Recent content by tonyb

As Yogi might have had it, I hesitate to make predictions, especially about the future. Still, it’s not hard to envision a day when keys as we‘ve known them will be mostly obsolete, especially those keys we now use regularly, such as the ones for our personal modes of transport and our...

The Pepsi sign at the bottom of the door suggests this photo dates from no earlier than 1969. (Unlike Coca-Cola, Pepsi has made numerous major changes to its logo over its history.) Was that sign meant to be a kick plate? Is that a screen door? If so, it would open outward, so it wouldn’t...

I haven’t seen one of those in — golly — decades.

I’m on so many prescription meds that I take a U-Haul to the pharmacy. If not for the pill sorter thing (my lovely missus bought me a nice handcrafted wooden one) I would all but certainly not take the right meds at the right time. Attribute that in part to the numbers of pills I take, and in...

^^^^^ In my earlier life the checklist before leaving the motel with my traveling companions was “spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch.” These days you’d add “smartphone“ and drop “watch,” in most cases.

^^^^ Knowing what a PITA losing one’s keys and/or wallet (debit cards, insurance cards, driver’s license, etc.) can be, I find myself checking the whereabouts of those items before turning in for the night.

Uh-huh. We’ll have to get you a sturdy stick, with which you can beat back all those wanton hussies throwing themselves at you.

I had the misfortune of encountering a person who wrote “Nostalgia is fear of the future.” I saw no point in arguing.

I can envision a scene with that sign figuring prominently. Several scenes, really — a casual tavern, a boho coffeehouse, a spacious loft, etc.

Do you know what became of it? I sure hope it got saved somehow, and not scrapped.

Ask any woman who was ever involved for any length of time with me or either of my brothers and she’ll tell you how icy my mother could be. My wife just came out and asked her, going on 30 years ago, “Why don’t you like me?” Mom was befuddled by that. I believe she was just oblivious to how she...

Have these people been unkind to you?

And yes, it’s more than a little ironic that line-dried bedding is, for most of us, something of a luxury these days.

^^^^^ I believe it was the same legislation that banned HOA bans on rooftop solar. There’s a LOT of houses around here sporting photovoltaic panels, what with the reliably sunny days (rare are two cloudy days in a row; the Chamber of Commerce types tout “300 sunny days per year”) and the...

I’ve always found him to be a decent enough fellow. English isn’t his first language and I’ve witnessed a couple of incidents of his notions getting misunderstood on account of that. And I can see how he finds this “community” (there’s a better characterization, I’m sure, but I can’t come up...