Day five of no voice. This sucks. As someone who relies on his voice and furthermore loves the sound of it (so I’ve been told), this is doubly bad. The best analogy I’ve heard so far is “like seeing Fred Astaire in a wheelchair.”
Indeed.
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An unpleasant side effect to a nasty cold I had this weekend, I was barely able to speak yesterday and the day before (welcome relief to some I’m sure). Luckily I live in 2014 and rarely need to actually speak to anyone at all. Ha!
I spent the day today in Clear Brook, Virginia, a little town west of here tantalizingly close to the West Virginia border. Today was my wife’s company’s family picnic day, and for the first time we got to bring our son (the most adorable baby on Earth). Food, fun, games: the usual suspects. Today was a damn good day. And the best part about having a “Saturday” on a Friday? There’s another Saturday tomorrow.
Today I got to take a group of young historians to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, one of those places on the short list of “famous” American small towns. Harpers Ferry really has a lot going for it: history, nature, politics, adventure. Hard to believe the same little town has two rivers, two canals, three states (sort of), several rail lines, the Appalachian Trail, and, oh yeah, site of one of the most deadly civilian uprisings in American history.
If you’ve never been to Harpers Ferry I recommend it, even if you care nothing about history and politics. The AT and the nearby C&O Canal Towpath give a close-up view of both nature and an old-timey downtown, again, touching each other as is not often witnessed.
The point pictured above is known as Jefferson’s Rock, from which one can see the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. When visiting in 1783 (20 years before Meriwether Lewis gathered provisions here, met up with Clark, and started his trek west, and nearly 80 years before John Brown’s raid), Jefferson called the scene “worth a voyage across the Atlantic.”
Most people make a habit of disparaging all people and things West Virginia. I think West Virginia might be our most underrated state. Hillbillies and moonshine? Remember, during the Civil War, they were the enlightened ones.
Ask anyone east of Greenland and today is the anniversary of man’s first moonwalk. Or is it a man’s first moonwalk? I never get those straight.
One wonders why, 45 years after the first moon landing and 42 years after the last moon landing we, for some reason, stopped going. Too expensive? Think of all the crap we spend money on today. I say divert all money going to exploring those distant stars and put some astronauts back on the moon. If nothing else it would give people something to tweet about.
Woods, Furyk… McIlroy. Rory McIlroy went to a golf tournament and woke up in 1997.
Nice.
I’ll admit Monday’s home run derby left a bit to be desired. Too long, too confusing. But last night’s game made up for it and then some. And the Captain… two for two… what a showman.
Next up… British Open! Good week for sports.
Home run derby. Match play? I’m in. Honestly I can’t believe it took them this long to come up with it. Selig does it again.
If you missed CNN’s The Sixties last night you missed a good one. Yesterday’s episode offered a pretty hip look at the British Invasion. At only an hour obviously a few things are missed, but I was pleasantly surprised with what was covered, musically, politically, and culturally. And don’t worry, CNN will re-air it 14 more times this weekend.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/07/tech/mobile/reservation-hop-app-controversy/
I’m pretty sure I love just about everything this app entails. Selling restaurant reservations for cash? That’s brilliant. Why did it take until 2014 for this to occur?
Okay, there’s a potential issue of fraud here, given that some reservations are knowingly not being used. This issue could be solved by simply requiring a credit card and a “no show” fee. Trust me, some day soon restaurants will do this themselves, not through some third party.
I think the most interesting statement in the article centers around this wave of anger over “making money off something that should be free.” Something that should be free. That is so god damn hilarious I don’t even know where to start. Yeah, everything should be free.
A little econ lesson, starting with an old saying: time is money. Time spent in procuring reservations? Last-minute reservations? There’s no value in that? Seems to me we’re finally putting a real price on something that had a hidden price all along.
Things that should be free. This is what happens when journalists and “San Francisco” types mix.