Found these next to each other at Costco the other day:
Category: Highlights
Clikipedia
I’ve been meaning to post on this subject for quite a while now, and it turns out someone has gone and said it more succinctly than I ever could have: The Problem With Wikipedia. Continue reading
Radio Connection
They say that the Southern California car culture is isolating. It’s hard to argue with that, when everyone’s shut up in their own little boxes. But today, on my way to work (delayed a bit on account of dentist), I was listening to KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic and stopped at a traffic signal. They were playing a live version of Elvis Costello’s “Allison.” I looked in my rear view mirror, and realized that the driver behind me was singing along to the same song. Even though it only went one way—she had no way of knowing I was listening to the same music—it was still a moment of connection through shared experience.
Not quite botanical
Attended a friend’s wedding last weekend, held at the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas (north of San Diego).
One constant feature of botanical gardens the world over is the collection of placards identifying each type of tree, shrub, or other plant. In the walled garden where the ceremony was held, they took it a step further:
In Your Office
A long row of furniture stores sits in the city of Lake Forest, on a frontage road alongside the 5 freeway. Among them is this:
I can just see the exchange at the workplace:
“Nice chair! Where’d you get it?”
“In your office.”
“Hey! What’s the big idea!”
Pluto Needs Rocks
I went to Worldcon 64/L.A.Con IV on Saturday. Mainly I went to a couple of panels, checked out the art show and the dealer’s room, and looked at some exhibits.
Out in the exhibit hall, near the art show, someone had set up this display:
It’s too small to read at this size, so I’ve transcribed it: Continue reading
Tall Ships of San Diego
I mentioned that on Saturday, we left Comic-Con for a few hours to check out the ships at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. We saw five:
- The Star of India, billed as “the world’s oldest active ship”
- The HMS Surprise, a replica of an 18th century British ship.
- The Berkeley, an 1898 steam ferry
- The Medea, a 1904 yacht
- A B-39 Soviet submarine.
The big attractions, of course, were the Star of India and the HMS Surprise. Naturally, the Star of India was closed when we got there.
The Star of India seen from the Surprise
The Surprise was fun, though. It turns out it was built in the 1970s as a replica of an 18th century British Royal Navy vessel, the HMS Rose. It was sold to 20th Century Fox in 2001 and used to film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. After filming was complete, the museum bought the ship and renamed it the HMS Surprise in honor of the fictional vessel.