One of my favorite musical comedies was the 1986 remake of Little Shop of Horrors starring Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene with guest appearances by Bill Murrey, Jim Belushi, John Candy and Steve Martin at their zany best. This performance by Martin is a classic.

Here are the stragglers, news I didn’t get around to posting this week… I still can’t bring myself to call them “leftovers…”

Circuit City says  it plans to cut 3,400 employees. And it’s also outsourcing its internal IT department to IBM. IBM will provide a range of information technology services, including data center management, help desk operations, network management, desktop support and security administration. The agreement covers more than 600 Circuit City stores and 43,000 U.S. employees. …

Sandisk announced a 4GB version of its microSDHC card, a new High Capacity (HC) version of their microSD. Two Verizon Wireless V Cast handsets, the LG VX9400 and LG VX8700,  are already compatible with the new standard. According to SanDisk, it will hold 4,000 photos or 16 hours of video.  Look for it at Verizon Wireless in May for $129.99…

Apple, Dell and Sony  have been added to a lawsuit filed by nonprofit  Washington Research Foundation according to financial news network Bloomberg. The lawsuit claims they infringed on four patents dealing with wireless data between computers and other devices. Logitech, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Plantronics are also named to the suit. I feel their pain. When it rains, it pours, doesn’t it?…  

According to (unnamed) “people familiar with the matter,” Web advertising company Double Click is talking with several potential suitors, including Microsoft,  about a possible sale. Private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman acquired Double Click in 2005 for ~$1.1 billion and  has since sold off a number of divisions. They are seeking at least $2 billion… 

BMW has prevailed over Infiniti in a court battle over Nissan’s misuse of the letter “M” to describe its cars. BMW has been adding M badges to souped-up versions of its high-performance cars (think M3, the M5, M6 and other variants) since 1978. Infiniti, meanwhile, more recently registered M45 and M35 as trademarks for its middle range sedans and offered an M6 sport package for its lower-priced G35…

This comes from Dave via (I think) Denny Wilson. It’s a remake of the old Bob Dole image…

But I kid, I kid! (Hmmm)

Shannon sent this image of my youngest grandson, Connor, taken during their recent visit to a nursery in Loomis to enjoy our wonderful spring weather. She says it’s the nicest nursery she’s ever seen. Connor really enjoyed it, too!

I probably should title this post “Part 5 1/2” - it’s not really a full update on our ongoing renovation project.

As I suppose is fairly common in such undertakings, we’ve met with a couple snares. First, two of the three carpets we’ve selected are going to take around eight weeks to mill, far longer than we’d anticipated. Ouch!

And second, the painters have discovered that the paint isn’t sticking properly due, they suspect, to the former owner’s having improperly applied the original color. They’ll try resealing the affected walls today and then reapplying the new paint next week. We have our fingers crossed.

Dawn and I are still living in the upstairs guest bedroom, eating out a lot and unhappilty boarding our cats (except on weekends.) We know these things take time, and everyone is working hard, but we’ll be glad when it’s all over and we can resume our normal routines.

Meanwhile, Dawn snapped this image of Georgie, our silver shaded, straight-eared Scottish Fold cat, as he cautiously checked out some of the contractors’  tools and supplies the other day. He’ll be glad when things return to normal, too.

I got this the other day from Tim who works for Apple…

Have you ever dreamed of retiring to a sunny beachside shack in some peaceful Central or Latin American fishing village where you’d sip piña coladas and enjoy the fruits of your life’s labor in relative tranquility? I have and so have many of my friends. But now I’m rethinkingthe wisdom of  expatriating to Central America. 

Eric Volz (right in photo) took an assignment in Nicaragua, fell in love with the country and decided to stay. A surfer turned real-estate broker, he saw himself as a bridge between American baby boomers looking for beachside dream homes and local families of fishermen and laborers in the languid Pacific village of Managua. So the 27-year-old published a successful bilingual magazine called El Puente - literally, The Bridge.

But now he’s tumbled deep into Nicaragua’s cultural divide. He’s several weeks into a 30-year sentence for allegedly killing his former girlfriend, a ruling he says is ludicrous and he is appealing. Numerous eyewitnesses said he was in another town at the time, two hours away from the murder scene and in the company of several people who corroborate his whereabouts at the time of the murder. Yet despite a lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime, the sworn testimony of numerous witnesses who were with him that day, and based solely on the testimony of the admitted drug addict originally charged with the crime (and given immunity with charges dropped in exchange for his testimony against  Eric), a local judge declared Eric guilty and sentenced him to 30 years in a Nicaraguan prison.

If you study the case, presented on a well done website by some of Eric’s friends and appropriately titled “Friends of Eric Volz“ , you’ll realize that a grave miscarriage of justice has occurred and that this young American has been railroaded into a Nicaraguan prison for a crime he couldn’t even possibly have committed. Eric is seeking an appeal. You can help by going to the website, learning about his case, perhaps donating some money to help in his legal defense and, of equal importance, by contacting your elected officials and demanding that our government intervene on Eric’s behalf. Here are links to your congressional representatives:  Senators — Congresspersons

We sometimes forget that the legal systems of poorer countries often leave much to be desired. But when their inequities ensnarl an American, we have to get involved. So I urge you to dedicate the time to learn about Eric’s plight, then get involved - and stay involved - until justice is served.

The video above says a lot, but you need to read the well chronicled case history on the website to fully grasp how egregious the judge’s ruling is and how we cannot allow this young American to languish away in Nicaraguan prison, the victim of a biased and/or corrupt legal system. Imagine yourself in Eric’s shoes. Do your part. Help him receive the justice he deserves.

Thanks Lori for bringing this to my attention!

I will always remember my first driving lesson with a measure of fondness. We lived in a tract house in then newly developed Hicksville (don’t laugh) on New York’s Long Island. My father was an airline pilot flying internationally for Pan American World Airways, long before its demise. He’d grown up during the depression, left home in Virginia to attend college in California, pursued his dream of learning to fly and, as a recently graduated cadet from the school’s aeronautical engineering program, joined the Army Air Forces as a pilot. He flew B-29s during WWII and, when PanAm was aggressively recruiting military pilots for their growing airline, he signed on.

While flying for PanAm, he remained active in the Air Force Reserves. Some of my fondest memories are of  him taking me out to Mitchell AFB  for an air show or to swim in the base officers’ pool while he was on duty. I was even allowed to try my hand in a Link Trainer, a flight simulator used in flight training to give pilots experience under a variety of controlled but potentially dangerous situations without leaving the ground. I remember “crashing and burning” quickly and being terribly embarrassed despite the flight trainer telling me how well I’d done for such a young pilot. I think I was around 8 years old.

Well, it was around that time - 1951 - that my father bought a new Nash Healey. It was like nothing I’d ever seen - a two-seat roadster sports car - and I loved it! Pale yellow with tan leather seats, it had a long hood, whitewall tires, and was truly a sight to behold! It drew lots of attention, of course, since apparently no one else had seen anything like it either. It was the forerunner of the 1953 Corvette and the 1955 Thunderbird.

Once, when we’d taken the Healey to Jones Beach to race it around the huge parking lot (it must have been off-season - there were few other cars) I got my first experience with speed. Mom was in the right seat and I was seated in the middle when Dad decided to see how fast the Healey would go. Mom was terrified and squeezed my leg so hard I squealed. But I was thrilled, as I was with pretty much anything Dad did that included me. I think the experience sparked my love of fast cars and, for that matter, all things fast. Anyway, we parked the car and walked down to the beach and,  when we returned, found the little car surrounded by curious gawkers who, much to Dad’s consternation, had lifted the hood to check out the engine.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the Nash Healey, it was a limited production sports car produced for only a few years (1951-53, ‘54 if you include a subsequent hard top version) by Nash Motors (which in 1954 became a division of American Motors Corporation.) Donald Healey, managing director of the Donald Healey Motor Company of Warwick, England, had built a car using a Nash Ambassador engine and drive line which he entered in the 24-hour LeMans endurance race in July, 1950. So well did the roadster perform in the French race (finishing fourth) that Nash decided to contract for a limited number of the sports model.

For the new production Nash Healey, the high-compression, 6-cylinder Nash Ambassador engine was fitted with an aluminum head and dual carburetors. Overdrive was standard. The prototype, which had an aluminum body built by the Healey company, was shown publicly for the first time at the Paris Automobile Show in early fall of 1950.

Production began in December, 1950. During that month, 36 models were built. An additional 68 were produced in January, February and March of 1951 making a total of 104 Healey-bodied Nash Healey two-door roadster convertibles. None were produced from April, 1951 until January, 1952, when an entirely new roadster body was created by Pinin Farina of Turin, Italy. A total of 150 of the redesigned body models were produced in Italy.

The Healey was expensive to build (and buy - $3,982.00 delivered, a bundle in 1951) because of all the shipping involved. The Nash engines and other mechanical components were shipped from the U.S. to Britain. The body was brought from Italy to Britain where Healey assembled all the parts into complete cars. Finished Healeys were then shipped for sale in the U.S. Perhaps for that reason, Nash considered the car a “loss leader” of sorts. It attracted buyers to the showrooms with its exciting appearance and impressive racing credentials, where most buyers gained control of their senses and bought the more sedate and family oriented Ambassador.

But not my father. He was one of the relative few (remember, he was an airline pilot) who bought this piece of history, the first true sports car built in the U.S. in twenty years! The Healey was often compared quite favorably to the Jaguar XK120 and deservedly so. So I can truthfully say that my addictions to sports cars and speed are entirely genetic.

And that brings me back (via the long way - sorry) to my very first driving lesson. It was, as you may have guessed, in my father’s shiny, new ‘51 Nash Healey when I was about 8 years old. I sat in the driver’s seat with my dad to my right. From his position he operated the pedals while I steered. We drove up and down North Drive and, quite intentionally I suspect, Dad waved nonchalantly to our neighbors and many of my friends, all of whom imagined I was actually driving. I was quite the celebrity for several days after and will always remember that very first driving lesson - and my father’s ‘51 Nash Healey - with fondness.  

The world’s largest passenger airplane, the Airbus A380, made a near perfect landing at Los Angeles International Airport Monday. Hundreds of spectators lined up to see the plane,  arriving non-stop from France, land and roll out on the northernmost runway of LAX. A second A380 had landed just moments earlier at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport after its non-stop flight from Frankfurt, Germany. 

The landings were part of a PR move on the part of Airbus officials who so far haven’t landed any orders for the behemoth A380 from U.S. carriers.  Perhaps they wanted to prove that the monstrous eight-story double-decker, with a wingspan the length of a football field and described by some as a sperm whale with wings, could actually fly.

But LAX, who in recent years has lost market share to competing terminals,  is spending billions in upgrades, some of which are designed specifically for the A380. For example, the southern-most runway has been closed for an entire year while construction crews completely remove it and build a new one just 55 feet further south. The reason? The A380’s wingspan is 50 feet greater than the 747. It’s a big bet on an airplane that may not be as successful as the competing Boeing product. But if Los Angeles wants to remain competitive, they’ve got to spend money to make money.

As it stands now, there are no orders for the cargo version of the A380, and only 150 or so orders for the passenger version, none from U.S. airlines, presumably due to the A380’s history of wiring problems, weight issues (how very American), and long delays.

But the airplane is certainly impressive; in single class configuration it can carry as many as 853 passengers. Of course, I’m not aware of any airline interested in using that configuration. Launch customer Singapore Airlines settled on a three-class 485-seat configuration and Quantas a 500-seat arrangement. With those numbers, the advantage over the 747 is far lower than it initially appeared.

Still, it’s an impressive airplane, even more so because of the multi-national conglomeration which overcame the inefficiencies of administrative overhead and diverse geography to build the thing in the first place.

Airbus claims the A380 will yield a 35 per cent savings in per passenger operating costs while being faster and quieter than competing aircraft. It remains to be seen whether some of that will translate into lower air fares.

Some of you have asked about our ongoing home renovation project. Is it moving along on schedule? Are we going crazy? Are we going broke?

The answer is yes, the project is still plodding along, perhaps a a little behind schedule, and hasn’t yet driven us bonkers. Oh, we have our moments all right, and stress does raise its ugly head from time to time. But all in all, we’re managing pretty well. Is the project driving us to the poor house? Let’s hope not!

The demolition phase of the project went rather quickly. I guess it’s easier to tear out and break things than to build them. Anyway, we’ve been walking on bare wood floors for weeks while the contractor and his work crew have skimmed and refinished the walls in preparation for repainting.

Much effort and time went into selecting new paint colors and carpets. The carpeting will require more time to mill than originally anticipated, so we may have a delay on the horizon. Three carpets have been selected: one for most areas of the home, a second for the stairway, upstairs landing and guest suite, and a third for the gym.

The painters have been busy since last Thursday. All the interior doors had been removed and staggered in the family room where they’ve received multiple coats of white paint. They were rehung this week and the hardware reinstalled. The moulding and trim have been painted and the walls are scheduled to receive their first coat today or Monday. 

Are Dawn and I still speaking? Of course!

It’s time again to file our income tax returns. Comes around every year and I’m never ready for it. If I’ve calculated properly during the year, I’ll owe about a dollar. We’ll see…

Here’s an unusual art form submitted by Adam. I know you’ve all seen at least a couple of these and, yes, they qualify as an art form. Twenty have apparently been posted on Flickr by roving photographers who search them out for sport. Some are pretty interesting. See what you think.

This very oldie comes from Michael who dared me to post it…

A man walks into a drug store with his 13-year old son. As they pass the condom display, the boy asks, “What are these, Dad?”

The man matter-of-factly replies, “Those are called condoms, Son. Men use them to have safe sex.”

“Oh, I see,” replies the boys pensively. “Yes, I’ve heard of them in Health class at school.” He looks over the display and picks up a package of 3 and asks, “Why are there 3 in this package?”

The Dad replies, “Those are for high school boys. One for Friday, one for Saturday, and one for Sunday.”

“Cool!” says the boy. He notices a 6 pack and asks, “Then who are these for?”

“Those are for college boys,” the dad answers. “Two for Friday, two for Saturday, and two for Sunday.”

“WOW!” exclaims the boy. “Then who uses these?” he asks, picking up a 12 pack.

With a sigh, the dad replies, “Those are for married men, Son. One for January, one for February, one for March…”