Odds and ends, 11/7/07

The latest issue of U. S. News & World Report arrived in the mail Monday. I saw the cover and asked my eight-year-old what kind of bus was on it. He took one second to decide it was a Blue Bird. It was pretty easy because of the stripe along the top that Blue Birds have. When I put him on his bus (a Blue Bird) this morning, I took note of the rub rails, the covers over the flashing warning lights, the angle of the rear and the placement of the various lights, and yes, it does look like a Blue Bird on the cover.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. We are a family of bus nerds.

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An item in this week's issue of USN&WR:

Stores of the Future May Be a Bit Quirky

In 10 years, you might meet a friend for coffee at a local grocery store that also sells clothes and electronic equipment. The store will be designed to suit your lifestyle, including entertainment and social networking needs.

Call me crazy, but that sounds like a lot of the country stores in the part of Ohio that I grew up in during the 1960s. I keep telling people that time is not linear. Time is circular. What has been before and gone will come again.

But do they listen to me? Nooooo. They need a high-priced consultant who thinks he's looking into the future when really all he has to do is look a decade or two into the past.

FWIW, my advice is mostly free.

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Every now and then, we receive a letter to the editor talking about how you should pull over and stop for a funeral processing coming the other way. People in the processsions believe it's a sign of respect for the dead.

But given some of these roads around here and the people who drive on them, I might be rear-ended or worse if I were to do that.

Help me out here. Should I pull over for a funeral procession?