“. . . Now you see . . . they’ re not fit for humans . . .” “Put them on me.”
― Steve Martin, Cruel Shoes

$120K for a banana. Welp... people have simply lost their minds. Also, it’s now official: there is no such thing as “art”, it’s entirely a subjective construct.

Our own George Takei was incarcerated in those camps at the tender age of 5. George was born in Los Angeles; he was as much a US citizen as anyone else born in the US, including FDR.

“We constantly lament how cars nowadays all look the same...”

Hmm... there’s a “...where the sun don’t shine” joke in there somewhere.

Mine never had that particular problem, but it made up for it in many other ways. It leaked oil all the time; I think the crankshaft seals were made of silly putty.

I bought a new 240DL in 1976, paying over $6K when you could get a perfectly fine Ford or Chevy for less that half that. It was the worst car I’ve ever owned, a real hangar queen that practically lived in the garage. It had an early fuel-injected engine that didn’t work well at all. Starting cold it used an “air…

Umm... the “Compressed Air” that comes in cans isn’t “air” at all. It’s a fluorocarbon, often 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane, a common refrigerant. The material is liquid in the can, evaporating to a pressurized gas when the valve is opened. While handy, this stuff is hell on the environment; it is a potent greenhouse gas…

“Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson [were]... stashed in the Bahamas during the war...”

I spent much of my childhood on the road in the south with my parents in their un-air conditioned ‘54 DeSoto in the days before Interstates, lumbering through the heat on two-lane blacktops at 35 mph. A typical trip was three days, probably 30 hours of stultifying heat and boredom, with two nights on the road; it was…

I spent much of my childhood on the road in the south with my parents in their un-air conditioned ‘54 DeSoto in the…

Fun fact: back in the ‘60s John Lennon of Beatles fame had a slot car setup. Slot cars were a thing back then.

I grew up in the ‘50s on old school, iron monger kid paralyzing monkey bars like this. They were often over coarse gravel, so when you fell you not only broke your arm, you also received lacerations over 20% of your body. It was positively Darwinian; you could see evolution in action as weak skinny kids fell to their…

Pfft... this is as nothing. In the ‘50s and ‘60s Ramblers had a front bench seat that reclined all the way back, joining with the back seat to make a near-full sized bed. I learned to drive in one. I also went on some dates in it, occasioning the comment “Oh, you have one of those cars... “

“It’s hard to imagine what the world would be like without the acting prowess of Adam Sandler.”

Cowen E7 Bluetooth headphones. I was there for that glorious day with Shep found stacked discounts that brought them to my door for $11. I was one of the lucky few who actually got them before they pulled it. Thanks, Shep... !

Cowen E7 Bluetooth headphones. I was there for that glorious day with Shep found stacked discounts that brought them…

Back in the days when smoking was allowed on airliners I’d always request a seat well forward in the No Smoking section. On one long flight I kept smelling cigarette smoke, but figured it was just wafting up from the smoking section in back. After a while a stewardess flight attendant came by and asked me if the smoke…

I was on a flight from Chicago to Brussels. About an hour in the pilot came on the PA and said “Uhhh... this is ‘yur Cap’tin speakin’...” and I thought Oh no, he’s using his Chuck Yeager voice; when things go bad all American pilots channel Chuck Yeager. It developed that one of the three redundant hydraulic systems…

Flying on a 20 seat commuter airplane from Baltimore to Philly, as an avid private pilot I sat in the frontmost passenger seat so I could watch the pilots. About halfway there I saw the pilot look up, and obviously see something I couldn’t see from my angle. He pushed the control yoke violently forward, causing the…