A couple of great, great days

The bike ride was just covered in Duke's newspaper, The Chronicle. That's exciting, because it is a newspaper I used to read all the time. The story has also appeared in The Rochester Post.

Last Friday, I hosted my first-ever dinner party, at my lovely apartment in Fort Greene. 8 people were hand-selected to provide the best possible company, and delivered in spades. There was classic country music playing in the background, chips and salsa in the foreground, and a general excitement in the air. Merritt and Josh helped me with the cooking, which wound up as a first course of salad with homemade dressing, a main of arroy con poulet, and a finish of coffee and a bowl of honey, strawberries, and yoghurt. Delic! The next morning I woke up and remembered SW had done all the dishes.



Saturday night was Lucy's bachelorette party, which had a lot of the same people as my dinner, but more as well! We started at Jo's new Bleeker St. HQ, then rallied on to Karioke in chinatown. Click here to see all the pics. Lucy looked totally beautiful and Josh's love of karioke (combined with possible high cholesterol) finally showed up in his side-splitting thalidomide shuffle.

I finally got a ticket on Sunday, when I swerved across 4 lanes of traffic in half a block to get on the southbound FDR (after dropping off Lucy, Manel, and Marta at GCT). It was raining, and my windows were totally foggy. But all was not lost, I had to break my jammed glove compartment open (for proof of insurance), which ended up fixing it.

Just after that, I went to blockbuster to get a movie, and when I came out, a foreign guy was standing there pointing at his car. Apparently, when I had parallel parked (wedging the back of my car into a construction zone) I had mistakenly bumped his car and put a huge dent in the rear bumper. FURY! I had just gotten a ticket, and now this? He said over and over "I need your paper, I need your papers." And after playing dumb for a minute, I thought "F-this", tore off my shirt, crawled under his car (into grimy grit--it was still raining) and pushed as hard as I could on the dent, which reluctantly popped out. Then that guy was shaking my hand, seriously.

RAAAMS!

On my way home to my apartment in Brooklyn today, I came across this rimless Infinity (on 6th and Atlantic). For the last week, a big sticky parking ticket had been on the drivers window. Today, the drivers window and sunroof were shattered, and all four enormous AMG-style aftermarket chrome wheels were gone.


A passerby said she thought the car had been stolen, used to run drugs, and abandoned. She said she was glad it wasn't her car--but I'd be absolutely thrilled to have this beat G35.

Traffic Soln.

I have come up with a way to solve my problems with NYC traffic-- Forget horns, get a lift kit!

Make something better

The chorus of this fantastic Honda ad has been going through my head as I campaign for safer NY streets through Transportation Alternatives. I first saw the ad last year in England, and just found it again online.



I cannot wait for widespread diesel market penetration in the US passenger car market.

Poor following rich

It sometimes happens that rich people start a trend, then the poor people catch up, then the rich move on.

Long ago, rich people used to be pale (to show that they didn't have to work in the fields). Then, after the industrial revolution, poor people had to work in factories, and rich people got tan, to show that they didn't have to stay inside and work.

Rich people used to be fat, because they could afford a lot of food and be lazy. Poor people couldn't afford much food and had to do physical labor. Now fast food companies sell inexpensive, high-fat foods, while rich people eat very healthily and have personal trainers.

"Ain't" is a contraction for "am not" and used to be proper English, but then the lower classes intergrated it into their speech and the upper class moved on.

Cellular phones, which used to be extremely expensive and for only the richest businessmen, are now in the hands of everyman. And businessmen are wishing that they could put the phones down, so their bosses can't reach them over the weekends or in the evening. Only the bosses can put the phones away, since they don't answer to anyone.

But what's next?

I think it will be wireless internet- There is a push to put wireless internet everywhere, but it can be annoying when cafes fill up with computers during the day. There is very little turnover in wireless cafes, and there is often the eerie quiet of a press room. I bet in the near future cafes will have "no wireless" days, for the old customers who like milk and background chitchat with their coffee.

After wireless? It's going to be cars. There is a growing backlash against cars, and while they might not do noticeable damage to air quality, they are certainly noisy and dangerous. Taking a walk down the middle of a closed road is a rare pleasure these days, but a real pleasure nonetheless.

Proof? Look at these carfree places (hint-they are all places people LOVE to be):

Venice
Whistler
Siena
Zermatt
Parts of London
Makinac Island
Hiltonhead
Williamsburg
Isla Vista (in Santa Barbara)

The list goes on, and they are all great places! Riding and walking are forgotton joys, but they will soon be remembered. Carfree needn't mean impractical.

Be a Mattress King!

Dear readers, I know it has been a long time since I last wrote. Yesterday, while moving a bed for 1871 House in NYC, I came upon a little pamphlet about mattress care. It read:

Do turn your mattress occasionally to prolong the comfort and support life. Body indentations are a normal occurence in your new mattress and indicate that the uphostery layers are conforming to your body's individual contours. You'll be pleasantly surprised with that "New Mattress Feeling" every time you turn your mattress.

How cool! I never knew this, and am going to try it tonight- results tomorrow.

A riddle

Here's an old riddle which just popped into my head (I made it up last year)

Since 1950, the world population has more than doubled, yet the average population per country has decreased. Why?

(put your answer in the comments)