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Increased ridership on electric trains, lower costs for electricity than forecast, and financial discipline have improved Caltrain’s financial outlook, but not nearly enough to prevent the need for new funding. Caltrain’s finance committee got a first look at a draft operating budget for FY2025 and a draft 10-Year Strategic Financial Plan on December 16. Electric service – lower than expected electric costs, higher ridership The cost of electricity was a …

In a New Year message, the author shares their Goodreads "My Year in Books" infographic, reflecting humorously on their reading accomplishments and a lack of compliments. They met their goal of reading 120 books and mention winning four contests. They express hopes for future reading challenges and share well wishes for the upcoming literary year. Continue reading → The post 2024: My Year in Books: The Infographic first appeared on …

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Harry Langdon is over a barrel (actually, several of them) in 'The Strong Man' (1926).The New Year in silent film accompaniment starts for me on Monday, Jan. 6, when I'll do music for Harry Langdon's great comedy 'The Strong Man' (1926) at the Garden Cinema in Greenfield, Mass. Details and more info about the screening are in the press release pasted below.But before we plunge headlong into 2025, I'd like …

Every woodworker knows the frustration sliding workbench, especially when you’re in the middle of a satisfying hand planing session. Instead of fighting with your workbench, why not ground it properly? In my latest video, I share simple and effective techniques to stop your workbench from moving around the workshop. These are practical solutions that any hand tool woodworker can implement. Check out the video to learn how to keep your …

Formal evening dress, cover of Delineator magazine, December1899 On New Years Eve, 1899, ladies who bought Butterick patterns had these choices or gowns for balls and parties. Butterick Gowns for New Year’s Eve, 1899. Delineator magazine. On January 1, they could start the New Year in chic winter outfits…. January 1900 Delineator. Cover image. More Modish toilettes for January 1900. Butterick patterns from Delineator magazine. Plaids were chic. Delineator, January …

Unlike the assembly of some of my more recent year-end favorite photo lists, I can’t bemoan a lack of options this time around. My curated “not-so-short” list of personal photo favorites from 2024 on Flickr ultimately topped out at 62 entries. Even with all those images to choose from, whittling the list down to a top ten didn’t take as long as I thought it might. As it turned out, …

Hungarian born painter Philip de László, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spent much of his life and career in the UK, where he was noted for his portraits of royalty and the wealthy. The de Lazlo Archive Trust website features information about the artist, as well as a catalogue raisonné of his work.

This is going to be a year of big changes. Goals for 2025 My goals this year will be primarily setting new habits. I started guitar lessons in December. I plan to continue practicing every day, excepting some holidays or travel. Also on the creative side, I want to develop a painting habit. This will probably be less frequent than guitar, but I still want to paint at least once …

Good day and good year! At least in some ways! The "mathematically complicated secret santa" video is up now. I'm in it. Some would say: Too much! I haven't played with my new camera enough, so I sent Matt a bunch of footage (including 90 seconds of completely blank silent 4k video, like a professional would!!) and only an appropriately appropriate fraction of the gags made the cut, so I'm …

Happy New Year, sandwich fans! It’s 2025 now and there are so many sandwiches ahead of us this year, with Phase 3 scheduled to end in July, but a tentative Phase 4 list we’d like to cover that would last us into 2027. We’ll take on these sandwiches one month at a time, 3 sandwiches a month, as we’ve been doing for over 10 years now. We have 3 new …

Man, it would have been swell to get to the 50 Year mark leading the Dashiell Hammett Tour, but I guess I started in just a little too late. The gumshoes are willing but years weigh heavy. And I can’t see any scenario where they don’t just keep getting heavier. Hell, I was lucky I could bounce back for a few more years after triple bypass surgery in 2018. In …

How can you expect a beholder to experience my picture as I experienced it? A picture comes to me a long time beforehand; who knows how long a time beforehand, I sensed, saw, and painted it and yet the next day even I do not understand what I have done. How can anyone penetrate my dreams, my instincts, my desires, my thought, which have taken a long time to fashion …

Roundshaw Downs is an area of chalk down located mostly within the suburb of South Beddington, which is part of the town of Wallington, in the London Borough of Sutton. It sits to the west of the busy A23 road which links London to Brighton. Historically the area was used as farmland but at the beginning of the 20th century it became home to Beddington Aerodrome, which was established in …

1-2. Familiar Touch / Last Summerby Sarah Friedland / by Catherine BreillatTwo diametrically opposed studies of women in the autumn of their lives, with time running out and pleasures and comforts no longer guaranteed. In the former Sarah Friedland show the search for dignity as the mind goes and the world is what you remember of it in a feedback loop betraying you to your surroundings. Enfeeblement your reward for …