Charlie

I was one of the handful of spectators who watched Taylor's teenage debut at Indian Wells in the qualifying round at the 2015 tournament. I was with another tennis fanatic, and when we saw his name on the program, we asked one another, "Who is he?" Now everyone who follows tennis knows who he is.

The two vehicles on which I put the most miles were both gas-fueled Mercedes (90K and 113K miles). Surprisingly, although regular servicing was pricey, I never had to do any expensive repairs on the engines during the 9 years I had the first and the 12 years I had the second. The price of a new battery would make me hesitate to keep any EV for a very long time.

There is no easy fix for this problem. Cutting the gas tax eliminates a lot of money that has been budgeted for upkeep of the road system, which then has to be found somewhere else. Rebates give the same amount of money to everyone, regardless of how much gas they use (including none at all), but does not give money to companies, organizations and public transport systems that depend on gas-fueled vehicles. And they still don't address the problem that people are urged to switch to EVs, but their owners pay nothing for the upkeep of the roads they use in exactly the same way as drivers with gas-fueled vehicles.

I just filled my car with regular at my local station in Palm Springs: $5.99/gal.

I do stop often on a 400-500 mile drive, but not necessarily at a place where it will be quick and easy to charge an EV--maybe in the future, but not now in the Sierras or west Texas, places where I commonly travel, where it is not that hard to find gas.

For a number of years, we have had two cars, one suitable for long trips (most of our vacation travel in the US is by car) and one mostly for daily driving around town. This made sense when we both drove, and often went separate ways. Now that my spouse can no longer drive, it doesn't make sense to have two cars, so when the lease on the daily driver (a Kia Soul) expires at end of this year, we are going to become a one car family. The problem is that our other car is a Mercedes SUV, which uses premium gas and a lot of it. What we need is a car that is large enough and comfortable enough for long days on the road (sometimes 400-500 miles) with bulky luggage, but isn't a gas-guzzler. Until someone makes an EV with much more range than any of them have now, I don't see that as an option. At the moment I am leaning toward a Hybrid SUV, like a Toyota Highlander or a Honda CR-V, because we have owned Priuses in the past, and they have some of the plusses of both EVs and regular gas engines.

Whether you like or dislike DST depends largely on your own schedule. I get up early and go to bed early, and do very little outside after 5pm, so I am happy to have Standard Time all year round. It is a nuisance to have to reset my internal clock twice a year.

That looks like homemade gym equipment in a military camp in south Asia.

Happy 100th birthday, Jack!

I just used the Map Me function, and realized that he lives in a small gated community where I used to play tennis fairly often with a friend who lived there, which is probably why he looks familiar to me. Unfortunately, the friend is now deceased, so I can't inquire.

On my great-grandfather's application for naturalization as a US citizen, it said that he was renouncing his allegiance to the King of Bavaria.

I still prefer #12, but if we have to have color, I prefer #13. BTW, #21 says "Company of Man"

Unlike Lucky, I am not a fan of the rainbow colors, which I think have become over-used. There are several here that I like, but I am particularly partial to the two outlined figures in front of the outlined urban skyline.

This reminds me of the time we threw a "see-through shirt" party in 1969, when that was a new fashion item. One of the guests arrived carrying a bag, went into the bedroom, and emerged wearing a see-through shirt and matching see-through pants! He was the hit of the evening.

I wonder why he would post that photo of him driving with his eyes closed (?)

I was going through a box of old photos the other day, and found one of my father taken 115 years ago. I recognized him easily, even though he was only a year old.

I am going to guess that we will hit the next million posts on April 11th at 1:00 AM ET.

One of the computer updates years ago automatically assigned anyone who had joined before a certain date (I think it was something like Jan 1, 2000) a default "join date" of Dec. 31, 1969; several of us real old-timers have that as our join date.

I do remember that Hooboy was always having problems with the site, even storing a lot of information on a laptop once and then losing it somewhere on a trip. I have no problem with choosing a somewhat arbitrary date that those in charge now can agree upon as a starting point, since Hooboy and Bill are no longer available to consult.

PS may be small in population, but it is pretty spread out. I used to live in Center City Philadelphia, where I could walk to almost any of the places I went regularly, and could hop a bus or subway to almost everything else, from work to stores to restaurants to theaters to hospitals. In PS there is NOTHING I can walk to easily from my house--it's 4 miles roundtrip to the closest commerce of any kind, and most of the places at which I do any kind of regular chores or shopping are 6-12 miles roundtrip. The nearest shopping mall is 30 miles roundtrip. Public transit is not a viable option. Almost every time I leave home to do something outside my immediate neighborhood, it is by car.

Wasn't he actually a member here at one time?

Charles Entenmann was a businessman, not a chef who created the recipes. I'll bet he couldn't even bake a batch of cookies. That said, I still buy Entenmann's products when I want donuts or coffee cake, because I know exactly what I am getting.

I am wondering how you came up with May 17, 2001, as the date of the first post. I know from my own daily journals that I was posting here well before that date; e.g., from my journal on Dec. 14, 2000: "I wasted a lot of time online, especially at the M4M message board...." I am fairly certain that Hooboy told me about the forum sometime in late 1999.

Von's (which is Safeway in other places) has their own gas station here in Palm Springs. If you are a regular Von's customer and have an account with them (I do much of my food shopping there), you get a discount on the gas price. I filled my car with premium last week, for $4.10/gal. That special probably won't last long.

My spouse and his brothers-- mother's family in this country since the 18th century-- always referred to their mother as "Mum." They also referred to their father as "Daddy," which struck me as strange for middle-aged straight men.