Out to Lunch

I'll be back next week.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse - Revisited

We had previously discussed the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Bristol, Maine in this previous post of two years ago, but having just found this nice panoramic shot, we might as well take another look.

Close-ups of lighthouses are great, but what’s a lighthouse without a broad horizon of ocean before it?

Hartford's "Boat Building"

Here’s a look at the Boat Building. It’s the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building in Constitution Plaza, Hartford, Connecticut, built 1961 to 1963. It was the first two-sided building in the world.

Now on the National Register of Historic Places, it represents that Modernist architectural style identified with the early 1960s, designed by Max Abramovitz, who also designed the United Nations Building in New York City, as well as Lincoln Center.

It’s 13 stories tall, and its sides face north and south. A couple of months ago, this 47-year-old building became the first historic building in New England to earn certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for environmental achievement. Modern and progressive architecture, indeed, apparently. For more on the award, have a look at this website.

For more on the history of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building, have a look here.

License Plates

License plate on a roadster on exhibt at the New England Air Musuem, Windsor Locks, CT.

Maybe you can remember as far back as when new car license plates were issued every year.

Maybe you go back only as far as when they were issued every other year, in the early 1960s.

You probably don’t remember when Massachusetts was the first state to issue license plates in 1903 (New York was the first state to require them in 1901, but it was up to the car owner to obtain them.)

Here is a very interesting site run by a license plate collector, with Massachusetts plates through the years, and with samples of plates from all over the country, and some history about our license plates. They weren’t always made of tin, and they didn’t always come in a standard size. A lot of them are still made by prison inmates in many states.

How many of us entertained ourselves by searching out plates from different states on long car drives? You could call it an American pastime.

You Are Here: Portsmouth, New Hampshire

You are here: Portsmouth, New Hampshire on a summer day. I think Route 1, but I can’t quite exactly remember where. Maybe you can fill me in.

Off Topic - "Interfacing"

A brief plug for “Interfacing”, my short story, previously published in print and online magazines, is now available in e-book format from Smashwords.

It’s humor. It’s about communication. It’s about 2,000 words. It’s about 99 cents. If you don’t own an e-reader like Kindle or Nook, etc., you can still download it here and read it right off your computer. Here’s the blurb…

Susan, saved by her Heimlich maneuver-performing dog from death by choking, must remain silent until her infected throat heals. Shutting up has never been easy for her. Her job as a customer service supervisor, and her already strained marriage are on the line. Susan must learn to communicate before she goes crazy, or kills somebody, or both.

History Museum - Springfield, Massachusetts

The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History in Springfield, Massachusetts is a first-rate experience both for educational and pure entertainment value. We first mentioned this history museum in this post about Brigham’s.

The museum illustrates in original artifacts and imaginative graphic displays the parade of industry and invention that made Springfield, and indeed, the Hartford-Springfield-Chicopee-Holyoke Connecticut River corridor in the 19th and early 20th centuries such an innovator in American industry.


It opened in the fall of 2009, the newest edition to a superb campus of museums, including art, science, the library and archives, collectively called the Springfield Museums.

Brigham’s was only one of many in the interesting display of commerce in the bustling city. As you can see, the Rolls Royce motor car was manufactured here, along with the Indian Motocycle (there are several on display), and the GeeBee airplanes (a story we’ll cover at another time).

One is impressed by how much was produced here, invented here, and how a diverse community thrived on not merely manufacturing, but the very ingenuity of manufacturing. One may view the museum as not only Springfield-centric, but as telling the broader story of the U.S. on its rise as a leading nation, if not quite yet a superpower, in the bold and hopeful decades from the American Civil War to World War II.

For more on the Wood Museum of Springfield History, have a look here.