Further AC/DC, Our Anniversary, NFL Expansion, AI in Detroit, Ann Arbor’s Stadium Hardware
After the AC/DC show, Catherine wondered what being married to Angus or Malcolm Young would be like. Hard to imagine either of them slumped on the sofa all day reading Plato. I think it might be summed up this way: “Angus, put down your guitar and come to the table before dinner gets cold!”
Susan and I celebrated our twenty-seventh anniversary on November 7 by dining out at Quarter Bistro. We had an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms and I ordered a split of Mumm’s which I got all to myself because of her profound abstemiousness. She had a salad and grilled pork chops; I had shrimp scampi and a glass of white Cotes du Rhone. Our waiter, a nice guy, was sweating.
Lying awake in the middle of the night, I find myself thinking about such questions as why the NFL would be talking about expanding to an eighteen-game season. Don’t they see how NASCAR has overexpanded? How the national economy is slowing? And why would Iverson make his Detroit debut in a New York Yankees jacket? Interesting that the Pistons were undefeated; Iverson shows up in town and the team loses two straight.
Just in case anyone wonders, I’ve never been a reader of fantasy novels, mostly sticking to the anxiety genre.
Ann Arbor’s Stadium Hardware is the best hardware store I know and so much better than the chain emporia. The place occupies three large low-ceiling rooms, each connected by a middle doorway, so there’s the historical awareness that as one neighboring business folded, and then the next, Stadium Hardware took the additional space. A no-nonsense aspect pervades the displays; as much merchandise as possible is arranged on shelves and there are no end-caps or tables with specials; it’s crowded and bustling and quotidian. The lighting in the store is just so-so. If only the floors had a bit of sawdust, everything would be perfect. But the quality and selection of goods is hard to match. Need a thirty-six-inch bow saw? An aluminum-blade snow shovel with steel bit? A package of seventy-five felt bumpers, three-eighths inch in thickness, for the silent closing of cupboard drawers? Stadium Hardware has it all—and the perspicacious staff is happy to help if you can’t find it.
