Find A Mechanic on Car Talk.com

Naturally, the place to begin is with the car itself.  Whether you’re a cheapskate like me and tend to drive cars into the ground before you’ll take it into the shop, or a genius like my father who always kept the family fleet in tip-top mechanical condition, you’ll want to have the car checked out by your favorite mechanic.  If you don’t know a reliable mechanic, check out the “Mechanics File” on CarTalk.com, the official website of the NPR radio program featuring Click and Clack (a.k.a. Tom and Ray Magliozzi).  It’s the Angie’s List for auto mechanics filled with the recommendations of their listeners, with far fewer useless snarky rants in the comments than you’ll find in most other online sources.

This is a great time to check if your car is due for its scheduled maintenance to keep your warranty intact.  Whatever you do, at least make sure you have the oil changed.  The $30-40.00 it costs is never wasted, and is especially important if your plans include hours of driving at highway speeds.  Proper lubrication extends the engine life, of course, and it also helps keep the car running cooler.  Cell phones mean we don’t worry about getting stranded out in the middle of nowhere nearly as much as we did in the past, but a breakdown during your vacation is certainly going to put a damper on your spirits as well as your pocketbook.  The quick oil change services are OK, but I recommend taking it to a regular auto repair service where they can check out all of those pesky, yet vital, service items like brakes and transmission, fluids, belts and hoses, windshield wipers, headlights, signal lights, seatbelts, airbags, and (of course!) the tires.  Those are all easy to procrastinate over, so it’s the perfect opportunity to have them taken care of now while it’s convenient rather than when you’re out on the road and at the mercy of whatever service you might have to use in an emergency.

Buckle Up For Safety!

And when you are actually out on the road, remember that you’re not in a war with the other drivers.  Yes, there are idiots out there, but when you reach my age you come to realize that the best way to deal with them is to just slow down a bit and stay out of their way.  You’re out to have fun, not win the Le Mans.  And use your bleeping seat belt!  According to the Minnesota Highway Patrol, in the past three years roughly 46% of all auto fatalities were people who weren’t wearing a seatbelt.  While this sort of idiocy often brings to mind my old joke, “Natural Selection works, it’s just very slow”, there’s fewer things you can do while driving that are nearly as senseless as not wearing your seatbelt.  Law enforcement agencies are running their “Click-It or Ticket” campaign starting Monday May 21 through June 7, and they’re going to be pulling people over that they might normally have let pass.

Minnesota Museum Month

With the arrival of warmer weather, its only natural to focus on outdoor activities for your summertime staycation, but fresh-air fiends can combine some culture with your walkabouts by visiting one of these local treasures in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  The folks at Meet Minneapolis have a great article on museums where you can take the whole family.  Museums aren’t the dreary halls of mind-numbing artifacts that only the hoplessly nerdy enjoy.  Today, museums focus on engaging the audience and instilling an interest in their particular field.  You’re sure to find yourself having a soul-satisfying experience, and you’ll broaden the horizons of your kids, too!  Speaking of children, I’d suggest starting with the kid-friendly Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul where they can touch and play without constantly being scolded.

Sherlock Season 2 on PBS

The PBS series Masterpiece Mystery! begins showing season 2 of “Sherlock” this Sunday, May 6th at 8PM Central Time.  For those of you who have only recently discovered British television courtesy of “Downton Abbey”, do yourself a favor and watch this program.  This is a modern-day incarnation of Holmes with sharp-witted dialogue and baffling plots worthy of Conan-Doyle’s immortal sleuth.  Don’t worry that you’re coming in on Season 2.  It hardly matters.  The foundations of the characters of Holmes and Watson remain fully intact.  Holmes, the brilliant master of deductive reasoning with no social skills whatsoever, and his faithful friend Dr. John Watson, recently mustered out of the Army who’s intrigued by Holmes’ mind and shares his fascination with the mysteries his life presents.  Benedict Cumberbatch gives Holmes a welcome breath of fresh air, and the advantage of youth and vigor that he has rarely been given in the past.  Martin Freeman’s John Watson is, thankfully, no bumbling companion present only to fill in plot points and chronolog the adventures of the Master Detective.  This Doctor Watson is integral in solving the puzzles and giving Holmes the common sense, real world perspective he so sorely needs, as well as a well-educated and thorougly competant partner.  This series is just surprisingly well-done.  Given the premise of a modern-day Holmes played by a young man in his 20′s, my expectations going into Series 1 were very low.  So it made the show that much more of a treat to watch.

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

There are few characters in literature whose portrayal on film evokes more passion among his fans than does Sherlock Holmes.  According to Wikipedia, The Guiness World Book claims over 75 actors have appeared as Holmes in more than 200 films.  The most famous of these is undoubtedly Basil Rathbone, who played the Bard of Baker Street in a total of fourteen films, starting in 1939 through 1946, as well as on radio during the same period.  Rathbone had the aristocratic British accent for which Americans have a special fondness, and a Gallic nose that made his silhouette instantly recognizable.  The affable, rotund Nigel Bruce, a stage veteran and character actor in Hollywood, played the bumbling Doctor Watson.  The quality of the Rathbone/Bruce films varied widely.  Their first outing in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, was a fairly straightforward adaptation of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s book and was so popular that it kicked off the series.  But as World War II broke out, the films took on the role of boosting support for the war effort, the plots lost their appeal for Holmes fans.  Still, for many fans, Basil Rathbone is the embodiment of Sherlock Holmes.

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

As the television era arrived in the 1950′s, Holmes was revived in a British television series largely aimed at children.  Through the 1960′s and 70′s a handful of Hollywood features such as “The Seven Percent Solution”, tried to remove the sugar coating Holmes had received in the Basil Rathbone versions.  But the stars aligned in the 1980′s and Britain’s Grenada Television gave us “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” starring Jeremy Brett.  An accomplished and dedicated actor, Brett immersed himself in the personna of Holmes by studying all of the original stories by Conan-Doyle.  Brett’s Holmes had little of the snobbish affectations that Basil Rathbone often exuded, and gave his performance a depth of character that no previous actor had ever achieved in the role.  This Holmes was a real person with feelings and desires, and several flaws.  The Grenada series starring Brett is certainly my favorite Sherlock Holmes, and is considered by many to be the definitive portrayal.  Several episodes are available through Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming.  Give it a try and you’ll be hooked.

Without A Clue

Of course, no pop-culture hero goes unskewered forever.  There have been a handful of comedies centered on Sherlock.  Among these, my personal favorite is “Without A Clue”, starring Michael Caine as Holmes and Ben Kingsley as Dr. Watson.  It’s a pure farce in which the characters of Holmes and Watson are reversed.  It’s Dr. Watson who’s the genius here.  He’s an incarnation of Conan-Doyle the author who writes about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes for a magazine.  Holmes, on the other hand, is a third-rate actor and alcoholic who presents himself to the world (and the police) as the genius, but who, in reality, must rely on Watson at every step.  As the story unfolds, Watson becomes increasingly jealous of his creation, whom the world continually lavishes with praise while totally dismissing his partner, and Holmes becomes ever-more annoyed at the never-ending stream of condescension and insults thrown at him by Watson.  This all leads to a parting of the ways, and Watson attempting to create a new character for himself – “John Watson, the Crime Doctor”, but to no avail.  The world wants Sherlock Holmes and will accept no substitutes.  The movie was not a box-office success, but I dote on the performances of these wonderful British actors, especially Michael Caine who throws himself into the role of the idiot Holmes totally at-sea and drowning in the presence of Kingsley’s twinkling-eyed, all-knowing Watson.  This is a perfect popcorn movie for a summer night.

It’s a good time to get the snow tires organized and ready to be installed.  Make sure your AAA membership is up to date, find the battery charger and make sure it’s working, and maybe take the snowblower in for an oil change and general maintenance before the shops get overwhelmed with procrastinators.

And speaking of @MinneapolisSnow, be sure to follow their Twitter feed so that you’ll get timely notices of Snow Emergencies.  I had my car towed last winter and, believe me, you don’t want to go through that nightmare.

The show in question is called “New Tricks”, which revolves around a special unit that primarily investigates cold cases.  The squad is made up of three “old dogs” – retired detectives with ages of experience and an uncanny ability to suss out the missing pieces of the cases they’re handed.  They’re old pros who know where all the bodies are buried, and who buried them – whether the good guys or the bad guys.  It’s a textbook example of a show that’s mentally challenging, character-drived, and often funny as hell.

The cast (from left to right) consists of: Brian, the emotionally troubled detective with a near-photographic memory for cops, crooks, and crime statistics; Sandra, the smart and sassy leader of the squad who turned a no-win situation into an amazingly effective team; Jack, the clear-thinking anchor of the team who often talks out cases with his beloved late wife Mary while standing over her grave in his back patio; and Gerry (down front), the thrice-divorced cowboy with a sketchy history, whose not afraid to bend a rule here and there.

It’s showing at 9PM on Saturdays on TPT Life – channel 2.3 over the air, channel 13 on Comcast Minneapolis, and channel 17 on Comcast St. Paul.

Another little gem from the British Isles has returned to TPT called “Black Books”.  This is definitely not your conventional sitcom.  These folks are well and truly bonkers.  From the BBC’s blurb:

“Bernard Black is grumpy, very grumpy. He does not understand the ordinary world and has created his own safe haven within the grubby confines of the shop. Bernard is driven by his own alcohol-fuelled logic and anyone attempting to buy a book from him is more likely to meet with the full force of his foul temper than they are to leave his shop with a purchase. Bernard loves his books and hates his customers. Bernard’s devotion to the twin pleasures of drunkenness and willful antagonism deepens and enriches both his life and that of Manny, his assistant. Bearded, gentle, sweet and good, Manny is punished by Bernard relentlessly for the crime of existing. They depend on each other for meaning as Fran, their oldest friend, depends on them for distraction. Bereft of her loathed business concerns, Fran struggles to find significance in between struggling to find her cigarettes and reasons for another drink.”

“Black Books” is showing on TPT Channel 2 at 10PM or 10:30PM on Mondays and Thursdays.