Ever wonder what the difference is between a Boston bagel and a New York bagel? Ever go to Boston and wonder “where the heck can I get a decent bagel around here?” Don’t despair, there’s a Boston Bagel FAQ just for you. The executive summary: “Boston bagels are relatively small, roughly donut-sized (but with a smaller hole). New York bagels can be used as spare tires on Geo Metros.” And: “People in California think that Noah’s bagels are wonderful, which is yet more confirmation that all that sunlight and smog turns your brains into bean dip.” Bean dip? In my own head? Pass the chips! (And where does one go for a decent Boston Cream pie in CA?)

Steve found an article on what They Might Be Giants has been up to. I can tell I have been a bad fan because although I’ve been watching Malcolm in the Middle semi-regularly since its debut, I had no idea it was TMBG singing the theme song. My mind went through vague “oh it’s one of those new ‘we’re so witty’ bands that try to sound like TMBG” thoughts but it didn’t catch on that it might actually be them. Ooops.

After posting about the first man in space last week, I realized I did not know who the first woman in space was. I know Sally Ride was the first American woman up there, but I was pretty sure we didn’t beat the Russians at this one either. The first woman was Valentina Tereshkova, who was actually skilled at parachuting, not piloting as most cosmonauts are. She took off on June 16, 1963 for three days of orbiting and, of course, parachuted out after re-entry. It was her only spaceflight and Russia didn’t send another woman up for nineteen years.

The Faked Dr Pepper site has collected (and taste-tested) a comprehensive (as far as I can tell, after all it’s pretty large!) list of Dr Pepper clones. The “Dr.” names range from Dr A+ to Dr. Zing with non-doctor appellations as well, including the popular Mr. Pibb, which the taster found “extremely weak in comparison to Dr Pepper.” (via Yahoo’s Weekly Picks)

Typewriter of the Month is a gallery of those wonderful tap-tap-tapping devices. It isn’t being updated regularly anymore, but the past entries have descriptions that cover both their aesthetic qualities and mechanical features. (via RandomWalks)

It’s Boston Marathon day once again (ie. Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts), so it’s time to dust off my t-shirt essay on “The Halfway Point” of the Boston Marathon.

This weekend I saw a pear that had been grown in a bottle. It was a Poire William Brandy (pear brandy) carafe. The pear gets “bottled” when it is small and grows for a few months before harvest. The brandy smells yummy, but the taste is, as you may expect, alcohol intense. We didn’t chill it, as I have now read is recommended, so maybe the flavor wasn’t as pronounced as it could have been.

When I’m web surfing, I always close pop-up ads immediately. These days I feel a tiny pang of guilt as I think “oh no, this site is going to go out of business because they can’t get anyone to read their ads”. I’ve wondered why pop-up ads and new larger sized, intrusively placed ads are so annoying. I often watch TV commercials. I look at ads in the newspaper. I even click through on “traditional” banner ads sometimes when the topic is interesting. What I’ve realized is that the placement and intrusion of these ad styles counter the act of surfing.

When I have clicked on a link or button, I have read the words that make up the link or know what I expect to be behind the button and my brain is moving ahead with it, anticipating what will be on the page, getting ready to read it. If a pop-up ad comes up, it blocks my train of thought, and I dismiss it immediately. And when I’m reading along on a web page, a large block ad that reconfigures the text and screws up the movement of my eyes is annoying to my reading task and I try to ignore it as much as I can. The way we surf through the web does not create places for effective advertising.

TV shows, however, are designed around commercials. Shows are designed to have “acts” that leave you with a natural stopping point for an interruption. When they splice up movies for network TV they are careful with the commercial pauses. And newspapers never (rarely?) stick ads in the middle of articles. When something is continued on a different page, they can’t throw a pop-up ad at you, thank goodness. Magazines often do stick ad pages within articles, but it’s usually easy to follow along to the continuation. So what advertising will work in a linked, web model? At what points are we interruptible and receptive to a pitch? And don’t the powers that be realize the the more annoying and intrusive the ads are, the less we’re going to want to look at them?

You may have figured out one answer to this. The content itself can change to make the ads work. The writers will love that.

Twenty years ago today, the first space shuttle took off for the first time. Twenty years before that day, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space. The space shuttle was scheduled to take off a couple days earlier than it did, so the shared anniversary was a nice coincidence. (Blogger’s being very cranky so I’m not posting anything else today. Stay tuned.)

When religious law IS the law: Passover cops raid restaurants serving bread on holiday. The original Israeli law was intended to apply “only to restaurants and stores displaying bread products in their windows, not to cafes serving them inside”, but the current ultra-Orthodox Ministry is taking it beyond the original intent. (via The Other Side)