Jim Shulman on Mom and Hitchhiking Robots

Probably the strangest story of the week concerned a “hitchhiking” Canadian robot, which was traversing the US along similar lines to a recent European hitchhiking tour. While the hitchhiking lawn gnome tours are old news (and, surprisingly, none of the robot stories...

Jim Shulman on the Prize Bicycle

Back in the dark ages—1971—my junior high school announced a fundraising program for some worthy cause (Cheerleader uniforms? Football team trips? Whatever..) to be funded through a magazine subscription drive. For those readers under 40, these were very common events...

Jim Shulman on Amish Cell Phones

Yesterday my husband and I took a long, leisurely drive through Lancaster County in our 1957 Dodge. It was one of those perfect late Summer days that practically demanded a spin in an antique car—and for us, a celebration that this was one of one of those rare...

Jim Shulman on Sonic Chips and Bacon Ice Cream

A few months ago I went through a Wawa and noticed a special display of three new potato chip variations, each with some bizarre flavor (meaning a mélange of Frankensteinian esters that simulate something otherwise quite palatable.) The idea was that you were supposed...

Jim Shulman on the Catskills

About five million years ago—my junior year in high school—I acquired a fake ID to work one summer in the fabled Catskills. Today it sounds really strange to get a fake ID for work, but then if I wanted to make decent money as a waiter I had to be 18, or at least...