I had a great week driving the Miata back and forth to work. Whatever compunctions I had about the straight-line power are vanquished. No, it’s not as fast as the Mustang, and where I live, in southern NJ, we have a lot of long, straight roads. A big old American muscle car is perfect for these roads.
But hey: so is a Miata. I can get to 60 in about six seconds if I want to. The naturally aspirated four-banger revs up readily, and the RWD pushes the ass around with authority. It’s just a blast to drive, and I look for excuses to do so. I tore down some Hammonton back roads on Thursday on the ride home and I think I’m gonna do that again from time to time.
Also: we have a convertible queen! She liked sniffing the sniffs on the ride home from the groomer Saturday. I took the Miata up Route 55 for a highway cruise and I’m happy to report that you can drive 80 mph and not feel like the car’s getting shifty.
Mel Brooks Turns 100
Mel Brooks is 100! Wow. My first exposure to his work was Young Frankenstein, which I recognized as a parody of the Frankenstein movies when I saw it as a kid. It seemed loony and little ribald. Later viewings of his films brought an appreciation of how one can use humor to pillory racism and anti-Semitism. He portrayed the marginalized as cagy heroes, while the villains were buffoons who harbored the worst impulses in humanity. Some of his oeuvre is funny for its own sake, but there’s real depth to his work, too.
Leslie Neilsen got a lot of mileage out of Brooks’ style.
Happy 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks!
RIP Om Malik
Longtime tech journalist Om Malik passed away last Wednesday. I was a longtime reader of his blog, GigaOm, and was glad to see him start another blog, Om.co. He thought big thoughts about technology and society, not living in the speeds and feeds of the moment. He was a digital photography enthusiast, as well.
The Bear Season Five
Rhonda and I binged most of the fifth season of The Bear last night. The season is almost wholly focused on one night in the kitchen, with the staff trying to pull off a final night of legendary service in the throes of a storm, with attendant leaks and food shortages. It’s typically intense for the show, and the compressed setting amps up the tension.