Things that match

I thought I'd begin expounding a bit on an earlier post in which I listed things that I like. One might notice in that post that I seem to like neat, orderly and geometric things. With that in mind...

In the 80s there was an American show on television called Magnum PI, starring Tom Selleck. It was quite popular and had a fairly long run, spanning nearly the entire decade. I really liked that show (as I did most classics from producing geniuses Glen A. Larson and Stephen J. Cannell i.e. TJ Hooker, Simon & Simon, the A-Team & The Fall Guy), its characters and its overall premise.

I liked the nomadic yet charming nature of the lead protagonist, Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV, or Magnum as his friends called him. He lived as a caretaker of a rich man's Hawaiian estate, and was self-employed as a private investigator. He always was on some wild caper which seemed to regularly involve the chasing of a bad guy, some guns, driving fast in several kinds of vehicles, an unexpected plot twist, a love interest and a closing drink at Rick's beach side bar, where Magnum, Rick and TC would have a pina colada and some laughs when the mystery was solved.

One might call me delusional, but I used to seriously believe that my life would some day be very similar to Magnum's. The main difference was that being that I'm not fond of guns, I envisioned myself instead a Hawaiian mail carrier, rather than a private investigator. Might not seem quite as exciting, but fulfilling nonetheless. Mind you, I would expect to be a well paid mail carrier and would still require access to Mr. Higgins's Ferrari 308 for my personal business.

As I got older and realized that I would not in fact end up with this or any semblance of this lifestyle (being married, living far from anything vaguely tropical in nature and being neither an investigator nor a mail carrier), I still maintain(ed) a fantasy about 1 thing related to this show.

The fantasy of which I speak doesn't involve fast cars or fast women (although I like both of those too). What I always wanted (and would love to still some day have) is a van and matching helicopter. Just like the one that Rick and TC did their island hopping tours with. See, Magnum may have had a Ferrari and all the glory, but without Rick, TC and the use of their fabulously matched helicopter and VW Eurovan, he never would have been able to hunt down half of his villains.

Again, I'm a designer, not a PI, but the idea of rushing out of my estate and having a matching van and helicopter at my disposal, is permanently burned into my psyche. I do love things that match.