Speaking of dummies, I never said they should not be taken advantage of. From the “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” department, we have a classic stupid idea that made money. Jig-saw puzzles for Dummies. You’ve been there, a massive expanse of sky-blue where nothing fits. Enter a schematic of the puzzle where each piece is inscribed with a serial number for each matching piece and position. You just lay the pattern down on your table. The puzzle pieces you pick up each have a matching number on the reverse side. Turn over each likely piece until you see the serial number and it fits.Have you been to Best Buy lately? They now have a music department. The quality is mid- to high-end, and the emphasis is on Karaoke and DJ, the two lowest forms of musical entertainment. Who remembers the famous Fender Twin Reverb? This classic amp was $140 when it came out circa 1960. The new made in China product (yes, it is a real Fender factory) is identical right down to the patent numbers. It now sells for $1,700.
I finally drilled out the Karaoke RCA jack to extract the broken pin with tweezers. See, I told you I should have been a veterinarian. Coupled to my old DVD player, I have a slick if somewhat bulky setup, lacking only a 22” TV screen. There is more good news, I was able to determine the JVC was built in 1994, meaning it must use disk formats available on that date at the latest. That’s what I was doing up at Oakwood—buying blank CDs. These are sacrifice disks, I will burn every available pre-1994 format until I find the one that works. This could waste $10, but I figure that is a bargain over trying to get a straight answer out of anyone in this town.
Since it was not a busy day, I looked into bicycle trails between Maine and Washington (always meaning the state, never the “other Washington” which I call DC). There are several routes, all appear well-kept by a large American bicycle association. I don’t know about camping or safety yet. They have organized tours I may consider, but you know me and groups. I am a great team worker as long as I am the captain. I measured a trip from New York to Seattle, returning via San Francisco and Nevada. A total of 4,000 miles.
Oddly, the bicycle recommended for the trip is made of bamboo. These custom-built units cost $2,500 a pop. I’ll stick with my Jamis. At a leisurely 35 miles per day, the trip would take only four months. Didn’t I once read it took six months to go across the country in a covered wagon? I do want to see this 6/10ths of an acre of farmland that each person on earth has, on average. It may be my last chance and to do it with no gasoline is an attractive idea.
We are nearing the anniversary of the first moon landing; I don’t want to miss my chance to comment. As far as I am concerned, the Space Shuttle wasted forty years. As soon as you build anything re-useable, the American system will soon cause the refill to cost almost as much as a new article. That’s how the dickheads make their money. If the
*[Author's note 2015-07-19: the rest of this post has gone missing.]
*[Author's note 2017-07-19: here is the rest of the posting.]
Here’s another marketing ploy, the “southernmost” hotel on the north side of the street across from another hotel. We’ve got scads of pictures, but I think I’ll feed them to the blog piecemeal since, as you can read below, adventure and travel may soon become rare entities. There were tourists everywhere in the Keys, but they were definitely not American tourists by and large. Note Millie gets off the concrete at every opportunity. And folks, turn off that date thing on your camera, it serves no purpose and can be added later anyway, so it isn’t even OJ-grade evidence.
While walking up Duval Street, we came up to a Latino couple sitting on a stoop. For no reason, the guy panics when he sees Millie; he jumped right off the ground up onto the stairs with a look of terror. He was around 18. Yep, sounds like he could be a champion if some real danger happened along.On Key West, I met the first freelance writer since I arrived in Florida (I’ve met other writers). His work appears in the Key West Citizen, or the newspaper that absorbed it. He writes articles on UFOs and we both agreed that they exist, and that the government is covering up some details, at least to a degree. That makes sense, for the first people with new technology, no matter what its origin, have a dominating advantage in military affairs. I have an email address and I’m interested to read his articles. His name is Mark and he picked up that I talked like a publisher, not a writer. I rapidly adopted a different vocabulary.
It is the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing and I again lament the sheer waste of resources on that lame Space Shuttle. We should have gone directly on to Mars. That chance is now lost both financially and intellectually unless politics is taken out of the loop. NASA needs to be deregulated. I view their management as the current version of the Y2K crowd. I say the Y2K problem existed by 1970, it just took those slug-heads thirty more years to figure it out: Years dates are four digits long, like your grade one teacher taught you, and most of you are not smarter than your grade one teachers. Know what I’m saying?
Carlos’ driver’s license arrived today, he asked us to open the envelope for him, which we did. It says on the license that he is a “safe driver”, I have no idea why but I’m glad I have nothing to do with it. (It turns out when you have no tickets or accidents for 5 years, you get that designation for lower insurance, but the potential for abuse far outweighs any good.) What’s next, “driver is related to governor”?
I just read something I like, that most big-name hotels chains and airlines in North America may go under shortly when their debt “matures”. Good. I, for one, would like to see their rotten structures take the big tumble. They’ve been manipulating travelers for decades, dictating what we have to put up with, quashing startups that don’t do likewise. Their loyalty is to the banks, not the public. The dirty little secret is that hotels don’t run on rooms and airlines don’t run on fuel: the both run on massive credit margins and that supply has dried up, making them vulnerable to real competition, although I’m certain their corrupt mind-sets will now be with us forever in some form.
Outrageous lineups, confusing tiers of service, random expiry of air miles or room discounts or self-serving policies packaged as “safety rules”. Witness Greyhound using their “zero tolerance” policy to threaten customers who dare complain while inside the terminals.And the first thing new companies need to do is eliminate business class, at least in the same buildings and airplanes. (If the business class got so damn much money, they can afford their own facilities.) I don’t mind getting stuck behind the fat lady but I draw the line at some egomaniac Grecian Formula “executive” taking his sweet time unloading golf bags from the overhead blocking the only exit while 350 people are waiting for him to get his finger out. Bring back WardAir, the best airline that ever existed. Everybody was first class.
To get back at high prices, Wallace and I report we went to Key West and back on a total budget of less than $40, including gasoline. We contributed not a cent to either hotel or carrier. Here is a picture of Millie with a datestamp on her fur and just 90 miles from Cuba. We are the worst tourists ever. We brought our own lunch and even parked for free in the Navy lot. I suspect if all could be totaled, it cost Key West for us to be there. And with their $1,000 per day hotels, that is only right.
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