Miscellany

My hometown’s at it again. Pittsburgh has spent the past couple of years in a serious self-promotion drive, and their latest effort involved training taxi drivers as ambassadors for the city, encouraging quality service through a reward system.[via JRE] I’d be seriously disturbed if my taxi driver started playing the clarinet when the traffic got bad. At least it’s better than their $200,000 effort to develop a “Pittsburgh brand” – a major flop, generating a 45 word statement whose only use is fuel for mocking, such as in the Pittsburgh Branding Phrase Generator Tool, provided by the Pittsburgh-centric weblog YinzerMullet. … Continue reading Pittsburgh Branding

I’m not a big poster person, but over the past few days I’ve come across a couple of items I’m wishing I had for my walls. I’m tempted to find a poster printer for The Computer Tree family tree of computers of the 50’s and 60’s.[via Larkfarm] And I saw several One Page Book posters in a local bookstore and while I have no need for a poster of the entirety of Macbeth, I still think it’s really cool.

Wow – I was just checking a flight arrival time on the US Airways site and found this press release linked on their front page: US Airways Implements ‘Peace of Mind’ Flexible Travel Policy. ARLINGTON, Va., March 18, 2003 — US Airways announced today that it has implemented the 90-day “Peace of Mind” flexible travel period, effective tomorrow. The “Peace of Mind” flexible travel policy, which is being implemented due to the conflict in Iraq, allows customers to make changes to itineraries for travel originating March 19 through June 17, 2003, without incurring standard change fees. Travel within the U.S. … Continue reading Free Flight Changes

Let me put some love out there for the local utility companies. This morning when I got up, there was no heat, no hot water, and no gas coming out of the stove. Not only have they kept my house from blowing up from the gas main which had accumulated water, but they’re still out there now tearing up the road and such, and think I’ll be hooked back up by midnight. With the low tonight forecast at an entire degree above zero, it will be appreciated.

If I thought I was disturbed when, around about Thanksgiving this year, I heard John Madden rambling about some Turducken abomination, I am even more disturbed that you can see upclose-and-personal Turducken photos, from someone who ordered one off the internet and actually served it to their friends. (Of course you can order Turducken off the internet….) [via Anita LOL]

I’m absolutely hopeless with my hair, so I was intruigued by The Traditional Hairdressing Page featuring “classic” hairstyles from the 60’s and 70’s. Most of the diagrams actually show placement and orientation of curlers and lots of people have left notes and tips. I wish I could get stuff like this to work though – it looks fun so long as I didn’t have to do it on a daily basis. Heck, I’m still trying to figure out how hair commercial women with plain straight hair get it to do that shiny single-curtain-of-hair look. They imply it’s the shampoo, but … Continue reading Classic Hair

The banana extinction story has been getting a lot of press today (though mostly in international media, I’ve noticed). I had no idea that edible bananas were sterile. I haven’t seen any explanation of how you breed a sterile fruit; is it a hybrid or something, like with mules?

I don’t know as much about architecture as I feel I should – it seems like an area I should be interested in, with its balance of design and engineering. It’s not a great site for beginning reading, but the collection of images of buildings at The Great Buildings Collection (some of them 3D models, though you need to download special software to view them) is very extensive and detailed. If I get some projects off my plate I might have to order one of the basic books off the bibliography list.

Driving into Pittsburgh from the west today, an official PennDoT lit sign (of the type that normally warns of bad traffic) read “Brownie Fans – Welcome to Mordor”. How nice to see my hometown taking a literary turn to its sports fanaticism. One almost hesitates to point out that in the stories surely being alluded to, those who went into Mordor emerged triumphant.

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