Some stuff that wasn’t in the video:
- When I worked at Germain the mascot was a Viking with a sword. After I left they decided a cute little guy stabbing things was not the best idea for an elementary school mascot. They are now the Mustangs. They also changed from an elementary school to an “Academy for Academic Achievement.”
- There are many versions of The Oregon Trail, but the iconic one (and the one my students played) was a black and white (well, black and green) version of this version. It was supposed to teach you about the difficulty of a wagon trip across the United States, but most kids would just buy a bunch of bullets and shoot stuff for the whole class.
- The Apple IIc Plus was an impressive computer for its time. It had an internal 3.5″ drive when most computers still ran off 5.25″ floppies. It plugged in to any TV if you had an adapter (or a TV with RCA jacks) and a carrying handle, so it was very portable. PCs at the time were usually giant boxes with dedicated monitors.
- The name for hitting something to make it work is percussive maintenance.
- I forgot to say what the Howard Colonial had to do with the Red Car. It was an electrical substation for the line. An article about the urban legend that automakers (not Judge Doom) conspired to kill the Red Car. Also, Militant Angeleno has created a map of Red Car information.
- There’s a short history of the Idle Hour on Atlas Obscura, one of my favorite sites to find weird places to visit.
- Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee is fighting to survive. Their Facebook page says that most of the business is “in limbo,” but you can still get old movie stills and photos through mail order.
- I wonder if Arturo still owns my old apartment building.
- Iliad Bookshop is a great place to nose around for odd books. I don’t know how it works in COVID times, but pre-pandemic you could grab a stack of books, sit in a comfy chair, and poke through them to find something you wanted to read. Support your local bookstore!
- I have no idea what the model of that classic car is, but it is a glory to behold. Pictures do not do it justice.