Science Fiction and Fantasy

Some quick questions.

1) What big event falls on the 5th of November? This used to be celebrated in the US too before their independence.

2) Where did I have lunch yesterday?

3) What was that film I saw a few months ago? It's a more recent film (color at least) and had a very noir feeling, though it is not the same vintage as what one considers noir.

4) My lunch companion was saying how her new beau read mostly non-fiction, whereas she reads mostly mysteries. They are going to have a book exchange. We were discussing what books she could lend him. Any thoughts? (Conan Doyle, Christie, H.G. Wells and a few others were mentioned).

5) You probably heard about our local traffic problems last week (Bay Bridge closed to failed repairs). Do you have any irreplaceable arterials, or recent catastrophic closures ?

(just thought, we had a Devils Slide closure the other week too {PCH/Hwy 1, S of SF}, can you imagine that coinciding with a Bay Bridge or Golden Gate closure - wow)

1) What big event falls on the 5th of November? This used to be celebrated in the US too before their independence.

i admit it. i cheated. i Wikipedia'd it, and discovered that it is Guy Fawkes night.

2) Where did I have lunch yesterday?

a restaurant. you enjoyed your meal, but it didn't blow you away... the company was what was most important. (?)

3) What was that film I saw a few months ago? It's a more recent film (color at least) and had a very noir feeling, though it is not the same vintage as what one considers noir.

haven't a clue.

4) My lunch companion was saying how her new beau read mostly non-fiction, whereas she reads mostly mysteries. They are going to have a book exchange. We were discussing what books she could lend him. Any thoughts? (Conan Doyle, Christie, H.G. Wells and a few others were mentioned).

definitely no thoughts from me. my literary tastes run towards cheesy sci-fi/fantasy, and a non-fiction lover would probably run screaming from my book collection OR anything i might suggest.

5) You probably heard about our local traffic problems last week (Bay Bridge closed to failed repairs). Do you have any irreplaceable arterials, or recent catastrophic closures ?
(just thought, we had a Devils Slide closure the other week too {PCH/Hwy 1, S of SF}, can you imagine that coinciding with a Bay Bridge or Golden Gate closure - wow)

nope. i'm living in the central US, so stuff like that is literally half a world away. BUT there is some severe construction and detours on my way to my son's school. it's been going on since before school started, and it's getting annoying.

interesting questions this morning.

"since before school started"

When I moved to the Bay Area in '93, the Fwy I238 was under re-construction. They were adding a new overpass over I880 and adding sound walls. This was part of the widening and addition of a BART track down the center.

To add Bart all the overpasses along 238 needed to be modified, and a tunnel put under 238 for the train to get between lanes.

The new 580 over pass, less than 2 miles away where 580 is joined by 238 was at that point complete.

While various overpass construction was completed, the two traffic lanes of 238 kept shifting every few months.

This work has been continuous since the early 90's and was just completed last month. A road that for years has had a rush hour speed of 5 mph commute direction, and 20 mph reverse commute speed now has a commute speed of 10mph and reverse commute speed of >65. The extra lane Ebound and 2 lanes W bound are a huge bonus. Was it worth 20 years effort? Who can tell, but this thing does cross two major roads, and two train systems as well as having two freeway interchanges in a brutally short distance.