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.

I Don't Watch Old Movies Anymore

I realized recently that I don't watch old movies anymore. And I blame the demise of DVD.com.

Back when I used DVD.com (formerly Netflix before streaming) to watch movies, I would put new releases at the top of my queue, but new releases didn't come all the time. In order to justify what I was paying for DVD.com, I would watch three movies every two weeks. And there wasn't always a new release. So I backfilled with older movies. 

For example, I went through a period where I watched a lot of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's movies, including Seven Samurai. One of his movies, Stray Dog, was set shortly after World War II in Tokyo so I used it as research for my novel Hammer of Thor. I watched Throne of Blood (based on Macbeth) and Rashōmon and others. I highly recommend Rashōmon. It has a unique concept that has been stolen a lot (including a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode).

I went through an Alfred Hitchcock phase where I watched every movie I could find directed by Hitchcock, including his pre-Hollywood stuff. It was interesting watching him hone his craft. I also watched his Hollywood movies. Rear Window and Lifeboat are my favorites. 

But since DVD.com went away, I struggle to watch just new movies, forget old movies. I'll sometimes get a hankering to watch some old movie, so I'll Google it to see where I can stream it, but there's almost always a cost (such as $5.99), and then I just say, "Nah." I did watch Stalag 17 recently because it was on a PBS station. It's a good movie about a World War II prison camp. Yes, Hogan's Heroes is loosely based on it.

The last DVD I watched from DVD.com was Fast X.

Since DVD.com went away in September 2023, I have watched 36 new releases, mostly streaming and a couple in the theater (such as Oppenheimer). The latest was Gladiator II on Paramount+ last weekend.

Do you watch old movies? How do you find them? Let me know in the comments below.

New College Football Alignment Idea

One major problem with Pac-12 teams joining the Big10 is the travel. The Big10 now pretty much covers the northern part of the continental United States plus Los Angeles. Rutgers is in New Jersey but they year they will be traveling to Seattle to play the University of Washington Huskies in football. Conversely, the Huskies will be traveling across the nation to play Maryland at home. And last year, teams that had to travel more than two time zones to play tended to lose.

So I've been toying with the idea of just having regional conferences that all have between 10 and 15 teams. Well, someone did that. It wouldn't totally reconstitute the Pac-12, but it's close. The one problem I see is some of those divisions such as the "Mountains + Southwest" wouldn't have any major media markets in it (there is Denver but that's not very big compared to Los Angeles). So that conference would likely have problems getting large media payments. And media money is what drives college football now (unfortunately). 

That's what killed the Pac-12. When USC and UCLA announced they were going to the Big10 (for more money), it deprived the Pac-12 of its biggest media market: Los Angeles. So the networks weren't willing to pay as much for the media rights. It got so bad that AppleTV was bidding for the Pac-12 media rights.

But I have an idea for that, too. How about NCAA Div I FBS football negotiates media rights like the NFL: all at once for all conferences. "You want LA, you also have to take Boise." That could solve that problem.

So then all we'd need to fix is NIL and the transfer portal.

What do you think? Good idea or not? Let me know in the comments below.

Electronic Notepad

 I bought one of those electronic notepads a while back and tried it out. They had a free-return policy if I didn't like it. 

When doing freelance writing, I was tired of searching through my hand-written notes to find something. The notebook was supposed to turn my writing into text that was searchable. I thought that would be great.

I did like a lot about it. The feel of it was just like writing on paper. I could store my notes as a PDF on my computer and not have them in my physical files which I then clean out occasionally.

But the problem was, it couldn't read my writing. To paraphrase Gandalf, "There are few who can." Sometimes I have trouble reading my writing. Here's an example of me trying to write neatly:

So you can see they the electronic notebook had issues.

So I sent it back for a refund.

Have you tried any electronic devices to make your writing easier? Let me know how it worked in the comments below.

Beautiful Cars

Lamborghini Countach

I was admiring a very expensive car and I called it, in my mind, "beautiful." 

And then I got to thinking. Why do I (and other people) call these mechanical devices "beautiful"?

We call paintings and books and sculptures and other man-made things beautiful. So why not cars? Just because they are also functional, doesn't lessen their beauty. If you Google "beautiful car" you get a lot of images, some that are more beautiful than others.

As. the saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." There are probably people who would never find a car beautiful. I remember a long time ago I was with my parents in Monterey, California, and there was a white Lamborghini Countach parked on the street. And my mother said, "What an ugly car." But I found it beautiful. But my opinion might have been swayed by knowing it had a V12 engine that sat behind the driver. 

And, in general, what is this penchant humans have for finding inanimate things beautiful: mountains, lakes, trees. Or animals. If someone pointed out a beautiful horse to me, I'd have to take their word for it. But a pretty cat, I'm all about that (since our family got a cat seven years ago). 

Why do you think humans call so many diverse things "beautiful"? Let me know in the comments below.

Wolves and Humans

I sometimes think about the relationship of humans and wolves throughout the ages. For example, why are there sayings about wolves:

• Keep the wolf from the door
• A wolf in sheep's clothing
• Throw you to the wolves

 Those are the ones I could think of. There may be more. There's also the "Big Bad Wolf" in the Little Red Riding Hood story. The wolf and the three little pigs, also. 

At some time in the distant pass, humans and wolves started living and working together. And modern dogs are descendants of those wolves. But a lot of wolves stayed feral. And still are.

I think that in Europe, especially in the middle ages, wolves hunted humans and humans were ill equipped to handle them. Especially wolves in packs. And that's why we have sayings such as "Keep the wolf from the door." You didn't want to step out of your hovel and be attacked by wolves. Although it probably happened.

I read an article about a couple living off the grid in Alaska. They run into wolves. The article said they are "braving encounters with wolves." So the wolves must make them nervous, at the least.

Wolf attacks on humans have happened as recently as September 2024.

Do you think wolves hunted (and hunt) humans? Or am I wrong. Let me know in the comments below.

Northern Lights

 I can't believe I never blogged about this and it's been eight months.

I've always wanted to see the aurora borealis (also known as the northern lights). And I thought to do so I'd have to go to Alaska (most likely) or at least somewhere far north of where I live.

On May 10, 2024, there was a solar storm and the borealis was visible where I live! It was overhead. I was amazed. Here are some pictures I took that night:

The camera on my iPhone showed a lot more color than my eyes did.

The interesting thing is, now I don't care. I've seen the northern lights and when they say they will be visible again, I don't want to put in the effort to see them. For example, on October 10th, the borealis was visible as far south as Texas. I didn't bother to go see them. (There's sure been a lot of solar activity lately.)

There's a man who lives in the same town I do, and he goes out and photographs the northern lights all the time. I see his pictures on Facebook. And that is, now, good enough for me.

Have you seen the northern lights? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below.

Red Mist and Marbles

In the past (not recently, however), I have driven on a race track. 

In racing circles (and perhaps other groups) there is a term called "red mist."

Red mist is when you get angry or frustrated and make bad decisions because of it.  This doesn't only happen on race tracks. It can happen in all sorts of situations. A lot of them involve driving. It's not road rage, just more frustration. 

For example, I was behind a guy at a stoplight. The light turned green. The car in front of him turned right. Interminable seconds later he put on his right turn signal and slowly turned the corner. And I got frustrated and nearly floored the gas in my car (I was trying to make the tires squeal but with all wheel drive that's nearly impossible) and went across the intersection. Red mist.

Another racing term is "marbles." Once you get off the racing line (the path around the track that is fastest), you get into an area where there are "marbles." Not literal marbles, but pieces of tire and maybe some gravel and you lose your grip on the track surface. That's why they are called "marbles."

Once on the track I got red mist (I don't remember why) and ended up in the marbles. I don't remember how. I just remember saying later "red mist and marbles don't mix." I didn't crash, but I did have to work to get my car back under control. It was a scary moment.

So, my friends, try to avoid red mist and anything that will make it worse, like the marbles on the track. Or ice on a road. Or anything that will make a lousy situation much worse.

Have you experienced red mist? Were you driving or doing something else. Let me know in the comments below.

SiriusXM and Regional Songs?

I've come to the conclusion that some popular songs were regional hits but were rarely if ever heard outside those regions.

Why? Let me explain. 

I have SiriusXM satellite radio in my car. When the idea of satellite radio was first put forward, I thought one would be crazy to pay for radio when there's free radio over the air. Then I bought a car that came with a year-long free trial. By the end of that year, I was hooked. For one thing, no commercials on the music channels (just a lot of promos touting that). And also, for trips, you don't have to search for good radio stations. You just have to listen to the satellite radio. It does have drawbacks beside the cost. It doesn't go through foliage well so leafy trees can block the signal. And mountains do too. It doesn't work very well when I travel down the Columbia River Gorge toward Portland to see my grandson. But other than that, it's great.

Since getting SiriusXM (used to be two companies called "Sirius" and "XM" but they merged in the hope of surviving), I've heard a few songs I've never heard before. For example, Angry Eyes by Loggins and Messina. And something called Jeans On by David Dundas (whom I'd never heard of). Also Jessica by the Allman Brothers (I'd obviously heard of the Allman Brothers, just not that song). And Lovely Day by Bill Withers. And finally Ariel by Dean Friedman. Never heard of the song or the artist. And the song sucks.

It might be that I stopped listening to Top 40 in about 1977 and switched to what the radio biz called "Album Oriented Rock" or AOR. 

But still, I'm wondering if those songs never made it to the Pacific Northwest where I've lived most of my life (except for when I lived in California when I was in the Army). Another interesting fact is I never heard Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd until I was in the Army.

Have you heard of those songs? Were they hits where you live? Or are they as unfamiliar to you as they are to me? Let me know in the comments below.

We Aren't a Quarter of a Century into the 21st Century

Happy New Year!

This year a lot of people are going to start saying we're a quarter of a century into the 21st century.

That's not correct. We won't be a quarter of a century into this century until 2026.

Why?

Because there was no year zero. We went from 1 BC (BCE) to 1 AD (CE).

So the first century was 1 to 101.

The second century was 101 to 201.

The third century was 201 to 301.

And so on until the 21st century will be 2001 to 2101.

So 25 years into the 21st century will be 2026.

I know it's not fun. But it's the truth. But man, a quarter of a century next year already. That amazes me.

Huskies' Bowl Game and Season Wrap Up

The University of Washington's 2024 season is over. And, it wasn't a great one. New head coach Jedd Fisch had a near impossible task of making the Huskies a winning team after all but two starters left and he had to rebuild the program.

The Huskies last game was the Sun Bowl on December 31st against the Louisville Cardinals who had an 8-4 record versus the Huskies' 6-6. 

When our true-freshman quarterback threw an interception that was ran in for a touchdown on his second pass attempt, I thought the game was over. But the Huskies came back and fought hard. Their final drive started on the 3-yard line and they put it in for a touchdown in the final seconds of the game. A PAT would have tied the game but Coach Fisch wanted to go for two to win it. But not getting the two points would lose the game. And, of course, we missed the two-point conversion. And the Huskies lost the game 35-34.

Back around 2008 when the Huskies weren't doing very well (worse than this year, even), I came up with my criteria for a "good season." They were:

• Win at least 8 regular season games
• Beat Washington State
• Beat Oregon
• Go to a bowl and win it

And they managed exactly none of those.  Their regular season record this year was 6-6. They lost to WSU and Oregon. And they went to the Sun Bowl and lost.

So, I guess there's always next year. With that season, Fisch probably won't be hired away like Kalen DeBoer was. That'll help build continuity in the system. If we can hang on to our coaches, that would help too. Next year we'll have a sophomore quarterback who this season showed some real talent. So, we'll have to see. Their first game is on August 30th against Colorado State at home.