Reel Reviews

Non-Stop -- Liam Neeson sure does have this ass-kicking thing rolling along these days. In fact, Neeson has grown so comfortable with this formula that by now it may be starting to show some wear and tear. This iteration of the model comes across as somewhat lacking; the action sequences don't feel all that active, probably thanks to the limited staging options of an airplane cabin. There's little of the joyful mayhem of the Taken series here; mostly it's just Neeson looking confused as he tries to figure out who the villain is. The star isn't alone in that; the recursiveness of the film's whodunit plot means that suspects previously dismissed wind up coming back again--unfortunately, without a particularly good reason for their plotting. This is hardly the sort of movie from which you should expect greatness, but a better effort than this shouldn't be too much to ask.

Clever That Way

Recently, my car started having a little problem with its radiator. That little problem being a crack along the top of the casing, which is allowing water/steam and coolant to escape the system and putting my car in danger of overheating if I run it too long without refilling the reservoir.

Unfortunately, I've been way too busy to actually go and get my radiator replaced (nor do I want to spend that money at this moment), so refilling it every other day is the current jury-rig maintenance option. But I found myself with a problem the first time I tried to refill the coolant reservoir: the jug containing the coolant was big and heavy, and the fluid came out in an inconsistent, glugging gush, causing me to spill almost as much coolant as I put into the reservoir.

Obviously, I needed a funnel--but, again, no time to go get one at the auto parts store. (Plus I'm not at home right now, so don't have access to anything in my kitchen I could use, just someone else's stuff which I mustn't ruin on maintaining my car.) What to do?

As was long ago observed, necessity is the mother of invention. I used to keep a very clean car, at least on the interior, but those days are long gone; my car's interior is usually home to a cornucopia of trash these days. And among that trash: a cardboard french fry container from one of my too frequent trips to the drive thru. As you've no doubt observed, those fry boxes are collapsible, and to that end they have cuts and holes in them in order to make them fold flat, particularly holes in the bottom corners. They also tend to have a tapered shape.

You see what I'm getting at? A french fry sleeve, sitting on the floor of my car, became an improvised funnel for pouring the coolant into the reservoir. It worked quite well, and cut down on the spillage enormously--though the width of the sleeve still left something to be desired for total efficiency, since some of the pour would inevitably spill through the other openings.

Fortunately, my car's trash collection also contained a plastic water bottle--one with a nice long tapered neck and a top opening that was just the right size to fit the reservoir's mouth. Once that bottle met with the razor scraper (kept in the car for cleaning sticky stuff off the windshield), I was able to cut the bottle in half and Macgyver a great little improvised funnel that does the trick perfectly.

It would have been nice to have come up with my solution from the start and not spilled any of the coolant in the first place. But it's important to recognize that, if you don't come up with a solution right away, it's still important to keep trying to solve the problem, because maybe you will get it right on the second or third try. And, of course, it's also nice to crow a little bit about being "clever that way," if you know what I mean.