Farewell Concorde transatlantic service. And if all goes well, welcome Concorde to Seattle’s Museum of Flight, which is on the shortlist for potential resting places. I may get to see the inside of one yet.

Ahh the Old Boston Post Road, or, as I knew it in Connecticut, “Post Road” or “Route 1.” The N.Y. Times Driving column takes a journey from New York City to Boston, searching for old road markers along the way. Originally an Indian trail, the Post Road began its official life as a mail route in 1673. Legend has it that Benjamin Franklin added the mile markers during his tenure as postmaster general, using a mechanical odometer attached to his wagon. “For years after the markers were first placed, taverns and inns prided themselves on being located near them for the prestige they carried and the business they offered from riders measuring the distance they had traveled and rewarding themselves with rest, hot food and entertainment.” Nowadays you stop at Swanky Franks. In true Internet age fashion, the article mentions various web sites devoted to the road and its markers. When shall we wax nostalgic about the old markers along the Information Superhighway?

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The Woodland Park Zoo has photos up of their adorable tapir baby. Born in September, the calf has a spotted coat that will fade to adult coloring in 8 months.

For Serious West Wing Fans Only
While we are greatly enjoying The West Wing in syndication, the joy will lessen soon as I sense we are nearing the point where we began watching the show a couple years ago. All the twists will no longer be a surprise. And meanwhile over on the brand new weekly episodes, someone apparently turned off all the lights when Aaron Sorkin left, and I mean literally. The set is lit like a winter morning in Seattle. So I’ve decided that the best way for the cast to continue without Sorkin is to start again from the very beginning. They should film all the episodes again — except with a catch. The male-female roles should be swapped: Stockard Channing gets to be President and Martin Sheen gets to be First Gentleman. Janel Moloney and Bradley Whitford should swap and Josh can ask the naive questions while Donna acts all superior. Remember the scene where Ainsley Hayes, played by Emily Procter, meets the President while she’s dressed in a bathrobe, drink in hand, and singing? Put Rob Lowe in her place. And Ainsley gets to be the supportive friend of a prostitute (male or female?). C.J. and Toby should switch places, or maybe C.J. and Danny, the reporter. Margaret and Leo can swap. You get the idea. And the lines should stay exactly the same. It’s a mind exercise on gender roles. I think it’d be fascinating for many key scenes. Not only that, I think the actors, superb as they are, would completely pull it off and sell it.

The Read Regular typeface is designed to have very unique characters, supporting the needs of dyslexics. Designed by a woman with dyslexia, the font isn’t yet available to the public as licensing issues need to be worked out. The best design approach for accessible content is to never prevent the reader from customizing their view of the text. It may be impossible to change the font in a printed book, but a computer should be able to reformat words in a jiffy. Internet Explorer has accessibility options to ignore font styles and sizes.

Hollywood caterers receive an average of $15 a day for each person they feed on a movie set. Competition for business has become fierce as the number of catering companies has grown while the number of movies filmed in L.A. has shrunk. To keep the upper hand, caterers attempt to differentiate by offering not just the fanciest feasts, but smoothie bars, kettle corn, pasta stations, and on-site pizza ovens. In addition to the per-head fee, caterers who are also chefs can pull in plenty of dough. The chefs on movie sets are classified as Teamsters union drivers, which translates to $80,000 a year for an assistant chef and $110,000 for a chef. And if the article is correct, it seems that the caterers don’t pay their chefs, it’s the movie production company that picks up their union wages, making that $15 a head look even better.

It’s Dilbert Mystery Artist week. So far, it’s easy to guess who wields the pen.

It’s the BOO! time of year and haunted house attractions are popping up all over. Two quarterly magazines support this shocking industry: HauntWorld and Haunted Attraction. They cover the latest innovations in scary contraptions and also list used equipment including ready-to-go prefab haunted houses. Buy your very own mansion of horrors and join the International Association of Haunted Attractions.

Massachusetts’ gift certificate laws have been extended to cover gift cards, all the better for consumers. I’ve noticed a few recent mentions in the local paper of people who were surprised to discover that gift cards they had received 6-12 months earlier had a monthly fee, which eventually reduced the cards’ value to nothing. Imagine saving your gift card for when you really need a pick-me-up and finding out it’s worthless. In Massachusetts at least, you’ll get seven years to spend the full amount. A California law banning most fees goes into effect in January. It’s a lot easier for retailers to dock the amount on an electronic card. Perhaps in this case we gain more by sticking to paper certificates.