New spark plug wires on the Taurus, compliments of Jimbo’s. This improved the condition but did not completely solve the cold start sputtering. Thus begins the long process of replacing electrical parts one by one until I finally take it into a garage. Next is the spark plugs, then the alternator. When the Chinese begin flooding our country with $4,000 cars that last 250,000 miles I’ll buy one second hand. That should be in another four years.
Book report time. Reading past page 75 of “A Continent for Science” is giving me a much different impression than the title suggests. While never stating anything of the kind, it would appear that being an Antarctic explorer did not make one a member of a very exclusive club, simply because you already had to be a member to even count. Let’s have a show of hands on how many of you suppose being a good polar scientist would net you a job at McMurdo Sound in the early days.Maybe nowadays it might, but according to the original accounts, you’d be dreaming. Not only did science have little to do with the selection process, even the idea for the trip was hatched at a dinner party. The affair grows more dimly lit when one accounts for the fact that after WWII, famous scientists became synonymous with those who were successful lobbyists for government funding. Right, Werner? Before you could find the ruby in your sherbet, they had $245 million in 1957 US currency and their own pet International Geophysical Year (IGY).
As to style, the book could have been written for 1857. Although thousands took part constructing the bases and running the instrumentation, the only people mentioned by name (so far) had the right connections. Those connections are almost exclusive to the military and those who knew some of the original explorers before 1900. Even the terrain is named after cousins, wives, admirals and queens.
Everybody else, to a one, is tersely referred to as “an engineer” or “the pilot”. Mind you, the socialite tentacles can droop deep, for being a well-heeled Sno-Cat driver gets you honorable mention, like the factory owner’s son who works one summer to learn the ropes. Nowhere on the continent is there a “Taxpayer Ice Shelf” or “Mt. Sergeant Kaputnik”. But we now know the depth of them ice sheets to the millimeter, by golly. If only more Americans knew what a millimeter looked like.
Deciding to test the car, I drove to the beach. Along A1A it stalled. Investigation showed the new spark plug wires actually popped off the spark plugs. I forced them back on and was able to just pull into Barry’s parking spot at HWB. A quick refresher of the venue will work well here. HWB is the place I used to play with the Hippie. There are three businesses on that block. The HWB, the Mexicana café and Toucans. The Mexicana is the joint with that horridly distorted karaoke show. Toucans is where I used to jam with Johnny D on Tuesdays.
So, this area is packed with history and there is about to be more created soon. Barry (HWB) is interested when my “Kamakaze Karaoke” arrives and by coincidence, HWB is the place I first met Arnel. He’d been double booked at Toucans, who foolishly opted for the other entertainer. Now Arnel is back as the only day entertainer at Toucans, having bounced all others off that prime weekend shift. Need I remind anyone of what I had to say the instant I first heard him perform? Hell, here is the exact passage, dated Sept. 2, 2007:Around 9:00 p.m. this guy rounds the corner with a guitar. His gig fell through up the road at Toucans and he wanted to play. He does exactly the same thing I do, except he can sing and play guitar. He uses an iPod. He’s got real music in there with the vocals taken out, something I’ve been meaning to look into. Ariel, I think his name was. We jammed up a storm of old hits. He says he’ll be in touch, but I can tell he is a single act all the way.
I was at Toucans today to jam with him and yes, it was a dynamite show at what may be the most prestigious pub gig in town. I finally met the manageress through Arnel, and she has the distinctive name of Meredith. The collaboration with Arnel is already producing dividends. For example, all future computer equipment will be Blu-Ray compatible. That may seem insignificant but it represents the necessary cooperation on a non-musical level that was lacking in other bands I can think of. When we learn to extract MIDI files, our computer equipment will be 100% compatible.
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