Another mushy personal account
In college I developed a theory, or maybe it was just a wish, that I was going to meet my husband in either a bookstore or a library. As it turned out, like many Silicon Valley workaholics, I met my spouse at the office. But there was still a bookstore connection. He was hired into the position because of a chance encounter with our VP of Engineering at Stacey's Bookstore in Cupertino. So my little prophecy came true peripherally. I soon discovered that my husband goes to Stacey's so often that if anyone he knows ever goes there they are likely to meet. But, nevertheless, the happenstance still makes me feel that fate likes to smile every so often upon the introverted bookworms of the world. Unfortunately, Stacey's in Cupertino is meeting with a less happy fate. Although we were assured when Stacey's in Palo Alto closed that their Cupertino store had ample foot traffic to keep it afloat in the precarious whitewater near the Noble Borders of the Amazon, it is facing doom. My husband came home today with a stack of technical books and the unhappy news of Stacey's impending closure. We're too far away to regularly patronize their remaining San Francisco flagship store. For those still looking for love in the literature aisle, may I recommend the library or a used bookstore? Or perhaps Books Inc., Kepler's, or a plane ticket to Portland.
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Tuesday, December 24, 2002

Updates will be sporadic for the next week or so. I wish you all happiness in 2003.
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I think I drove around my first roundabout in Massachusetts. It was a handy way to deal with a tricky intersection. The NY Times reports that Bend, Oregon has put in ten in the past two years, with plans for eight more. Their aim is to slow people down. The roundabouts reduce traffic speed, but keep it moving, and should reduce accidents and congestion. Drivers can make their way through stretches of town without hitting any lights. It's slower for emergency vehicles to navigate too, unfortunately. My only concern with roundabouts is being able to give people good directions. I suppose in a town where people are accustomed to them, it's not a problem. But it's not as straightforward as "take a left at the light."
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For all you Gilmore Girls fans (I know there's at least two of you out there): The Hartford Courant ran an article titled "The Search For Stars Hollow" wherein the features of the quaint and quirky Connecticut town are compared to various real sites. Remember, you can only drive one way around the town green.
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Friday, December 20, 2002

Plenty of rocks still in the ground
I think of stone walls as being everywhere in New England, immovable fixtures of the landscape, more numerous than white churches with steeples. It was sad to read an article about how they are disappearing from the landscape. Every geology student and Connecticut gardener knows that when the glaciers receded from the area, they left behind rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. What do you do when you want to farm and your hoe keeps hitting big rocks? You pile 'em up into a stone wall by your field, no mortar necessary. Now these walls are being purchased and moved elsewhere (you read that right, somewhere where they didn't have glaciers or they're too lazy to dig up their own rocks), destroyed in landscaping and road projects, and even stolen (again, presumably by people who can't manage to dig up their own rocks). Some towns are creating regulations to protect their stone walls. It's rather sad to think that one day I could be visiting "the last remaining stone wall dating from colonial times" with a bronze plaque and a barbed wire fence to protect it from people who can't manage to dig up their own stinkin' rocks.
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At least I don't have to save quarters anymore
The biggest "nice to have" feature that I gave up when we bought our house was "washer/dryer not in the garage." Doing laundry is bad enough without having to condemn yourself to the inhospitable garage. The dishwasher is in the kitchen, why isn't the washing machine closer to your clothes? Is it because it makes noise? It's too big? The New York Times reports on Whirlpool's laundry room concept which has grown into something they call the "Family Studio." Kitchens have evolved into luxurious rooms with trendy appliances; bathrooms have grown into spas; now Whirlpool wants the laundry room to become the next coveted remodeling arena. They've developed new appliances to handle delicates, dry cleaning, a fancy ironing station, and of course they've redesigned the old workhorse washer and dryer. The "Family Studio" can also contain a play area for the kids, arts and crafts, the home office. Me, I just wanted a little room inside the house with the washer, dryer, and maybe a little airspace to hang things. The result of me giving up the "nice to have" feature was that my husband does most of the laundry. At least it's quiet having it out in the garage.
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Thursday, December 19, 2002

The Meyer Lemons in the backyard are definitely yellow and many are well on the road to their final yellow-orange color, so I'm looking into interesting lemon ideas. I'll surely do the usual lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, and, of course, lemonade. Beyond that, Sunset Magazine has these recipes: interesting dessert ideas, Italian lemon aperitif, and lemon vinegar which makes lemon pickles which makes lemon relish. I definitely want to try preserving lemons Moroccan style (here's another technique w/o the spices) and then try out some Moroccan recipes. There's also an Indian lemon pickle that uses sugar instead of all salt. And as they get really sweet when spring arrives, I can always eat them straight off the tree. They're sweeter then than our oranges are at the moment! I do hope the oranges turn sweet so I can save some money not buying Odwalla.
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Prompted by something Ned brought up at a gathering this evening, I looked up Yahoo's researched response to "Where was the Reuben sandwich invented and first served?" Knowing that the origins are disputed between Reuben's Deli in Manhattan and Omaha, Nebraska, I was amused to see that the poser of the question was from Omaha. My guess is that the real answer lies in adaption and evolution, like many yummy food ideas that spread from place to place, improving as they travel from one mind to another.
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Wednesday, December 18, 2002

The Nietz Old Textbook Collection is a collection of 19th century schoolbooks. 66 of them are available online for searching and there are scans of each page. (via Larkfarm)
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If you were a fan of The State sketch show on MTV, revisit their glory days with these (shhh downloadable) videos of most of their sketches. Comedy Central should really pry the old episodes of this show from the MTV vault.
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Just what every House-keeper needs, The Everett Raisin Seeder. Seed one pound of raisins in less than ten minutes! So easy, a child can use it. Cornell's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections has produced a glorious website to accompany their exhibit "Not by Bread Alone." It explores America's culinary heritage, the trends and technologies that shaped our gastronomy. I really want to see the inside of the American Red Cross' "Book of Recipes for the use of Chinese Foodstuffs" which instructed women stationed in Nanking during World War I on the use of local ingredients.

On a related note, a reader sent along Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project. Produced at Michigan State, the project's goal is to have the images and transcriptions from 75 cookbooks (published 1798-1922) online by September 2003. They already have a number of book images ready for your perusal. I pounced on William Andrus Alcott's The Young House-Keeper. This relative of Louisa May Alcott worked for education reform and wrote numerous advice guides such as The Boy's Guide to Usefulness and The Young Wife. The first section of his House-Keeper book whips me back and forth between scorning him for cornering women into a life of servitude for their families and praising his appreciation of the important role women can play in educating children at home and maintaining a family's physical and mental well-being.
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Monday, December 16, 2002

A lovely site: Yin Yu Tang, a Chinese Home is the house of a wealthy merchant whose descendants decided to sell it after all their family members had moved out of the village. A curator at the Peabody Essex Museum happened to be visiting the village when family members had returned to the house to discuss putting it up for sale. She worked with the Xiuning County Cultural Relics Administration to acquire the house for permanent exhibit in the U.S. The careful disassembly and reconstruction was performed with the help of Chinese carpenters and stonemasons. The photos and descriptions of the complex joinery, which made use of wooden pegs and no nails or glue, make IKEA furniture assembly feel like child's play. (via Yahoo! Picks)
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If you're upset over Fox's cancellation of Firefly, consider writing a postcard to encourage UPN to pick it up.
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Rated PG
I went to the Peter Gabriel concert last night and had a tremendous amount of fun. He had a nice mix of old and new songs and just enough tricks and set devices to keep us wondering what was going to happen next. Bass player Tony Levin has been posting tour photos and backstage commentary. Before the show, I and another Connecticut native were staring at the tour t-shirts (at $35, no thank you!) and wondering where the heck Uncasville, CT is. It finally dawned on us that it must be where the new casinos are. Yup, Peter Gabriel played at the Mohegan Sun. It's just not the same Connecticut I grew up with.
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Friday, December 13, 2002

Wow. A collection of almost 220 flight attendant uniforms from all around the world. Cliff Muskiet is a flight attendant himself, and has been amassing this collection for many years. This site lends further credence to my theory that if it's collectible, someone has a web page about it. And, you know, anything and everything is collectible. (via Pop Culture Junkmail)
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I've been slowly but steadily making my way through my husband's vast collection of John McPhee's books, so it was nice to see this article about him in the Globe. His 1999 Pulitzer Prize was labeled "richly deserved" and "long overdue." You emerge from his non-fiction understanding the appreciation he has for his subject matter, not feeling that it was a chore of any sort for him to clearly and pleasantly relate the facts and personalities he encountered. You can feel his enjoyment in putting together the words. His wit comes out of nowhere to surprise you in the midst of the breadth of information he has distilled for you. You imagine that when he interviews his subjects it is less of a question and answer and more of a conversation between two enthusiasts. And the best part is that he is willing to pass along his tricks of the trade to others in his classes at Princeton.
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Thursday, December 12, 2002

Bargain Hunting - some of my favorite places to browse for markdowns on lovely things

Cookware & More at OutletsOnline.com: The U.S. Direct Factory Outlet for All-Clad Cookware. Save almost half off cookware with minor cosmetic flaws. Pieces still carry All-Clad's full lifetime factory warranty for functional defects. If you can't justify even the sale prices on All-Clad but you really want that saucier, give them a try. You can return within two weeks for a refund.

Sundance Catalog's outlet sale: Almost 200 rings on sale and other pretty jewelry, many more than 50% off. It really makes you wonder what their markup is.

Eziba's outlet: I get their catalog and I enjoy looking at all the pretty, often colorful, always handcrafted items from around the world. But the prices never appealed. The outlet gives me a little more hope, though it's not usually chock-full of the ones that caught my eye.

Crate&Barrel outlet: 8 categories of C&B goodies that they need to move out of the warehouse so they can fill it with next season's trends and colors.

Levenger outlet: for the person who has to be dragged away from browsing at the few remaining stationary stores (and I don't mean the shops with "Depot" or "Max" in their names, though the way things are going now, those sometimes have to do in a pinch).
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Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Follow up to yesterday's Cloud Dome post: YiMay Yang sent along a page describing how to create a similar diffusion effect with a plastic milk jug.
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Whistlers are "noises made by the electrons whizzing about in the magnetic fields that surround the planets of the solar system." The Nasa Project: Sun Rings is a piece composed by Terry Riley for string quartet and a 60-voice choir, and part of it comes from the whistlers recorded by NASA's explorations into space. (via Follow Me Here)
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Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Taking good photographs of jewelry is difficult. You have to focus on something small, pick an angle that shows it off well, light it properly, and hope that the colors of the stones won't look horribly off. Cindy Lichfield, plagued by problems photographing the jewelry she wanted to sell online, invented the Cloud Dome as an inexpensive way to take beautiful pictures of jewelry. As a cloud diffuses light, revealing details and colors, this device filters light to create even lighting over the subject matter. A nice little invention.
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I've told many people about Call to Protect run by The Wireless Foundation, which takes donated phones and reprograms them for victims of domestic violence to use. SF Chronicle writer Henry Norr draws our attention to a different program that takes old cell phones, donates a few dollars to a designated charity, uses a disabled worker program to refurbish or recycle them, and sells working ones to cell phone carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean. It's actually a for-profit operation, but they say their goal is to protect the environment and be socially responsible. So if you don't mind someone making a few bucks off your donated phone down the line, it's not a bad way to keep it out of the landfill. The company president, biased of course, actually thinks that The Wireless Foundation is duping people. The foundation has collected 1.4 million phones, given 48,677 to the domestive violence cause, recycled 30%, and sold the rest to cover costs. Any proceeds are split between the foundation and charity. If you don't like either of these options, consider giving your old phone to a relative or friend to keep in their car for calling 911 in emergencies.
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Monday, December 09, 2002

You have the right to feel old when...
You've missed the age limit of a writing contest by just a few years. The European Space Agency is sponsoring a science fiction writing contest. The Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition is aimed at young writers and encourages innovative concepts in space technology. The contest is open to those aged 15 to 30. Time to sponsor a sci-fi writing contest for the old, crotchety, jaded, and disillusioned 31-110s perhaps?
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You know you've married the right person when...
You're in the library and in browsing through "The Ultimate History of Video Games" you find this funny passage about the acquisition of Atari by the Tramiels.

Everybody was expecting something draconian to happen. When they first walked in the building, someone got on the PA system and did the line from The Empire Strikes Back. I think it went, "Attention, Imperial storm troops have entered the base."

You gleefully run over to show it to your husband who you think will appreciate it. He responds "Oh! That was me!" (read my husband's account of this event)
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Friday, December 06, 2002

Medical Antiques Online has photos and information on the history of the stethoscope. Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec invented the stethoscope in 1816 after divising an alternate method of listening to the heart of a young woman. As he was unwilling to place his ear on her chest, he rolled up 24 sheets of paper, placed one end on her chest, listened at the other, and was happy to find that the sound was magnified. The site includes his own description of his discovery that led to the invention. He created the first stethoscope using a wood-turning lathe. 'Binaural' models (for both ears) came to market in the 1850s.
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A long forgotten Pippi Longstocking story, printed in 1949 in a children's magazine, was rediscovered by Lena Toernqvist, secretary of the Astrid Lindgren Society. The short tale tells of a visit by Pippi to cheer up three children who are facing a dreary Christmas. No one in the Lindgren family had heard of the story either. Toernqvist had been preparing for an exhibition of illustrations from Lindgren's books when she happened across it.
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Thursday, December 05, 2002

A listing of all the Presidential pets, courtesy of the Presidential Pet Museum in Lothian, Maryland. (via Breaching the Web)
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A self-tuning piano? "Carefully controlled electric currents" are used to warm the strings to the correct pitch. It leaves the factory tuned sharp and can then be warmed to the right pitch. No news on whether the heat has an adverse effect on the longevity of the piano wood or strings.
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Wednesday, December 04, 2002

At last, Red Dwarf DVDs will be released in the U.S. Seasons 1 & 2 will be available on February 25. Amazon has preordering ready to go. Of course if you have all the episodes memorized already, well, maybe you'd rather look forward to the movie they keep trying to make. It's in pre-production. (thanks TVPicks)
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Kay Thompson's infamous Eloise lives on in a newly published book "Eloise Takes a Bawth." Thompson had just about finished the book in the late 1960s but decided not to have it printed. She also, reportedly in "a dramatic fit of pique", decided that none of the Eloise books except for the first one should be in print. Her estate has since decided otherwise and reissued them all. The "Bawth" text has been reworked and original illustrator Hilary Knight has redone the drawings as well. Also, Julie Andrews will be portraying Eloise's Nanny in two movies for ABC-TV/Disney. As you certainly remember, Andrews has already taken on incorrigible children for Disney before.
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Tuesday, December 03, 2002

Wasn't it just October? What happened to November? The passing of time has become ridiculously fast for me, and it's most distressing that our perception of time goes faster and faster the closer we get to the end of our lives. I had a digital clock with a seconds display on it when I was a child, and I remember watching a second go by and thinking that it was a pretty long span of time. Now I watch the second hand on my analog clock swoop around with the tiniest of pauses, and I wonder how it will look after another thirty years goes by. Scientists don't need to make me live forever, I just want my childlike perception of time back.
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Michael "Mickey" Bookspan was 24 when he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra and he went on to perform under the baton of three successive music directors. Holder of the principal percussionist position, he died in September at age 73. The search is now on for a replacement for the coveted position, filling the shoes of "arguably the principal percussionist in the greatest orchestra percussion section there ever was." First they'll go through resumes (due this week), then there will be auditions in February. The final few candidates will likely be asked to play for a few weeks with the orchestra to test their fit with the section. They're not doing much publicity to recruit candidates; they don't need to. As one percussionist said "Jobs like this open up once every 10 to 15 years."
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Monday, December 02, 2002

Arriving to prop up my continued pondering of the "scan all your documents into a searchable database" concept, Microsoft is working on a database to hold your life memories. The MyLifeBits project is a "lifestore" as envisioned by Vannevar Bush. Microsoft's prototype is storing emails, online purchases, phone conversations and meetings, and could potentially store everything you ever look at or hear. Imagine an even more futuristic device that would allow your brain to recall the taste of that $200 bottle of wine you once splurged on, or the feeling you had when you first fell in love. For now, though, keyword and date indexing will allow you to supplement your perhaps faulty (but sometimes rosier) memories of correspondence, image, and text information. (via eatonweb)
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I could've used a PDA translator device as described in this article when I was lost in the streets of Venice (the cure for that is apparently repeating to yourself "it's an island, I can't go too far, it's an island" over and over as you wander from bridge to bridge). With a simple digital photo of the helpful signs that appear at all the daunting street intersections, I would've known that although I thought I knew the Italian word for railroad station, the preferred term is "FERROVIA". As it turned out, I had to wait for the light to dawn on me that the chemical symbol for iron is "Fe", thus giving me a mnemonic device for the Italian word for that place with the metal tracks.
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