…One Less Scene

“In the mid-nineteenth century, pioneers in Texas were surprised to see illiterate Comanche warriors taking Bibles and other books during their raids on outlying farms and settlements. …The Comanche had discovered that paper made an excellent padding for their bison-hide war shields and would absorb a bullet if you packed it in thick and tight [...]

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Since Deano got hit, it was decided that we motorcycle couriers present too much “liability exposure” to the company, and we were asked to start driving cars instead. I thought I could last a little while, but last week I had the “fear and sickness unto death” after meeting an ABC Legal driver in Olympia.
I [...]

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Kalaloch Beach, 2/19/10

photo by Dagny Ihnot

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Even a town like Shelton, Washington has its moments. Coming up Highway 101 from Olympia with a filing for Mason County Superior Court, I was struck by the austere beauty of this disheveled, crappy little backwater, with its filthy logging trucks, abandoned mills and the majestic Olympic mountain range along the horizon. It reminded me [...]

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It’s a legend from gearhead mythology: igniting starting fluid inside a flat tire, causing it to “explode” up onto the bead seat. I decided to try this technique the other day with my motorbike, and after my tire burst into flame and I nearly burnt down my garage, I did manage to get it to [...]

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American Radical

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While I sit in my garage, obsessing about broken down old machines and listening to Paul Simon, my brother and his friends are living the good life in Berkeley, California. As I look at these photos of their backyard beehive, chicken coop, garden, and coffee roasting set-up, I can only wonder where I went wrong.

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Edip Kemal explains how an electrical relay works in this handy Linda’s-receipt sketch.

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Some of my co-workers and I were invited to a holiday party at a downtown ad agency last night; there was going to be an open bar and expensive catering so of course we went. There was a dapper looking door-guy letting people in the building, and up in the office was a huge table [...]

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