26 November 2016
Sailing to Philadelphia
"I Am Jeremiah DixonI Am A Geordie BoyA Glass Of Wine With You, SirAnd The Ladies I'll EnjoyAll Durham And Northumberland Is Measured Up By My Own HandIt Was My Fate From BirthTo Make My Mark Upon The Earth..." So begins Mark Knopfler's song "Sailing to Philadelphia", his version of the story of Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, two Englishmen who traveled to the US to help settle a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in Colonial America. The line that Mason and Dixon surveyed between 1763 and 1767 is still a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming…
02 October 2016
The Longest Street In the World
At 1,178 miles, Yonge Street is claimed by many to be the World's longest street. However, it is broken up at various stages along the way, and so is not officially recognized as such. Instead, it seems the world's longest street is in Pará, northern Brazil and is 311 miles long (although there doesn't seem to be a name for it!). While we are talking of road records, the shortest street in the world is Ebenezer Place in Wick, Scotland – 6 ft 9 in long! Yonge Street is named after Sir George Yonge, a former British Secretary at War…
02 October 2016
And Now For Something Completely Different
Minneapolis is one of those places that has so many notable people that Wikipedia designates an entire page for them. Some might say Bob Dylan or Prince are the most notable people on the list, but I would say Terry Gilliam. This man was responsible for many a nightmare in my younger years, after watching his revolutionary (and often somewhat disturbing) animation slots on Monty Python. Minneapolis is part of a larger metropolitan area, like Dallas-Fort Worth, with it's 'Twin City' St Paul. St Paul is notable for being the birthplace of 'A Prairie Home Companion', the long-running radio show…
25 June 2016
The Biggest Little City in the World
Having been to Bakersfield many times, I was surprised to find that there is somewhere in the US that is less appealing to visit. That place is Reno, Nevada. Reno is like Las Vegas on steriods, if the steriods have utterly ruined your body and turned your genitals into miniature versions of what they once were. People go to Reno for various reasons: To gamble in the casinos and pretend they are in Las Vegas To go to conferences and pretend they are in a real city To go to Lake Tahoe (only 40 miles away) and save money on…
29 May 2016
Things to be careful when ordering #1
As an Englishman in the USA I have learned to be careful when ordering many food items. For example, go to any breakfast establishment and order tea and you will likely get iced tea. Ask for tea with milk and you may well get iced tea and a glass of the pale liquid produced by the mammary glands of cows. Care is also needed when ordering pies. A pie in the USA is a pastry crust containing a sweet filling, usually fruit (as well as local specialities such as pecan pie): For those who can't get enough calories in one…
05 January 2016
The Wild West Reopens
I saw my first "open-carrier" yesterday. It was on my way into Kroger. It looked a bit like this: Naturally, I didn't take a photo because he was armed and of course I have no idea if he was a good guy or bad guy. So the message had got out: As from 1st January 2016, Texas became the 45th state in the USA to allow "open carry". Yes, Texas, hub of the Western movies of the 60s is one of the last states to allow gun owners to carry their handguns in a holster on their hips or shoulders.…
31 December 2015
You Can't Get Slower Than A Firestone Fitter
Despite the technological advances that have happened here, there are a few things that are oddly old-fashioned and painfully inconvenient in the US. For example, transferring money between bank accounts is complicated and often involves mailing checks from bank to bank. Another example is having a tire fixed. In the UK this has long been a quick and easy process. Kwik Fit prides itself that "you can't get better than a Kwik Fit fitter": Go to a Kwik Fit for a tire replacement and you will be in and out in 15-20 minutes. Now try the same at Firestone. The…
21 October 2015
Back to the Future Day
Since July 5 2010, we have been led to believe that "today is the day that Marty McFly arrives when he travels to the future" (In 1989's Back to the Future Part II). Alissa Walker helpfully explains the background to that original mistake here. Anyway, it you won't believe it but today REALLY IS the day Marty McFly arrives in the future, or to put it another way, THE FUTURE IS HERE. Still a distinct lack of hoverboards as promised by the film, but one thing you can still find in North Houston is a DeLorean DMC-12, as seen in…
30 September 2015
Let's Be Careful Out There
Wise words from Sergeant Phil Esterhaus of 'Hill Street Blues'. The location for the exterior view of the Hill Street Police Station was Maxwell Street Precinct House shown above (it is now used by the University of Illinois Campus Police). One thing you don't need to worry about is drinking beer made from treated sewage, like these: These are from projects in Oregon and Wisconsin and were available to sample at the Water Environment Federation's annual conference in Chicago. Although they look official they are not yet commercially available. Someone has to convince the FDA and others that these are…
30 July 2015
Donkeys, Elephants and Russians
Former President William Howard Taft was the first President of the University Club, a private hotel and club on 16th Street, just a short walk from the White House: Right next door to the University Club is the residence of the Russian Ambassador. Rumor has it that some of the upper floors of the University Club were once used by the CIA to spy on the Russians. Nowadays they just have a donkey and an elephant in the front of the club: The donkey is the Democratic symbol. First associated with Democrat Andrew Jackson's 1828 presidential campaign in which…