The Warning Detector That Didn’t Beep How do you know that a new technology is a “keeper?” When it’s conspicuous by its absence. Exhibit A: the warning detector that beeps in my car — but not my wife’s — as the driver backs up. Which explains how, driving her car and backing into a parking...Read More
Synch-ron-ate”: recording a show, then watching it — without commercials — so as to finish at the same time as the live telecast. –Proposed new word; Ross Kaplan. Want to watch the Oscars tonight, but not all the commercials? (inordinately bunched at the end — or at least, so it seems). If you have a...Read More
“Blind Date With a Book” How should you judge a book? By its beginning (of course). To encourage customers to do just that, Portland bookseller Elisa Saphier set out a table of great reads, wrapped in brown paper, with only the genre (“fiction, “mystery,” etc.) and a provocative sentence or two visible. Cost to “go...Read More
Unfamiliar Sight: Empty Store and Parking Lot During Daylight Hours You know a retail store is popular when a steady stream of cars pulls up in front, and is momentarily frustrated/perplexed by the sight of an empty Costco store and parking lot — a store that might otherwise have thousands of people and hundreds of...Read More
Or Maybe They Should be Called “Dismaying Jeans” Yeah, yeah, I know what fancy-schmancy retailers mean when they refer to “distressed jeans”: jeans whose various holes and patches somehow make them look chic — and worth a huge mark-up (also referred to as “vintage clothing” in some quarters). My definition of “distressed jeans” is a...Read More
Man Bites Dog — Real Estate Version It’s hardly the funniest line in “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” (I watched a re-run the other night) . . . but it is a good real estate line. The setup: Andy just refinished his hardwood floors, and is showing new girlfriend Trish (Catherine Keener) his very empty place for...Read More
