A Lucky Escape

I met Maureen for a Restaurant Week dinner at Amada last night. I got there early to check out the temporary Greenhouse exhibit at the American Philosophical Society, but it is closed on Mondays, so I was just ambling around leisurely until it was time to show up at Amada. It was a little after 5pm, when the work day ends for most people with normal jobs.

The large insurance company I used to work for is located in that part of town these days. As I was walking (ambling) I passed a woman who looked a lot like someone I used to work with oh so many years ago. She looked much older. I was thinking of saying something but let her pass by instead, leaving the past the past.

Later as I was sitting on a bench another former coworker, or someone who looked like a former coworker passed by. He must have 30+ years in at that company now. He seemed "old" when I got hired there at age 23. He wasn't a great boss which may or may not be why I especially didn't want to be recognized this time. It wasn't a problem; to him I was just another guy sitting on a bench reading. I allowed being out of context work to my advantage.

At Amada, we were seated near their private room where a very large party overflowed out of the room and into the area around us. A guy in suit with three ID badges on it was acting the host and greeting people. I mildly pondered the mystery of why he would have three photo ID badges of various sizes on a single clip on his lapel. Like Prius guy, it is a mystery that I will never know the solution to. Another thing I have to live with.

The private party of business people seemed such a dull thing to attend, but the guests seemed to be happy - Amada can easily do that to you. I felt extremely thankful that I was able to make my escape from the Fortune 500 business world over 17 years ago. Pretty much any day that I'm not in a cubicle is a good one.

I went to a Chamber of Commerce business card exchange once in recent memory. It was boring and strange and I didn't know why I was there. I suppose I'm a businessperson, probably even more than most businesspeople, but I'm definitely not a suit. At least not anymore. I'm free.

The host eventually took off his suit jacket. I was worried that he was going to have existential crisis. If your three photo IDs are on your jacket and you take it off, do you still know who you are? It turned out not to be a problem for him. Maybe the big glass of wine in his hand helped.

RIP Awesome Cargo Shorts

My favorite pair of cargo shorts had their last wearing yesterday. They've been a little ratty but acceptable for a year or two now. At that point they went from being dressy to ultra-casual.

I'm a dude; I can get away with that, at least up to a point. From my wife's perspective they probably stopped being acceptable four years ago, but being the saint that she is, she didn't say anything. She will likely be happy to read this posting.

They were the perfect shade of stone grey to go with pretty much anything I care to wear during the summer. And they had the requisite cargo pockets. The Agatha Christie Project (check prior posts for more info) made me appreciate cargo pockets even more; books fit great.

I bought them off the Abercombie and Fitch website about 8 years ago if my memory and calculations are correct. I would have been about 38 years old. Most of Abercrombie's stuff for is for frat boys and not really for me at this time of life, but they do have some acceptable stuff for middle aged people too.

These shorts were top quality; they served me for 8 years. And they got pretty heavy use, being one of favorites. As I get older I appreciate less being more and am willing to invest in good clothing that I really like that will last.

Another part of being a dude is attachment to clothing that we like. The inevitable passing of beloved article of clothing is always a minor deal for us, especially if we have had them for years and live in a four season area. With the change of seasons, it's like rediscovering an old friend every year when the weather changes. I had seven seasons of rediscovery of this part of shorts.

Unlike some dudes, I accept when it's time to retire some clothing. Good bye old friend.

As I write this, I am wearing what is now my new favorite pair of cargo shorts. They are still in the dressy stage. Hello new friend.

If your thrills have become regular, are they even thrills anymore?

Last Night's Spam

Some of the directed spam I get is so moronic, it angers me. This was sent from a @verizon.com account.

Dear The Grey Lodge Pub

"Dear The Grey Lodge Pub", so personal. I feel warm and fuzzy already.

Customers are the life blood of every business... what are you doing to develop and maintain an effective and profitable relationship with each and every one of them?

What am I doing? Facebook, Twitter, daily blog updates, monthly emails. Some idiot from Groupon asked via spamming phone call if I marketed my business. I went off on her. How effing insulting. Do I market my business? Eff you, look at our effing Website and then ask me that question. How about I call you and ask you idiotic questions? Anywho back to iZigg.

We are iZigg, the most powerful brand in Mobile Marketing.

So powerful they don't even have to use @izigg.com for their emails.

We own the most popular short code in the business, 90210.

Yes, a TV show from 20 years ago. So relevant and powerful.

At iZigg, we are showing businesses like yours how to use our service to generate a return on their advertising investment of as much as 2,200% and more... simply by employing a strategy that employs a tool that is used by almost 300 Million people in the USA every day.

As much as 2.200% and more. As much as that and more!

Many refer to it as “a text.” We call it “Instant Personal Communication.”

Many refer it as a "turd". We call it "Personal Smelly Mud".

Give it a try to see how it works…

Text - KillerBBQ to 90210 on your cell phone.

Do it now! Actually I would advise you not to, there's a catch.

When you sent the text “KillerBBQ” to 90210, 2 things happened.

1) You got an automated response that we created in our “Mobile Auto-Responder.”

2) We added your cell phone number to our KillerBBQ VIP List.

What?!?!? I just opted into your farking list? You didn't warn me that was going to happen.

At this point, we can now communicate to you and every other customer on our “KillerBBQ List” with special offers and deals via “Instant Personal Communication.”

Oh look Dylan just sent me an "Instant Personal Communication"! I wonder what he and Kelly are up to. No wait, it's just spam.

Just think, you can literally keep in contact with every customer who opted in to your own keyword at 90210. This is the most effective business generation and customer retention tool available today.

The most profitable business is repeat business. It is said that even a 5% increase in customer retention can increase business profits by 25% to 125%! With iZigg Mobile Marketing, you have the power to maintain a relationship with every one of your customers at the push of a button.

If close personal and profitable relationships with your customers is something you want in your business,

Just think, you can literally spam your best customers' cell phones and have them pay for it.

They have a word for those sorts of relationships: "abusive". And nothing says "personal" like mass texting,,, oops sorry, mass instant personal communicating.

I invite you to watch this short, 10 minute video that will reveal this method in detail and change the way you market to your customers forever.

No thanks.

Why Do So Many Paul McCartney Solo Songs Suck?

I was out somewhere last weekend and Paul McCartney's Jet came on the in background. Click below to refamiliarize yourself, if you dare.



This song quite sucks. Not the over the top WTF suck of Wonderful Christmastime, but sucky none the less. ("WTF suck" - I like that). The song even starts off sucky. "Jet, woo hoo woo woo JET!" - woo that's deep.

And then we get "And Jet, I thought the major was a lady suffragette!", which comes out as was a lady sufferaJETTT!!!! It wouldn't be so bad, but that line appears four times in the song, so just when you forget how damn annoying and insipid it is, it comes back to remind you, and then remind two more times.

The song Jet does have some good qualities, the music and background vocals are really quite good. So it's a mixed bag, which is pretty much the story of McCartney's solo work. For every great song, there is a stinker, often even in the same song. Which annoys me because being a big Beatles fan, I want to be a Paul McCartney solo fan, but I can't because so much of it sucks.

To end up on a positive note, here's a Paul McCartney solo song that is pure gold. I love the trumpets on it. I could listen to this song over and over for hours. With the exception of the somewhat forced title track, Tug of War is a McCartney album with no clunkers. The clunker being Ebony and Ivory, a song that seems good but doesn't hold up to repeated listenings, or maybe even the second listening.

Anyway to end up on a positive note, hit stop on Jet*, if you haven't already, and play Wanderlust.

A little bit of trivia, Wanderlust was the boat on which Paul recorded the album London Town, and on which there was one of Paul's many high profile marijuana busts. Captain says they'll be a bust.

Maybe this gives us a clue, could it be the reefers that make Paul write so many sucky songs? I'd argue that it could be the opposite, that maybe Paul isn't smoking enough. The Beatles, it is told, smoked pot like crazy while recording Rubber Soul, the CD (and English LP) version of which is my favorite Beatles album. Maybe Paul should write and record all future albums in Amsterdam.

* If you were like me, you stopped Jet at the second lady sufferaJET.

South Broad Street Hike

Last week or so, I was at an afternoon ballgame and was meeting Maureen in town later that night for a dinner and play. I had 90 minutes between the game and meeting my wife, I so hiked up Broad Street which would take about an hour, giving me 30 minutes to chill out in Rittenhouse Square.

Street hiking is a hobby of mine that I really enjoy. South Broad is one of Philadelphia's main streets and is the backbone of South Philly. I've been in a car on South Broad quite a few times, but haven't really walked much of it, until a week or so ago.

The best way to see anything is on foot. Click below to see some of what I saw. My various thoughts are in the captions.

Conclusion: South Broad is rather strange. It's very South Philly but has pretty much none of the landmarks that have made South Philly so legendary and cool. It's a neat walk, but most of the other number streets to the east would probably be more interesting.

The pictures, with captions, are here.

Reading the Dame Part4b: The second half of the 1950s

Reading the Dame Part4b: The second half of the 1950s

This a continuation of my series of posts about my project to read all 80 somethin

g Agatha Christie mystery books in order of publication (more or less). As usual, this is not just summaries of Christie’s work but my middle-aged musings inspired by reading (or in so

me cases re-reading) these books.

The other parts of the series:
Reading th Dame Part 1: The 1920s
Reading the Dame Part 2a: The 1930s
Reading the Dame Part 2b: The 1930s continued
Reading the Dame Part 3a: The 1940s
Reading the Dame Part3b: The second half of the 1940s
Reading the Dame Part4a: The first half of the 1950s

There are only 5 books in the segment. She has downshifted to publishing just one book a year, a frequency she will keep up until her death, which still almost 20 years way. For this segment she is between the ages of 65 and 69.

As usual my text for each book will discuss the book itself as well as other observations and memories about the book that are not necessarily related to the story.


1955 Hickory Dickory Death
As I read the first page, I felt I had read this one before. Looking at my note inside the front cover, I see I read it back in May 2005, almost exactly 6 years ago, just a few months before my 40th bir

thday. In May of 2005, Maureen and I were living on Passmore Street. I had been working at the Grey Lodge for 11 years and was still taking the el to/from a part time job two days a week. It’s interesting to think about how some things have changed and others have remained the same for me in these 6 years.

Thinking back after reading just the first two pages, I am recallin

g the story and some of the characters. I recall liking this book. It will be interesting to see how I feel after reading this one again.

This is a neat one. It takes place in a hostel for students, many of them foreign. The characters are very well drawn and the plot is very well woven. Having now read this three times, I still have a high opinion of it. Christie has gotten much nicer in her old age. Whereas in the 1920s, the characters would have mildly offensive stereotypes, here the foreign characters are pretty respectfully done.

She focuses again on young people here as she did 3 years earlier in Murder with Mirrors. The young folks here like to go on hitchhiking trips with nothing more than can be kept in a rucksack. Quite a change from her early works, where everyone traveled with heavy luggage.


1956 Dead Man's Folly
I recall reading this one while in hi

gh school and determining that a folly was a gazebo sort of structure. In this one Poirot is called down to a country estate by mystery writer Mrs. Oliver, a recurring c

haracter. With her woman’s intuition, she suspects something is wrong, and it indeed it is. Mrs. Oliver’s husband has yet to mentioned. All we know is she eats apples, writes mysteries, and changes her hair style a lot. This continues the trend of her reoccurring characters being underdeveloped.

Once again set on an English estate. This estate had been bought by a wealthy man and restored its pre-war glory more or less. The former lady of the estate has been reduced to living in the lodge by the front gate.

Young folks, international students with rucksacks again play a part. The mystery is well constructed and had me guessing right up to the end.


1957 What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
I am almost through this one with Miss Marple. I have only the last chapter let to read and I still can’t figure it out totally. I have a good hunch as to who the murder is, but no motive for the original murder.

She returns to the English country estate again but with a 1950s high taxation twist. This time, the estate is surrounded by a city that has grown up all around it. It’s semi-dilapidated, with no butler, no house maid, just two village women who came in part time, one ancient gardener, and a spi

nster daughter to act as housekeeper.

Well developed characters and a well constructed ending that had me guessing until the end.


1958 Ordeal by Innocence
A rich woman was murdered. One of her five adopted children was convicted of the crime. He died in jail before he could be cleared of the murder even evidence finally comes out 2 years later. Everything was settled but now everyone is under suspicion again. And with the trail cold, they may all remain suspect forever. Christie remains at the top of her game on this one. . A good number of well developed characters. A plot with a very satisfactory ending. As with many Christie stories there is a happy romantic ending, except in this case three happy romantic endings.

This is neither a Poirot nor a Maple mystery.


1959 Cat Among the Pigeons
I recall reading this one in June of 1982. I was an 8th grader about to graduate, about to put 8 years of St. Jerome’s grade school behind me. It was the final week, classes were done, exams were done. School that week was a leisurely limbo with lots of downtime for reading. Besides my personal memories (which may or may not be accurate), all I remember of this book as I write this before re-reading it is the title and that Poirot is in it.

Now that I’ve read it, turns out I did only remember the title. Maybe I started reading it when I was 13 but got bored and didn’t finish it. At 45, it easily held my attention. As I look back on 40 years of Christie books read over the last 22 months, it’s amazing how many I remember. I would have thought they would start to run into each other.

Christie had mentioned people listening to the radio several times over the years, but this is the first time television gets a mention. She even mentions it twice. I was wondering when this ubiquitous device would become ubiquitous in a Christie story.

I have read 63 of 79 books. Onto the 1960s.