STURDEVANT, Wisc. – Blame it on COVID-19? And say goodbye to another glorious piece of America. This time it is the Evinrude outboard motor, since 1907 a part of U.S. boating life ever since its invention by Ole Evinrude. If American outboards had personalities, Mercury was the speedy one, EvinrudeMORE HERE
HOBOKEN – Newell Brands, formerly Newell Rubbermaid, owns an astonishing array of classic brands. For those of us who like these classics, they are the owners of American crown jewels. These include Sunbeam, Shakespeare, Blue Diamond, Oster, Coleman, Sharpie, Rubbermaid, Elmer’s, Rawlings, Elmer’s Glue, Ball jars, X-ACTO knives, Crock-Pots, DymoMORE HERE
Perhaps it is not such an issue now, but back in the fall of 2010 Hatteras Yachts was advertising the “Hatteras Refit Center” in marine magazines. The idea was that you could take your Hatteras back to the yard to be rebuilt. This sort of approach is one way toMORE HERE
LOS ANGELES – For fans of cars and Formula One, the Ron Howard film Rush is a feast. The film details the epic rivalry between the 1976 Formula One racers James Hunt of the U.K. and Austrian Niki Lauda. Released last fall, it is just out on DVD. Sports withMORE HERE
If you were at a kids pool in the 1960s (or my wife on Lyford Cay, Bahamas in about 1968, photo at right), you would likely see toddlers swimming about with little bubble floats on their backs. In some cases they were plain styrofoam, but in many cases they wereMORE HERE
WARSAW, Virginia – On display in the window of this Northern Neck town at The Daily coffee shop is a snazzy Martin “40” outboard motor. Once, there were many American outboard brands. While Evinrude, Johnson and Mercury survive, Martin did not. Martin Motors was from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This motorMORE HERE
Tretorn. The Swedish brand still has that country club allure, made even more exotic by the fact that they are still a bit hard to find in U.S. stores, though now seem to be reappearing. Above, an old commercial for the brand that seems to date from a 1990s revivalMORE HERE
Please make graphic designers stop! First Pepsico does a number on Tropicana, and then this G for Gatorade. Annoying. Can we not just make the product and sell it? We keep seeing it on the shelves and tried to ignore it. Certainly, the new design is tasteful. And we haveMORE HERE
I’d like to send a warning to those cities that are looking at putting up a new venue for their local ball clubs: The era of “retro” parks could end soon. (Quite an upbeat theme for baseball’s Opening Day, eh?) This also dovetails into a recent post on the theMORE HERE
NEW YORK – We need to end this crap right now. Does everything have to be torn down, rebuilt, and then torn down again. So we are reading an AP story about Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs. It reads: Standing in the plush visitors’ clubhouse of Yankee Stadium, Carlos ZambranoMORE HERE