Google Maps

Now that they stopped printing road maps, Google is how I get from here to there if I haven't been there before.  They updated the software recently.  The map page looks different.  They managed to loose the useful "Center Map Here" function, so useful for expanding the map about your destination.  They fixed the "waste a page of paper every time you print a map" bug. 
   Not to trust Google's travel time estimates.  On my recent trip to the Cape, Google estimated 4 hr 37 min.  It really took 6 hours. 
   Be wary of letting Google plot your course.  Now that Google's knowledge of back roads has improved, it will route you over very obscure back roads.  On a previous trip it routed me over a back road which was impassible due to frost heaves and axle smashing potholes.  Fortunately I had enough local knowledge to not let a web site lead me down the garden path, or down Rte 116 to N. Haverill. 
   One final whine.  They ought to print the maps with a white background.  It wastes a lot of expensive color ink to color an A-sized map tan all over. 

Driving to Cape Cod

An old and good friend, a fine young man I have known since he was a young boy, got married on the Cape this weekend.  I was invited.  So I gassed up the Mercury, consulted Google maps, and set off for the Cape on Friday.  Weather was fine.  I reached Rte 128 in only two hours.  Then the fun began.  In the past I have driven straight thru downtown Boston on I93 at mid day, no sweat.  Not any more.  Traffic was stall and crawl from Melrose (north shore) until I got to Rte 3 (south shore). 
  For the one hour traffic jam I was treated to flashing electric signs every mile or so.  They flashed "Fire works Illegal. Penalty Fines and Jail".  Looks like the state fire marshals (who hate fireworks) had got the funding for a massive anti fireworks publicity campaign.  It was the first time I'd had a sign threaten me with jail. 
   Traffic loosed up on Rte 3 until the Sagamore bridge of ill fame.  Built in the 1930's, and only four lanes wide, Sagamore has been a fearful road block since I first drove on the Cape in the early 1960's.  Half a century later, it's still bad.  Very bad.  They are repainting it, again, and the arch is all covered up in scaffolding/spray paint containment masking. 
   The wedding was in Truro, far out on the Cape.  Funny, they have signage for Hyannis and Barnstable and Wellfleet and P-town, but nary a sign for Truro.  I guess the Truro town fathers failed to pay off the state highway signs people. 
   The wedding was excellent, out of doors, at a shore place that the bride's family owned.  All the groom's numerous family turned up and lots of reminiscences ensued.  Dancing went on past midnight.  Best party I've been to in years. 
   Trip back was uneventful. Set off at 10:30 I had to fill up the Mercury on the cape ($3.83 a gallon, $58 for the tank). There was only a 15 minute backup to cross the Sagamore bridge (this at 12 on Sunday)  The wipe-out-Rte-128 campaign has been successful.  Coming north on Rte 3, nary a sign to get you onto 128.  Fortunately I know the code numbers, I-95 West = 128, and had no trouble.  
   Stopped in Concord at 3 PM for a Big Mac and fries.  McD's is on a bossiness kick, with new signs on the doors refusing entry to any food except McD's food, and more signs inside warning against loitering, and tables must be vacated within 30 minutes. Gives a real welcoming touch.
   Checked out Gibson's bookstore in Concord.  They just moved into a fancy new building, lots more shelf space, a coffee shop, nice carpets, all the trimmings.  I hope it works out for them.  On a fine Sunday I was able to park on Main St, right at their front door.  I was the only car parked there.  They had a few other customers, but I'm  worried about  sales volume and continued survival.  It's tough being in retail. 
   Made it back at 5.  Stupid Beast was pleased to see me, after a three day absence.  I had left plenty of food out for her which she had hardly touched. 

So who is the real dummy?

The story going round the internet has the inventors of a self driving car doing a demo in DC.  They get Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's sole non-voting Congress person, to take a ride.  She gets in the car. "Ohh, what does this do?" she says.  This is a large red button marked "Emergency Stop".  She pushes it.  Emergency Stop worked, the car didn't move, and in fact they were unable to get it to move again  End of demo.
   Most internet pieces poured scorn on Norton for being so dumb.  Speaking as an engineer, that button is broke.  Emergency Stop in a self driving car is supposed to let the passengers stop the car if they see the auto driver doing something scary.  It isn't supposed to cripple the car for good, leaving it stopped in the middle of the street.  I'd call the designers of the car dumb. 

It ain't how many, it's what's in them

The TV newsies have been keeping score.  They show how many executive orders Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Reagan issued.  This is cute, but it doesn't mean much.
Routine executive orders, divvying up the turf between bureaucrats, aren't the same as executive orders  granting immunity to illegal immigrants under the age of 18.  One is a routine ordering of the bureaucracy, the other is implementing the Dream Act after Congress refused to pass it. 
   I have no problem with settling bureaucratic turf battles by executive order.  I do have a problem with over riding Congressional votes by executive order. 

How do you fire an IRS Commissioner?

John Koskinen, appeared at a Congressional investigation.  Well scrubbed, freshly shaved, pink, well fed, well tailored.  He then got into a pissing match with Congressman Paul Ryan, thereby showing a total lack of brains.  Common sense should tell him what to say to an 800 pound gorilla (Ans: SIR).  Koskinen clearly lacks common sense, and probably six of seven other kinds of sense as well.  And this turkey is checking my tax return?   
   We need to get rid of this guy, like right now. 

Corey's Gun Shop

Is out of .22 Long Rifle ammunition.  He told me shipments come in now and then and sell out within hours.  He had the larger caliber stuff, but .22 was all gone. 
Wonder how that could be.  Surely Homeland Security doesn't buy .22? 

The Lore of Whiskey

Whiskey in the US is a brown colored hard liquor sold at 80 to 100 proof (40 to 50 percent ethyl alcohol).  It is sold as Scotch, Bourbon, and Canadian.  They differ in flavor, but the difference is an acquired taste, the new whiskey drinker will not be able tell one from the other.  After some experience, and some practice getting the taste buds to recover from the fierce bite of the ethanol, you will find that Scotch has a somewhat sharper flavor, Bourbon is mellower and a little sweeter, and Canadian is somewhere in between Scotch and Bourbon.  All three make an excellent drink.Whiskey has a definite but hard to describe flavor.  It isn't sweet, or sour, or salty, or bitter. 
   Whiskey and soda water over ice (whiskey and soda) makes a very tasty drink and is recommended as a fine way to come to appreciate the flavor of whiskey.  Soda can be Club Soda, or Seltzer, which is carbonated water.  Club Soda has a touch of salt added to it, Seltzer does not.  Either make a good whiskey mixer.  The fizz and the delicate acid flavor of the carbon dioxide dissolved in water  do good things for the whiskey.  Soda bottles, once opened loose most of their fizz in a day and go as flat as tap water in two days.  The ideal way to buy soda is a six pack of 12 ounce bottles.  A 12 ounce can be used up before it goes flat.  Unfortunately six packs are expensive, about $4 a six, which is as expensive as a six pack of beer. Better economy is had in the 28 ounce bottle, which can be had for $.60 a bottle, which is about the same as a single 12 ounce from a $4 six pack.  The house brand soda (Adirondack or Polar) make as good a whiskey and soda as the pricey national brands (Canada Dry or Schweppes).  After all it's the whiskey that contributes the flavor, not the soda. 
   Then many drinkers prefer to mix their whiskey with just plain tap water rather than with soda.  My sainted mother took her Canadian with just a splash of tap water.  She spent quite some time training her sons to mix her whiskey just a right, a single rapid pass under the flowing tap.  This way you get more of the whiskey taste and less fizz. 
   The continuation of this path leads to the whiskey on the rocks, just some cubes in a short glass with a jigger or two or whiskey.  Scotch on the rocks has the name recognition but Bourbon or Canadian on the rocks is a fine warming drink on a cold winter's night. 
   Then the REAL whiskey drinkers take it neat (room temperature, no ice)  The Brits used to  make a big thing out of this, saying that only neat could you distinguish the finer flavors.  The Americans used to say this custom came from the lack of electric refrigeration in Britain. 
   Whiskey sells for anything where between $10 and $40 a bottle (1.75 liter, what was called a half gallon before metrification of liquor bottles)  Low end whiskey is quite drinkable.  Old Crow and Canadian Hunter are two good $12 a bottle brands.  The pricey bottles (Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels, Jameson, Ballentine) make excellent gifts.