspect the demarcation point is when the clock reaches midnight Pacific time, since that's the time zone their company is based in. I say this because I was still watching the 1979-80 season of Saturday Night Live last night until after midnight Eastern time, but as of this morning I could no longer watch it. I didn't quite make it; I had about four episodes left.

Totally Canceled

Last week I wrote about the time demand of watching four nightly topical humor shows. I fear that I may have unintentionally sent a jinx out into the universe, because yesterday the news came that FXX has canceled Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, one of the shows we watch regularly.

This is unfortunate, and disappointing, because Totally Biased is funny, and offers a point of view that's different from other late-night shows because its host is black. It's also more overtly political, sometimes angrily so, while still being funny. The show was doubly burdened with a shift from FX to its new sibling channel FXX (which isn't on as many cable systems), and from a weekly show to four nights a week.

I don't know what the network's expectations were, but it seems like they've treated Totally Biased unfairly. The show's ratings have been poor since the switch, but it wasn't exactly set up for success and FXX only gave the show a couple of months. However, according to the reports I've read there may be other networks interested in the show. Bell's voice is original and his show deserves to continue, so I hope that happens somewhere.

Surface Grinding

After all the utility work that's been done on our street this year, the street itself is kind of rough. Fortunately the city is preparing to repave it. We got a notice in our mailbox that they would be starting this process by grinding off the top layer of pavement today.

I awoke this morning to the sounds of heavy equipment and backup beeping. Up and down the street they went throughout the day, making several passes to cover the entire width of the street. (Residents had also been instructed to park elsewhere today.)

I had never seen this process happening, and managed to snap a picture as they passed our house:

I hope we won't have to wait long for the repaving, but in the interim it may get some drivers to slow down. Those temporary asphalt sidewalk patches are supposed to be replaced, too.

Time's Running Out

In some of my idle moments, I pop over to Netflix and watch old episodes of Saturday Night Live. The first few seasons with the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players were a true watershed moment for comedy and for television. The show's comedic style and the way it was presented were genuinely new and edgy for the TV environment of the mid-1970s.

I watched most of those early episodes when they originally aired, but I had never seen them again since, so when I discovered that the entire catalog of SNL episodes was available to watch on Netflix I was quite pleased. I've been working through them at a leisurely pace, and I've also been looking forward to seeing the stuff from the early 1980s, considered a fallow period in the show's history and a time when I stopped watching the show regularly.

On Netflix the show's seasons are organized by decades, and a few days ago I noticed that the 1970s episodes that I have been watching are only available until November 15th, which is in three days. The 1980s episodes are only available to stream until December 12th. I'm almost done with the '70s anyway, but there's no way I'd be able to get through all of the '80s in a month, and I wish I'd noticed sooner.

I also don't know why these seasons are being dropped from streaming; I know Yahoo made a deal for SNL clips, but when it was announced I don't recall any mention of it affecting Netflix's existing content. And of course these shows will still be available on discs, but that's starting to seem terribly old-fashioned, and I'd rather keep my DVD queue flowing with more relevant content.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #10

Commercial vehicles are everywhere, but they tend to blend into the background. Today's subject is a van I pass whenever I walk to the supermarket, but I never paid any attention to it until I started looking for old cars to photograph.

This GMC has become a billboard of sorts for inspections at an auto shop that backs up on the Stop & Shop. The "Rally Wagon" badge on the fender means that it was built for carrying people rather than cargo (the windows all around are also a tipoff) and as such it would have come with at least one bench seat behind the two front seats. It could have had as many as three benches, with a maximum passenger capacity of 12, but I never thought to look inside. This particular truck was probably a parts runner before being consigned to sign duty.

Oh look, from this view we can see two bench seats... By the way, this basic body style was manufactured for 26 model years, from 1971 to 1996, before finally being replaced with a new design (and in keeping with precedent, that basic design is still in production 18 model years later).

So just how old is this one? Well, trucks tend to get cosmetic changes even less frequently than cars, but we can at least narrow it down. One key clue is the round headlights: most cars and trucks had switched to rectangular headlights by the late 1970s. Sometimes base models retained round lights a few years longer (so your neighbors could tell how prosperous you were, or weren't). This combination of grille and round headlights puts this van from a '78 to an '80, and the numerous dents and the amount of body rust along the bottom edges support that.

From the absence of license plates, I don't think this van is roadworthy anymore (though all four tires appear to be fully inflated, or at least mostly). Let's put it this way: these photos were taken on three different days, and the van is always in the exact same spot.

This Week in Awesome (11/9/13)

It's late on the weekend, but I have some things I think you might enjoy, especially if you have Monday off and are looking for something to read...

Have you heard of Medium? It's a newish site started by one of the founders of Blogger and Twitter meant to encourage writing and reading.

This is from last week but it's definitely worth reading: an argument for abolishing Daylight Saving Time and most of the US's time zones. (Quartz via LinkedIn)

Adam Scott's third iteration of The Greatest Event in Television History (spoof-homage recreations of the opening credits of 1980s TV shows) premiered a couple of nights ago on Adult Swim. Scott says he plans to do only one more of these, so Vulture compiled a list of shows he should consider. Our favorite bad '80s show, TJ Hooker, is on the list.

And finally this week, an in-depth look at how The Soup gets made. (BuzzFeed)

Substitute Laugh

I was going to share a sketch from this week's episode of Key & Peele about a performance of Othello back in Shakespeare's time, but it's not available online. I'm disappointed because it was very funny and encapsulated the wit and thinking that goes into their work.

So instead I'm going to post this extremely well-done spoof of a trailer for a fake Wes Anderson movie (with Alec Baldwin contributing the voiceover) that ran during the Edward Norton episode of Saturday Night Live that aired October 26th:

Late-Night Crowd

Maybe you haven't noticed, but late-night TV is getting crowded. We've been watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for years; we record them to watch the next day. I'd like to record the Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) as well, but it would be overwhelming, plus any particularly good bits cycle around the internet the next day.

We'd also been watching Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, a weekly show on FX, but in September it became a Monday through Thursday show, also at 11 pm. Now Comedy Central has launched a show after Colbert. It's called @Midnight, and it's hosted by Chris Hardwick. Each night he has three comedians as guests who dissect the day's happenings on the web and social media, such as guessing which of three tweets on a certain topic is real, or writing imaginary Yelp reviews.

The show is quite funny and after a couple of weeks it's off to a very promising start. So we've now doubled our late-night show consumption, and given the topical nature of all of them, we can't really let them accrue on the DVR and wait until the weekend to catch up, so it makes sense to watch them before getting to any regular scripted shows. It's not as big a deal if we don't get to those right away, other than having to avoid potential spoilers online.

Phone Not Found

I'd love to replace my iPhone with one of the new models, but I'm trying not to spend money on anything that isn't a necessity. The high demand for the iPhone 5S has helped, in a weird way, because there aren't any available in Apple stores.

I was going to mention a website that I've been checking that compiles availability information from Apple, but the site's owner just posted today that he's received a cease-and-desist letter from Apple and has decided to comply, so never mind that. Meanwhile, my 4S is working fine and will keep me going until I'm employed again.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #9

At this point I am more or less constantly on the lookout for old and/or interesting cars to feature. Sometimes I spot them while we're in the car, which makes getting decent shots more challenging. In this instance the universe cooperated, having this car roll up next to us at a traffic light.

It's a Chevrolet Caprice from the early 1980s. It could be anywhere from an '80 to an '85; like other carmakers, General Motors had determined by this point that annual styling changes just for the sake of change were not worth the expense, which makes cars like this harder to pin down to a specific year by appearance alone.

This car has been well used, and looks like it has spent time in plenty of New England winters. (In fact, are those snow tires? This was taken in September.) But it must have been cared for well enough to be running today. It's not going to be as safe or efficient as a newer car, but it's getting its owner where he needs to go. (Judging by this shot, though, he might want to stop looking at his phone if he wants to arrive in one piece.)

This Week in Awesome (11/2/13)

Things were iffy this week, but I've managed to round up some internet for your amusement...

This artist reimagines some otherwise forgettable artwork. (Laughing Squid)

Anchorman 2 comes out on December 20th, and clearly this guy can't wait. (BuzzFeed)

And finally this week, Huffington Post TV critic Maureen Ryan assembled three lists of Netflix recommendations: must-see classics; pretty good bets; and overlooked gems, plus a follow-up of contributions from readers. It never hurts to have suggestions.

Retro Video Unit (11/1/13)

Remember those Clash clips from a couple of weeks ago? This time it's the Pretenders, also from the late-night show Fridays. They appeared on September 18, 1981 (which happened to be the first episode of the show's third and final season) and performed three songs from their second album, Pretenders II: "The Adultress," "Message of Love," and "Louie, Louie." (I thought about stretching these out and posting one per week, but they're too enjoyable to hold back.)







The Pretenders were always one of my favorite bands from back in this period, and it's a terrible shame that both guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon died of drug-related causes in 1982 and 1983, respectively. I had the good fortune to see the band with all four original members in early '82 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Boston.