Announcing the debut of Wiener Sausage: The Podcast!

(These are show notes from my short-lived and perhaps ill-fated podcast with Dan Sullivan. May it always at least live on here. Sigh.)

Episode #1 Show Notes - "A Trip Down Wiener Lane" 5/19/2017 0 Comments To continue on from my co-host's admirable ramblings in his first blog post at our new site, I've promised to publish the "show notes" - or podcast outline - for each of our shows. What you will find in this show, as we experiment with various recording technologies and ramp up to get these all posted more officially in the iTunes App store, is as follows: Opening: Dan uncovered some old Sprogs music to dress the show (Thanks, even if they didn't know they were going to be revived, to my old bandmates Paula Luxenberg, Gordie Shaw, and Tim Getman). We hope you like the show and the completely unauthorized use of your music. 1:00: Dan notes that "perfect is the enemy of the good." He surmises that waiting until we can make the perfect podcast would mean we would never do it, so we're just going for it, scars and all. Please bear with us as we grow to hopefully get good and entertaining some day. 3:00: We describe how we, as interlopers into the Washington D.C. theater community, produced Wiener Sausage: The Musical! nearly a decade ago. With much help from a fellow named Kenny. 8:00: The news of the day discussed is the increasingly polarized language of Twitterers on both sides of the love Trump and hate Trump divide. Are we becoming a psychotic nation? Discuss. 11:30: Our first-ever guest is Kathleen Sullivan Nelson, star of Wiener Sausage: The Musical! The interview somehow includes a fascinating advertisement for an Audio Technica microphone. But more importantly, Kathleen talks about (in a sort of Where Are They Now?-type segment) the corporate circus-like events she is now helping produce. Not much different, we surmise, from her gig as Jo, the musical comedy's hermaphrodite protagonist. The three also discuss how Wiener Sausage influenced Hamilton. 18:30 Kathleen plows through a version of one of her Wiener spotlight songs, "Not Cash or Check, Baby," despite Dan and Paul talking throughout her impromtu performance. 24:00: In summary, are Dan and Paul crazy, and only interested in talking about themselves and their fancy new microphone? Well, to our credit, they did end up letting Kathleen have the last word. And boy are those words inspiring. Don't miss them! And see you next time.

Should delivery robots be allowed on sidewalks?

I'm quoted today by the San Francisco Chronicle (and MSN, Market Watch, Government Technology, and others; also subsequently quoted two days later by CityLab) on a topic I've discussed before representing Mobility Lab: should delivery robots be allowed on city sidewalks?

San Francisco, of all places, is considering such a ban. While better city planning in most places is needed to examine the best ways these R2D2s can be helpful and not a nuisance, they also could be an answer to the growing army of Amazon and UPS and other bigger delivery vehicles that more and more constantly block my bicycle path and can make traffic jams much worse.

Here's what I said:

A San Francisco ban is a bad idea, said Paul Mackie, a spokesman for Virginia’s Mobility Lab, which researches advanced transportation.

“The space-saving R2D2s could fix a lot of our traffic headaches caused by the ever-growing number of delivery vans and trucks that have to park illegally and dangerously to make their dropoffs,” he said in an email. “It doesn’t make any sense for San Francisco leaders to be going backwards like this.” 

So far, three cities — San Carlos, Redwood City and Washington — have approved robot deliveries, Mackie said. Virginia and Idaho also allow them, and Wisconsin has passed legislation now awaiting the governor’s signature to allow delivery robots to use sidewalks and crosswalks.