Things that make you smile

[Fading Fast]

The Charlie Brown balloon at Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

 

[Fading Fast]

The gym I go to is about 20 blocks from my house and located in a part of the city that is mostly high-rise office buildings. I go very early in the morning and, this week / past weekend, most of them put up their lobby Christmas trees.

Because of the early hour, the city is reasonably dark (it is never really dark as there are always a lot of lights on, but it does get relatively dark) with the office lobbies of most buildings - now - lit primary by the gigantic (and artificial) Christmas trees.

These trees are impressive in scale - twenty, thirty or forty foot high trees are not unusual. They are also - while artificial as noted - usually very attractive as, I assume, they are expensive and meant to last for several years.

Once in awhile (not this year so far), I'll see one or more being assembled in the lobby which is always both fun and odd as you might see half a tree up and the remaining sections sitting on the floor nearby. Sometimes a small lift (like a cherry picker) is brought in to help with the job.

This morning, they felt like beacons helping me find my way. As a devout agnostic but someone with a deep respect for the Judeo-Christian heritage of this country - it put a big smile on my face to see that Christmas Trees are still thriving in the city even as "Merry Christmas" has given way to "Season's Greetings."

 

[BlueTrain]

One of the most entertaining church services, if we can put it that way, that we attend is the children's pageant on Christmas Eve. It's the same every year, of course, but those taking part gradually changes over time as the children get older. But the "set" is the same one used for at least the last twenty years. After the pageant, the regular service continues with communion, which in that church is at the communion rail. Once I spotted a feather on the floor from one of the costumes. I pointed it out to my wife and told her it was from an angel's wing, which it really was, sort of.

 

[GHT]

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, especially if you get severe snow storms, I know I shouldn't smile at your misfortune, which is why I gave it a belly laugh.

 

[dioxide]

For me, it'd be coming home and playing the piano. That is a sure fire way to crack a smile for me.

 

[Trenchfriend]

For me, it'd be coming home and playing the piano. That is a sure fire way to crack a smile for me.

Claude Debussy - The girl with the flaxen hair

 

[Fading Fast]

Really elaborate (or really well done simple) gingerbread houses.

 

[Fading Fast]

I assume because tomorrow is the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, there is a church nearby whose bells have been playing out "Come All Ye Faithful."

As a devout agnostic raised by a father with a low-level antipathy toward all religions (that could spike to a high level if provoked), I still enjoy the elegant sounds and symbols of religions even though I don't participate.

The sounds of those bells - which are very soft and resonant - have been ringing out "Come..." three times a day all week - makes me smile every time.

 

[sheeplady]

I like church bells. Where we live there is a church street (on which our UU church is) along with several other churches. Our church no longer has it's bell, but there's nothing so wonderful as hearing them all ringing from the various churches at the end of service.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Pulling up to a railroad grade crossing as the gates come down and a fast train roars past. Passenger train or long freight, it doesn't matter. Travel or commerce, moving on 4 foot eight and a half inch gauged steel rails.. as has been done for the last 130+ years: there is something satisfying and reassuring in all of it. It was better about 45 years ago, when there were a lot more roads and before merger mania hit, but it's still a pleasant experience.

 

[GHT]

Pulling up to a railroad grade crossing as the gates come down and a fast train roars past.

It's been many years now, but back in the days of steam engines, it always made me smile when standing on an island platform. That's what we Brits call a platform that has rails either side of it and is accessed by subway or bridge. Standing on such a platform waiting for your train, when 118 tons of steam technology hurtles through the station at 80 to 90 miles an hour, hauling 14 magnificent Pullman coaches, causing the platform to tremble like a minor earthquake, leaving the whole scene enveloped in smoke, steam and that evocative steam train smell. Makes me smile just reminiscing it.
Have four and a half minutes of smiles on me, this clip is of steam trains from both sides of the pond thundering through stations at speed. Enjoy.

 

[ChiTownScion]

It's been many years now, but back in the days of steam engines, it always made me smile when standing on an island platform. That's what we Brits call a platform that has rails either side of it and is accessed by subway or bridge. Standing on such a platform waiting for your train, when 118 tons of steam technology hurtles through the station at 80 to 90 miles an hour, hauling 14 magnificent Pullman coaches, causing the platform to tremble like a minor earthquake, leaving the whole scene enveloped in smoke, steam and that evocative steam train smell. Makes me smile just reminiscing it.
Have four and a half minutes of smiles on me, this clip is of steam trains from both sides of the pond thundering through stations at speed. Enjoy.

Great footage! I especially enjoy seeing Flying Scotsman in all of her glory. She toured the US in the late- 1960's, and even though they slapped a bell and American coupler on her front- and crowned her with a large headlight- she still maintained her noble bearing.

Building a new locomotive from scratch- the Peppercorn Class Pacific Tornado featured in the footage- is an accomplishment by the Brits that I really admire and envy. About the best we Yanks can afford by way of reciprocity is the restoration of Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy 4014- a 1,250,000 pound monster that defies superlatives. Target date is 2019: I'm hoping that several of my friends in the UK will make their way to Cheyenne Wyoming and vicinity to witness the event. And while they're here, to see more of the American West.

 

[Fading Fast]

Pulling up to a railroad grade crossing as the gates come down and a fast train roars past. Passenger train or long freight, it doesn't matter. Travel or commerce, moving on 4 foot eight and a half inch gauged steel rails.. as has been done for the last 130+ years: there is something satisfying and reassuring in all of it. It was better about 45 years ago, when there were a lot more roads and before merger mania hit, but it's still a pleasant experience.

It's been many years now, but back in the days of steam engines, it always made me smile when standing on an island platform. That's what we Brits call a platform that has rails either side of it and is accessed by subway or bridge. Standing on such a platform waiting for your train, when 118 tons of steam technology hurtles through the station at 80 to 90 miles an hour, hauling 14 magnificent Pullman coaches, causing the platform to tremble like a minor earthquake, leaving the whole scene enveloped in smoke, steam and that evocative steam train smell. Makes me smile just reminiscing it.
Have four and a half minutes of smiles on me, this clip is of steam trains from both sides of the pond thundering through stations at speed. Enjoy.

Great comments and great footage.

When a train powers through a station or crossing like that, it says to me, "I've got serious work to do here, I have to get these people to X on time or this coal to y on time and - and you can bet on it - I will get it done."

In our digital world, where many fabulous things happen as invisible zeroes and ones interact on microchips driven by code we'll never see, there is something tactile, visceral, real about a big train, with (in the best of worlds) a steam engine that I understand and can see working, moving people and freight. It's work, it's progress, it's achievement that you can see and feel.

Yup, brings a smile to my face every time.

 

[Zombie_61]

...In our digital world, where many fabulous things happen as invisible zeroes and ones interact on microchips driven by code we'll never see, there is something tactile, visceral, real about a big train, with (in the best of worlds) a steam engine that I understand and can see working, moving people and freight. It's work, it's progress, it's achievement that you can see and feel...

For as long as I can remember I've preferred to see machines at work. For example, in recent years I'd watch these "reality" shows in which two groups of people would each build a motorcycle as competition against one another, and could never get on board with those who went out of their way to hide the working parts behind sheet metal. A motorcycle is a machine; let it look like one.

Watching the train videos above, it's impressive and beautiful to me to see how much power they generate.

 

[Fading Fast]

For as long as I can remember I've preferred to see machines at work. For example, in recent years I'd watch these "reality" shows in which two groups of people would each build a motorcycle as competition against one another, and could never get on board with those who went out of their way to hide the working parts behind sheet metal. A motorcycle is a machine; let it look like one.

Watching the train videos above, it's impressive and beautiful to me to see how much power they generate.

That's one of the reason why I have mixed emotions about the GE streamlining of the steam engines. While some look stylistically fantastic - I love what Raymond Loewy did to streamline the Broadway Limited - it goes against the idea of letting a machine just be a machine where part of its beauty is in seeing it work.

 

[Zombie_61]

That's one of the reason why I have mixed emotions about the GE streamlining of the steam engines. While some look stylistically fantastic - I love what Raymond Loewy did to streamline the Broadway Limited - it goes against the idea of letting a machine just be a machine where part of its beauty is in seeing it work.

You know better than I do that it was inevitable once the designers learned about aerodynamics. I don't disagree with you about seeing the machinery at work, but the Broadway Limited was a gorgeous machine.

I wish modern car manufacturers were more imaginative. I understand they're moving more and more towards selling their vehicles based on performance issues and designing them to be as aerodynamic as possible, but why does every car suddenly have to look like a homogeneous wedge-shaped blob? I certainly don't envy police officers these days. "What kind of car was the suspect driving?" "Uhh...silver?"

 

[EngProf]

You know better than I do that it was inevitable once the designers learned about aerodynamics. I don't disagree with you about seeing the machinery at work, but the Broadway Limited was a gorgeous machine.

I wish modern car manufacturers were more imaginative. I understand they're moving more and more towards selling their vehicles based on performance issues and designing them to be as aerodynamic as possible, but why does every car suddenly have to look like a homogeneous wedge-shaped blob? I certainly don't envy police officers these days. "What kind of car was the suspect driving?" "Uhh...silver?"

As a former NASA aerodynamics researcher, the problem is that cars move through the same fluid (air) at the same speeds, hence they evolve to similar appearance.
I lament that similarity also, and am pleased that I can tell a '57 Chevy from a '57 Ford at 100 yards on a foggy day. Unfortunately those days are gone...
The real blame lies with the politicians in Washington who keep setting higher and higher mileage standards. If you have to get 50+ MPG you have to do *everything* you can do...

You'd be surprised how a very small change in external contour can affect aerodynamic drag.

 

[GHT]

That's one of the reason why I have mixed emotions about the GE streamlining of the steam engines. While some look stylistically fantastic - I love what Raymond Loewy did to streamline the Broadway Limited - it goes against the idea of letting a machine just be a machine where part of its beauty is in seeing it work.

Sir Nigel Gresley designed the engine, named: "Mallard," that broke the world speed record for a steam train. Gresley was inspired by Bugatti motor cars. Instead of the usual, cylindrical boiler, Gresley sculptured the shape into something much more aerodynamic yet aesthetically pleasing too. But you can still see the engine as an engine, in all it's working glory. If you Google: "Mallard at 126 mph" you will see the original footage of that speed record, it's in black & white, but you still get the impact of the raw power of that engine. It even impresses standing still.

 

[Fading Fast]

Sir Nigel Gresley designed the engine, named: "Mallard," that broke the world speed record for a steam train. Gresley was inspired by Bugatti motor cars. Instead of the usual, cylindrical boiler, Gresley sculptured the shape into something much more aerodynamic yet aesthetically pleasing too. But you can still see the engine as an engine, in all it's working glory. If you Google: "Mallard at 126 mph" you will see the original footage of that speed record, it's in black & white, but you still get the impact of the raw power of that engine. It even impresses standing still.
View attachment 64770

I did Google it, even though I've seen it before, I still love it. It looks like it put everything it had into that run - steams coming from everywhere, it's huffing and puffing and blowing its whistle and it looks like its connecting rods are going to shoot right off they're pumping so hard - it left nothing in the locker room on that run.

Fortunately, I'm not one of those people who watched the video six or seven times in a row because he enjoys that much. Nope, not me, I am way too busy and too important to do that. That would just be sad.

 

[Fading Fast]

At the gym, very early this morning on the treadmill (amidst a sea of 40 or more of them, all but one or two unoccupied)

Young woman gets on the one two down from me / haven't seen her before / must be a "newbie" as she has nice workout clothes, reads the machine's directions, is fumbling with her iPhone and earbuds

I'm half watching this out of the corner of my eye (the workout gets boring once I've finished the morning papers online) / now she is really rockin' the speed / running hard and her face is getting redder / she's still fumbling with the earbuds

Frustrated, she straddles the treadmill (the belt is still whipping around under her, her feet are perched astride it) / she's trying to fix the iPhone and earbuds / it all looks like a bit of a mess

She drops the earbuds and they shoot (literally shoot) off the back of the treadmill and are at least fifteen feet behind the machine / she's now astride the speeding belt with the iPhone in hand but no earbuds

She looks down, then behind, then up, then at me / we both break out into a full-throttle laugh

She shuts the machine down / picks up the earbuds / fiddles a bit more and starts it all up again

I finish before her / we give each other a brief nod as I leave

I've chuckled about those earbuds flying across the room all day today