Turn on your Kindle or Kindle Fire and go to Amazon to download a free copy of Death in Nostalgia City.  This is a one-day sale that ends tonight—Aug. 30—at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Nostalgia-City-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B07V1Y23FM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1412464218&sr=1-1

Personalized plates

I’ve always been interested in personalized license plates.  My previous car was a Mini Cooper and my plate said TEA REX.  I was proud of that one.  The tea represented, in part, the car’s manufacture in England.  The T-rex angle was intended to be a reverse take on the size of the car.  A Mini with the name of a dinosaur, get it?  And since I drink tea rather than coffee you could call me the tea king.  There you have it.

Years ago when we moved from Southern California to Nevada, my new (Nevada) plate read: ADIOS CA.   At the time, we’d become weary of the congestion and traffic of the greater LA area.  A number of drivers in Las Vegas, obviously California expats, gave me the high sign or honked when they saw the plate.

Several years later when we returned to Southern California, however, a clerk at the DMV took a look at my Nevada plate and said, “Welcome back.”

We’ve lived in Reno for many years now.  (It was home to my Mini.)  But when I retired the English car, I leased a new VW.  I was tempted to get a plate that hinted at the car company’s emissions scandal: NO SMOG, BREATH, CLN AIR, EXHAUST.  I opted for something more personal.

My old copywriter friend Jane Gorby had a cool license place in So. Cal for years: EZ WRTR.  I loved that and was tempted to copy it here in Nevada.  But that was her idea, not mine.  Also, I happened to see the movie again and it didn’t match its reputation.  But Jane’s plate gave me an idea.  You can see the results.  Most everyone gets it, although someone asked me if it had to do with pie.

How many Mark Bacons can there be?

Email addresses is another challenging topic, specifically finding one that is not being used.

I’m trying to transition from my ISP’s email to gmail.  The latter I’ve found to be more reliable.  The problem is, gmail covers almost a billion users and, apparently, a number of them are named Mark Bacon. 

The gmail addresses Mark.Bacon, MarkBacon (no dot), MBacon, Mark.S.Bacon, MarkBacon2, Bacon.Mark, BaconMark, BaconM, are all taken.  The gmail program has suggested several variations that are not taken, but they are all followed by three numerals.  That doesn’t look professional to me.  I could use my web address for email, but Mark@baconsmysteries.com is too big a mouthful.  

Suggestions are welcome.