SFist.com, August 31, 2007
Review: CalTrain of Thought
We’re thrilled when our commute ends up boring rather than late or, say, riddled with crushed pedestrians and such. It turns out that this commute, well, it’s the stuff that dreams are made of: kids' fantasies. Apparently, CalTrain is so dreamy and hot that it's now a center spread in the newly released Timmy and Tammy's Train of Thought. TTTT, for short.Other local trains featured in the book include MUNI's F-line and the famous cable car, with a cameo appearance by your very own Golden Gate Bridge, of course. (Yay! The next generation of tourists are being brainwashed educated about our fair city already. How cool is that?) Read your little blessing the book, and SF will compete in your kids' imagination with Disneyland, or wherever the hell it is that Dora the Explorer explores. And if you think that a fantasy aspect is a stretch, you’re either a 6th and Market resident, or you haven’t read Gavin Newsom’s re-election pamphlets. It’s all milk and honey down here.
While Timmy and Tammy's Train of Thought is rooted locally -- Immedium, the publisher, is a San Francisco-based start-up -- it is a fun escape into a world of trains: not only the baby bullet, the cable car, but also subways and inter-city lines. Sadly, there is no high-speed train, no shinkansen, and no TGV, because this is California after all; the right to burn kerosene between SFO and LAX is as unalienable as the right to drive your SUV. Environment friendly alternatives, it seems, are silenced. If you want to go fast and green on the ground, just hitch a ride in Al Gore Jr.’s Prius.
TTTT only has a pretext of a story, but the fascination for all the different trains proves enough stimuli to sustain our 3.5-year-old kid’s interest, even after multiple (and we mean multiple) readings. He’s fixated more with the lively, detail-rich illustrations than the twists and turns in the narrative. And the graphics? Are both detailed and full of attention-grabbing color that the young ones love. But the best part in the tale is when Timmy and Tammy end up falling asleep, which our kid mimics every time -- the perfect ending for weary parents, too.