Engadget reports that the latest "retro-games stuffed into a joystick you just connect to your TV" offering is a Commodore 64 joystick with 30 games. Thing is, I only remember playing text-based games like Zork on my C64.
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The last Oldsmobile has rolled off the assembly plant line. The brand has been around since 1897 and was crafted into a mid-level brand, between the Cadillacs and Chevys, when GM purchased it in 1908. "Final Edition" versions of the last models were produced, with the last Alero's hood and trunk undersides bearing the signatures of 4,500 plant workers.
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eGullet.com has a nice interview with the director of Iron Chef America. Secret ingredients are mentioned, are are the choices of a few publications to reveal the secret ingredients prior to airing, although they had been asked not to. He also discusses the lack of a live audience, and someone for Alton to banter with (apparently, floor guy Kevin doesn't count in that role -- and I'd agree).
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Thursday, April 29, 2004

Instead of heading to the gym for a workout, grocery shoppers in London can head to Tesco to try out the new "Trim Trolley." It's a shopping cart with a heart rate sensor on the handle and a device on the wheels that can increase resistance to burn more calories. It does not, however, monitor the calories you may actually be placing inside the cart.
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Note to self: title of article "Quarter of British Kids have Mobiles" does not mean that 25% of the kids in Britain are running around playing with little Alexander Calder sculptures.
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The streets of Boston were not laid out by cows. You can put that urban legend to rest. The poorly planned streets were just poorly planned, the result of residents living where they wanted to. Cows did graze on Boston Common way back when, but don't blame them for the roads. Or the Big Dig budget overruns. (via Follow Me Here)
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Wednesday, April 28, 2004

After many months of getting to know Steinway grand piano No. K0862 in the N.Y. Times columns covering its creation, we now have to get accustomed to two new monikers as it was given two new names: No. 565700 (its serial number, for the 565,700th Steinway built) and CD-60, which identifies it as a part of Steinway's "concert fleet." Old No. K0862's second name places it in the set of pianos loaned out by the company for various events and programs. Thus, when it was sent to the showroom in Manhattan, it went into the basement. This is quite a basement -- it could name-drop for hours. Bernstein, Horowitz, Van Cliburn, Rachmaninoff, Glenn Gould, Billy Joel. The basement is where the celebrity pianists go to pick out a Steinway for their recording sessions, concerts, TV shows. And even though CD-60 had been adjusted and readjusted at the factory, the resident technician went through the same drill of going over the hammers and strings, and perhaps not for the final time as a pianist may request further adjustments. 15 pianists gave their opinion of CD-60, most felt it needed time to break-in and "bloom." But its first gig is lined up. Steinway sent seven grand pianos to the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. So CD-60, formerly No. K0862, is in Kalamazoo, Michigan right now, perhaps getting played by a new talent who will one day walk into the showroom basement and pick out an old friend for a command performance. (N.Y. Times archive of the entire series)
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I assumed everyone in Japan lined up at noodle shops for a steaming bowl of lunch, but apparently the elite did not used to patronize food joints of the working class. But certain ramen shops have now become the producers of sought after delicacies. And a contest to find Japan's best ramen cook gave added exposure to the simple meal of noodles. Upscale eateries opened which feature organic ingredients and fancy interiors. And the regular old noodle shops with their pitchers of water and stacks of chopsticks continue to draw in the crowds -- elite or not.
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Monday, April 26, 2004

Estée Lauder, the daughter of American immigrants, cooked up skin creams in a New York kitchen with her chemist uncle and went on to build an empire. She died on Saturday at age 97. Her sales techniques set the groundwork for the luxury cosmetics industry. Prescriptives, Clinique, Origins, and Aramis...they are all part of Estée Lauder. M.A.C., Bobbi Brown Essentials and Tommy Hilfiger fragrances are also under the Lauder umbrella. Estée Lauder's drive, ambition, and salesmanship are legendary in the cosmetics industry. She reportedly studied department store entrances to track which side most women went to upon entering and positioned her cosmetic counters accordingly. She gave us the now ubiquitous "gift with purchase" that fills women's bathrooms with cute little cosmetic bags stuffed with lipsticks and eyeshadows that don't always match our coloring. The N.Y. Times called her "the last great independent titan of the cosmetics industry." Her children and grandchildren now head the companies she created. (N.Y. Times obituary)
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Although perspectives can be deceiving in photographs, I get a good idea of the size differences between the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 from these two shots: docked at the piers Sunday and heading out together on Sunday night. They were sent off with a fireworks display, which you can see in this photo where the venerable QE2 gets to look the bigger of the two. Bon voyage!
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Friday, April 23, 2004

Monday was Boston Marathon day, and I was happy to see that the screech tunnel at Wellesley College's halfway point lives on, worthy of reporting year after year. This year's t-shirt: "Boston -- 13.5 miles" with an arrow on the front; "Wellesley College Scream Tunnel -- 2004" on the back. Some runners reportedly held up cell phones to relay the immense density of the noise to others.
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Starbucks is enticing the non-caffeinated crowd this summer with two Frappuccino drinks that have no coffee. There's Strawberries & Crème and Vanilla Bean. Also available is Java Chip which does have coffee. However, in the details it is noted that the two non-coffee drinks are available blended with coffee, and the Java Chip is available without. So there're really three ways to join your caffeinated friends in cooling off with a luxury beverage.
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Thursday, April 22, 2004

If high gas prices aren't enough to get you down, how about rising dairy prices? Ice cream is one of the products expected to go up in cost with expected expensive milk prices this summer. Dairy farmers are happy, but ice cream sellers may be forced to pass the cost on to consumers. Other contributing factors, according to the National Ice Cream Retailers Association: "a cyclone that reportedly wiped out the vanilla crop in Madagascar, the world's leading producer" and "political unrest in West Africa, a major supplier" of chocolate. Two annual free cone days are coming up next week, so get your freebies while you can: Ben & Jerry's on April 27th and Baskin-Robbins on April 28th.
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How could you not love an opera about hockey? With singers in hockey jerseys, a conductor in referee stripes, a geisha, and three periods instead of acts, the opera "Nagano, the Birth of a Legend" celebrates the Czech national ice hockey team's 1998 gold medal. The work premiered in Prague on April 8th at the same theater where Mozart first premiered Don Giovanni.
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Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Whatever happened to Sandra Boynton? Her "hippo birdie two ewes" sentiments were everywhere in the 1980s. Ballerina rhinos and singing pigs capered through greeting cards and books. She had a nicely done book on chocolate in which I remember she claimed there was no such thing as a good chocolate ice cream -- she loved chocolate so much no ice cream could do the flavor justice. I'm curious about how she feels towards the grandiosely flavored gourmet chocolate ice creams of today, but I still get her point. Anyway, Boynton is still out there, writing a few books and also creating accompanying music. She's no longer creating greeting cards, but you can catch her on calendars and buy her classic books. Perhaps it's time to launch a big retro-Boynton fad.
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I often hear about the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in association with arts funding and medical resource. Duke inherited a $100 million estate when she was 12, the results of her father's successful American Tobacco Co. She died in 1993 at age 80 and, following years of sorting out legal hassles, her jewelry, furniture and wines are being auctioned off by Christie's in June. To entice those able to afford the baubles, Christie's has been holding invitation-only viewings of Duke's jewels in cities around the world. At the two days of showings in San Francisco, guests enjoyed breakfast, tea, or cocktails and were allowed to try on items such as a Belle Epoque diamond and pearl pendant necklace (valued at $800,000 to $1.2 million) and a 1927 Art Deco Cartier bracelet (valued at $350,000-$500,000). Other pieces of note of note are a 19.72 carat cushion-cut diamond ring and an emerald necklace with pomegranate shaped beads. Proceeds from the sale will, of course, go to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2004

As I researched yesterday's QM2 and tugboat topic, I came across the exciting existence of Tugboat racing on Puget Sound!
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Why don't companies sell watermelon juice? Are watermelons too seasonal? Is there no point to drinking watermelons when they are so much fun in their sliced and chunked fruit forms? The ingredients of Snapple's What-A-Melon drink (Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Pear and Watermelon Juices from Concentrate, Watermelon Flavor With Other Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Salt, Fruit and Vegetable Juice (For Color)) are hardly a match for a cup of the real thing. Nantucket Nectars has "Watermelon Lemonade" and "Watermelon Strawberry" juice cocktails, but no 100% juices with watermelon. Watermelon Works "the first and only watermelon juice on the market" test marketed their product in 2001, to some success it seems, but beyond their website still being up, it's difficult to tell if they are planning a go at the fresh juice business. Maybe I can make a go of selling watermelon juice on a street corner with some local lemonade kids.
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Monday, April 19, 2004

Mammoth cruise ship, Cunard's new Queen Mary 2, is on its way to Manhattan, and the PR trivia machine is ready. Clearance under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at high tide: 13 feet (I'm guessing they'll prefer a different time of day). The ship was specifically designed to fit under that bridge, thus the shortened funnel. Length: 1,132 feet, which makes it more than 100 feet longer than the pier it will dock at. Because of the extra length, a tugboat will be out to keep other ships away. However, thanks to its bow thrusters, the QM2 won't need tugboats to help her dock, unlike her older sibling, the QE2.
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I don't know if this piece of news is of interest to anyone (besides me of course). Bon-Macy's (formerly Bon Marche) is finally accepting the Macy's credit card. After the name change last year, Bon-Macy's customers could use their newly renamed Bon-Macy's credit cards at Macy's, but the reverse was not true (according to all the sales and customer service people I kept hopefully asking). Now I can once again feel like one of those ladies-who-lunch, if only for brief moments in time.
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The Mercury News' Food section editor has seen a rough cut of "Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters" and deems it "more in keeping with the heart and spirit of the original cult-favorite Japanese version." She found the William Shatner version "painful to watch" but this one is more on the mark. The lineups: Flay v. Sakai, Morimoto v. Batali, Morimoto v. Puck, then a mix-em-up tag team finale: Morimoto and Flay v. Sakai and Batali. Hosting is Chairman Kaga's nephew, and of course there's the real reason for us to watch: Alton Brown as commentator. The fun starts April 23. (Alas, the Merc has started up registration for content access, but here's the plain link to the review.)
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Friday, April 16, 2004

Baby giraffe! (warning: actual birth process photos)
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Last June 2 in San Jose, a man in a pickup truck deliberately chased down and drove into Tom Castrillon who was riding a motorcycle. Castrillon was thrown off his bike and paralyzed from the neck down. The man fled the scene, changed the title on his truck, and disguised it -- but not enough. Rodney Torres was tracked down as the driver of a truck matching the description and was eventually found guilty of hit and run and assault with a deadly weapon (he pled not guilty). Apparently this was a case of road rage as the two exchanged words after Torres cut off Castrillon. Torres then followed the motorcycle into a restaurant parking lot and ran into it. On Thursday, Torres was given the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He is also due back in court in May for restitution hearings, though it's doubtful he will be able to pay out the requested amount of $2 million in damages. I'm hoping this incident helps me think twice before doing any little thing to incite any idiots on the road to blow off their steam at me in murderous ways.
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After realizing that my gardening activities centered mainly around weed and pest control, I became less enamored of cultivating a green thumb. However I have just discovered that there is something called flame weeding. You can kill your weeds with a propane torch. How satisfying! Unfortunately it won't work in all situations since desirable plants can be easily killed as well. But...torching weeds! What a concept. And it's organic too!
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Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Every time I see the elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct in downtown Seattle, I think of the raised (and now being razed) Central Artery in Boston and the collapse of the elevated Cypress Street decks during the Loma Prieta Earthquake. In other words, it doesn't give me the warm fuzzies. I wasn't surprised to find that it has been a subject of redesign for the Seattle waterfront area. Perhaps the most controversial plan, publicized today by a coalition of concerned residents, is the option of removing it and replacing it with...nothing. No tunnel, no new highway. Just some better planning on existing roads and highways to handle increased traffic. The DOT has five replacement alternatives: rebuild as it exists, rebuild widened, replace with a tunnel, a tunnel and widening of the road underneath, and a larger widening of the road underneath. Not having knowledge about the traffic patterns in that area, I'll just hope for anything except rebuilding an elevated highway.
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In the interests of controlling how much and what kind of sweetener we drink (and to make life more interesting than fruit juice and water), and of course also just to have some fun, I'm looking into concocting soda at home. Of course you can buy seltzer and spritz up syrups and juices, but how about carbonating at home? It involves putting yeast and sugar together in a bottle to create fizz. You can buy soda flavorings, try fruit syrups, or make your own flavoring. And in this guide written for home beer brewers, honey (my favorite sweetener) is actually recommended for the soda base. If I start to experiment, I will report back.
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Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Recently transplanted from Seattle to Brooklyn, the proprietress of Geegaw listed her favorite Seattle characteristics. Since I've been bad in the past at appreciating things and places before they are gone, I figure I should take her list to heart now. Bunnies on the paths at work, water views, green everywhere, birds chirping, and soon yummy fresh cherries. One day there might even be an ethnic restaurant to miss.
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A postcard written in 1922 ended up in an Ohio post office 82 years later. No one knows where it was mailed from, only where it was going to, and that was unfortunately an unnumbered rural route address. Was it dislodged from a hiding place after so many decades or accidentally posted by a collector? It is addressed to a Mrs. Roscoe St. Myer and is presumably from her husband. The mystery may never be solved if descendants are not found. (via Obscure Store)
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Monday, April 12, 2004

If the world was flat and had fewer cars, I might spend more time on inline skates. Enterprising tour developers in the Netherlands have taken advantage of their country's flatlands by offering inline skating tours. Skaters must be careful to avoid potatoes and cow patties, but the scenery, when you can look up, is storyboook.
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Archie McPhee is of course the place to be if you need an Edgar Allan Poe figure, one of those punching nun puppets and the like. But I haven't actually made it to their Seattle store yet. However, there will soon be more to choose from, as they have plans to open More Archee McPhee next door to their present location later this year. The expansion will house their home decor line, sure to please those who can't get enough tiki in their lives.
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Friday, April 09, 2004

There is a wonderful profile of Madeleine L'Engle in the April 12 issue of The New Yorker. Unfortunately it is not online. Written by Cynthia Zarin, who spent and perhaps spends a lot of time with her subject, the article gives you a sense of the unique personality of a remarkable woman and writer. It takes you along the path of her life story and how it affected and formed her characters and conflicts. Her family reveals that her fiction is in many ways more truthful about her life than her non-fiction memoirs.
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Good grapes make good wine, but there's also a lot to be said for the wood that makes the barrels. At $250-$600 each, a wine barrel is an investment that a winemaker will select carefully, looking at the variables of origin of the wood and the amount of toasting over a fire that the cooper gives the inner surfaces. Tight-grained wood, found in colder climates, is desired. Experienced winemakers know what flavors different oak species will create. The toasting of the wood is akin to caramelizing onions in cooking. Flavor, that will later be imparted into the wine, is created as the wood is scorched.
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Thursday, April 08, 2004

Living further north means our cable provider provides us with CBC Television. They show a lot of hockey (in season of course). And while ABC relegated its World Figure Skating Championships coverage to weekends and a few hours on ESPN, CBC ran consecutive evenings of coverage. It was during the skating that I noticed all the commercials promoting "Hockey Night." It sounded like Monday Night Football or Must See TV. I started wondering -- is there really a Hockey Night in Canada or is it all a marketing fabrication? Of course the answer is on the web. Hockey Night in Canada has been an institution on Canadian television since 1952 and prior to that on radio starting in 1933. Fans of the show are as devoted to it as they are to the sport it covers, and you can read laments from homesick Canadians and raves from current devotees across the web. You can get a ringtone of the theme song for your mobile phone. You can purchase special HNIC jerseys. You can sign an online petition to keep your favorite HNIC broadcaster. This is no marketing hype. It is hockey (night) in Canada.
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An article on different types of salt mentioned a couple types I wasn't aware of. Danish smoked salt has a Viking heritage, from the days when salt was made by boiling sea water in a metal pot over an open fire. The wood smoke imparts a smoky flavor, and different woods make a difference in the taste of the salt. Black Salt (Kala Namak, Sanchal) is used in Indian snack foods, and, from what I can gather on the web, comes from mainly from Pakistan and is ground from mineral salt deposits. Its color ranges from pink to dark purple. Mentioned in another article is Peruvian Pink Sea Salt which comes from an ancient, underground ocean and is colored by bacteria and algae in the ponds fed by the ocean. It is hand harvested and transported to town on burros.
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004

A forty pound cat? His owner fed him 4.5 pounds of meat a day. I'd say that low-carb diet was a failure. The elderly owner is now in a nursing home and the cat is in a shelter on a strict diet.
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As much as I enjoy reading Amanda Hesser's serious work (with most of her Food Diary entries excluded from that grouping in my mind), I was taken aback to see her filling in as the N.Y. Times' restaurant critic. I suspect she is well known and recognized in restaurant circles, and although not all critics have been anonymous, it is a preferred qualification for the role. Well, the foie gras almost hit the fan last week when the Times published an "Editor's Note" to set the record straight on Hesser's review of Spice Market. Owner Jean-Georges Vongerichten has been a subject in Hesser's feature writing since 1998, according to the Village Voice, and he provided a complimentary blurb for her book. Critics of this interim critic think she should have skipped reviewing what amounts to a friend's business. And, unfortunately, in reading this week's review I had to wonder at her ability to effectively judge a restaurant's service when she may be easily recognized. The waiter brought her a free half bottle of champagne claiming "I forgot to serve it to another table, and I didn't feel like taking it back to the bar." Get her out of the restaurant critic gig, and back to the features before all is lost.
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Tuesday, April 06, 2004

The Pulitzer Prizes have been announced, with the L.A. Times pulling in a total of five. No winner was chosen for the category of feature writing for the first time ever (other categories have gone unrewarded before).
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Back in January I mentioned the nine Fabergé eggs from the Forbes' collection which were to be auctioned off this month. Out of the fifty Fabergé eggs believed to have been made, eight are unaccounted for, and Forbes Magazine has done a round-up of their suspected whereabouts. One was part of a set of Russian treasures that were taken on a tour of U.S. department stores in 1934 to be shown and sold. It may be sitting in a display case somewhere in the U.S. lacking its provenance. Maybe your grandparents have "a sapphire cherub pulling a two-wheeled chariot (possibly gilt silver) containing a golden egg set with diamonds" sitting on their mantle? There are tantalizing descriptions of two other missing eggs: one is decorated with "diamonds, emeralds, rubies-- topped by both a large colored diamond and a cabochon sapphire"; another is a gold hen with rose-cut diamonds holding a sapphire egg in its beak. As for the Forbes' eggs, Sotheby's announced in February that the entire collection, which included other Fabergé creations, was sold to Russian industrialist Victor Vekselberg. Vekselberg has established a foundation to bring Russian treasures back to his country. The selling price was not disclosed. (via snarkout)
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Monday, April 05, 2004

All seven British Airways Concordes put out to pasture for the pleasure of the viewing public have now been sent to their new homes. The final list of display locations: Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport, Filton in central England (location of the factory), Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados, Seattle's Museum of Flight in Seattle, the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York, and, as of this week, the Museum of Flight in East Fortune, near Edinburgh.
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The International Home & Housewares Show held in Chicago last month had a wide enough range of interesting new products that news coverage varied on what was noteworthy. One common point was the continued use of silicone products with fancy-shaped molds for baking, silicone knife handles, and even an oven mitt on display. The Toastabag was mentioned often. It's a reusable bag that can brown a cheese sandwich in your pop-up toaster. KitchenAid fans may appreciate a new set of attachments that turn the stand mixer into an ice cream maker. But at $99 retail, it'd better have some mighty advantages over the typical $49 ice cream makers. The carefully designed Garlic Twist claims to minces garlic without fuss or muss. And the QuikTop turns soda cans into bottles, complete with the ability reseal using its handy coaster/cup/top.
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Friday, April 02, 2004

A quick search through Google News shows that the bubble tea (aka pearl tea, aka boba tea) phenomenon has spread to most metropolitan areas of the U.S. News reports made mention of the tapioca balls appearing in teas in North Carolina, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and even India. Despite having been exposed to bubble tea early on in its journey from Taiwan to Asian American communities, it took me until yesterday to be struck by the recollection that little gelatinous balls in a beverage had been marketed once before: Orbitz Soda. While it's not the same as bubble tea, whose tapioca balls usually settle to the bottom of the milky tea to be slurped up through specially super-sized straws, I can't help but think of Orbitz as a strange alien step-relative...ahead of its time perhaps, but alas, just not very pleasant tasting.
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Penzey's, purveyor of pungent spices, is holding a postcard contest to determine where to open their next retail store. Their goods have been recommended to me by many a serious home chef, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have a retail store near my home town, so next time I'm in Connecticut I can check out their wares. Until then, sending postcard votes from Seattle is a grand scheme.
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Thursday, April 01, 2004

Astound your sports friends with this bit of NFL trivia. Among the new rules approved by the NFL this week, wide receivers can now wear the numbers 10-19. They were previously limited to 80-89. The uniform numbering system was adopted in 1973.
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The discriminating and elite cross-section of readers who are fans of both NPR and a certain small, terry cloth monkey will certainly enjoy the fun and detailed monkey tour of NPR's headquarters.
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Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" has been adapted for a 3-hour television "event" that will be shown on May 15, during sweeps. It's been in the works at Miramax since 2001 and will air on ABC's "Wonderful World of Disney." (via TV Picks)
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