Siftings
Mar
24
Bonus Countdown - Lala Names
The 2017 lineup for Lalapalooza is announced and thus ... the annual top ten band names:
10. Mondo Cozmo
9. Alison Wonderland
8. (tie) Joey Badass / Flint Eastwood
7. The Pretty Reckless
6. Car Seat Headrest
5. Max
4. Cheat Codes
3. Hippo Campus
2. Lard...
Mar
24
Craig’s Friday Countdown - 1 Adverb, 9 Adjectives
The Alfa 4C, the most wonderfully unusable car I’ve driven since the first one I owned (metal flake purple Meyers Manx), in ten words:
ridiculously beautiful
ridiculously small
ridiculously loud
ridiculously uncompromising
ridiculously quick
ridiculously...
Mar
18
Lighten Up, Francis
Stay in the dugout. As the season started, I was quite explicit about it. “This isn’t Little League, guys. We don’t leave the dugout to congratulate teammates who hit home runs”. What some of them – the ones who didn’t play for me as Little Leaguers - did not know was I had the same rule in...
Mar
10
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Chucks
Chuck Taylors are the perfect shoes for everything except professional baseball, football, mountaineering and firefighting. Everywhere else, they work flawlessly. Light, reasonably cheap, comfortable and not overly padded, so you can actually feel what’s going on. And age only makes them...
Mar
03
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Sanctuaries
As the Seaside City Council waits for a draft of a “Sanctuary City” resolution from me, the grey matter ponders “sanctuary” as a word and concept. Rather than try to ascribe ordinal or ratio precision to what constitutes sanctuary for me, here’s an either / or collection:
Not Sanctuary – Wine...
Feb
20
Wash Me
The Jeep bludgeons through the rain. There are more aerodynamic and far less skittish vehicles to wrestle with on a wet highway at speed but, as I recall (here), those engender polite chats with the highway patrol. Out of its element at seventy something on the rain slick 201 snaking across the...
Feb
16
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Superfast?
So inspired by Ferrari's newest reason to question this whole public sector work is meaningful thing, the Countdown is a day early this week. Here's a dozen names I imagine they scratched off on their way to "812 Superfast".
812 Promptlygo
812 Rapidthing
812 Speedyquick
812...
Feb
12
Cleats
Four hands would make this easier, but I only have the standard two. A chunk of walnut awaits a compound miter cut. Just sitting there on the workbench, sort of mocking me as I try to figure this out. Building a table for the City Hall breakroom, I’m at the Public Works shop alone, after hours. ...
Feb
03
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Cheeseburgers
Fast food cheeseburgers, in ascending order of longing.
15. (tie) Checkers, Jack In The Box – Nasty
14. High School Mystery Meat – Enigmatic
13. (tie) Tastee Feeze, Dairy Queen – Just get some ice-cream.
12. Hardees – Used to be better.
11. Burger King – Flame-broiled. ...
Jan
27
Craig’s Friday Countdown - No Passing
The Laureles Grade (youtube here) packs two thousand feet of elevation change and forty corners into its four miles between Laguna Seca and the Fortress of Solitude. Traversing it twice a day, there’s an informal protocol for pulling over and letting faster cars pass. In the car heaven that is...
