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How to use an analog watch with the sun to determine North. (via xBlog)
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Restaurant scene gossip...The SF Chronicle reports that Laura Cunningham is leaving the French Laundry and all its siblings. She was responsible for the service aspects of the restaurants . Cunningham is also Thomas Keller's romantic partner and the Chronicle respectfully offers no speculation on that front.
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Thursday, September 28, 2006
Eloise is now animated. Well, she's always had an animated personality, but now there's a series of animated half hour shows and hour-long specials that will be shown on premium cable channel Starz Kids & Family. DVDs will also be released (of course). And there's another book coming, appropriately titled "Eloise in Hollywood
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Q&A with the Doodlebops, pop stars of the preschool set. Tickets for their Madison Square Garden show are going for outrageous amounts on eBay.
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If we had not relocated to upper left corner of the lower 48, we would have spent many hours entertaining our toddler at Cuesta Park in Mountain View, CA. A 4-year-old received too much entertainment there last week when a squirrel wrestled him for the muffin he was holding. Scratched and bitten, the boy is now undergoing a series of precautionary rabies shots. The aggressive squirrel behavior is linked to new trash receptacles with latches and a campaign cautioning park goers from feeding the animals. Six people have been attacked by squirrels this summer in the park. Ouch.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
I thought the MacArthur recipients seemed clumped in the northeast. Someone created a map tagging their locations.
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Corporate cafeteria lunch conversation:
Q: "What's in the veggie lasagna?"
A: "Eggplant, zucchini, and ... ... arugula."
Q: "Arugula? Instead of spinach."
A: "Yup."
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This Saturday is Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day when museums across the U.S. will offer free admission. You can print a card from the Museum Day website good for two admissions to any participating museum (search by state on the website). Museum Day was previously only for magazine subscribers, but this year it's open to anyone. Of course admission to the Smithsonian museums are always free.
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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
A woman whose Bellevue, WA coffee shop failed is suing Starbucks for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. She claims that Starbucks' practice of giving away free samples near her shop and paying above-market rent to keep out competition forced her out of business. She's even seeking class action status. The publicity train is working as global news outlets are picking up the story, but most doubt that she will succeed in winning the lawsuit. She also managed some local news coverage back in February. Her stand shut down a year ago.
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Apparent refugees from the Ballets des Trockadero's, a bouquet of hoops, and a one point headstand were featured in the World Extreme Figure Skating Championships in Russia on Sunday.
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Monday, September 25, 2006
The old Emporium building in San Francisco is crowned once again with its signature dome and although Emporium has been long lost to Macys-proliferation, Bloomingdale's is ready to anchor a new shopping center in its place. The dome and old facade were effectively tacked onto an entirely new mall that took three years to create. The Chronicle has a gallery of vertigo-inducing construction photos.
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The removal of the "drop-down search history" feature from the Google Toolbar v4, which was automatically pushed to all my computers (gee thanks), has ruined my ability to effectively search and research. I had to uninstall the toolbar and luckly v3 was still available online. Suggested alternatives for the feature from the help groups are not the same. My memory's not what it used to be and my search history was my brain's LIFO queue. And I'm not even 40 yet... who will think of the baby boomers?
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This year's USPS holiday stamps will feature the snowflake photography of Caltech physicist Kenneth Libbrecht. I linked to his online snowflake gallery two years ago. It includes the results of his experiments growing synthetic snowflakes. Here's a nice close-up view of the stamps which will be available in October.
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Friday, September 22, 2006
We've been considering putting in rain barrels to store our roof runoff for future use such as watering (for the very ambitious, that's not us, toilet flushing). The irony is that in the season when our barrels are filled and overflowing, nothing will need the extra water. But this seems to be a noble cause and there are many resources to help. Rain barrels come in the full range of fancy to just plain practical models. You can even get real whisky barrels. And there's the do-it-yourself approach. Locally, King County's AtWork! non-profit which helps people with disabilities sells rain barrels as one of its projects. And Seattle Public Utilities customers can purchase a discounted rain barrel from the Seattle Conservation Corps. As with all home improvement projects you can get embroiled in endless details and decisions if you so choose. Do we add an overflow bucket or a fancier downspout attachment that can divert to the downspout? And wouldn't a rain chain be pretty (pretty expensive)?
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In six years of marriage to billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, actress Ellen Barkin amassed a treasure trove of jewelry. Gossip rags and even more respectable media provided details and speculation around the failed relationship. Neither party would reveal much directly, citing a confidentiality agreement, but The NY Times caught Barkin in a self analytical mood during an interview to publicize an upcoming auction of the aforementioned jewelry. Yes, instead of keeping the sparkly souvenirs of her up and down marriage, Barkin has chosen to sell them at Christie's to the highest bidders. She plans to use the proceeds to finance her own film production company. There are 103 lots in the auction which works out to about 17 pieces each year of marriage. That's more than one major jewelry purchase a month. Small change perhaps for Perelman.
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Ben & Jerry's have announced the finalists in their "Do Us a Flavor" contest. They received over 40,000 entries after putting out the call in March for design-your-own-flavor submissions. I'm rooting for "Wackie Chan" a sweet cream and ginger ice cream, with chocolate-covered fortune cookie bits and fudge swirl, but I want to taste the "Mojito."
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MIT hackers (who will of course remain anonymous) placed a 25 foot red fire engine on top of the Great Dome on September 11, 2006. Considered a tribute to the men and women who died five years earlier on 9/11, the truck's modified MIT logo bore the word "Meminimus" or "We Remember."
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
There's a contrast in pear crops this year. California growers are short on workers to deal with a bumper crop. In Washington State, pear trees are suffering the effects of July hailstorms. Farmers had to hire workers to shake pears off of trees to protect the trees from breakage. I'm not sure what this means for pear consumers but it certainly doesn't bode well for the farmers.
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When you freeze at your first rock paper scissors tournament you're stuck playing rock. And as luck would have it, your opponent covers your anxious fist with paper and you've lost the round. Players in the Seattle rock paper scissors scene have different theories for the popularity of the sport. One says "People are looking for sort of strange things to do just because they're entertaining." Another, "rock paper scissors is so silly that it's hard to look cool doing it, so people just relax and have a good time." There may not have been much relaxation in the 2005 Sotheby's versus Christie's rock paper scissors match that decided which auction house would handle an art collection worth over $20 million. The game was proposed by the president of the company who owned the art collection and instead of using their hands the opponents wrote their selection on paper. Christie's did research and consulted 11-year-old twins to formulate their scissors strategy. Sotheby's depended on chance and went with paper. Nice try, but Christie's wasn't about to freeze up and go with rock.
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Monday, September 18, 2006
The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation
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The New Yorker's Tad Friend critiques Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" which premieres tonight.
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Friday, September 15, 2006
Ann Richards: former governor of Texas, teacher, mother of four, grandmother, recovering alcoholic (sober 26 years), motorcycle rider (or sitter for photo ops), outspoken, witty, movie theater noise fighter. You will be missed.
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The Metropolitan Opera is positioning their September 25 opening night gala as a celebrity event, complete with red carpet arrivals. The performance of "Madama Butterfly" will be simulcast on a jumbo screen in Times Square with 650 cushioned seats (plus standing room) and giant speakers provided. These publicity stunts are part of new general manager Peter Gelb's plan to show that "the Met is interested in being part of mainstream society and contemporary culture." An open house including a rehearsal is scheduled for the 22nd. To extend its reach beyond local audiences, the Met has partnered with various media companies to broadcast performances in movie theatres and on the web. Their more traditional radio and PBS TV broadcasts will of course continue. (NY Times article)
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Thursday, September 14, 2006
While I miss the Asian food the most, the Mexican food in the SF Bay Area is also difficult to leave behind. Witness the oh so tough initiation of SF Chronicle writer Bill Addison into the food section staff. He went to 85 burrito joints in 10 weeks and picked his favorites. Dan Johnson, founding editor of Burritophile.com says SF area folks are spoiled: "Your average burrito in San Francisco would be something that in any other city would knock your socks off." Worst, I was spoiled and didn't know it!
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The gigantic Seattle Public Library booksale is this weekend at Magnuson Park. "Preparation for the sale goes on year-round," explains the sale's chairwoman. "We have volunteers who sort through, repair and organize donated items for approximately 20 hours every week." 200,000 items are sorted under a huge roof.
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Jennifer McIlvaine's clever bruschettas are a fixture at several Seattle area farmer's markets. Her Bruschettina stand and recipes, including her unique chickpea and octopus topping, were featured in a recent Sunset magazine. McIlvaine's fans will lament the news that she is moving to Italy and will stop operating the stand in October. However, she is selling the business, hoping to find "an individual who will run it in the same spirit as I have!" And she's moving to the land of amazing food with a man she fell in love with during an internship in Tuscany, so it's best to celebrate her future happiness and not think about the potential loss of crunchy yumminess.
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Monday, September 11, 2006
September 11, 2001
The personal story that stayed with me from the weeks following the tragedy was the essay published in Salon (and other publications) written by violinist William Harvey. Then a freshman at Julliard, Harvey played at the Armory for the 69th Division of the Army as they returned from the rubble. Today I wondered what had become of Harvey. I assumed he'd graduated and went onto a professional career and that I'd find a few search hits for his name in either graduate school or symphony programs. Well, I did, but there was more. Harvey did graduate with a Master's degree and many honors from Julliard this year. He's now the interim concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony. And he's a composer. But the best part is that he founded Music for the People following his experience with 9/11. Its mission is "to send young classical musicians around the world to use music as the medium for cultural diplomacy." He's also keeping a weblog of news related to this project. He has first hand accounts of trips to Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Moldova and Tunisia. It's a shining example of positive action triggered by the tragedy.
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Members of the Gou family in China have been reclaiming their original name, Jing, changed in the 10th century. Of course a news story in English isn't likely to give the exact Chinese characters and meanings involved with the names, but it is clear that Gou sounds like the word for dog though it wasn't the same character. The dog soundalike has caused distress over many years. A thousand years of oral history has distorted the original reason for the change, but a look at the Chinese characters makes the alteration clearer than the explanation given in the American news story. The right side of the character "jing" resembles "fan" which means revolt or rebel. A Jing of that time decided to remove that portion, leaving "gou" which means careless. The news story gives the meaning as humble, which, since I'm illiterate, means I need to ask the Daddy Dictionary for clarification next time I see it (or maybe someone literate will send email).
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Thursday, September 07, 2006
Gourmet magazine's covers this year have been mystifying, an extreme minimal style devoid of bright colors and text. Sara Dickerman took notice over at Slate in July, calling the covers "muted-to-the-point-of-mousy." A few months have been more colorful, but the photography is definitely trending into a specific common expression of "muted elegance." Dickerman dissects it with more photographic knowledge.
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Now appearing in a grocery near you: Daisy Duck peaches, Mickey Mouse grapes, SpongeBob SquarePants spinach, Dora the Explorer oranges, and Tasmanian Devil apples. Produce marketing is aiming squarely at the kiddies and their parents. On the one hand it may encourage children to eat more fruits & veggies. On the other hand, the produce section had been relatively free from the annoyances of licensed products. I queried the consumer of a Minnie Mouse white peach and she stated that the fruit was cheap, huge, and delicious. Perhaps we won't have to pay more for licensed fruit. (thx Tracy!)
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart compose the melody to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?" Nope. The tune is a French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman." Mozart did write variations on the theme, but Trivial Pursuit got it wrong in identifying him as the composer. Wikipedia reveals that there are actually five verses to Twinkle Twinkle, from the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Parents will have to improvise their own finger movements for these new words.
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Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro, has directed his first film "Gedo Senki" based on Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. The film was released in Japan this summer. Le Guin wrote her account of the film's history, describing how she declined Hayao Miyazaki's original request to create an Earthsea film. She was eventually introduced to his films and realized his genius. A new correspondence with Studio Ghibli began and she gave her consent to a film but was soon disappointed to learn that Goro would be taking over the film. His father was completely uninvolved. Le Guin's review of the resulting film seems disappointed, but not entirely negative. She knows that much worse has resulted from film adaptations and, more pointedly, the SciFi Channel's TV adaptation.
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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
TED Conference Videos (and more to come) on Google Video, sponsored by BMW.
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"Sam and Max" return in October through the GameTap service ($9.99/month) from members of the original creative team who formed TellTale Games after LucasArts cancelled the sequel. They plan to produce a six-game "season" of "Sam and Max", releasing one per month. (thanks Waxy)
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Is your cat too sophisticated for those corrugated cardboard catnip scratchers? Well, for a lot more money you can buy artsy scratchable cat furniture in u, chair, and abstract shapes. It's made out of triple-wall laminated cardboard with enamel finish on the ends in the pet-speak colors of Maltese, canary, koi, and iguana. (via Luxist)
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Friday, September 01, 2006
TV Guide's Ausiello Report rumorizes (yes, I just made that word up) that Lauren Graham, the Gilmore Girls mom, will have a guest stint on Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Gilmore Girls fans may recall that creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's swift-tongued, quick-witted dialogue actually resulted in a hoax article claiming that Palladino was an Aaron Sorkin pseudonym. We can expect that Graham won't have trouble with whatever Sorkin and team pen for her, if it comes to speed anyway. Gilmore Girls returns on Sept 26 and Studio 60 premieres on Sept 18.
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The Munch paintings have been recovered and the M&Ms press release is out: "Could it have been the dark chocolate M&M'S(R)? Just days after launching the new M&M'S(R) Dark Chocolate ad campaign and announcing a reward of 2 million dark chocolate M&M'S(R) for the return of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," police in Oslo say they've recovered the famous masterpiece which was stolen two years ago." They should've released the dark chocolate version earlier.
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