So off Elon goes, leaving Washington with a black eye, both figuratively and literally. He has, what, eleven offspring? Maybe he got the idea from listening to this Zeppelin track while stoned.
Rather than taking a hatchet to government agencies and staff in an attempt at reducing government fraud and waste, wouldn’t this “radical left idea” from AOC have served the purpose better?
David Lynch’s estate is holding an auction, with the notation that, all sales are final and all lots are sold “as-is.” One of the items up for grabs is his Sony LaserDisc player and a collection of his discs.
Also available is a very esoteric Cinea DVD player. It’s esoteric because the short-lived Cinea decks were used to secure Academy Award “screener” discs that were distributed for Oscar voting. The hardware came with a complete complement of connections.
Four years ago, a check I had written was stolen out of the mail. The ink for the amount and the payee was “washed out,” then a different payee and amount were written in. Thanks to an immediate phone alert, I was able to call the bank and stop the money from being transferred out of my checking account and into a criminal’s bank account.
I pay most of my bills electronically, but some things still require writing a check. Along with a recent order of checks I received came a few gel pens. Their ink is supposed to be harder to wash out than other ballpoint pen ink.
But wait. Gel pens are only a partial theft preventive measure. Because all that some criminals need from your check are the routing and account numbers, and your signature.
This weekend and beyond will see significant traffic delays at the busiest of all the Mass Pike interchanges, due to work on long overdue bridge replacement and repair. I’ll be using the interchange today, before this weekend’s highway chaos, to pick up a bookcase I ordered. It’s intended for the space downstairs where the piano had been.*
Last summer, it was raining heavily when I was on a Route 90-to-95 offramp, driving to one of my 28 weekday radiation treatments at the hospital. As I went around a tightly curved overpass, a sporty, late model Audi sped past me. The driver lost control on the wet pavement, he skidded, then spun around 90 degrees before stopping sideways. The car’s front end was sticking into my lane, but I had no difficulty in maneuvering to prevent an accident.
As I swerved around the Audi I saw that it had high performance tires with a very low profile — tires that typically do not do well on wet roads. My tires are the Michelin CrossClimate2, known for their exceptionally good traction in rain and snow. I credit the Michelins more than my driving skill in avoiding an accident. In my mind, that singular incident justified the CrossClimate2’s premium price.
That traction comes with an extra cost, however, and that’s mileage. The CrossClimate2 has relatively high rolling resistance, which I knew when buying them. Compared to the Bridgestone tires that came with my Camry, I’m losing about 10% in gas mileage. An acceptable tradeoff for improved traction, as since retiring I’ve been driving only about 4,000 miles/year.
I don’t know when I’ll be getting my next (and perhaps final) car, but I like that Toyota will be making all future RAV 4 models as gas-electric hybrids. I’m not ready for an all-electric car, and I doubt I ever will be. Primarily because it will be many years before America’s power grids are ready for a nation of mostly all-electric cars.
There is something else about EV’s that concerns me. Their weight adds significantly to the damage they can cause in a collision with other cars and, especially, with pedestrians. Another concern is the environmental tradeoff in how frequently their special tires need replacement, as explained here by CNBC.
* No bookcase yet. Argh. Tomorrow!
Let’s do something to show our solidarity with the suffering people of Ukraine in their resistance to Vlad the Invader. The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine plays music of Shostakovich, from Russia’s Soviet era.
The Concorde supersonic jet is gone, but the cool Ortofon Concorde phono cartridge series continues. Waltz #2, the second to last track, may be something you’ve heard before.
Following my recent Monkees-related posts there was Sunday’s Jumble That Scrambled Word Game. My offspring solved the obvious answer to the cartoon before I saw the paper. In the school tradition of “be sure to show your work,” I filled in the blanks to confirm his solution.
The Comics Curmudgeon weblog, that I believe predates this one, carries on. Unlike this safe online haven, the site is monetized, so you will see ads.
Gently nudging the strange internal illogics of comic strips is something I usually leave to the Curmudgeon. The Family Circus is an easy target, with Sunday’s installment being as unsettling as it is reassuring, in a way that’s unique to the feature.
“Here I am, Billy! Come to the light, Billy!” In Curmudgeon fashion I will point out if that isn’t Bill’s knee, his death dream was apparently a wet one.
