Since Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series was largely autobiographical, the houses that Betsy and Tacy lived in actually exist. The two Hill Street homes are actually on Center Street in the town of Mankato, not Deep Valley. The Betsy-Tacy Society has purchased these houses and intends to restore and preserve them to depict the era that Lovelace so accurately and lovingly described in her books.

Fun with tritones
Before a performance of Camille Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 4, our conductor enlightened the audience about the first interval you hear in the piece: a tritone, or diminished fifth. This dissonant interval was also used in Bernstein’s “Maria” from West Side Story, and in the opening of the Simpsons’ theme song by Danny Elfman. While I was shampooing my hair after the concert I also tracked it down to the “Jane, his wife” portion of the Jetson’s theme composed by Hoyt Curtin. Tritones have an interesting history. The tritone was banned in medieval times as the “Diablous in musica” (the devil in music). Since then, this “Devil’s interval” has often been used to signify evil; another classical example is found in Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War” from “The Planets.” The tritone paradox gets you into scientific musical geekiness. Try hearing it for yourself (if you’ve got Flash).

Aimee Mann is making the circuit of my favorite TV shows. Fresh from her appearance on The West Wing, she’s scheduled to appear on Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s November 19 episode. I think she’d be a great fit on Gilmore Girls next if they would only oblige.

I have to thank (alas) Martha Stewart Living (on TV) for introducing me to the existence of magnetic paint and chalkboard paint. If I had known about them before we painted our office room, I wouldn’t be scrounging around now for cheap art mounting and bulletin board-esque ideas.

One simple pronoun
At the very end of this NY Times article about a change in flight time policies for pilots of unmanned Air Force planes, there’s a word that should go unnoticed, but that I couldn’t help but note. Without fanfare, the second to last paragraph begins: “One of the most respected Predator pilots of the Afghan war is an officer who so mastered the aircraft that she was chosen to fly the super-secret C.I.A.missions in which a new, armed Predator tracked Taliban and Qaeda leadership and then launched Hellfire anti-tank missiles.” She. She flew the plane. That the writer doesn’t feel it necessary to point out anything unusual about the pilot being a women is a small victory for women in the military. Combat aviation was opened to women only in 1993 and only one percent of jet fighter pilots are female. Unmanned reconnaissance planes may not have fallen into the combat category, but I think shooting missiles certainly should count.

It’s no surprise that the popularity of foodie books on cooking, running restaurants, eating in foreign countries, and so on has created a market for books about waiting on tables. I recently read “Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress” by Debra Ginsberg (not bad), and now there’s “Hey Waitress! The U.S.A From the Other Side of the Tray” by Alison Owing. In a lengthy Salon review Suzy Hansen recounts her own tales of waitressing woe and theorizes on the unique relationship between waitress and customer. There’s power mongering, class struggles, harassment, greed, and hunger! No wonder the interaction has so much potential to go sour. You don’t have to treat your waitperson like your best buddy, but you should give them the same respect you’d expect from any business transaction.

Your fast food burger may one day come in an algae container. Alginsulate is a packaging and insulating foam created by puffing up dried brown algae. It is biodegradable and not appetizing to mice and insects, which is a problem for packaging made from corn and potatoes. Alginates are the same seaweed derivatives that are used to thicken ice cream. There’s a pilot plant now in operation to produce Alginsulate and more applications are being considered.

Yeah, I know, it’s another cat in distress story. I’m just a sucker for ’em. This time, though, the cat isn’t stuck up in a tree. This one got stuck in a puddle of asphalt. Ouch! Two jars of mayonnaise and one container of dishwashing detergent helped to pry off two pounds of asphalt from the little kitten. I don’t think this cutie will have to wait long for an owner with an “awwww” inspiring rescue story like this. (thanks Jen!)

There are new Best of Bowie CDs coming out this month, but Bowie compilations with past releases aren’t that exciting for me (except for that snazzily packaged Sound+Vision set). However, there is also a Best of Bowie DVD coming out in November. DVD means videos! 47 songs, 2 discs. Everything from old “Top Of The Pops” performances to the requisite Ziggy Stardust movie bit, to that embarrassing butt-bumping “Dancing In The Street” video with Mick Jagger, and of course all the new stuff that isn’t classic yet. This totally makes up for all the MTV I didn’t get to watch in the 1980s (we didn’t have cable). Like, totally.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has opened in Egypt, after years of effort to bring it to fruition. The original Library of Alexandria, founded in the fourth century BC, had in the neighborhood of 700,000 papyrus manuscripts by the middle of the first century BC. These were all catalogued and shelved alphabetically by author. It was an unbelievable collection, unlike anything known at the time. Alas, the library was eventually destroyed by fire. A “daughter library” that had been built for additional storage was deemed “pagan” by Christian rulers in early 400 AD and was also lost. It wasn’t until 1974 that the University of Alexandria began planning a replacement library. UNESCO got involved in 1986. Snohetta was awarded the architecture contract after an open competition and their design is certainly fitting for a monument to knowledge. It currently houses 240,000 volumes, so it has a ways to go to catch up, but it is also counting on the Internet Archive to boost its electronic holdings. Their website is available in Arabic, French, and English.