I want to take the Empire Builder to Chicago sometime but I just like being on trains. The problem is you chew up so much of your time just on the traveling.
Really going to consider not getting on a plane ever again except for emergencies after covid though.
― silby, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 19:28 (four years ago) link
Bellingham is cool
1/2 the journey would be monotonous prairie
you're allowed to read a book and listen to music as well as looking out the window
― donald failson (sic), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 19:31 (four years ago) link
I can do that at home, for free tho!
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 19:33 (four years ago) link
I've just done so many long drives starting from IL that I never need to see any of those prairie states ever again. Let's get rid of them.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 19:34 (four years ago) link
Trains have bars
That is part of why trains are great.
You can walk around and go sit someplace else. Trains>planes, if you have time
― stone cold jane austen (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 19:39 (four years ago) link
My own vexingly interminable drive is Nebraska across I-80. Once you get past Lincoln, and until you’re almost to Denver once you’re actually in Colorado, it just... keeps going. The western part has some rocks, I guess.
― mh, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:15 (four years ago) link
The popularly cited example of a reasonable free speech restriction on "shouting 'fire' in a crowded theatre" comes from a court decision suppressing a socialist's right to peacefully distribute pamphlets that opposed the draft in WW1, a decision that was since overturned: https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/its-time-to-stop-using-the-fire-in-a-crowded-theater-quote/264449/
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:16 (four years ago) link
and Eugene and Vancouver and the other Vancouver and Bellingham and Tukwila and Salem and Centralia etc etc
Honest q: with the exception of the Canadian Vancouver, why would you go to any of these towns if you already live in seattle? iirc the reason you leave town in the PNW is to go to the coast, forest, or mountains. I might have accepted Astoria; Bend is hella creepy imo.
― dip to dup (rob), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:24 (four years ago) link
Ah I seemed to have missed you were talking strictly about train stops
― dip to dup (rob), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:25 (four years ago) link
I would still strongly recommend silby not pay money to take the train to Eugene
― dip to dup (rob), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:26 (four years ago) link
I would routinely drive 10 hours across Michigan to visit my girlfriend while we were in college; later we drove from to DC and it was 10 hours in Michigan the first day, and 10 through MI/OH/PA/MD/VA the second one.
When we lived in WA we would drive to MI every other summer; it was 2000 miles and took 3 days and the biggest city we went through was about 110,000 people. The western US is HUGE and EMPTY and North Dakota in particular can fuck right off.
― joygoat, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:36 (four years ago) link
I have some friends in Saskatchewan who have tried to talk me into driving to visit them
I'm pretty sure once I were to get past Minneapolis, the only city of note is Fargo, and then eight hours of pretty much nothing
― mh, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:43 (four years ago) link
huh, I just learned there's a town in North Dakota along the Canada border that is literally called "Portal" with "North Portal" on the other side in Canada
― mh, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 20:45 (four years ago) link
Nebraska is the fucking worst. Why so long east to west? Why so much stench of cow shit? Why such shitty dining options?
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 21:07 (four years ago) link
then you finally get to Colorado and surprise surprise the eastern 3rd of the state is just Western Nebraska
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 21:10 (four years ago) link
Off topic:
I just learned that the renowned baseball player Gary Carter coined the term "F-bomb" in 1988. I'm kind of intrigued by celebrity coinages, another example being Justin Timberlake and "wardrobe malfunction."
― Josefa, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 21:12 (four years ago) link
when i lived in minneapolis i was gonna drive up and see the (first) jets in their final season in winnipeg -- it's right next door, right? -- until it occurred to me that eight hours each way through the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter wasn't a great idea
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 22:00 (four years ago) link
One time I idly thought I would take a trip to the West Coast to visit friends in Portland, Eugene, and San Francisco. At first glance it looks doable as a road trip, in the way a Richmond to Philly trip might be. Heck, why not just rent a car and...
omg holy shitsnacks it is nine. hundred. muthaflippin. miles. No thanks, I will take an airplane.
― stone cold jane austen (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 18:21 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
did this, and on to seattle
lovely spin
― steer calmer (darraghmac), Thursday, 23 April 2020 00:45 (four years ago) link
Ha, I once considered driving up to Thunder Bay so I could legally drink beer before I turned 21.
Even at 20½ years old, it didn't seem like it would be worth the effort.
― pplains, Thursday, 23 April 2020 01:25 (four years ago) link
sixmonths none the pitcher
― steer calmer (darraghmac), Thursday, 23 April 2020 01:50 (four years ago) link
Once you get past Brainerd, most of the drive to Winnipeg is pretty scenic!
― Dan I., Thursday, 30 April 2020 18:16 (four years ago) link
Oops, but that assumes you're going through the woods and lakes and not through the plains, nevermind
― Dan I., Thursday, 30 April 2020 18:18 (four years ago) link
The Dust Brothers produced MmmBop
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 30 April 2020 20:37 (four years ago) link
The Orb produced Higher Than The Sun
― brimstead, Thursday, 30 April 2020 20:46 (four years ago) link
In keeping with the spirit of the last couple of posts: that M People's Heather Small re-sang the Loleatta Holloway samples on Black Box's Ride On Time, I knew they were denied use of the original but didn't know it was her what did em
― or something, Thursday, 30 April 2020 20:59 (four years ago) link
The Orb produced the track four version of Higher Than The Sun, Weatherall and Hugoth produced the track 10 version
― donald failson (sic), Thursday, 30 April 2020 22:09 (four years ago) link
Paterson and who, though
― mh, Friday, 1 May 2020 04:21 (four years ago) link
Thrash
― donald failson (sic), Friday, 1 May 2020 08:22 (four years ago) link
I only recently learned that ICI is no longer a company.
― the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Sunday, 3 May 2020 07:45 (four years ago) link
This thread reminds me I only found out a few months ago that Dr Dre's "Still DRE" was written by Jay-Z... after loving this track for 20 years !
― AlXTC from Paris, Sunday, 3 May 2020 09:33 (four years ago) link
That the Pointer Sisters were actual sisters called Pointer. I don't know why I didn't imagine this to be the case. There's actually a lot I learned reading their Wikipedia page. They had a soft rock phase in the 70s!
― Alba, Sunday, 3 May 2020 10:06 (four years ago) link
― AlXTC from Paris, Sunday, 3 May 2020 10:33 (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
now I know this too
― Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Sunday, 3 May 2020 10:09 (four years ago) link
i thought it was like scott storch or something
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 3 May 2020 10:33 (four years ago) link
This isn't a newly discovered fact so much as a realisation of my own lack of attention to detail:
Since our oldest son was a child (he's now 20) we've been reading an illustrated book named Gorf's Pond to him and then his brother and sister and eventually his little cousins.It's a bit like The Ugly Duckling meets The Fly where lonely fish Gorf in his little pond is increasingly disturbed by the growth of lumps then limbs and by his tail falling off until he eventually realises (SPOILER) he's a frog.
After 20 years I just noticed last week that Gorf is Frog backwards.
https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781858543765-uk.jpg
― Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Sunday, 3 May 2020 11:14 (four years ago) link
xpostThe Piano riff is Torch's, yeah.And the lyrics are from Jay-Z. Which is kinda funny since it's all about bragging how he (Dre) is best in the game !
― AlXTC from Paris, Sunday, 3 May 2020 11:59 (four years ago) link
Also, the Pointer Sisters sang the famous pinball countdown song from Sesame Street
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Sunday, 3 May 2020 12:46 (four years ago) link
Wow.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Sunday, 3 May 2020 12:50 (four years ago) link
That pleases me greatly.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Sunday, 3 May 2020 12:55 (four years ago) link
Once you realize Dr Dre has never written lyrics, it’s fun to listen to individual songs and guess who the writer was. I mean, 90% of the time it’s one of the guest artists on the track, but not always
― mh, Sunday, 3 May 2020 14:31 (four years ago) link
Right, I didn't know that either!
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Sunday, 3 May 2020 14:51 (four years ago) link
That Satyajit Ray wrote young adult science fiction as well as directing films.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Shonku
― all things must pasteurize (Matt #2), Sunday, 3 May 2020 17:13 (four years ago) link
xposts The Pointer Sisters sang the most well-known number song from Sesame Street but there was another one that my fellow olds might remember which was sung by Grace Slick.
http://www.youtube.com/-WSHvbGM6oE
― Unparalleled Elegance (Old Lunch), Sunday, 3 May 2020 17:33 (four years ago) link
Up against the playground wall motherfuckers?
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Sunday, 3 May 2020 17:37 (four years ago) link
Guy Debord shot himself.
― the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 13:28 (four years ago) link
the ultimate spectacle
― silby, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 16:18 (four years ago) link
Once you realize Dr Dre has never written lyrics
As a teenager, I once rang the radio annoyed after the classic-rock-announcer-and-morning-TV-host-who-had-moved-to-the-youth-station back-announced Express Yourself with "Ice Cube there, out front of N.W.A." Ten years in broadcasting had apparently failed to impress upon him that (bracketed names) under a song title on the back of a record jacket meant writing credits, not a helpful explanation of who the lead singer on each song was. The Pinball Number Count got a 12" release on Ninja Tune in 2003, c/w the Larry Levan remix of C Is For Cookie:
https://imgur.com/a/YiyI5qw
― Elon's musk (sic), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 19:20 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/XL5OHnI.jpg
keith jarrett is a white dude
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 20:00 (four years ago) link
well I'll be damned
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 20:02 (four years ago) link
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/seinfeld/images/3/3b/Darryl.jpg/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20120415174020
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 20:03 (four years ago) link