Two-Dog Boat
These two guys know better than to rock the boat.
Smoking
I stopped smoking at age 27, after having smoked a pack-a-day or more for more than ten years, and it was both the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, and the best health decision I’ve ever made. Had I continued at that pace, I’d probably be dead.
But everybody smoked back then. Even the “Doctors” who promoted smoking in ads smoked. Even Joe DiMaggio smoked, or at least made you think he did in the cigarette ads he was handsomely paid to do. You were kind of weird if you didn’t smoke.
And I tried to stop many times, unsuccessfully, until one cold evening in the Fall of 1970, walking home from work along Charles Street on Beacon Hill, then turning up Revere Street, and discovering that I couldn’t walk up the hill. I was gasping for breath.
So I stopped smoking, even though the temptation was always there for several months until, finally, the smell of cigarette smoke became unpleasant, and I knew I had stopped for good.
Still, when I look at ads like this one, I understand how much all the little social rituals around smoking influenced so many to start, and, with the nicotine, made it so hard for them to stop.
It’s Deja Vu All Over Again
Volkswagen’s recent announcement that they are dropping the Beetle from their product line had a familiar ring to me. I remember the excitement I felt when the company announced that it would be bringing back the Beetle in 2000, as the “New Beetle,” after a long hiatus.
Since 2000, I’ve noticed that VW has tweaked the New Beetle several times, but I guess too many baby boomers have been aging out to sustain demand (or to be able to get into and out of it, despite all the hip and knee replacements), and SUVs and huge “minivans” are the vehicles most people really seem to want these days.
Or maybe it’s that too many members of the original Hippie and counterculture core market have had their car keys taken away.
Whatever. RIP (for now) VW Beetle.
Getting The News In Print Only - A Digital Cleanse
From today’s New York Times:
“It has been life changing. Turning off the buzzing breaking-news machine I carry in my pocket was like unshackling myself from a monster who had me on speed dial, always ready to break into my day with half-baked bulletins.
Now I am not just less anxious and less addicted to the news, I am more widely informed (though there are some blind spots). And I’m embarrassed about how much free time I have...”
(For Two Months, I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here’s What I Learned.https://nyti.ms/2G2z5y7)
Nowhere Man
I’ve been whingeing lately to anyone who will listen about how I’ve not been hearing songs that speak to the day-to-day chaos of current events in this country. Well, here’s one that does. It was written in 1965. (I’ve done some editing. I hope John would approve.)
He's a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Doesn't have a point of view
Knows not where he's going to
He's as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere man, can you see me at all
Nowhere man don't worry
Take your time, don't hurry
Leave it all till somebody else
Lends you a hand
Red Sparrow
I saw “Red Sparrow” today.
Take the Bourne and Bond movies, add Moscow, Budapest And London, stir well with good acting and directing, and you have a most enjoyable movie. Not great, but good - just the kind of film that makes it worthwhile to see on the big screen, in a big, comfortable recliner. With contraband Maple Pop Tarts.
Jennifer Lawrence has been a chameleon from role to role, and she has become believably Russian for this one.
James Thurber, 1931
Who among us...?
Engagement Announcement
if they ever have kids, I hope they don’t hyphenate their last names.
Summer Wardrobe Time
It’s still Winter in Boston, but it felt like Spring outside today, the last day of February. And that felt wonderful after a particularly difficult Winter here.
My thoughts turned briefly toward clothes I may need to replace or upgrade for Spring and Summer.
I’ll keep you posted.