Domestic Mystery

Scene of the crime!

And here are the usual Suspects:

No "Before" Photos for Comparison

Today Olga cleaned for me.  I took pictures of the kitchen and bathroom when she was done.  However, only a few will really know how filthy they were before.

New Cat Tree

Some assembly required

A satisfied customer.

Doing Stuff is Hard

I had my Charters to the Moon brochure framed.  (The top is the original; the bottom is a scan.)

I haven't hung it up yet.  That will be a major project!

Storm Amuses Cats.

The whole northeast was not devastated by Frankenstorm; my neighborhood came out on its feet.

A Grave Visitor

This odd truck was parked on my street today.  Fortunately, no sythe-bearing visitor came to my door.

Rainy-Day Activities

As usual in hurricane situations, by the time it gets to me, it's just some rain and wind.  It's mostly the suburbs that get the flooding and power outages.  But I stayed indoors.  The T shut down after 8 am, I'm guessing that stores closed too.  There are always lots of things to do indoors:

One can investigate new venues and postures for relaxation.

One can replace that piece of fabric art one got tired of with some pictures of the Painting Goddess.

And one can hang out on the patio and eat bugs.

Proof Positive!

My rose bush hasn't produced any flowers for a few years.  So why is it producing this year?  Maybe it liked all the rain.  Anyway, here's the proof.  (I confess to pumping up the color saturation, since the blooms are a very light pink.)

Romeo is enjoying the opportunity to go outside.

Some of Us Live on the Edge

Condominium Life

I just love my condo association meetings.  We had one tonight.  The highlight of the evening was the story of a man whose window faced the pool.  He wanted the tree near said window to be only lightly pruned and only on top, so that the branches would cut off people's view inside his place.  However, the board felt that the trees should be pruned alike with the lower branches cut back.  This guy said now his privacy was gone.  (Why couldn't he use a curtain?)  There followed a long discussion, which I won't even try to reproduce.  Suffice it to say that it ended with this guy and our property manager calling each
other liars.

At that point I felt I had done my duty and left.

Home Ownership

A few days ago I noticed that my bathroom sink stopper had broken free from the pin that held it to the thing that makes it go up and down. Naturally I called our building super.
Well, he called me at work to report that the whole pipe underneath the sink had rotted to an alarming degree. So what looked like a small problem would actually cost about $500.
This is my 12th year as a condo-owner, so I'm hardened to to home-repair prices, but I thought it was a great opportunity to use some of my clip art from the 1920s and 30s.

Snookums at Rest

Who Will Stop the Rain?

Nobody will stop this rain. It's been raining for weeks and promises to continue indefinitely until the mosquitos take over and the slugs grow as big as my arm! Also the plants in my patio are doing nicely. I did stick some tomato seeds in the ground, but nothing here looks like tomato. I'll probably just buy a plant at a farmers' market.

This is Where I Live

This sign is an East Cambridge landmark, though nowadays the chickens are slaughtered out of town and brought in dead. My building is next door.

Here's the view from my patio of my neighbors who live above the dead chicken place. I always wonder if it smells of chicken.

Here's the back of my building. Our rubber roof was due for replacement; and the new roof will be superior in every way. The inset shows the yellow flags warning folks to keep off the roof.





Old Blue Eyes at a local grill. A strange sign warns of wild skaters. Pugs has a loyal clientele.


Finally there's Albert's Grocery next to the mysterious Globe Department Store.

TV Executives Take Note

Remember 1900 House and Frontier House and all the other reality shows in which people learned how crappy it is to live in the past? When is some network going to make Future House, in which volunteers learn what it would be like to have robots do all the housework and commute to the job in a hovercraft? As Criswell said, "We are all interested in the future, for that is where we will spend the rest of our lives."*
*Prologue in Plan 9 From Outer Space

My Dad's House in HDR Photos

My Place

A Lovely New Phone!

Above, on my old wicker phone-holder, see my brand new phone. Right below it is my old phone, disconnected and ready to be packed away against the day it becomes a valuable antique.

And since it's fall, I include some stereotypical New-England-Fall photos.

My Rambling Rosebush

This rosebush was there when I moved in, and it grows like a weed. But now my patio fence is slated to be replaced, so the rosebush will have to be cut way, way back. Fortunately, it produced blooms early, before the fencers come.

Love Thy Neighbor? Not This One!

This is James W. Lewis and his wife LeAnn. The couple lived in Chicago for a few months in 1981-2, after which they moved to New York. They were calling themselves Robert and Nancy Richardson, because James was wanted on Kansas City charges: bilking elderly people out of land and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Since LeAnn had been fired from her Chicago travel agency job for taking office stationery for personal use, James needed to take revenge on her ex-boss. The 1982 Tylenol poisonings gave him the means: he wrote a note to Johnson & Johnson (on the travel agency letterhead) demanding one million dollars to end the poisonings and signed it with the ex-boss's name. He asked that the money be transfered to an account belonging to said ex-boss. However, his clever plan backfired. Apparently he did not think to type the note or to disguise his handwriting. Police found his fingerprints on the letter and matched the handwriting. Since the couple were in New York when the Tylenol bottles must have been tampered with, James was only charged with extortion. After serving 13 years of his 20-year sentence he was released. He and his wife moved into a lovely building in Cambridge, MA, which happens to be one of the 2 buildings in my condo association. Luckily it wasn't my building. Still, it was pretty close.
Fast forward to July 29, 2004. Once again, Mr. Lewis is in trouble with the law. His partner in a consulting business claimed he had used spice spray on her and struggled with her for four hours before raping her. When the case finally came to trial, the accuser refused to testify against him and Lewis was released. Recently he's been giving interviews, bewailing his wrongs. Being suspected of the Tylenol killings caused him great anguish: "I can tell you it is a big weight to have thrown at you and it is nothing that your mother prepares you for and it is not something that you learn about in school" (see McCabe).
I don't suspect him of being the Tylenol poisoner. But I do call him the Tylenol man; writing that note earned him the name.

Bibliography:
McCabe, Neil W., "My Chat With the Tylenol Man" The Alewife, October 03, 2007
Bell, Rachel, "The Tylenol Terrorist: Looking for Answers" TruTV Crime Library
Hilts, Philip J. and Joyce Wadler, "Wanted on Extortion Charges; Tylenol Figure Arrested in New York" The Washington Post, December 14, 1982, Tuesday, Final Edition, First Section; A1
Roger Nicolsen Interview: http://youtube.com/watch?v=WH4iQzHdtIU&feature=related