Dave Mancuso dot Com

When I was at 30th Street Station, outside, waiting for the SEPTA train, I noticed that all the steel girders had these weird little strips of spikes all along them. They were like little stalagmites sticking up. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that they were put there to keep the pigeons off the griders. Sure enough, on the few girders without spike strips, several pigeons were roosting.

That’s a lot better solution than the recorded cannon boom they play at the Park City Mall to scare birds away. That freaks you out if you don’t know what it is.

I lent Jeff and Lisa the van last week and the dropped it off at Dad’s on Wednesday. I decided to take the train in to Philly to pick it up–that way I avoid dragging Denise, the kids, and a second car along for the ride.

It’s interesting going to Philly this way. It was pretty fast, despite a couple of stops. Only an hour and a half, and I was in 30th Street Station. This train station is huge. The ceiling in the main lobby is a couple of hundred feet up–the room is so big that some pigeons are flying around in here, mistaking it for a roost or something. No one pays any attention to them.

Huh. Oh well, off to Ridley via the Septa rail system. Funny–the last (and almost only) time I went on that route I ran into Kim Fatzinger, who told me about poor Rick Stefanowicz passing away. That would be, um, 1988 at about this time of year.

Time flies.

Thanks to my lovely wife for this link, a 1961 automobile in-dash (actually under-dash) record player!

It’s here at Consumer Reports. Ah, the halcyon days of my old 45s…

I just found out that Nicole and Brad (and probably Mike and Dan), who are ten years younger than me, have never heard (or even heard of) I Don’t Like Mondays by Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats.

Never.

I don’t really know what to say–I’m into pop culture obviously (although there are huge holes in my knowledge–see John Davies or Kevin Corcoran or Sam Caggiula for a real collective awareness). Nevertheless, I’m shocked when a piece of pop like this disappears from the cultural consciousness.

If you go to the iTunes Music Store and search for “I Don’t Like Mondays,” you’ll get the Boomtown Rats version as well as a Bon Jovi cover (with Geldof) and Tori Amos’ version (I realy have to work harder at appreciating Tori’s music–she always sounds so depressed).

It’s a radically new concept in automobile engineering–will the public go for it?

Seriously, this is an exhibit from the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont. It does show the kind of style that I hope to see in the upcoming 2007 new VW Microbus, though.

🙂

(click on the picture to go to this exhibit at the museum–the Quicktime VR movie is pretty cool)

Saw this last night, but I figured I’d made enough posts for one day. Here’s the online test.

I scored 35, which means that I’m definitely a libertarian, but not very extreme. This is probably due to the fact that I don’t advocate overthrowing the government (according to the quiz, I lose points because I actually believe that government is necessary to keep society functioning–go figure).

Check it out at Wired News. Assuming that you’d want to use this (I wouldn’t, believe it or not), I can’t imagine that this would be anything other than expensively priced; $25-$30 per flight is pretty exorbitant.

Especially in a 35 mile per hour zone.

But that’s what the state trooper said when he stopped me. I swear I was going 45 tops, but I could have been wrong. Hey, I was driving back from Philly to Etown in a haze of illness, so I could have not noticed my speed. He said his radar clocked me at 59 and then he followed me for a half mile to make sure.

Luckily, the trooper just told me to slow it down. Someone must be smiling down on me.

You know, every time my sister comes up to visit, I tend to have an interaction with the police. Not that I’m saying there’s a connection, but–hm.

[updated–corrected hasty typos after reading helpful comment. 🙂 ]

Sunday was torture–Monday was almost as bad.

Something snapped Monday night (like my mild fever) and Tuesday was worlds better. Today was almost back to normal.

I was the last at work to get it, so hopefully we’re all done with it.

McCain said that an offer was highly unlikely, but yes, he’d certainly consider an offer to become Kerry’s vice presidential running mate.

Wow. It’s a long shot, but a Kerry/McCain ticket would be an amazing sight. The integrity and political clout that McCain would bring to the table would be a force to reckon with.

Here’s the story at WGAL’s website.