UC#1
Back when I was considerably smaller than I am now, my dad set up an electric train for me and my sibs. Our house had only a partial basement – for the front half of the house it was only partially excavated leaving a space big enough for kids to play in. Dad took sheets of ¾” plywood and made a floor which would double as a base for our model train tracks.
We screwed down the tracks and had a great time running our locomotive, box car, tank car, passenger car and caboose around the track for hours on end.
This was the old 3-rail system with a variable transformer for the speed control. I can still remember the smell of the motor brushes and oil.
Fast-forward about xxx years and I am cleaning out boxes of “stuff” that has accumulated over the years. I scanned about 1000 old photos and at the bottom of the box I found a collection of about 50 commemorative stamp packages, mostly Canadian but a few from the USA and UK. I tried and tried, but I could not remember ever buying these.
Now, to be clear, I did buy stamps when I was traveling. I have a collection of stamps that relate to space travel and I would add to it whenever I encountered any kind of gift shop that happened to have relevant stamps. But I am quite certain I never bought commemorative stamps of the Group of Seven or the USA Seasons series.
Finally it dawned on me, my sister must have packed them in with my stuff after my mother passed. Yes! These are exactly the kind of stamps she would collect.
So, what to do? I don’t want to keep them so I might as well put them up for sale. Well, to do that, I first have to catalog them. So back to the scanner, just like with the old photos.
Anyway, part of the collection are the locomotive sets that I attached to this email which got me thinking about that 3 rail model train set.
How’s that for going full circle?
UC#3: Choo Choo semi-sequitur with Canadian connection
My faulty memory provided this story and I’ll let UC#4’s faulty memory contribute, embellish or correct the story. As is normal on US military bases, there is a ‘thrift store’ where military families shipping out can sell stuff on consignment and soldiers moving in can buy stuff – think of window A/C’s, 120-240 transformers, kids bikes etc. this is due to limited amount of moving fees government would pay for . In Massachusetts (circa 1965), our folks bought us a used O scale (not the smaller HO scale) Lionel train set including a double handle transformer like below. Serious metal locomotives and cars, including someway you could put a tablet into the exhaust stack of the locomotive to produce smoke. At some point in our travels, the folks sold the set at a thrift store. I’m sure it’s worth lots of money today.
Now for Canadian connection, Neil Young is a model train fanatic (has several patents) and purchased the Lionel Company when it was going bankrupt.
Neal Young Connection
World’s Largest Model Train
There appears to be a healthy competition taking place. A future BLOTT will explore this further.
Another perfect job:
UC#4
Not nearly as productive or interesting as my peers. The highlight:
This morning, UC#4 was informed by Sally the Intern that the toilet seat had suffered a catastrophic degradation.
After performing a thorough failure analysis, I was able to conclude that thru a combination of tectonic forces, the Cornelius effect, quantum entanglement, and sun spot activity, the toilet seat had indeed experienced a calamitous, cataclysmic, disastrous, fatal, ruinous, and tragic non-fulfillment of essential duties.
As acting facilities manager of WLBOTT corporate, I sprung into action. By summoning the forces of the Internet, global supply chains, and late state capitalism, we will have the following item at our central Texas location by 3:00pm today. Installation is scheduled for the second week in December.
[update: ordered 6:57am, delivered 11:29am. Installation still scheduled for mid-December]
UC#4: Arts and Sausage
Currently reading:
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (novel). Published 2020. (24%)
One sentence synopsis: We are doomed.
“The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem (author of Motherless Brooklyn)
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara, non-fiction. (19%)
One sentence synopsis: Slavery exists, and directly benefits the richest and most powerful members of the first-world.
“Cobalt Red is a riveting, eye-opening, terribly important book that sheds light on a vast ongoing catastrophe. Everyone who uses a smartphone, an electric vehicle, or anything else powered by rechargeable batteries needs to read what Siddharth Kara has uncovered.” ― Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air
Recently viewed:
Wit (Emma Thompson, 2001. Currently available on HBO Max) (IMDB)
Profoundly sad and touching. Lots to think about. Multi-layered. Connection to John Donne’s poem Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud
The Fall of the House of Usher (Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Mary McDonnell. 2023. Available on Netflix) (IMDB)
An 8 episode series about greed, ambition, arrogance, opportunism…. Lots of tie-in’s with Poe’s work, with a backdrop of beautiful poetry, intense special effects, social satire, flawed (but redemptive?) human beings, a really scary chimpanzee, a really scary black cat, a really scary raven, and a lot of be-careful-what-you-wish-for.
WLBOTT Ministry of Vice and Virtue (MV&V) warning: this is a really crude, gory, f-bomb-filled series.
Semi-Sequitur: Mood Ring Stamps
Semi-Sequitur: Arts and Sausage
