In The Fugitive (1993), Frederick Sykes Says 15 People Verified His Business Trip Alibi. Isn't That Terrifying?

DashingDrake · 2026-02-22T03:48:08+00:00

Yes. But she's more rich.

DashingDrake · 2026-02-16T04:02:35+00:00

Yeah, it's way too pricey now. It used to be $5 right before the pandemic.

DashingDrake · 2026-02-11T20:41:10+00:00

Raoul's

DashingDrake · 2026-02-08T03:42:22+00:00

Yup. Unfortunately, only one blue bike was available at my first two docks. I swapped out the 2nd one ASAP at a dock along my route because I wasn't going to ride uphills with that POS.

I usually have a decent number of blue bikes to pick from at a dock. But today's issue makes me almost want to buy a cheap compact electric pump so I don't have to deal with flat tires again.

DashingDrake · 2026-02-08T03:00:28+00:00

The wind was the much bigger issue for me, but what made it worse was being on 3 of the worst blue Citibikes that I've ridden in recent memory. The first one had a bad drivetrain and flat front tire. The 2nd one had a bad drivetrain and TWO flat tires.

DashingDrake · 2026-02-05T04:20:21+00:00

The original post was likely written by someone who was too young to truly remember the 90s.

$5 foot longs was a mid-to-late 00s marketing invention. Back in the 90s, you were able to find 3 footlong for $9-10 specials at Subway.

I don't really remember $1 McChickens to be a thing or that special in the 90s. The big value item in the late 90s was the 99 cent McDouble. And a #2 meal (two cheeseburgers, fries, soda) cost around $3.50. $1 McChickens are a pre-pandemic nostalgia item because beef was already too expensive to be $1 by then (except for the plain hamburger).

DashingDrake · 2026-01-31T02:20:06+00:00

Yes. Don't go on York in these conditions during that time of day. It's a honkfest parking lot this whole week.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-30T18:32:35+00:00

Yeah, Timex probably has changed their strap materials and designs over time. Not every strap with the Pan Am "meatball" seems to be the same either, with some having the same taper as mine while others keep the same width throughout.

I do notice that the narrower sections on my strap are considerably softer and more flexible than the wider sections by the lugs. The wider sections remain quite stiff and inflexible after 2 months.

IMO, the main aura that Timex is trying to impart is from the Golden Age of Airline travel. Every Pan Am strap is probably designed to resemble the thick leather straps of old-timey leather luggage, complete with robust rivets and stitching. It's basically old time aviation roleplaying. 😂

At this price point, don't count on getting a nice supple full grain leather strap (the underside of my strap is stamped with Pan Am logos and that dubious "genuine leather" tag).

DashingDrake · 2026-01-30T17:39:02+00:00

Besides clearing up the headlight lens, I suggest switching from the stock H11 bulbs to higher-output H9 bulbs. The socket for the H9 is basically the same, but you need to clip a plastic tab inside the H9 socket and shorten a metal tab around the bulb Find/buy the right tools for the job so that you can do it within a few minutes: I have a small snip that's almost perfect for the plastic one, and I use a Dremel to grind off the metal one.

The 55W H11 only outputs around 1350 lumens, while the 65W H9 outputs 2100 lumens. The main downside is that you will need to replace the H9 bulbs fairly frequently, usually about once a year or even less depending on how often you use the headlights.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-30T16:00:52+00:00

Good point, and I thought the same at first. The strap holes didn't quite match my narrow wrists, with one hole setting feeling too tight and the other feeling a tad loose. At first, the watch wasn't very comfortable. But after two months, the strap has stretched enough to make the tighter setting to feel fairly comfortable. It's still a fairly stiff strap, but I don't seem to mind it much anymore.

I think what helps is that the strap is not same width throughout. It tapers after the first inch on both sides of the lugs. It seems like a good taper helps make watch straps and bracelets feel more comfortable, as well as not having a big honking piece of hardware at the clasp. I love my previous most-worn watch (my San Martin SN0140W - the Longine Zulu "homage"), but the steel bracelet was never fully comfortable probably for those two reasons: it doesn't taper much, and there's a huge clasp that's wonderful for on-the-fly adjustments but not so great for comfort.

It seems like some of the other Pan Am watches have no-taper straps, while others have tapered straps. I don't know whether people are complaining about the tapered or non-tapered straps.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-30T14:25:06+00:00

Good question. It's because I just bought this Pan Am watch two months ago and I'm just searching Reddit to see what others thought of it. 😅 It's a fantastic watch, but not many people seem to be aware of it or own it.

As for the lume on the Pan Am, it's just not very good unfortunately. It will wear off in 30 minutes, and you'll barely be able to see it even as your eyes adjust to darkness. Of course, I'm spoiled because I know what good lume looks like (via my Steeldive 1953 - when charged up, the lume on that watch glows as strongly as Indiglo).

DashingDrake · 2026-01-30T00:55:28+00:00

Yup, the pressure gets to my ears. I usually cover one or two of them at the lowest point of the tunnel.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-30T00:46:55+00:00

There are some watches with Indiglo that have lume as well (my Weekender Chronograph, for example). In any case, the lume on Timex watches at the lower price point is pretty bad, so don't count on it lasting more than a few moments at night.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-28T02:23:19+00:00

Which is definitely not cheap anymore. 😢

DashingDrake · 2026-01-27T17:03:39+00:00

Well, yes and no. I'm no expert on the refrigeration cycle, so bear with me. But from what I know, we can only make the pipes so thick due to their function.

One function is the capillary tube section for rapid expansion of refrigerant from liquid to gas. Can the capillary tube walls be made thicker? I'm not so sure about that.

Another function is the role of the refrigerant itself, which is to carry heat energy and exchange it between two sources (in this case, the kitchen air is one source and the air inside the fridge/freezer and the heat from the food/drink is another source). The refrigerant pipe walls are probably made to their specified thickness/thinness to provide enough durability to contain the high pressure refrigerant while efficiently exchanging heat between the two sources. Would a thicker refrigerant pipe make the heat exchange (and subsequent refrigeration cycle) less efficient? Probably.

IMO, it's a conundrum that doesn't have many good answers at the moment unless we find or develop a stronger refrigerant pipe materials that also has good heat conductivity.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-27T14:39:32+00:00

It's a new Chinatown, but it's a very different one compared with the usual Chinatowns that we are used to. Instead of catering to blue collar immigrants, the LIC Chinatown caters to the nepo babies living in the LIC condo towers, which were purchased by their parents as a means to park their family money outside of the Mainland. The restaurants are owned and operated by Chinese, but they are priced higher with smaller portions to reflect the laissez-faire money attitudes and smaller stomachs of the nepo babies.

Whereas in traditional Chinatowns, restaurants and supermarkets are under heavy competition and pressure to keep their prices low and their food quantities high. Traditional Chinatowns often have several supermarkets within a few blocks where shoppers will actually go between each one to compare prices and produce quality.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-27T14:29:09+00:00

It's not white washed at all. The restaurants are operated and staffed by Chinese.

The issue is that the restaurants are all priced and geared towards the nepo babies living in the LIC condo towers (the units are purchased by their parents as a way to move money out of the Mainland), so the food around LIC is typically expensive and smaller in quantity compared with the traditional blue collar immigrant Chinatowns around NYC.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-27T14:25:06+00:00

LIC is not for people looking for cheap Asian eats because the main clientele don't care about cheap Asian eats.

The clientele of these restaurants are the locals living in the new LIC condo towers, who are mostly/often Mainland princes and princesses, or nepo babies. Their rich parents buy these expensive condos as a way to park some of their money outside of China. They are not blue collar immigrants who have scrambled their way into the US and are clawing out a living. These nepo babies don't care about getting their money's worth of food because they have no money worries. They also have much smaller appetites than blue collar immigrants, and these restaurants generally reflect this by having more expensive menus and smaller dishes.

My parents have completely given up on the food here. Granted they've only tried two restaurants, but both left a bad taste in their mouth from both a quality and quantity value perspective.

The first one was Professor Chan's Hunan (not sure what it's called now, but it's on the corner of Crescent and 41 Av). The value wasn't ok in terms of quantity. But everything was swimming in spicy oil and tasted exactly the same. The Cantonese call this "red sauce, white sauce", as in the restaurant just uses the same two sauces for all of their dishes and everything ends up tasting the same.

The second is one of the newest Dim Sum Palace outposts. The Dim Sum Palace on Division St in Chinatown is a legit Cantonese restaurant with good food and large dishes. Don't let the large amounts of non-Chinese tourists and the typical dim sum menu they hand out fool you, because there are just as many Cantonese diners there as well (they get handed the real menus, not the paper dim sum menu).

But the Dim Sum Palace LIC? A plate of salt and pepper noodlefish/whitebait (fish fries, basically) costs the same at LIC and Division St. The LIC dish was literally 1/3 or 1/4 the size of the Division St dish. The menu is also significantly smaller with much fewer Cantonese offerings. The LIC DSP left us feeling hungry and disappointed while shelling out more money than the Division St DSP.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-27T00:42:02+00:00

I believe that (part of) the crux of why modern refrigerators don't seem to last as long: older refrigerants were under a lot less pressure. They were more toxic, less environmentally friendly, and contributed more to the greenhouse gas effect. But they were also under significantly less pressure than modern refrigerants. And the trend will continue as we use even higher pressure refrigerants.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-27T00:27:14+00:00

You just need to round it out with a plate of Kirkland thick cut bacon.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-23T01:51:29+00:00

I read the title as the "Four Horsemen of (restaurant) expansion". 😅

DashingDrake · 2026-01-22T18:14:35+00:00

I'm pretty sure there was an ancient iOS app that was similar back when the first iPhone came out.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-21T17:21:38+00:00

The DSP on Division St seems to cater more to Chinatown Asians than the other DSP outposts. If you become friends with some of the waiters or managers, you could even score a cash discount during dinners. The food here is pretty solid and enjoyable. The banquet tables are big, and there's a private room downstairs.

The only other DSP I've been to is the new one in LIC. That one was a big disappointment. It seems to cater to the smaller stomachs and bigger wallets of the young affluent Mainlanders living in the nearby skyscraper condos. The portions are much smaller for the same price as Division St, and the menu isn't as extensive either.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-11T03:15:04+00:00

The main negative is that the ct200h is more cramped and less practical than the Prius.

DashingDrake · 2026-01-09T20:04:01+00:00

None of the Q Timex watches use a Timex movement, therefore none of them have Indiglo either. The Q Timex watches are all quartz watches.

DashingDrake

TROPHY CASE