Channel 2, the NBC affiliate in Anchorage, was always my favorite station growing up; I think it was mostly because it looked the best, crisp and clear compared to the soft, fuzzy look of ABC on Channel 13 and the weak static of Channel 11’s CBS. Tom Brokaw was my favorite of the Big Three […]

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Is there any way I can reserve a new 2004 Jetta now, and pay for it in a few years, when I get the money and need a new car? Because by the time I’m ready to buy a new Jetta, it certainly won’t look anything like I remember.VW released photos of the fifth-generation Jetta […]

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I just finished watching the first season of the BBC tv series “Spooks,” or, as it’s known in the US, “MI-5.” What, I ask, is wrong with “Spooks”? American audiences are too literal? It sounds too much like a horror film? Whatever you call it, it’s a good show, a full 59:00 of drama, with […]

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Every time I see this sign, I wonder what it’s doing here, on the corner of Arlington and Newbury, at the edge of the Public Garden in Boston. It’s straight out of an English motorway, with that distinctive typeface, the bird’s-eye representation of the street layout, and the mysterious “C-28, C-9” indicators. It’s a dead […]

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The one bright spot was going to be for Knowles’ defeat of Murkowski in Alaska, but it looks like that went down the tubes, too, along with pretty much everything else last night. More than half of the people in this country chose that which has an extensive, proven track record of being detrimental to […]

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I can’t remember when I started following election news every day; it was some time before the Democratic primaries, so almost a year has gone by in which I’ve experienced the ups and downs, the paranoia and optimism, the anger and satisfaction that comes with paying attention to one thing for too long. The circles […]

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Night before last, I watched Barry Nolan, prodigal son of Boston news, recently returned from his stints on Hard Copy and Extra!, deliver an editorial on CN8, the inherently strange cable channel run by the cable provider, about the Swift Boat flap. He quoted an unidentified writer with the following passage from a memoir: I […]

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I took a trip yesterday to Quassy, a nice little amusement park in central Connecticut, to check out their photobooth. I also stopped in Meriden for what I thought was a big postcard sale, but turned out to be a mid-sized stamp sale with a few postcards on the side in a conference room in […]

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Today I came across two interesting maps that describe cultural differences around the country. Enjoy. A color-coded map that notes the endings of words used to describe people from each state, such as “Mainers,” “Texans,” and “New Jerseyites.” A color-coded map that notes the way people across the country refer to soft drinks in a […]

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I read the London Underground Blog every week or so, which always provides fascinating stories of travel on the Tube, as well as links to other interest transit-related blogs. You know, if you’re into that sort of thing. Anyway, from there, I found out about Geoff’s ongoing quest to visit every one of the Underground’s […]

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Some thoughts from this weekend: Aimee and I started planning for the wedding yesterday over beers at Dunn Gaherin’s in Newton, the way it should be done. I faded after an hour or so, but I think we got a good start. I was surprised to find out that my favorite subversive New Yorker cartoonist, […]

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After almost two years without it, I decided on Monday that it might be a good idea to finally get my diploma from my MLS program at Simmons. When I graduated in the summer of 2002, I remember being told I could pick it up, or pay ten bucks to have it mailed to me. […]

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As Aimee and I get ready for our trip to San Francisco next week, I’ve been doing some research on things to see and do. After a memorable visit to the McSweeney’s Store in Brooklyn last summer, and an unsuccessful visit in January when we found it boarded up, I checked in on what’s going […]

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One of the more entertaining spam messages came in this morning. It tells me to consider the following points, among others: Your life is so monotonous. You are working too much. But the best part is that the author, “Boyd,” encourages me to visit the following site to help with these issues: www.letsgout.com. I’m sure […]

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In an otherwise interesting story on Lou Piniella’s influence on A-Rod, the Times‘ Jack Curry makes my least favorite mistake, and uses “impacted” as a verb. If you’re going to use “impacted,” use it as an adjective to describe teeth or bones, not as a verb when you actually mean “influenced” or “affected.” “When Piniella […]

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