Steel Kaleidoscopes

Quote of the Day

"In the kitchen of danger, you can feel like a stranger."

— Frank Zappa, Musician

Rain on Bourbon Street

Through the haze of piercing neon, life on this crazy street goes on.

Katrina is clearly in its rear-view mirror, reverently adding to the tourism gypsy mystique.

The misty Tuesday evening is like a painting, until a cloudburst sends revelers scrambling for cover inside the walls of free-flowing taps and pounding music.

And so it goes on Bourbon Street.

Through the Eyes of Richard Nixon

Here's looking at you.

Sunday Withdrawal

The Sunday before the Super Bowl is the worst Sunday in TV sports entertainment.

After 17 weeks of NFL football since Labor Day weekend, TVs across America are silenced.

Even if you're not watching the games, the familiar drone of play-by-play and the occasional stop-by to check how you're doing in the football pool make Sundays special.

Yesterday it was Lifetime movies, a DVD of "Monsters, Inc." and, for dad, golf.

But watching Tiger Woods demolish the competition by double-digit strokes does not make for must-see TV. Especially when fairways and greens around here are covered with snow. (Golf on TV is much better when you know you can tee it up.)

So a wintry Sunday came and went with no Jim Nantz, Bill Cowher or Terry Bradshaw. There was no familiar sound of a crunching tackle or the roar of the crowd. There were no bad car commercials to ignore.

The Sunday before the Super Bowl is like split-pea soup without the ham.

Blah.

The Amazon River

And Jeff Bezos' inspiration.

Quote of the Day

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

-- Anne Bradstreet, 17th Century Poet

Blue Sky at Monterey

A backstage glimpse of the Monterey Pop Festival, a landmark music event in 1967.

27/28

Jim Morrison, 27.

Janis Joplin, 27.

Kurt Cobain, 27.

Brian Jones, 27.

Jimi Hendrix, 28.

Shannon Hoon, 28.

Heath Ledger, 28.

Not to put Ledger in the category of the musicians listed above, but what is it about finding mega-hit commercial success and giving up on life in your late 20s?

Sad.

History in Our Back Yard

A recent story came out that Fuller Field, in the next town over from us in Clinton, Mass., is the oldest baseball field in America.

That's kind of neat.

According the Guinness Book of World Records, Fuller Field is the oldest baseball diamond to have continuously hosted baseball, which it has done since 1878.

When you consider all of the baseball that's been played and the deep history of the sport, to think that the first organized game on a diamond took place right down the road makes the world seem a whole lot smaller.

Idiot of the Week

So we're driving up to the toll booth on the Massachusetts Turnpike and this trucker in front of us can't make the decision on whether or not to go to a cash booth or the Fast Lane.

There are only two Fast Lanes open, and as there is significant traffic we're committed to the Fast Lane on the right.

So this trucker finally shifts his rig into the Fast Lane, cutting us off to do so. Instead of slowly driving through (this is why Fast Lane exists), he stops. So we sit behind him. After 30 seconds or so, we have to ease back into traffic to get to a cash booth. The Fast Lane on the left is not an option, as it is five lanes over.

After getting a ticket (which means waiting in line to pay instead of driving through Fast Lane once we exit), we look over at the trucker who is still sitting at the Fast Lane booth, stopped.

And he's lighting a cigarette.