Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, May 07 2004
40-Foot Traveling Home Powered By Diesel Truck
It's a diesel truck. No, it's an RV. Actually, it's both. Take your car or your horse, and still have living quarters with 7-foot ceilings and even go for upgrades such as a washer and dryer or central vacuum. I wonder how the diesel works out for cost and maintenance, as opposed to the regular type of RV. It looks as though their only current dealer (besides the home office in Andover, Minnesota) is in Joplin, Missouri. Will we see more of an interest in this type of travel in the future, or has the SUV controversy put a damper on the bigger, stronger, meaner-looking vehicle trend we've seen in recent years?
posted at: 17:37 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
It's a diesel truck. No, it's an RV. Actually, it's both. Take your car or your horse, and still have living quarters with 7-foot ceilings and even go for upgrades such as a washer and dryer or central vacuum. I wonder how the diesel works out for cost and maintenance, as opposed to the regular type of RV. It looks as though their only current dealer (besides the home office in Andover, Minnesota) is in Joplin, Missouri. Will we see more of an interest in this type of travel in the future, or has the SUV controversy put a damper on the bigger, stronger, meaner-looking vehicle trend we've seen in recent years?
posted at: 17:37 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
How Can A 50-Something-Year-Old Tradition Be A Fad?
An article from Forbes makes reference to Krispy Kreme doughnuts' "fad appeal" waning. I'm trying to figure out how something which has been in production since 1937 could be called a fad to begin with. Maybe the commenter was just referring to the spread of the doughnut stores to the West. My husband and I used to go and get Krispy Kreme doughnuts hot off the line in Chattanooga, Tennessee back in about 1974. So we were rather amused when folks out this way began to get excited about the treats coming to California. I think somehow the buildup was so great that the doughnuts couldn't have possibly lived up to the hype they were given. They were never a phenomenon to those in the South. They are a comfort food, like apple pie or macaroni and cheese. The draw is not in their novelty, but in the familiar sensation of that sweetness heated to puffy goodness, and bathed in perfect glaze just before it goes into your mouth. Just going in the stores in the South is a heady experience, where you are treated like an old friend while you wait for a fresh batch to come off the line, and the scent of the doughnuts is enough to make your mouth water. I guess familiar tastings just don't feel like fads to me--especially decades later.
posted at: 15:37 | category: /Food | link to this entry
An article from Forbes makes reference to Krispy Kreme doughnuts' "fad appeal" waning. I'm trying to figure out how something which has been in production since 1937 could be called a fad to begin with. Maybe the commenter was just referring to the spread of the doughnut stores to the West. My husband and I used to go and get Krispy Kreme doughnuts hot off the line in Chattanooga, Tennessee back in about 1974. So we were rather amused when folks out this way began to get excited about the treats coming to California. I think somehow the buildup was so great that the doughnuts couldn't have possibly lived up to the hype they were given. They were never a phenomenon to those in the South. They are a comfort food, like apple pie or macaroni and cheese. The draw is not in their novelty, but in the familiar sensation of that sweetness heated to puffy goodness, and bathed in perfect glaze just before it goes into your mouth. Just going in the stores in the South is a heady experience, where you are treated like an old friend while you wait for a fresh batch to come off the line, and the scent of the doughnuts is enough to make your mouth water. I guess familiar tastings just don't feel like fads to me--especially decades later.
posted at: 15:37 | category: /Food | link to this entry
Girafa's Sticking Its Neck Out
A new bot came through Write Lightning in the last day or two, and appears to be a bot from Girafa.com Inc. From the articles on their site, I'm concluding that they are not trying to be a stand-alone search engine, but instead, an additional tool to be used by already-existing search engines. A blurb from their press release says:
posted at: 08:51 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
A new bot came through Write Lightning in the last day or two, and appears to be a bot from Girafa.com Inc. From the articles on their site, I'm concluding that they are not trying to be a stand-alone search engine, but instead, an additional tool to be used by already-existing search engines. A blurb from their press release says:
The use of Girafa's Visualization technology enables the immediate display of a Web site's thumbnail preview alongside its textual URL, thereby enhancing and improving the entire search experience.MSN Search seems to have been interested in this sort of thing for awhile, and I've seen their bots come by before, but not this particular one until now.
posted at: 08:51 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
