Sneaking in late again, reporting for work at my backyard petting zoo.
Category: Life with Pratts
Sixty-Seven Minute Man at 67
I’ve finally returned to running for more than an hour straight. The pace isn’t what it was in my younger years, but I’m very pleased with being able to go the distance without ankle trouble. I’ve been carefully working my way back up to this since Daylight Saving Time.
Here’s a bit of what Jim Dawson says about “Sixty Minute Man” in his book, What Was the First Rock ‘N’ Roll Record: 30th Anniversary Edition, Updated and Revised.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947521969
Why important: It was the first raucous, bluesy R&B hit to cross over to the pop charts, the first shamelessly double-entendre pop it, and the first million-seller by a formative R&B vocal group.
Mem Drive and Mass Ave.
I first thought about mentioning my peripheral connections to MIT after reading this item in Technology Review at the end of June.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/29/1053303/how-mit-ended-up-on-memorial-drive/
My conversation this week with an MIT astrophysicist has nudged me into action. Did we discuss cosmic rays? Black holes at the center of galaxies? Or was the topic her particular area of expertise, the search for dark matter?
No, it was something quite Earthbound and mundane. A contractor had sent her to me for a reference.
Unknown to me for many years, when my family moved to Massachusetts, my father’s cousin Jane was at MIT, getting her PhD in Political Science.
In the 70’s my father worked at the MIT Sloan School of Management for a few years. In the 80’s my twinster Jean worked at MIT while I was working at a nearby company named after MIT, founded by a couple of its grads. A friend who’s reading this is an MIT grad.
Web on the Web in .Webp
He must have seen the fake webbing I had on the front porch for Halloween and wanted to show me how it’s really done.
A AA Miracle!
I was going to post this last March, when the miracle ended. I’ll do it now before forgetting again.
For Christmas, way back in 1995, Santa delivered a Nordic Track machine. The classic low-tech design that simulates cross-country skiing. I don’t know if they’re even made anymore.
After becoming a dad I gave up running for a few years, to happily meet the demands of being a dad. When I wanted to start getting back into some sort of shape, Nordic Track seemed like the best the way to do that. The machine’s nifty exercise tracker required two AA batteries.
As was typical for Duracell at the time, the batteries were dated five years ahead.
That January, 2000 date was somewhat prophetic. Not because it was the millennium, but because at that time I was stuck face down in a vitrectomy chair, after the second surgery to repair the detached retina in my left eye. What’s a vitrectomy? Trust me, if you don’t need one, you’re better off not knowing.
After being allowed to get up from that blasted chair, my doctor wouldn’t let me run again until he was sure my eye had healed, which took a long time. I had his okay, however, to use the impact-free Nordic Track, and it felt wonderful. The ski machine was an essential part of my recovery.
I continue to use the Nordic Track to vary my exercise routine, and as therapy for my weak ankle. Last March, after more than 26 years, the original Duracell AA batteries were showing their age. The LCD display would work for a while but then turn itself off. So it was finally time to replace the batteries, and I was pleased to see they hadn’t leaked. Which newer Duracells seem to have more of a tendency to do.
Ramen Men
That’s the preferred brand of ramen here at home. If I ever become a survivalist, I’ll keep a comparable supply stored in my bunker.
