So I started out with a nice little feature about a funky, flashing sign that has stood on a Dallas corner since the 1950s:
Most of the secrets behind the sparkling Sigel’s sign at Lemmon Avenue and Inwood Road have been lost to history.
The sign, erected sometime during the 1950s, is an example of what is called “Googie,” an exaggerated Jetsons-style of architecture named after a Los Angeles coffee shop.
The next day I got a nice e-mail from the son of the man who designed the sign. Who, far from being lost to history, was still alive and would be happy to talk about his work. Which lead to another story, about the artist and how he came up with the design:
Marvin Sigel was a fine artist squeezed into a commercial art job when he was asked to design a sign for the family business: Sigel’s Liquor Store No. 7.
His cousin, Sidney, ran the business. Sidney was a soft-spoken man who wore a white shirt and black tie every day and just wanted rectangular signs with block letters.
“He didn’t care a rat’s behind about design. He just wanted it to look ‘right,’ ” Sigel said.
You’d think that the folks who know and love Portuguese water dogs would be totally thrilled by the choice of the Obamas. I thought so, anyway. I was wrong. They are mostly nervous that a huge demand for the dogs will create bad matches. These dogs ain’t for everybody, I’m told.
Owners use phrases like “aggressive” and “not great with small kids” to describe Portuguese water dogs. And these are the dogs’ friends.
“If I had to pick a dog for the Obamas, I would have picked a miniature poodle,” McCullough said. A Portuguese water dog may be a bit of a challenge for the White House, she said.
But the Obamas wanted a dog that would be easy on the allergies; like poodles, Portuguese water dogs don’t shed much. And they apparently wanted a dog big enough to romp with.
That they got.
Read my whole explanation here.
One idea I had for helping readers during the recession was to come up with “Good Enough” suggestions. Meaning I’d take an expensive brand name food or other product and see if the cheaper off brands were “good enough.’ Not the same, mind you. But good enough so that you would actually use them. We looked at breakfast cereals and discovered that sure enough, some of the knock-offs weren’t half bad:
As with our earlier exploration of cookies, we found that a savvy shopper can find lower prices on Cheerios and Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. Large boxes typically are less-expensive per ounce, and some stores have lower prices than others. But less-expensive, off-brand versions of these popular cereals may sell for less than half the price of the brand names.
By Jeff | February 11, 2009
It’s the Facebook thing. And the theme of my other website, BestRandomThings.com. So I figure I should post my 25:
1) When I was a little kid the only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was an astronaut. That never really changed.
2) But then I decided I’d be a physicist. Until a mercy “C” in freshman calculus. I’ve never really ever understood calculus. But I’ve never stopped being interested in science.
3) I can hum the melody and sing many of the words to Freddy the Freshman (from a 1932 Merrie Melodies cartoon) and Krakatoa Katie (from a 1945 Mighty Mouse cartoon) but as my wife will tell you, I usually can’t remember to pick up the dry cleaning. And yes, I did watch a lot of Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. And yes, the Cartoon Network is among my favorite cable channels today.
Read More »
By Jeff | February 9, 2009
Come check out my new website:
Best Random Things: Funny, gross, inspirational, spiritual, romantic, useful stuff people say about themselves online.
By Jeff | February 9, 2009
A note for the friends of this blog: Learn from my near-error.
Never leave your house with a major appliance running!!!
Had I turned on the dryer on Friday and headed out to walk the dogs I would have returned to find a house torched instead what actually happened because I was there: a small fire caught early enough for the fire department to knock it down in a couple of minutes. (Those axes ain’t for show, people…) I shudder to think of the many times I’ve put laundry in and left to do errands. One of the firefighters told me that he’s seen plenty of big fires where that had happened.
A few more details at the jump.
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By Jeff | February 6, 2009
I did a piece this week about the explosion online of the “Random Things About Me” lists, where people reveal some pretty personal things about themselves to the world. And I heard from a longtime friend who is also a Facebook Friend and is struggling with some of the aspects of the social network environment. She made an astonishingly good point about how Facebook (and MySpace and etc.) are environments that enforce honesty in ways that most of us are not accustomed to. I posted her thoughts on the dallasnews Religion blog. They’re worth the click.
By Jeff | February 5, 2009
If you’re on Facebook and even if you’re not, you’ve probably been tagged by the “25 Random Things About Me” meme or one of its close cousins. As I wrote for the Dallas Morning News:
Cross the old “Truth or Dare” game with “Tag, you’re it!” Digitize it. And open it up to anybody online.
The result is “25 Random Things about Me,” which has exploded like a benign virus on the Internet.
By the millions, people on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and others on their own blogs or web pages are revealing funny, interesting, quirky and weird things about themselves.
Read the whole story here.
By Jeff | February 4, 2009
As mom put it to me today: “He’s not ready yet.”
And she didn’t mean to come home Dad is exceptionally tough.
By Jeff | February 4, 2009
My latest bit of mainstream journalism is to tell people how not to be dumb when they decide to respond to the bazillion ads telling them to sell their “old gold.” Bottomest bottom line: Unless your granny was rich and left you a ton of old jewelry, you aren’t going to pay the rent with what you get. A ring that cost you hundreds to buy will probably net you a quarter of that when you sell it for scrap. Oh, and about those TV ads with poor Ed McMahon and Hammer. The president of Cash4Gold told me that they don’t pay the most. They provide service and convenience, he said. By me, heading to the neignbborhood jeweler ain’t so inconvenient if I know I’ll get more cash out of the deal. Which is the point of the exercize, after all…
Here’s the link to the whole package, which includes sales tips and an explanation for the units of weight used for gold. Which make about as much sense as the wizards’ money in the Harry Potter books.
By Jeff | January 27, 2009
And I dither about when to go to Miami. I want to be there if he dies or if he goes home. In either case, Mom will need the support. For the past few days, neither path has been obvious. So I wait. We Boomers are a difficult generation. Even those of us who have stayed emotionally close to our parents are so often physically far away….
By Jeff | January 25, 2009
Having nothing to do with my work life: My dad is in the ICU tonight. He’s just turned 91, has had significant respiratory problems for a while. He was in the ICU for his 90th birthday, came out a few days later and has had, all things considered, a pretty good year. Is this the Big One? Who knows. But here I am in the position of so many in my generation: Worrying about my parents from long distance…
