trinacriabob

Nice! Sometimes the best part of being Catholic is being able to laugh at it...and 16 years of Catholic school. It seems that most survivors of the Catholic school system seem to bond around some of the great rites of passage and fairly unique experiences one would have missed if they had gone to public school.

extra scoop of ice cream for the spelling response to thread: tracker

Between you and a good childhood friend that lives in Las Vegas, I have pretty much written off the Southwest and the Intermountain West. It's pretty damn bleak, aesthetically speaking.

movin' on up to response to thread: the East Side

Thank you for that excellent link to the rapid transit map. It's fairly cluttered, but once you get wade throught it, the heavy rail ambitions are weak. When I was a young and first rode on BART as a tourist, I instantly thought L.A. should have the following: 1. Red Line as a subway - ditto - BUT extended out to West Valley, with NO stupid busway to pick up the slack from North Hollywood westward 2. Purple Line as a subway - ditto - BUT extended out to Santa Monica, or the beach* 3. Gold Line - not ditto - to Pasadena and beyond as heavy rail 4. Blue Line - not ditto - to Long Beach as heavy rail 5. Green Line - not ditto - east to west as heavy rail 6. A line out to El Monte, West Covina, La Puente and Pomona as heavy rail 7. A very important belt line, essentially following the 405 - coming from at least the base of the Valley, picking up the airport, hitting the flatlands of the South Bay and terminating at what is now the Blue Line SEVEN lengthy heavy rail lines would have made the city of L.A. and many major suburbs quickly navigable by rail. Look at how BART covers so much area, except for monied Marin County and the Peninsula (the latter of which has apparently regretted it). * I am laughing my ass off as I see ONE stop in BH at Wilshire and Beverly. That must have been a "political" gesture of goodwill by the people of Beverly Hills to the commoners, while they were quaking in their boots. Sadly, pow, most of us who left Los Angeles and whose lives have taken us somewhere else love coming back to L.A. and seeing a rapid transit system unfold, though we will probably never move back. I was hoping for more heavy rail and was hoping it was sooner than later.

Jeff Spicoli

Sounds like you like all those demographic and statistical charts. They're interesting. They almost become predictable cliches. Lowest SAT scores/highest teen pregnancy/lowest high school graduation: It's the inland, non-coastal Southern States (MS, AR, etc.) and Nevada (a very white trash kind of place) Highest SAT scores/lowest teen pregnancy/highest high school graduation: It's the (Nordic) Upper Midwest (MN, WI) and New England (more so NH, VT) Back to the topic at hand, (Southern) California failed to instill a commuter rail/heavy transit rail lifestyle as it should have for its intended growth, giving rise to a mind-boggling freeway system and those ramps/interchanges that postcards are made of. They're doing rapid transit 40 years later, after all the infrastructure is in place and sprawl has occurred. It embarrasses me that my hometown of L.A. has a despicable rail system (with the only line that's worth a damn being the "Red Line" because it's a fully grade-separated heavy rail subway system on a dedicated track) and all the other lines are essentially trolley cars (Green, Blue, Gold, and future Acqua lines) that run through the streets of South Central. Nice. Come on, this is America's gateway city to Asia and Oceania. Atlanta, where I lived for 2 years and really enjoyed, has a stellar transit system in its MARTA Rail (it's similar to BART and the DC Metro). Well, looks like the Bay Bridge will be open for Monday morning's commute...and BART trains will be less crowded.

Today: We had the office Halloween party. Sections were broken up into themes. Our area was "Old Western Town." I was going to set up my office as the town bordello (a lot of red velour, and not much else). That didn't fly. (Damn, virtually every Western town of any significance had a bordello). So, instead, they gave me rolls of paper and I did mural type drawings of Western landscapes (mesas, cactus, sagebrush, rattlesnakes, mountain lions, and bighorn sheep, etc). to cover the walls. I ate so much I have to go lay down (quantity of what people brought in "potluck" style, but not necessarily quality). Tomorrow (actual Halloween Day): Not a damn thing...looking forward to a quiet weekend. Your Halloween plans?

surfer

I was waiting for this. (I was a year off, thinking it was 1937, but, what the hell, they had the foresight to do 5 lanes in each direction on different bridge decks. That's right. The architectural statement was unnecessary. While the old cantilevered East Span was hideous, a sleek, high up in the air causeway would have done the trick. The insertion of that suspension component with the tower that looks kind of modern/kind of retro/kind of Coit is large part of the bridge's cost (overrun).

That's because Sarah Palin comes from that area...kind of makes sense :wink:

undefined

DVT (not a Cadillac, but a radiology procedure)

RA just found out a co-worker, late 30s, has this ... so does Kathleen Turner and it has dramatically changed her appearance (I what ED stands for, so what is RP?)

I'm not sure the negative campaign tactic is a good approach. This is a little bit more pungent than what Fusion/Milan dish out against their competition, which is facts -- the reliability of those cars has been remarkable vis-a-vis their Japanese competition. Flash back 10 years - the Intrigue commercials were very sexy, for lack of a better word. They made you aware that this was a different car within that genre, hence the tag line "a sophisticated twist on the sports sedan." If one went further, into print ads and into automotive reviews, they would see the inevitable comparison to CamCord. It's worth a chuckle, but its credibility isn't the best. They need to sell this car on its merits.

VD

Whatever "pencils out" as keeping more money in your, and your family's, pocket. Especially in these tough times.

topiary animals

yard work

I guess it's also cultural conditioning. My upbringing was so damn patriarchal, that my Mom always said "how high" when my Dad said "jump." Don't get me wrong, they got along, but each needed that tell/be told dynamic to make the marriage work. Today, I doubt if you even see that in Catholic Mediterranean Europe. I think it still exists in the Eastern Mediterranean where the people are of Arab stock, though. I also believe that this conundrum in role definition has dealt one hell of a blow to the institution of marriage, and to (all kinds of) relationships as well.

Part of it will be handled by BART, who will run longer trains and more frequently. Wow, some of the snobs in Orinda, Lafayette and Walnut Creek may finally get to see the inside of a BART train.

vaginas ought to be vertically symmetrical...unless there is an infection in the labia or something...unbelievable...now that's an overactive imagination... ...back on track: - (to anyone who has this older-younger pattern as a "constant") - what is the attraction to someone who is significantly younger, to the point that they could almost be your biological offspring? I'm curious as to the rationale.

scoop (in some towns, a poop scoop is necessary when you walk your pet)

Yes on the G8. I quickly grew to really like it. Most G8 drivers seem to appreciate and understand cars. I haven't seen any morons behind the wheel of one, from a quick "ISTJ" point of view... The Camaro is ok. I'd like it a lot more if: 1) the "roof rail" wasn't so chunky and the greenhouse wasn't so limited (revisit '67,'68,'69...there was more glass) 2) the circular headlamps had a more rectangular shape, to match the rear taillamps 3) the interior panel wasn't so austere...they could have kept the same "retro" theme without being as boring It looks best in white and silver.

Well, North Central California. I'm from LA (native, at that ). Pit stops in: New Jersey (kid), Atlanta (right after college), and OR/WA (parents relocated there). Pretty crazy about the bridge, though. It'll be interesting to find out how something in its structure just sort of snaps and falls off.