There is an article in the Oped section of today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune by Eric Lundegaard titled “Baby, you should drive your car.” It tells of how the author received a notice on his windshield from the city of Minneapolis informing him that his car would be towed unless it was moved within 72 hours. The car was parked legally on the street where he lived, but the author, who usually walks or bikes to work, hadn’t moved it in several days and the neighbors called the city to complain. The implication being that people who have cars are expected to drive those cars at least once every couple days, and if they don’t, it is reasonable to suspect that the car has been abandoned.

Obviously, a rusted out heap with dandelions growing out of it that has not been touched in several months is a candidate for removal, but a well maintained car that sits idle for a few days until it’s owner needs it for grocery-getting or a camping trip is something the city should encourage.  A car that sits idle on the street is a car that is not contributing too traffic congestion or greenhouse gases.

Wikipedia has a nice comprehensive list of French words and phrases that are commonly used in English. Link

There is a good article on the demise of the baseball card collector’s market over at Slate:

Requiem for a Rookie Card
How baseball cards lost their luster.

I had a two-year obsession with baseball in the late 1980s when The Twins won the World Series for the first time. During this time I amassed a fairly healthy baseball card collection. In high school, when my attentions shifted from sports and video games to music and girls, I packed my cards away into a photo album thinking that someday I would probably be able to get at least a few hundred dollars for my best cards. In 1998 when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs and broke Maris’s record, I figured his rookie card would be worth a fortune. But when I shopped it around and checked ebay, no one was willing to pay more then $20 dollars or so.

I guess it’s just a supply & demand thing. In the 80s, the market was flooded with cards from dozens of companies putting out several different versions. While I might have been able to afford a few packs a week on my allowance, older collectors would buy them by the carton. So now it doesn’t mean much to have a McGuire Rookie Card, when serious collectors have fifty of them and ten different versions. Oh well, I will put them in my time capsule and see what happens in another 15 years.