The Things I'd Carry

rob's The Things We'd Carry post posits "I'm not one to spend a lot of money on cars or fancy watches or other ostentatious trappings of success."  If you read my posts you know I like cars and watches so color me ostentatious.  And I posit that fancy watches can hold memories just like the stuff in rob's post.  For example, go to 6:15 in this interview with Alton Brown.  Or this clip from Pulp Fiction.

This is my 1965 Omega Seamaster Chronograph, reference 143.646.  It's a special watch, if you're into watches, because it has a 321 movement, the same movement in the Omega Speedmasters worn by the Apollo 11 astronauts, which is also known as the Moonwatch.  The only movement certified for use on the moon!  It's sort of like an air-cooled flat-six, if that means anything to you.

Aesthetically, I love the domed crystal, small (by modern standards) size, and the way the 3-6-9 markers are cut away by the chronograph registers.  I like to imagine some apprentice who was too junior to be allowed to touch a dial, let alone a movement, cropping them with giant shears so that they fit perfectly with the subdials.  There's a whole online fetish around cropped numerals, if you're into that.

It's also a special watch because my father received it as a high school graduation present from our Mitsu Bacsi (or our Uncle Nick for you Muricans).  Mitsu Bacsi wasn't really our uncle, he was my grandfather's best friend but we called him Bacsi anyway because Hungarians like to appropriate people into their family, it's a cultural thing.  Mitsu's wife was Swiss and during a trip back to her motherland they got watches for all the zfamily.  I think this was a much cheaper proposition in the 1960s than it is today.  The Seamaster originally came on a beads of rice bracelet but it pulled the (copious) hair on my father's wrist so he threw it out (they now sell for hundreds of dollars) and wore it daily for about 20 years until he did some business with Seiko and wound up with one of their watches.  He pulled the Seamaster out of a drawer another 20 years later, had it serviced in Switzerland, and gave it to me for my 31st birthday.  I wore it daily for about 10 years until I realized that it's a relatively valuable (maybe $5k-$6k) and elderly timepiece, and got some newer watches to wear daily.  It's now a special occasion type of thing, or I wear it if I feel like I need a little extra oomph to get something done--I have Dad and Mitsu Bacsi with me while I negotiate with some jerk or interview for a job.

Dedicated GTB readers will recall the story of Mike's watch.  Mike mentioned giving the watch to zson, but eventually all those involved agreed that it made more sense for Shirley to have the cash than for my half-man-half-monkey son to have a $150,000 watch.  So I bought this Tudor Black Bay 36 that I will give zson at some point.

Tudor is a Rolex affiliate, sort of the Chevrolet to Rolex's Cadillac, so it follows the spirit of Mike's intent.  The size, handset, and dial color are all great, the ETA movement is reliable and easy to service, and it's an automatic so you don't have to wind it, just wear it.  I wear it regularly so it will have a few dings when I hand it over.

To commemorate leaving a miserable job, I bought myself a Sinn 756 Diapal.  It's a chronograph that also tracks time in two time zones.  It isn't a proper GMT, the second hour hand is based on 12 hours, but if you work with people in another country (which I've done) and wanted to time things like the number of hours you've been on the record in a deposition (which I've done) and you want a durable travel watch that can do both things, this is your huckleberry.

Sinn is a German company with a reputation for rugged tool watches but they don't have much name recognition in the US.  The 756 features a modified Valjoux 7750 movement so it has some Swiss engineering, but its design and materials are very Germanic--the German navy makes submarines using the same steel that Sinn uses for their watches.  It's not super wide, 40 mm, but it's stupidly thick at 14 mm.  It wears well but it doesn't like to stay under your cuff so it's prominent.  I'm giving this one to zdaughter someday because a girl named Esme should have an oversized watch from her father.

You may think that mechanical watches are frivolous and wasteful, and I see where you're coming from.  But I promise you that your kids and grandkids aren't going to cherish your Apple Watch or Casio G-Shock.  Hopefully mine will rely on these when they need a little extra oomph as I have with the Seamaster.  I'm taking them with me.

rob had a lot of photos in his bag of holding.  I'm not into them.  It rarely occurs to me to photograph something other than food and zcats.  That said, almost all of the art in zhome is photographs taken by my other Hungarian fugazi uncle, Bela Bacsi.  His brother married my grandfather's sister, which makes us absolutely nothing.

But he was a righteous dude and a nominally famous photographer.  This interview involves a photo he took in Chicago for Life Magazine.  Go ahead and read it, I'll wait.  I have that same photo in my dining room and it's important to me for several reasons.  

First, it's a damn good photo.  Many people have commented on it, it's striking in person and gives off a strong communal vibe.  The details are great.  At most two of the chairs are the same.  Everyone holds their knife Euro-style.  It's hard to see below, but the three boys at the bottom of the image are sharing two chairs.  The baby is mischievous.  

Second, Bela Bacsi provided me with tons of support, encouragement, and wisdom when I was getting divorced and I will always be grateful to and fond of him.  He was married a few times himself, being an accomplished stickman in his youth and a sly dog in his dotage, and he always took it upon himself to wingman me with the waitress whenever we went to lunch.  "He's a lawyer, very successful!  You should give him your phone number!"

Third, I did a piece of legal work for Bela around this photo.  zwoman and I went to dinner at a higher-end chain restaurant in NYC.  They recently renamed a few of their flagship locations, and along with the check they included a postcard announcing the renaming.  The front of the postcard was this photo (I'm telling you it's a damn good photo) so I called Bela the next day and congratulated him on getting this bit of work.  It turns out they didn't license the image, they just used it, and Bela Bacsi was ripshit to put it mildly.  We worked out a deal with the restaurant (they were stunned that an 88-year-old Hungarian guy had spies on the ground and I shamed them mercilessly) and I refused to take any money for the work, despite Bela Bacsi's protestations.  But I do have a copy of that photo.  It goes in the bag.  You can find his photos and books online if you want something for your wall or shelf (or your bag).

That's really all I need to keep.  I have a few other important items (things zkids made for me, a photocopy of my grandmother's handwritten manuscript about her life from 1929-1945, my grandparents' license plates from the 1940s and 1950s) but they aren't as interesting to write about (except for the manuscript, which I cannot summarize) so I'll travel light with three watches and a picture.  I probably don't even need a bottomless bag.

Mother's Day zGift Ideas

TR recently lamented that he has to come up with a lot of gifts for Tiara over a relatively short time span every year.  He's especially busy this year so he probably doesn't have time to come up with ideas and it wouldn't surprise me if you're similarly situated.  Luckily for you I'm really good at gift ideas--just ask your mother.  Here are a few you should consider that worked out well for me.

Ember coffee mug

Yes, this seems stupid.  Who needs a $100 heated coffee mug that you control from your phone?  It turns out lots of women do.  zwoman drinks her coffee really slowly so she ends up microwaving it twice throughout the course of the morning.  Her friends are envious of her Ember mug, which makes her enjoy it even more.  I did well with this one.

PhoneSoap

Your phone is filthy.  You use it in the bathroom, you let your kids use it, you fiddle with it while you're walking the dog or mowing the lawn or fixing your car or running or whatever else you do with dirty hands.  You should clean it from time to time.  PhoneSoap is a case that shines UV light on both sides of the phone and you can charge it in there too.  UV light is commonly used to purify water because it destroys DNA--even the Australians use it!  Again, this sounds silly but it was well-received.

Sneakers

Ladies is pimps too and you should help style them accordingly.  Like this if they're sporty and hip, or like this if they're preppy and crisp, or like this if they're French.

Toto Washlet

Yeah I said it.  And I've been saying it for a while.  Everyone needs a Toto Washlet.  You know who wasn't seriously affected by the toilet paper shortage?  zfamily, because we're one-wipe-done after the Toto takes care of business.  I haven't researched Washlets in a while but my friend's wife asked me to help her pick one out for his birthday and I steered her towards the C200.  She installed it herself as a surprise so you should be able to install one too.  Key features are remote control (as opposed to controls mounted on the side of the seat), oscillating nozzle (oscillating is yooodge), heated water, and heated seat.  Once a woman uses a heated toilet seat she can't go back.  zwoman's homegirls always rave about our warm seat and never pass up a chance to sit on it.  Floss the butt crack, make you shiny, spiffy in a jiff indeed.

A Marlin

Everyone should have a mechanical watch.  The Timex Marlin comes in various sizes and functionalities, and this 34 mm three-hander is great for a woman's wrist.  Swap out the leather strap for a metal bracelet to make it sportier or a nylon NATO to make it more adventurous.  The funky Arabic numerals let you do a lot style-wise, and who doesn't want 34 mm of Marlin in their lives?

Buy Mike's Paul Newman!

My father-in-law, Mike, about whom I wrote previously, died on June 20. This was expected but sad nonetheless. Mike was very much a participant, rather than an observer, in the game of life. As a result we are fortunate to have tons of "Mike stories" to remember him by.

And we're in the process of generating one more Mike story! TR threw a party for his son's first communion last month, where I wound up talking watches with a mutual friend as well as FOG:TB Juan Carlos. I mentioned Mike's watch, a Paul Newman Daytona, and our family's interest in selling it without getting ripped off. Turns out both guys know the head of Christie's watch group and he lives around the corner from zfamily. They put us in touch and the watch expert is a fantastic guy. I brought the watch to his house, he verified it isn't a fugazi, and it will be auctioned online starting June 28 through July 12. They even took some nifty glamour shots.

Remarkably, it appears to have the highest estimated value of any lot in the auction. Not too bad for a $295 purchase that was worn daily for 40-some-odd years.

You can follow Mike's watch here. Feel free to bid--you can use a credit card! The whole zfamily hopes the auction results in one more awesome Mike story.

Some Distractions, Alternatively Titled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet"

We've had some excellent serious writing here of late. I, of course, am neither excellent nor serious. Rather than let the state of our democracy drive me insane, or succumb to my cycle of bitterness, I find diversions to preoccupy my brain. Here's some stuff for you to try.

I've spilled many pixels here before about bringatrailer.com. Check it out when the world's bringing you down. There's an almost-perfect (I'd prefer Laguna blue) Honda S2000 around the corner from me. Find a convertible and buy it. Then drive it with the top down as much as possible. Convertibles make people happy. There's a good looking Mini up for auction right now too.

Another cool car site is petrolicious.com. Not only are the authors into cars, they're into photography and design in general. They product tremendous pictorals and even more magnificent videos. Ever wonder why I lust after Alfa Romeos, or why I'm always trying to figure out how to pay my mortgage, feed my family, save for zkids' college, and buy a Giulia Quadrifoglio? Watch this and make sure the volume is up:



Ever heard of a Porsche 959 and wondered why it's such a big deal? Watch this:



If you spend enough time on petrolicious you'll probably see an article or two about watches, which might lead you to hodinkee.com. I'm not saying that I've become a watch collector or that I have an even halfway decent understanding of how watches work, but if I have 10 minutes to kill I'd rather read about some crazy $100,000 watch than a 2000-word think-piece about Trump's latest tweet.

I also stream the daylights out of ... electrons? I don't know what exactly comes through the stream but it winds up on my TV all the time. If you haven't watched Narcos on Netflix stop everything and watch it. It's the best show on TV now, better than whatever Game of Thrones became last season. I love this show so much I had a fantasy team named Plata o Plomo. It has Pachanga from Carlito's Way and the Red Viper from Game of Thrones. It's superbly done. Here's a trailer.



When you're done with that watch El Chapo. It's Univision's answer to Narcos and it's also on Netflix. It isn't quite as good as Narcos but after Narcos you need to keep watching Latin American drug lords do preposterous drug lord stuff. As opposed to whatever preposterous stuff our nation's leaders are doing.

And, of course, Twin Peaks. At a minimum watch season 1, the last three episodes of season 2, and season 3. Or just watch season 3 episode 8 over and over and over again.

I don't read as much as I used to or as much as I'd like, and when I do read I'm not overly confident in my abilities to write about it given we have Dave the polymath/English teacher/devourer of libraries writing in this space. That said, my approach is to pick an author and dive in. I can't say enough good things about John Updike. The Henry Bech books are a good place to start as they're pretty light. Then try the Rabbit Angstrom books--they're heavier. Tom Robbins is fun. David Quammen and Jared Diamond make science and natural history interesting and accessible. I'm currently trying to figure out Philip Roth. All are much more fun and enlightening than any of Devin Nunes' memos.

Things you should avoid: Facebook, Twitter, really anything that allows any moron with internet access to draft an overly reductive hot take and blast it to thousands of people in a matter of seconds. That shit won't make you happier. Or curate those feeds carefully.

Other Paul Newman Things I'd Rather Have Than Paul Newman's Paul Newman

Paul Newman's Rolex "Paul Newman" Daytona sold last week for $17,752,500, making it the most expensive watch ever. This was surprising in horological circles. The fact that this was Paul Newman's Paul Newman was cool, as was the full back story, but this is a lot for a watch that was unloved for decades, and it wasn't a limited edition from the Holy Trinity of Swiss watches. My father-in-law has one for God's sake! If you want to buy one, read this first.

Anyway, $17,752,500 is a lot of scratch. I can think of a lot of Paul Newman's other stuff that I'd rather have if I had that kind of money.

For example, Adam Carolla (not Toyota Corolla) bought Paul Newman's 1979 Porsche 935 for $4.4 million. I'd rather have Paul Newman's 935 and $13,352,500 than Paul Newman's Paul Newman.

Paul Newman's house is on the market for $5.5 million. I'd rather have Paul Newman's house and $12,252,500 than Paul Newman's Paul Newman.

Paul Newman's Organic Italian Salad Dressing is $2.99 at Target. I'd rather have Paul Newman's Organic Italian Salad Dressing and $17,752,497.01 than Paul Newman's Paul Newman.

After all, as cool as Paul Newman is I bet Steve McQueen could whoop his head.