Also Ran Movie Number One

This is the final movie selection on the Also Ran list as it is number one.  It has to be Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb!  It was the Stanley Kubrick movie that was not only funny but very, very chilling.  We seem to have moved away from the Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) era we shared with the Russians, but today we're perhaps moving into a place where our protagonists don't care if they do meet Allah prematurely.  I'm sure everyone who has seen this movie will remember Slim Pickens riding the nuke down to its target and inevitable destruction.  One of those scenes that is never forgotten.  Peter Sellars plays the parts of three people in this - President Muffley, the Wing Commander, and also the scary Dr Strangelove himself.  Next week we start a series of my favorite books - stay tuned!

Thoughts on January 10th

January 10th has always been an important day for us.  It was the birthday of both my mother and also my mother-in-law.  They are now both deseased, but the date is also significant for another reason.  Since a couple of weeks before the winter solstice (Dec 21st) the days have been annoying short.  But on Jan 10th there is the very first glimmer of change.  Sunsets begin to get progressively later - by just a minute to begin with.  But now they are ten minutes later each day and soon it will be fifteen.  One thing I don't understand is that sunrise takes about two weeks to make any alteration in it's arrival and stubbornly sticks on 7:00 a.m.  It's creeping earlier by a minute each day now however.
If you want to find out the times for sunrise and sunset and see the graduations in your area, go to this site and type in your city http://www.sunrisesunset.com/predefined.asp

T.S.A.S.

We've recently had to endure an extreme case of T.S.A.S.  Our main bathroom sits on the outside of the house, which is quite old, and it has no central heating, apart from a sort of light/fan/heater thingy in the ceiling.  Therefore it is rather cold until the fan heats things up.  No matter, for the last six years we have had a Toto Japanese toilet and this has an electrically heated seat along with a number of other little gizmo's.  We have rather hard water and it's little bidet jets had become bunged up.  It had to go away for repair.  Hence the immediate effect of T.S.A.S. Which is of course, Toilet Seat Avoidance Syndrome; and particularly with the distaff side of the family it was quite severe. 

This is not mine, it is one in Japan, where they have a remote control on the wall.

During its absence - about a week - I had artfully installed a standard replacement seat and carted the Toto off to the local distributor and service center.  We suffered immediately from the syndrome and avoided the coldest room in the house as much as possible.  Along with the quality of their products, Toto's service was excellent.  I called by to collect our old friend, who had been given an upgrade and whose warm waters now flowed not only freely but with additional vigor.  Furthermore the heated seat caused the T.S.A.S. to disappear instantly.  If you are unfamiliar with this product, I can only tell you it will change your life in many ways.  Here is the link to see how it all works. http://www.performancetoilets.com/s/toto-washlets.html?wmh_source=blog&wmh_medium=seo&wmh_campaign=toto+washlet&wmh_content=shop+washlets

Sunday's Column - Suburbia

Sunday's column is about the joys of suburbia.  Living now as I do in what might be called "the country" even though it's way up in the air, I do enjoy the odd trip to the Flatlands down below.  Also as my family has moved to the city of Glendale, I have even more reason to go down there.  It's a nice change.

Glendale is a fairly new "city" although it's also a part of that great suburban sprawl that floats around the seriously big city of Los Angeles.  But it's very nice to go there and enjoy a little of the sophistication that comes with multi-storied car parks and expensive restaurants.

The City of Pasadena is of course, much older and even historic - this is City Hall.  The point is that with the opening of the 210 freeway it is now so much easier to get to these fine places and I look forward to my next trip down there.  You can read the entire column as www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels

Rocking Chair

We looked at the superstition of walking under ladders the other day.  Well here is another one, but only in Ireland.  It seems that there you never leave a rocking chair moving, or it means very bad luck.  The superstition is that an empty chair is a place for the dead to settle and if it's empty and rocking it becomes even more attractive.  Isn't it odd that the superstitions are regional?  A week or so back I mentioned the oddity of black cats being unlucky in America while they are considered the reverse in England.  Many years ago newly wed couples used to arrange to have a black cat walk in front of them as they left the church.  It must all be very confusing for the cats!

Music Track - Stern

One of my favorite pieces of music if the 3rd violin concerto of Mozart.  Particularly the 3rd and final movement.  Here is it played by Isaak Stern.  The best part is around 3:20 of this 6:38 piece.  As they say - Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kflCBsO5C_c

Using the Blog

The use of the blog has gone up quite a lot recently which only proves that people have far too much time on their hands!!!  I began this in the summer of 2010, and I have written 600 separate posts.  I had no idea I had so much nonsense in me!  For people new to it all there is a very efficient archive system if you want to see what I've written about any particular subject.  If you go the the very bottom, there is a space to type in a subject and then hit search.  The results will be displayed at the top of the blog.  One shortfall is that all the once-a-week Right Tracks, and Tirades are gone forever as they are not saved by the system.  It's a shame really as there were some good ones!
One other small point, for those of you reading the blog on a smart phone.  If you scroll down to the bottom you are given the option of choosing to read it in in the full Web format.  This will give you much more access rather than the shortened version.
For those of you frustrated with not being able to post comments and see the results, Blogger make this quite difficult as they are anxious to protect us blog types from seething comments.  Therefore I have put an email hot link under my profile section for you to contact me directly, with any suggestions or criticisms.