When I went to college in Massachusetts, BayBanks ruled. You didn’t go to the ATM, you went to “a BayBank” because they had machines on every corner. When I moved to California, Bank of America took over in my head as the dominant local bank. In 1996, Bank of Boston bought BayBank and formed BankBoston Corporation. In 1999, BankBoston and Fleet, New England’s two largest banks, merged and became FleetBoston Financial Corp. Now it’s 2003 and Bank of America is expected to announce today that they are buying FleetBoston. So goes the last of the big Boston banks. Welcome back to my wallet.
80’s-retro is reportedly hitting stores with full force. The fashion report: “leggings and tapered pants, bangle bracelets, black jeans, miniskirts, thick and colored pantyhose, and endless chains and zippers.” The movie report: Wonderland and Party Monster. The toy report: Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, My Little Pony. And for the accompanying soundtrack, there’s electroclash: “music made with synthesizers and keyboards, very similar to the music of the ’80s,” major influence being New Order. There’s also retro video gaming. The catch is, the people playing “Asteroids” and “Centipede” are returning to their memories of simpler times. The people wearing the bangles and big earrings, however, are unaware that the first time around we eventually decided that legwarmers were better left to the ballerinas.
Seattle Spicing Guide for Bay Area Eaters (based on an unscientific sample of 3 ethnic restaurants):
Bay Area no spices (aka why bother) = Seattle mild
Bay Area mild = Seattle medium
Bay Area medium = Seattle spicy
Bay Area spicy = Seattle non-existent or look like you really mean business
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.