Category: General

I’ve taken to reading random Wikipedia entries, something that’s very easy and informative thanks to the layout of their front page.

Today’s entry that I came across involved the anglerfish, which many people are familiar with as the deep sea fish that dangles a bioluminescent glowing, worm-like bait from it’s forehead in order to draw prey close enough to its mouth to eat.

If you saw Pixar’s Finding Nemo, you saw an animated version of this fish in the dark sea depths sequence.

The fascinating, if not disturbing, portion of the Wiki entry is about the anglerfish reproductive habits. Males are born as tiny little creatures with no digestive system and a keen sense of underwater smell, which allows him to find a suitable female anglerfish and bite one of her flanking sides. At that point, enzymes are released which causes the two to slowly merge into one organism, with the male mutating into a simple set of gonads that release sperm into the female’s bloodstream. Any males that do not find a female simply die.

Every time I take a look at the reproductive strategies of other species, the whole “asking someone out on a date” thing no longer looks as scary.

At the Meister House we traditionally make a visit to Geneva on the Lake, Ohio during the Memorial Day weekend to mark the yearly opening of Eddie’s Grill.

Geneva on the Lake has been something of a hidden getaway spot in northeast Ohio for nearly a century, providing a number of cabins and inns located right next to Lake Erie in a small town atmosphere. The area feels like a seaside resort in some ways that just happens to be just under an hour away from downtown Cleveland.

In the center of the lakeside area there is a long strip of road which is pretty much the place to cruise in your classic car or motorcycle. There are open-air arcades, novelty and souvenir shops, restaurants and nightclubs all along the main drag, but our favorite destination is always Eddie’s Grill.

Eddie’s Grill has been around since the mid-40s, and going there is like taking a trip back to the 50s. It’s an open-air burger joint, where you can grab a booth or sit at the roadside stools and partake in exactly the kind of burgers and chili dogs you would imagine such a place would serve.

It’s a great place to visit during Memorial Day to celebrate the arrival of decent, if not always warm, northeast Ohio weather. It’s also just far enough away from the bigger cities and suburbs of Ohio that driving the twenty-five miles seems like a real trip away from all your worries at home.

I spent the better part of an hour and a half today lying on my back and underneath the steering column of my 1984 Pontiac Fiero today replacing the clutch pedal you see above.

When Pontiac first released the Fiero, they used an aluminum pedal, which over twenty years tends to bend through heavy use. The U-shaped bend at the top of the pedal is supposed to form a perfectly shaped square-U.

Fortunately, replacement clutch pedals made out of solid steel can be had for $30, so replacement came down to spending the time in a rather uncomfortable, tight position in order to fix the problem of my clutch not releasing properly.