Dallas Unveils World's Saddest Bike Sharing Program

From 2014 08 23 Chicago

"Dallas Unveils World's Saddest Bike Sharing Program." So says Eric Nicholson of the Dallas Observer. I don't have anything to add to his excellent Unfair Park blog piece on the deficiencies of Dallas's bike rental system available only in Fair Park. I just wanted to share my photo of Chicago's Divvy bikes. Ride on.

It turns out I do have something to add. After the jump.

Keep Portland Weird

From 2014 11 05 Portland

"Keep Portland Weird." Portland stole the slogan from Austin, but Portland wears it authentically, so it's all good.

There's Voodoo Doughnut in Old Town (the "crotch" of Portland), the place with the maple bacon doughnuts that keep people lining up out the door 24/7. Voodoo Doughnut's partner, Rogue Ales, once created a Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. Weird.

There was the Guy Fawkes Day anti-corporate, anti-government, anti-whatever protest march in Chinatown. It reminded me of The Wild One: "Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?" "Whadda you got?"

There was the burrito maker at the food cart outside the Portland Building whose main interest in the November election was the Oregon referendum on legalizing marijuana. It passed.

There are the transit options -- light rail, streetcar, bike lanes, and ubiquitous Car2Go Smart cars. Oh wait, having transit options isn't weird, is it, unless you live in, say, north Texas, where TxDOT/NCTCOG/NTTA/... all conspire to build ever more freeways to cater to cars and sprawl. Whoa, keep the blood pressure under control. You're in Portland, remember. Chill. Bottom-line, Portland is very friendly to car-free tourists. Smile.

And Portland is just the right amount of weird.

More photos after the jump.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

IMDB

Grand Budapest Hotel (2014): Quirky. Eccentric hotelier, murder, inheritance battle, art theft, fascists. Lots of cameos. Works for me. B-

Gridiron Echoes (2014)

In celebration of another successful marching season, the Mighty Ram Band of Berkner High School put on their annual Gridiron Echoes concert in the school's newly renovated auditorium Tuesday night. And what a marching season it's been.

OTBR: Great Australian Bight

Latitude: S 32° 27.450
Longitude: E 123° 56.328

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".