That car's not right...

Today was going to be productive. I was going to go down to campus after breakfast, do a little work, and then find a stretch of beach to walk along. Well, that didn't happen. After I pulled out of my parking spot the brakes were not right. The pedal gave no resistance, I only realized that down the road a bit, so I coasted into nearby Tweeville (not its actual name), which is a mall of antique stores which are in turn made from authentic antique buildings shipped in from the . This is all a few blocks down from me. There's an excellent bakery there, so I at least coasted into a place where I could get breakfast while I planned my next move.

Inside, I recognized two of the patrons at a table in the back, an elderly couple (ages 95 and 93) who my students have been interviewing. The fellow was a paratrooper in the Philippines in WWII (wow!), so he has been interviewed for the USAHEC veterans oral history program that my students participate in as part of an independent study. One of my students will be interviewing the couple, who have been married 75 years, about the history of Atlantic City, and I'm hoping she'll get a publishable article out of it. I met them at this bakery earlier this year, and my students and I will be taking them out for breakfast next Sunday anyway. I know their great-grandson, a former student of mine. When I first met them, in fact, I had a photo of their great-great-grandson on my phone that my student had sent me. I of course shared it with them.

After breakfast, I checked the brake fluid in my car and found the reservoir to be bone dry. I schlepped across the street to a dollar store to get some and very quickly the car started to feel more normal. But my morning was thrown off, and I was not so keen to take the car all the way to campus. As a consequence, I was at home all day.

Not a thunderingly interesting post, I'll admit, so here's a report of a Philadelphia goldfish dealer who found a "Jersey Devil" among his stock. This seems to be an early "scientists baffled"-themed story.

Source: The Libby Herald, 17 Aug 1911, Chronicling America

RJB