Stamp of the Day: Zip codes! (postnummer)

This stamp oozes 1970s in its bubbly, rainbow-colored design, don't you think?  And it is celebrating the zipcode (or reminding people to add it to their letters, or both).  I love its happiness...

The deer and the train

Worlds Apart, originally uploaded by ericwill.

Another fantastic train photo by our friend EW. Click on the photo for more information. This photo just won a big award, congratulations Eric!

Stamp of the day: boat with little outboard motor

This Swedish stamp from 2002 invokes many Swedish summer memories for me.  A simple wooden boat, with oars for slow moving and fishing, and then the little engine for the times when you have to get home for dinner or the wind is in your face and you need some extra help.  Our sailing boat had a slightly larger version than this, a 7.5 hp Mercury outboard motor, and when it was stormy you really hoped it would start.  It did, because it had replaced an older, smaller engine that was not so reliable.  Maybe that was an Evinrude, I don't remember.  But most of the time we sailed in our 18-foot sailing boat with 5 people and two dogs for weeks... the outboard engine was just for storms, when the wind was wrong, or when you had to get through locks or under bridges. 

For PP - 8 years!

0-8-0 Illinois Central Railroad #30, originally uploaded by rods pix. (Flickr)

Illustrated with a 0-8-0 steam locomotive of course.
How come this engine doesn't tip over front or backwise?

Numbers and words and the world of historic design.

You get different feelings from different size, colors, and fonts, don't you think?  All of these are photos from the Colorado Railroad Museum and depict typography used by the historic American railroads.

I love how they took the time to handpaint these so carefully, and the thorough design and thoughts that went into all decisions before they got painted on.  Power, delicacy, boldness, luxury, efficiency, mechanics, elegance, exactness, and mechanics is all there in these numbers and letters, to varying degrees.  Check out the stencil marks on some of them; can't you imagine the hand that held up the stencil to get it all correct?

How about some classic, simple and beautiful design?

I love clean lines, organic forms, and purposeful meaning to shapes and parts on things made by humans.  Not a mess, not a mix of too many colors, and functionality.  In the past, what was beautiful and well-made and worked well lasted. These days you buy a salad spinner knowing it will break in a few months or a year (even if it has 'lifetime warranty').  Nobody would have made or bought a rake a hundred years ago if they thought it would just break fast.  I really, really, really dislike things that are not made to last and be used for real.

Anyway, we spent an evening in Hopewell, NJ, recently, looking at vintage cars, and here are some reflections in and about shiny objects:


A classic.  Reminds me of the clocks outside my elementary school in Sweden.


What - no GPS?  No Check Engine light? (Which always comes on, at least on my Subaru, and then goes off, for no reason at all.)  But this is all you need, I think, and it was on a 1932 Ford truck. Red, of course.


I can't decide what this Corvette grill reminds me of.  A grill of course, but more a lamprey mouth, a leech with sawing teeth, or a shark? Or jail cell window? It looks pretty mean. And here is a different one, similar style.

I love these 'gangster cars', which I think look like something out of movies about Al Capone's Chicago.  Did you know he had a bullet-proof car?

A classic.  Practical. Box. Works. Well. But mint-green?

The US in LOTUS.  OK, you can drool with these guys.  I think older cars are a lot more fun than these, so how about this one? Porsche 911 T Targa from 1971 - first owned by the King of Sweden. But most things with four wheels that don't look like today's mainstream cars are interesting.

I love blue.  There is no other reason for this photo.

Tiny engines under giant hoods. Flip-flop.

Bits and pieces of the internet: Rolling edition

These cars have seen better days (if you think about what the world struggles with now), but still look gorgeous. Ralph Lauren's antique cars are on display in France: "L'Art de L'Automobile. Chefs-D'Œuvre de la Collection Ralph Lauren". (core77) [photo from Ralph Lauren]

After drooling over those shiny cars, you can marvel at this feat - a bike made only of wood. (core77)

And in 1910, this is how a tourist bus in Detroit looked like. (shorpy)

Bend that hip!

Missouri Pacific Railroad Locomotive in Hermann, Missour, 1877, originally uploaded by Missouri History Museum.

Look at the railroad men in this photo, and several of them are keeping the weight on one leg only, why? Tired? They are posing like girls! :)

I love the brackets that hold up the big light in front. I have this feeling that European steam locomotives had much smaller lights than American ones, but I might be wrong...

Swedish Winter Tale (cont'd)

I am adding some here in English to EH's post about Monica Törnell's classic song about the Swedish winter from 1984, Vintersaga (Winter Tale), written by Ted Ström.  The original song is on Youtube.  It really describes the Swedish winter and its people in a melancholic way, all the darkness, cold, ice, and isolation. Here is a quick translation to English.  The geographic names are all over Sweden, making this song relevant for all parts of Sweden. I grew up with this song and for many, including me, it symbolizes Swedish winter and Swedish moods...

A coastal tanker is pushing through the drifting ice in Kvarken

A training pass at Ullevi in fog

The border station in Torneå, a woman on a ice kicker

Landsort's lighthouse where the snowstorm is pulling in

Dense snow is sticking on Mariaberget's slopes

Hot and sweaty at the Hotel in Härnösand

A truck in drifting snow between Kiruna and faraway

barely alive lights in Visby harbor

This is when the big moodiness is rolling in

And from the sea is a icy, gray cold wind

 

In Malmö the fog is etched by the sirens of the ferries

And on the other side of the strait the world starts

A lonely Volvo pushes in the wind on the Tjörn bridge

The Lappland train groans like a wild animal in the night

The farms are turning down their lights

A storm-whipped Marstrand prays its Pater Noster

Stockholm city is waving in its intoxication

 

This is when the big moodiness is rolling in

And from the sea is a icy, gray cold wind

 

Truck traffic in Docksta in the highway shadow

An overdose at Skärholmen station

Snowed in roads somewhere on Österlen 

And the drunkenness is growing at Mommas pub

Frozen thirst in the queue to the city pub in Luleå

Frozen dreams in the monarchy

The love has to live between the night shift and the dreams

The love lives on cheap wine

This is when the big moodiness is rolling in

And from the sea is a icy, gray cold wind

The perfect name?

Army ant moving truck, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Seen in Durango, Colorado, USA this summer.

No way out, no way in...

What were they thinking? This must be the end of the world.  Really.

Never stop loving

Never stop loving, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

The Sourland Mountain in New Jersey has some interesting street art graffiti. Seen yesterday, on Ridge Road.

OK snapshot: Prospect

LS comment: In Sweden Harley-Davidson is trying out a new marketing strategy
to entice the more environmentally friendly people, maybe?

Book review: Malaria dreams by Stuart Stevens

You meet a friend you don't know so well in a bar. This friend tells you he has a Land Rover stuck in the Central African Republic, and wonders if you feel like going there and drive it back to Europe.  Sure you say, and manage to get another friend along for the adventure.  You go to CAR (Central African Republic) and the car is nowhere to be seen.  Three months later you manage to get to Europe, despite a million mechanical problems, African bureaucracy (which seems to be even worse than Central Asian bureaucracy), fun and unfun adventures, some malaria and dysentery, and not in the Land Rover.  And this is what happened.

This book, Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure by Stuart Stevens is a true story, and sort of like a diary of the way Africa works.  Things take time.  Creativity is a must. Italians are the best mechanics.  Don't trust the guides to take you to their home villages.  Insurance, what insurance?  Sleeping on the roof of a 4-wheel jeep under the stars - this is really Africa.

It is a great read, even if slow sometimes in the beginning, but this is a diary and there were many days of just waiting for something to happen.  The author, Stuart Stevens, have a great way with words and was one of the writers for our favorite TV series Northern Exposure.  I want to read more by him!  I am so amazed at their  persistence to actually do this trip, despite all the problems along the way.  Including a car that you can't turn off and that can only run in one gear, through Sahara.

Sad news from Chama, New Mexico

"Steam-powered trains on the New Mexico side of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic railroad have been cancelled after a fire destroyed ties and track structure on a high bridge in the San Juan Mountains." link to more

This is where we are going this summer to ride the old trains...

Update: The trains will still be running this summer, and the bridge will be rebuilt, yippee!

OK snapshot: Molluskmaraton (Mollusc Marathon)

More snail speed! (Mera snigelfart. )

OK snapshot: Full speed ahead

Fork in the road ahead

Evolution street sign, originally uploaded by Colin Purrington.

This innovative warning street sign by Colin Purrington (on Flickr) would fit well when you enter Texas och Kansas or some other place where science and especially evolution is incessantly questioned. Why next 3 billion years? Because about 3 billion years from now the sun will become a red dwarf and snuff out life on Earth, most probably. At least that is what the scientists predict. I wonder what the creationists are thinking - how long do they predict until Armageddon. When LA and I were in New York recently, we saw demonstrating people with signs saying "The End of the World will be October 21, 2010". Where do people get everything from?

April 1... you must be joking

... is a great day for the local news media in Sweden. They get to write any stories they want to try to fool the people. I still remember the one in the early 1970s: "If you have a black and white TV and pull a nylon stocking over the front of it, it turns into color." Apparently many many Swedes tried this. And on April 1, 1950, the news was that new trolley airplanes would provide commuting options for the people in Stockholm. :) Imaging that someone must have sat and cut out and assembled this photo by hand with a scalpel from three original photos. There was no cut-and-paste Photoshop back then. The statue is the one of the former king Karl XII, I think.

OK snapshot: high life

In Stockholm they take biking to new heights...