Room & Board's latest knock-off

It's hard to protect modern wing chair designs. McCobb's original is elegant but hardly groundbreaking. It is, however, distinct enough to identify as the source of R&B's copy. The primary difference is found in the squareness of the arms, but in the round it's even more similar than this photo reveals. What's more irritating is their description of the chair as "a modern interpretation of a European club chair." No! It's as American as the designer you copied!

Belly Flops

I found these at Dollar Tree. Where else can you buy irregular candy?

ZOTZ

Until day before yesterday, I hadn't eaten a Zotz for years. They're sour, fizzy and capable of dissolving teeth in a flash. I'm limiting myself to 6 per year.

Dead List 2009

Another list that had been sporadic but will now be made annual is the assortment of things that are either dead, phasing out or otherwise not worth your attention in 2010.

1. The Beckhams
There was a time when celebs required at least a modicum of talent to maintain tabloid buzz. That time is over.

2. Desktop PCs
Cell phone computing, low cost notebook computers and networked console gaming have displaced the boxes.

3. Project Runway
There's another season coming, but who cares? Absence on Bravo, a long delay and an arguably boring string of episodes simply sucked the momentum right out of a series that was already coasting.

4. Palm
The Pre and the Pixi are surely the last.

5. Hipsters
Your paraphernalia is now mainstream. You can no longer differentiate.

6. Blog Music
Today's polished pop system is similar to the late seventies music industry. Only the creation of a handful of producers (with questionable talent) gets played.

7. Educational Cable Channels
National Geographic and The Science Channel are still clinging on to being informative, but for A&E and TLC, all hope is lost. History and Discovery are starting to lose their grip as well.

8. Network TV
How many months before they're just another cable option?

9. Dieting
Fat is something you are until you can afford surgeries, a chef and a trainer. Instead of doing the obvious (eating properly, exercise, reasonable expectations), most tubby folks (self included lately) have tried nothing and it hasn't worked.

10. Using more than 140 characters to blog
Oops.

Exit 2009

It's time for the annual list of irritations I'd love to see end along with the year - though I'm certain they won't.

1. Disney Pop
Artificially virginal sani-pop is too much to bear. How has the current generation of young people escaped being jaded at all? That's right. They're not half as worldly as the generations before them.

2. "It is what it is."
The vaguest and most overused expression often is code for excusing bad behavior or willful acceptance of the inferior. Had an illicit affair? Oh well. It is what it is. Enjoying some frozen pizza? It is what it is.

3. Hoodies
I'm guilty of owning exactly two. They're useful, but I'm not planning to rob a bank, do Meth or pretend I'm 18.

4. Auto-Tune

5. Blu-ray
I just bought a cheap player in order to watch what I want now, but this transient technology is merely a pause on the way to a files-only sales model.

6. Young Vampires
Even I couldn't avoid this entirely (watched and enjoyed Being Human).

7. Young Hollywood
It's not that I'm getting older. Every adaptation or new project has gone Muppet Babies.

8. The Jacksons
It's amazing how long Michael's coattails have gotten now that he's gone. How precious of Janet to keep tight lipped until she had a disc to promote, and now tv must endure a Jacksons reality show.

9. Facebook
I'm still on it and not leaving it. It's the only social networking site that connects me to people I don't care about because I'm polite and we share some pointless commonality.

10. Greening
Must all sustainable products scream the materials they're made from? Look! My Prius is made of sawdust and runs on dryer lint.

Blacker Hole

I learned today that a remake of The Black Hole is in the works. At the age of ten I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I can't quite enjoy it now, but I just can't leave it alone either. The core of the film is startling for a 1979 Disney film. With the plot of a scientist turning the crew into drones due to mutiny over the plan to plunge to their likely deaths in a black hole - and cool floaty robots - how can you go wrong? Well, if you're Disney, you can derail things quite easily. For every cool robot there is a silly one. For every bit of science there is some nonsense. For every masterful design or special effect there is a dubious one. A great deal of scenery gets chewed along with some dated, corny lines.

Prior to the announcement of the remake, I had always wanted to do a fan edit. A much more enjoyable film could be achieved mostly by taking the unneeded parts away, redubbing BOB's voice with new, accent-free lines and a few graphic embellishments/fixes. There's a major problem with the ending, too. It's not so much the wierd Dante's Inferno stuff, it's that surving the journey through the black hole in the probe ship into a different part of the universe - or, indeed, another universe - doesn't really do anyone any favors. I can't imagine they have much to eat while waiting to be rescued. Hungry are the damned!

Atlanta Midcentury Homes Map

I've started adding placemarks to a Google map of classic modern homes in and around Atlanta. Thanks to the increased number of street views, I have been able to locate far more of these homes than I ever spotted while exploring neighborhoods by car. It's a bit tedious to mark every individual home, so I decided to only mark streets where classic modern homes are found. Many of these are only modest designs of the post and beam ranch variety, but they're no less worthy of preservation. I suppose the recession is even helping to reduce the rate at which this type of design gets replaced by McHomes (exactly what neighbors of these homes probably thought of them while peering through garish white columns decades ago).