Pointless Announcements

been off the site for a couple weeks. what did i miss?

 

7 out of 12, and missed the cow.

 

Had four right, but they were all complete guesswork, so statistically that was not that bad. The most I have seen of D.C. is on television shows or films that use it as a backdrop. Great photos, always interesting to get these glimpses of the past.

 

DC is building a new line of street cars....or maybe not. The new mayor is not a supporter.

DC Streetcar | A Program of District Department of Transportation

The first line along H street, NE is finished but has yet to pass a safety test. The big line is to go from Union Station to Georgetown.

 

Home again after a long weekend. Sandy wanted to go to the casino, I don't gamble, however I went happily to encourage her. after 3 hours she didn't quite break even and we left. I bought her dinner to celebrate.

 

Try explaining that to certain politicians in Toronto. Our streetcars are excellent, but to have them tell it, they are a scourge that is killing the city.

Myopic idiots.

 

From episode 98 of the Goon Show
Ned Seagoon wants to boards a vessel with Major Bloodnok in command
Bloodnok: Full speed ahead
Seagoon: We have money!
Bloodnok <Ships comes to a screeching halt> Gives us your hands dear lads...
I must first examine your documents
Seagoon: Mine are in this wallet
Bloodnok: Allow me to see them...47,48,49,50 pounds. Yes these papers appear to be in order.
Seagoon: Major, are you responsible for the berths in this ship?
Bloodnok: Not all of them, dear boy.

 

I love them. If I'm in PDX and plan to only visit the city I don't even rent a car anymore. Right from the airport to pretty much anywhere. OK, maybe a bus ride here and there. But really the street cars take you to within walking distance of a lot of great places.

Now if Salem's Cherriots Buses would just make themselves a little more user friendly and make getting out to the airport not such a nightmare I could visit Oregon and never need to drive.

 

The entire plot of Roger Rabbit was based on real events that happened across the country.
Towns that had working trolley systems had them bought out or the politicians were bought out by the car companies.
LA was just the most heinous example.

 

You know it is bad when they can use the judge's speech at the end about fast freely moving traffic on interstates as a very effective joke.

 

The Toronto streetcars aren't going anywhere soon. They just invested a few 100 million on new low floor streetcars. They look great. I can't wait to try one.

 

Some of y'all are lucky. For decades the developers here in houston fought, with great success, to keep our public transportation system (Metro) in the dark ages; they wanted people to move out to the suburbs. I'm pretty that their efforts were supported by the automobile dealerships (sales), insurance companies (automobile & home policies), financial institutions (loans), & the oil companies.

One of our former mayors, Jim McConn (a very appropriate name), was infamous for his cronyism and assdragging when it came to Metro. He loved to commission studies rather than take action. One of his "brilliant" ideas in response to the unreliability/frequent breakdowns of Metro's aging bus fleet was to buy more buses.......used buses from San Antonio. SA didn't have the oil money that Houston did at the time, their buses were even more ancient than ours.

McConn artist was also responsible for delaying cable TV in Houston, and making it very expensive. He made sure that it had to go through local distributors, and not surprisingly the licenses were sold to his friends & supporters.

 

Have I mentioned that I hate Windows 8? Because if I haven't let me just say I fucking loathe this POS OS.