Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t make it wrong:
Spotted at the U-Pick Blueberry Field Formerly Known As Secor’s.
Category: Oddities
Who’d’a thunk it?
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LED Sign Display Driver Glitch
Spotted this while walking out for supper after a day at the CNC Workshop:
Motel LED sign glitch – 1 Then it got worse:
Motel LED sign glitch – 2 The lower left block remained fixed throughout the glitzy scrolling / rolling / blinking updates in the sign’s repertoire:
Motel LED sign glitch – 3 The affected block is 64 pixels tall and, at a guess, 128 pixels wide. Looks like a module enable failure…
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On the Cutting Edge of Metal Recycling
A semitrailer load of scrap metal pulled into an I-90 rest stop just after we arrived:
Metal scrap trailer – Cutting edge Apparently, they dump the scrap into the trailer from a great height and, sometimes, a bar can gash the aluminum side wall. That slice obviously predates the current load, but you can see how it happened: dump a load atop a bar leaning against the side and you get a giant metal shear.
The trailer also had several puncture wounds:
Metal scrap trailer – Puncture wounds I didn’t notice the circular feature at the bottom center until I looked at the picture, but it certainly reminded me of a bullet hole in glass plate. Close inspection of the original image suggests it’s a welded stress relief border around a drilled hole, perhaps with a boss on the inside of the trailer:
Metal scrap trailer – Welded hole Ya never know what you’ll find out on the road…
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Monthly Image: Sunset Over Lake Erie
We spent a pleasant evening hour walking & sitting on the town beach in North East PA on our way back from Detroit:
Sunset over Lake Erie – North East PA The entire area smells strongly of the grapes that grow well in the hilly terrain south of Lake Erie. A local expert said that Welch’s (a major local employer) moved its CHQ to Concord MA to put a better hometown name on the company’s letterhead; being based in North East evidently didn’t have the same ring.
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These Are Not the Book Drops You Are Looking For
The Vassar Library could be a model for J.K. Rowling’s work:
Vassar Library – front A closer look at the jarringly contemporary containers along the mid-left edge of that picture:
Vassar Library – Trash and recycling containers Pop quiz: How many books did they find in the trash before they added the placards?
Bonus: How much did that reduce the burn rate? It’s surely still nonzero, because nobody reads instructions. Right?
Double bonus: Does the real book drop sport a “This is NOT a trash can” placard?
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Houses Are Trouble: Terwilliger House Windows
Imagine “updating” these windows with modern high-efficiency glass:
Terwilliger House – parallelogram windows That’s the end wall of the 1738 Terwilliger House on the Locust Lawn site. I’m sure the woodwork doesn’t date back that far, but the glazier demonstrated genius-level mastery.
We were on a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour, marred by a visitor who knew the rules about not touching the exhibits didn’t apply to her. My parents ran a restaurant / gift shop and, to this day, my hands automatically find their way into my pockets when I enter a store, let alone a museum.
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Making the Asterisk Visible
Spotted a new sign at the Van Wyck Road entrance to the Dutchess Rail Trail:
DCRT at Van Wyck Rd – ATV Patrol sign The tiny print on the top sign still reads No Motorized Vehicles, but the bottom sign makes it explicit that that particular prohibition applies only to ordinary citizens.
Which matches up with the Sheriff’s ATVs I spotted a weeks earlier:
DCRT – Sheriff ATV Patrol – Page Park As of late May, the No All Terrain Vehicles signs were still up. Maybe they still are.
According to the New York Times style guide and other reasonably erudite sources, the plural of ATV should be ATVS (or, if you have the luxury of mixed case, ATVs), not ATV’S.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 