How Old is "Old"?

Old Faithful Inn

I was recently watching the charming movie Fisherman's Friends on Amazon Prime (it's free with limited ads if you have Prime and is worth watching) and in the movie there's a tiny traffic jam when a BMW from London can't get past a local driving a small Citroën. The local says that street designers in "the 17th century" hadn't planned on cars the size of the BMW.

That got me thinking that the town where the movie is set and was filmed, Port Isaac, Cornwall, in the UK must be a very old town. At least the 17th century old.

And that reminded me of something that happened to me as a teenager when I lived in Southeast Idaho in the late 1970s. My father had a business gentlemen come visit for some reason. He was from Ireland and because he was staying over the weekend, we took him to Yellowstone National Park which was about 135 miles away.

Side note: my family went to Yellowstone Park at least once a year because it was so close; a little more than a two-hour drive away. So I was very familiar with the park.

The gentleman and I went into Old Faithful Inn (of course we went to see Old Faithful) and he asked me how old was the building. I didn't know so I suggested asking a park ranger. The ranger said it was built in 1904. And I said "That's old" and the man from Ireland said with a chuckle "That's not old."

But I grew up in Southeast Idaho where "old" buildings were about 50 years old. So to my perspective, 1904 was old. But this man was from Ireland where the local church might be 500 years old. Or the streets designed in the 1600s. 

Those of us living in the Western US, which was only settled in the 1800s, have a totally different outlook on what is old than Europeans do. 

What do you think is old? Does where you live skew your ideas of "old"? Let me know in the comments below.

I Really Like Finding Nemo

The other day I was flipping channels and I found Finding Nemo. And I stopped and watched it even though it was about half-way through and I could watch it without commercials and in 4K UHD on Disney+.

And I realized that I really like that movie. In my list of 100 favorite movies, I put it at 30. It's since been demoted to 31 due to Oppenheimer being added to the list at #26. 

Why do I put what is essentially a kids' animated movie from 2003 so high on my list of favorites? Because the computer animation is beautiful and makes you think you're underwater. It's simultaneously funny and touching. The turtles are hilarious (especially Squirt) as are the seagulls but for different reasons. And some jokes are for adults only, including a reference to The Shining. 

Like most of Pixar's early films, the writing and story telling are amazing. Marlin is the nervous and over-protective father who finds his courage. Nemo is the son who learns his father really loves him. And Dori finds friendship and accomplishment.

Sometimes when I'm bored, I'll turn on Finding Nemo on Disney+ just to enjoy it again.

If you haven't seen it (avoiding it as a "kids' movie"?), I strongly recommend you do. It's available for streaming on Disney+. Or it's on cable occasionally. Check it out and find Finding Nemo. You won't be disappointed.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

Manual Transmissions are Going Away

There are times I miss having a manual transmission in one of my cars. I'm at the age where I don't want a stick shift in my daily driver, but it would be fun to have a sporty car with a manual transmission for weekends. I haven't had that since I sold my Corvette years ago. 

When you're rowing your own gears, you're more involved in the vehicle. And it's more challenging to pick the right gear for coming out of a corner, for example. It's fun.

A while back I wrote about the disappearance of manual transmissions. But it's worse than I thought.

On a recent weekend I browsed the internet for used cars. My criteria were they be sporty and have a manual transmission. And I learned something: manual transmissions are rare. Almost every car I looked at has an automatic transmission. I was looking at used Mustangs, Camaros, and C7 Corvettes mostly. I did find one Bullitt Mustang with a manual but they wanted a lot for it (not that I was going to buy it). And some old BMWs (they didn't even have cup holders). I did happen across a 2016 Camaro SS with a manual transmission. I seriously thought about buying it. It being 70 miles away helped me not purchase it. But that was a unique car, it seems.

So I did a little research. According to this article, only 2.4% of new cars are sold with a manual transmission as of 2020. Even high-end sports cars such as Lamborghini and Ferrari don't have manuals even as an option. And the latest iteration of the Corvette, the C8, isn't available with a manual.

According to this article, only 18% of Americans can drive a stick shift. That amazes me.

Of course, with electric cars, there's no transmission at all. Toyota has made an EV with a fake manual. But that's more of a novelty than a real manual transmission.

Maybe I'd better buy a car with a manual transmission while I still can.

Anora

Last weekend I watched three movies: The Hunt for Red October, The Untouchables, and Anora, which was quite a contrast to the other two movies. The Hunt for Red October is #30 on my top 100 movies and The Untouchables is #56. So obviously, I like them. Then I decided to watch Anora.

SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to give away some of the plot of Anora.

Anora won the Best Picture Oscar so I was curious to see it. Having watched it, I'm not sure why it won although there were some fine performances by the actors.

The story is about a Russian oligarch's son marrying a stripper/prostitute (Anora) and his parents' reaction to that. 

There is a lot of yelling and screaming and F-bombs. According to the Internet Movie Database, there are 479 F-words. In a 139 minutes movie, that's 3.44 F-words per minute. There is also a lot of graphic nudity and a little violence but nothing gory. 

I didn't get it. Why did this movie win Best Picture? The acting was good but the story was just shallow: boy meets stripper, boy marries stripper, parents freak out. The one interesting thing was the cocky way the son acted before his parents arrived from Russia and then how he became timid and meek with his mother (who was obviously in charge of the marriage).

Have you seen Anora? What did you think? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

Found an Error

Ten years ago (about), I published Treasure of the Black Hole, a science fiction adventure/detective story. 

Not to give too much of the plot away, but it does involve a black hole at one point. In describing an object in orbit around the black hole, I called the point in orbit farthest from the singularity the apoastron. "Astron" means star (like in astronomy). My thinking was a black hole is a star, or it used to be.

But according to this Wikipedia page,  the proper term is apomelasma or apobothron or aponigricon. I probably would have gone with -melasma because it's Greek for "black." Or -bothron because it's Greek for "hole."

Now is this an error that most readers will spot? Probably not. But it does bother me. A little.

And this brings me to doing research for writing. My philosophy is that unless you lived it, you can't do too much research. But what you can (and shouldn't do) is show off in your writing how much research you did. Even if you think something is really cool, don't add it to the story unless it's relative to the plot. 

But as of now, I'm wishing I had done a little more research on Treasure of the Black Hole.

Have you found an error in your work that you didn't discover until it didn't really matter anymore? Let me know in the comments below.

Cup Holders in Cars

Did you know that cup holders in cars was at one time controversial?

When I was a kid, the only "cup holder" in a car was the lid of the glove compartment that had two shallow, circular indentations on the inside of the door. I always assumed they were for putting drinks there when the car wasn't in motion.

But cup holders, at least in American cars, didn't really start until the 1980s when Chrysler introduced the minivan and put cup holders in it. Suddenly, everyone wanted cupholders.

But the European manufactures held back. They said their cars were for driving, not drinking. But Americans A) had much slower speed limits than the Europeans (especially the Germans) because of the National Maximum Speed Limit of 55/65 mph and B) wanted the convenience. 

Also, Americans drive for longer times and farther distances than Europeans. Still, the European manufactures resisted. I recently saw a 2001 BMW Z3 for sale. Judging by the pictures in the ad, it didn't have cupholders.

I can't remember which was the first car I owned with cupholders designed in the interior. It was probably in the early '90s. Every car I've owned since then, including my Corvette, had cupholders. And two of those cars were German. So, at least for the American market, Europeans relented and designed in cupholders. 

However, one company held off putting in cupholders: Bugatti. Now Bugattis aren't daily drivers. They cost over $1 million and are capable of speeds over 200 mph.

But now Bugatti has decided to put a cupholder in at least one of its cars. It's in the door, not the center console, but it's there as an option. 

Me, I use my cupholders all the time. I would have second thoughts about buying a car without them (unless it was one of my dream cars).

What do you think? Do you need cupholders in your car or are you happy without them? Let me know in the comments below.

Public-Owned Cars

Think about your car(s). It's probably your biggest expense after your house. Or if you don't have a house, your biggest expense. With car payments, maintenance, insurance (which has gone up a lot lately), gas (don't get me started), it's expensive to keep a car.

But what does your car do most of the day? It sits. You drive it to work in the morning, it sits until you go home. You get home, and it sits until you drive to work the next day. Oh, sure, you might take it somewhere like to the grocery store or to visit someone, but still it sits a lot.

I was writing this novel (that has been overtaken by events) where AI pretty much runs everything, at least in the U.S., and there are robots that help humans do a lot of things. It was a benevolent AI, at least it appeared to be so.

One of the concepts I had in the novel was that very few people owned cars. And those that did were the rich. Everyone else used public cars that were very cheap. Cheaper than owning a car. (Public transportation such as buses and light rail were free.) The cars were 100% electric and autonomous. Like Uber, you used as app on your phone to hail one, or the AI could learn your habits and have one waiting for you when you leave for work and when you go home.

(Not too long ago I heard Neil deGrasse Tyson talk about this very idea but that was after I started writing the novel.)

After a day, the cars would be washed inside and out. If someone tried to vandalize one (or used it for a bathroom), it would take them to the police station for the robots cops to deal with (there were still a few human police officers).

There would be no need for huge parking lots around stores as the cars would drop people off and then pick them up after shopping. Those parking lots could be turned into grassy areas or even parks.

There are, however, lots of privacy problems with this concept. And what if someone hacked into your public car and drove it off a bridge? Plus, I would hate this. I like driving and I like driving fast cars.

I kind of imagined them white inside and out and pod-like. If you wanted to spend more money, you could have a nicer one. And if you have enough money, you could own a nice car. I also had the very rich own "antiques" that were not autonomous and were limited to 80 km/h (~50 mph) on public roads.

Here's a short, funny video about this concept.

What do you think of my concept (or deGrasse Tyson's concept)? Would you be willing to give up your cars for a publicly owned pod? Let me know in the comments below.