Listen, let’s come down to reality. Jacque Polge’s job with Chanel No. 5 is not to make the same goo week in and week out. Because the truth of the matter is, the flowers you pick this month are going to be different than the flowers you pick next month – you can’t change that. So part of the perfumer’s job has always been to blend the old with the new to make sure there is a consistent standard. It’s no different than the Whiskey blenders that have to do the same thing. - Michael Edwards

Over the past 15 years or so, I’ve been lucky enough to drive and/or own some of the finest motor vehicles ever conceived of by humankind. From top-of-the-line, ultra-luxe sedans to world-record-setting, exotic sports cars. A number of years back, I totally lost my interest in what my dear wife always referred to as “stupid cars”. It got to the point where I’d see a neat car – be it a Ferrari, a Bentley, or whatnot – and I’d admire it casually but feel absolutely no interest in possessing or driving it. None whatsoever.

My assumption was simply that I’d gotten this “stupid car” thing “out of my system.” But it turns out that’s not what happened.

My epiphany happened as I watched a white 2013 Chevy Camaro ZL1 convertible take an off ramp on the opposite side of the highway I was on. I thought “hey – that’s a cool lookin’ droptop.” And then it hit me. Like a load of bricks.

I don’t dislike cool cars. I’m simply totally fucking sick of driving.

Driving is a chore. It’s a dollar- and time-expensive inefficiency. Gas. Maintenance. Parking. Insurance. Traffic. Accidents. Tolls. Law enforcement. Idiot drivers. Stupid bicyclists and pedestrians. BLEH!!! At one point I got joy out of it – but no longer. I’d rather spend that time with my family, playing with our cats, working, listening to music, geeking out, sitting in the sun, or, frankly, doing just about anything else.

So starting this week, I’m going to stop driving any more than I absolutely have to. The MBTA commuter rail train will get me into town. I’m gonna get my bicycle back in shape and ride to the train station. I’ll run errands when I have to – but bundled together to minimize trips and maximize efficiency. We can walk to our downtown when we have errands there. Providing taxi service for the kids isn’t entirely optional, but those tend to be super-short trips and we can do better with them. We’ll see how it goes.

Something tells me I’m gonna be a happier camper! Wish me luck!

We took him in and are falling in love with him. He has what we refer to as “insta-purr” – the minute you touch him he’s happy as a clam being pet, rubbed, scratched, and otherwise paid attention to. He’s a HUGE galoot running about 20 pounds – and he doesn’t have that much weight to lose – he’s just a big damn cat! He’s a serious sweetheart of a cat. Off-the-charts loving and lovable.

Unfortunately he’s FIV positive – a result of living on the streets for so long. Apparently as much as five percent of the cat population is FIV positive now. It’s not dangerous to humans, but it’s a bummer for all involved. We’re keeping him isolated from the other cats – though he’s had a few carefully-supervised excursions throughout the house.

Pelase say hi! Meow!

Amanda Fucking Palmer addressed a session at SXSW (a podcast will supposedly be up at some point). She raised $1,192,793. After Kickstarter’s fees, Amazon’s fees, and bad pledges, let’s assume she netted $1M. Amanda stated that their shipping costs ate up $250K of the funds they raised. 25%. WOW! I was astonished. She spoke specifically about the AU and NZ folks (though she clearly bears them no ill will!) where shipping generally well exceeded what they pledged – never mind the COGS.

The second interaction was a private conversation that I’ve summarized as follows:

Shipping is the dirty secret of Kickstarter that no one talks about partly because you come off as petty and trying to justify how much you’ve raised. They make no allowances for anything other than domestic shipping, so you have to come up with a flat rate for the rest of the world. Then because of the development time between the end of your Kickstarter and the product release, the postage rates go up. In our case, they nearly doubled, absolutely killing us on hundreds of international packages. Some countries came to $80-90 to ship – where we up-charged a flat $30.

The flat-rate international thing seems like a real problem that Kickstarter needs to address. Canadians presumably end up pissed off because they grossly over-pay, and folks in Kinshasa and Sydney get an amazing deal. Fascinating problem!

And, of course, flights between Harvey Milk International Airport and Reagan National Airport would be joyous for those travelers who prefer their flights laden with as much irony as possible.

Irony FTW

Good luck with the ballot, San Francisco!

The ISS is visible with the naked eye. However, if you can scrounge up a pair of binoculars you can make out the outline of its PV wings. The ISS in toto is roughly the size of a football field. Note that the ISS moves fast. In fact, it’s orbiting Earth every 92 minutes at a speed of 17,500 MPH (more than 25X faster than the last jet you were on!). As you look up, it’ll almost certainly be the fastest moving  object in the sky.

Net-net, if you’re a space geek, this is a must-have app IMO. Enjoy!

Maduro is a smoking bar. They serve no food, but you’re welcome to bring in your own – or the barkeep will even help you order some up for delivery. What they DO offer is an impressive selection of cigars, a stellar array of liquors, and a nicely-curated collection of fine wines. Their selection of whiskeys is excellent, and it includes nearly a dozen bourbons – including two I’d never heard of before from FEW and New Holland (yeah, I know, neither is from Kentucky, but they seem to know what they’re doing regardless!). Maduro also clearly knows its way around their classic jazz library, which is on constant rotation FTW!

Crazy pipe smokers like YT are welcome as well. Note that cigarettes are not welcome at all – apparently a function of some city ordinance, which is just fine with me. Primarily it is a cigar spot, but there always seem to be one or two pipe guys to add some diversity to the hand-rolled crowd. I’d like to see them carry a selection of pipe tobacco blends that include cigar leaf. Maduro is a must-check-out spot in Madison if you’re a whiskey fan, cigar lover, or pipe nut.

Oh, and the place is positively hoppin’ after 2200 on a Tuesday night. Enjoy!

She was 91 years old, and until 18 days ago, she was living on her own, still driving, and happily causing trouble. She grew up during the Great Depression in a family of six kids. As a very sickly child, the doctors told her parents she probably wouldn’t live to be a teenager. She made it just a tad past that . Along the way she brought up two fantastic children, thoroughly enjoyed her six grandchildren, and doted on her fourteen great-grandchildren. I’m extremely grateful that she and my kids got to know each other well. They, like me, are going to miss her a lot.

In 2011 we had a big family party to celebrate her 90th birthday. There are lots of pictures extant that include me with my tongue hangin’ out and a bourbon in my hand. My grandmother however actually possessed some decorum. During the session with the photographer at her 90th, I managed to cajole her to raise her glass and (nearly) stick her tongue out. I’m glad I did, as I really love this picture and will treasure it.

When I shuffle off, I can only hope to be half as fondly-remembered as my grandmother is. Miss you, grammy.

Most philosophers – or, at any rate, very many – profess to be able to prove, by a priori metaphysical reasoning, such things as the fundamental dogmas of religion, the essential rationality of the universe, the illusoriness of matter, the unreality of all evil, and so on. There can be no doubt that the hope of finding reason to believe such theses as these has been the chief inspiration of many life-long students of philosophy. This hope, I believe, is vain. It would seem that knowledge concerning the universe as a whole is not to be obtained by metaphysics, and that the proposed proofs that, in virtue of the laws of logic such-and-such things must exist and such-and-such others cannot, are not capable of surviving a critical scrutiny.

According to an article in Slate today, Amazon is gearing up to stop fighting about sales tax and to begin local – even hyper-local – distribution. If this is true, and it does come to pass, we will witness the near-complete creative destruction of the centuries-old retail industry (admittedly, a middle-man business) in a matter of a score of months or so. Amazon does now, or will soon, collect sales tax in twelve (12) states. That’s over 25% of the states that have sales taxes. Based on this report, we can only assume the other 35 states won’t be too far behind.

In theory, you will soon be able to order something on Amazon, and pick it up via their locker service as early as later that same day. Hell, it’s easy to imagine an army of daylight-idle pizza delivery peeps working with Amazon to provide same-day – or even same-hour - delivery. In this case though, it most certainly won’t be an E-Dream – it’ll be viable business, and serious as a fucking heart attack.

From the article:

Physical retailers have long argued that once Amazon plays fairly on taxes, the company wouldn’t look like such a great deal to most consumers. If prices were equal, you’d always go with the “instant gratification” of shopping in the real world. The trouble with that argument is that shopping offline isn’t really “instant”—it takes time to get in the car, go to the store, find what you want, stand in line, and drive back home.

This chart sure-as-shit won’t look so rosy:

By the way, those six retailers, combined, represent almost half a trillion dollars in market cap. What should be scaring folks is that if Amazon (et. al., presumably) can pull this off, what we will see will be a creative destruction of value – a negative sum gain – not a simple shifting of value. For sake of (bad) example, Amazon will double to $200B market cap and those six retailers will lose 80% of their market caps. That’d amount to $300B in market cap “up and vanish[ing] like a fart in the wind.”

I’m a huge Amazon fan. I’ve been so for a LONG time. I was a huge Kozmo fan (RIP). The vast majority of the things I purchase do not materially benefit by me having to go to an actual Home Depot or Target location. Bring it on, Amazon!

PS: You might also want to short mall owners. Though maybe they could turn all the malls into weird apartments and condos and dog grooming centers