My dad raised me with the belief that Craftsman tools were the good stuff; I got a bunch of his surplus stuff, and he gave me a nice set when we bought our first house.

The past few years, though, I’ve been increasingly disappointed with the stuff...anyone else have a similar experience?

My dad raised me with the belief that Craftsman tools were the good stuff; I got a bunch of his surplus stuff, and…

Back in the late ‘60s, my dad acquired a used ‘67 MGB. He’d always wanted a TC (IIRC), but this was what he could get. It was blue, which was an unusual color for an MGB. Eventually he sold it (MGBs are impractical cars in Minnesota) for an early Capri, which was the car in which I learned to drive stick.

When I was in grad school in the ‘80s, I had a friend who bought something that looked exactly like this.

And for that, Lear should be cursed for all time.  8-tracks were designed to self-destruct, and there’s nothing like hearing the clunk of heads shifting in the middle of a Linda Ronstadt song.

“Not physical in any way.”  Stick his face in front of a fan.

Oh, yeah. My dad (who taught at the U) used to go there, and he advised me regarding the need to dress warm. The lucky ones get to stand along the back wall behind the diners when it’s really cold (at least, that used to be the custom).

One thing you’ve missed, among a whole bunch:

Al’s Breakfast in the Dinkytown neighborhood around the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. Best.

Is it just me, or do vehicles like this resemble nothing so much as demented slot cars with foam tires?

Yep. I’ve stopped in stores and tried to type on 12" Macbooks and 13" Pros. I can do it. I can touch-type on those keyboards. But I do not enjoy it. I might get used to it, but it doesn’t make those first-choice machines for me.

I like using a notebook because that way I have my entire office in my briefcase. Makes things easier.

I’m a HUGE fan of buying used. A couple of years ago I got a ThinkPad X240 (still in warranty) with an i5, 256GB SSD, and 8 GB of RAM for <$300. Not quite as svelte as a Macbook, but very nice. I actually used the warranty to get part of the case replaced because it creaked a little—Lenovo sent a brace of techs out…

I hate chrome. It’s cheap bling (if that isn’t redundant). But the forehead on those cars is what makes them stand out. When I was a kid, my parents had a ‘57 Chevy wagon, and it just looked right to me (they sold it when they bought a ‘67 Fury III, their first new car, which never really did).

I live in Connecticut. I drive in all conditions. A couple of years back, I had to drive to JFK to pick up a friend. Because many flights were cancelled on account of the weather. It took me three hours to make what is normally a 90-minute trip, because the snow was BAD.

Pizza.

Another cyclist here:

I work in the midwest and holding doors is a common enough activity. . . . I also live in state where people CANNOT get the concept of the 4-way stop down...

The only one I’ve ever seen was in Orem, Utah.  Seemed appropriate, somehow.

Let me introduce you to the Honda Fit. Not quite so many colors, but dang! there are a lot of different ones out there.

In my high school electronics class (1975-6) the instructor refused to let students use calculators. But he allowed slide rules.

See also, well, essentially the entire NASA program that put human beings on the moon...so consider the Saturn V.