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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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)