Steel Kaleidoscopes

Weather Gripe

I hate this weather.

OK, it's better than snow. Much better.

But aren't June and July days supposed to be hot and sunny with bucolic afternoons?

If you live in New England, you've seen sunny starts turn into Wizard of Oz afternoons, dark clouds rolling in with violent thunderstorms that last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.

And then it clears.

The hassle with these storms is that you can't set up comfortably outside.

You can't commit to anything.

With 50-mph winds, you have to take down any umbrellas you have set up.

If you invest in a round of golf, you can't finish.

Yesterday, I walked into a Starbucks under a blazing sun for a cup of coffee and walked back to the office in the rain.

Not just rain. Buckets of rain.

And some people had the pleasure of hail.

This is OK now and then. But not every day.

It's July. We've been waiting all year for this.

Enough with the thunderstorms.

Glad to Be Here

Happy Flag Day.

Black

What is it with wearing black when it's 100 degrees?

A few years ago, we ran into Christopher Walken on a 100-degree Block Island morning and he was wearing all black with a black leather jacket.

Yesterday at the Government Center T stop, I see a black-bearded kid in full black with a black vest  wearing a black backpack with a black hat on backward.

It's just weird.

I think I'd be more accepting of someone wearing white pants after Labor Day than seeing these people dressed in black when it's 100 degrees.

Whatever.

Broil away.

The Women Are Smarter

Let us put men and women together
See which one is smarter
Some say men, but I say no
Women run the men like a puppet show

It ain't me
It's the people that say
Men are leading the women astray
But I say, it's the women today
Smarter than the man in every way

Little boy sit on the corner and cry
Old man come and he asked him why
He said, "I can't do what the big boys do"
The old man sat down and he cried too

Ever since the world began
Women been banned from the ways of man
Listen boy cuz I've got a plan
Give it up, don't try and understand

That's right
The women are smarter
That's right
The women are smarter
That's right
The women are smarter
Smarter than a man in every way

— Bob Weir, 1981

(Happy Mother's Day.)

A Day of Vinyl

An ode to the days of vinyl has become a reality.

Today is Record Store Day, a national event that recognizes the vinyl medium that has powered the soundtrack of our lives.

Since 2003, more than 3,100 record stores — nearly 1,400 of them independent — have closed, according to Joel Oberstein, president of California-based Almighty Institute of Music Retail, which helped spread the word about the event.

Of the existing 12,250 stores that sell vinyl, 2,450 of those are independent.

Presented by a consortium of independent music stores and record labels, Record Store Day will feature artists performing at many of the nation's record stores.

If you can't get out, be sure to pull out your turntable and dust off those 33s and 45s (and 78s if you inherited your dad's record collection). Drop the needle, sit back and enjoy a long, lost (and missed) era.

Before 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and Mp3s, there was vinyl.

It's brass, bold and loud.

Crank it.

Historic Birthday

The peace sign turned 50 yesterday.

The symbol was first used on an anti-nuclear weapons march in the U.K. on Good Friday in 1958.

Presidential Trivia

Since it's President's Day, here are some lighthearted details that have nothing to do with balancing the budget and foreign policy:

William Taft kept a cow on the White House lawn to supply him with fresh milk. He was our heaviest president, weighing 332 pounds.

Thomas Jefferson took a cold foot bath every morning for 60 years.

John Quincy Adams had the first pool table installed at the White House.

Ronald Reagan was our oldest elected president at 69. John F. Kennedy was our youngest at 43.

Abe Lincoln was our tallest president at 6 feet, 4 inches. James Madison was the shortest at 5'4".

James Buchanan was the only president never to marry.

Super Tuesday

A guitar-picking Huckabee, in conservatory purgatory trumping for delegates.

Hillary and Barack, frontrunners for a historical leap into Commander in Chief diversity.

Romney and McCain, battling wit, resumes and relevance.

Cities and polls, primary colors and caucuses.

Planes, trains and automobiles.

Lecterns and amplification.

Swarming supporters and dangling delegates.

Chest-thumping bravado.

Thankfully, the nation's biggest popularity contest doesn't have a swimsuit competition.

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.

Another '70s Light Goes Out

Sad to see that Richard Knerr, the co-founder of Wham-O, died earlier this week.

Knerr was the brains behind two of the greatest inventions — the Hula Hoop and the Frisbee.

I wasn't much for the Hula Hoop, although you saw these everywhere in the '60s. The Hula Hoop was released in 1958 and sold more than 200 million in two years.

The Frisbee was introduced in 1964 and was wildly popular through the '70s. Although you don't see as many Frisbees being tossed these days, they still make appearances on beaches and in random open spaces.

There was nothing like a Grateful Dead show to display the popularity of the disc. Pre-concert lawns were a collage of colorful T-shirts chasing Frisbees.