Very busy. No time. Quick links:
Photos of the pandas at the National Zoo (cute of course)
San Francisco Bay Wind Pattern Streaklines. Java applet, very cool (via Larkfarm)
Dan Gillmor on why it’s worth saving web pages for posterity (from reader Marc. Thanks!)

Housekeeping note: I’ve removed the date/time footers from each posting and added a link to the permanent archive location. I’ve removed the date/time mainly because I’ve changed my Blogger time settings to the Eastern time zone. This was all done for some silly, but psychologically comforting reasons which I will not encumber you with.

Many years back, probably about eight, a friend said that his friend (also male) didn’t like the new women’s shoe styles that were appearing. Turns out he was lamenting the demise of toe cleavage. Yup. He didn’t like how the new styles were covering up more and more of the foot, leaving all visions of the space between toes, and indeed, the toes themselves, left to the imagination. This was a revelation to me. Toe cleavage wasn’t something I, or anyone else I know, thought of as being a style of the 1980’s. We just bought the shoes we liked. It wasn’t anything like purchasing a low neckline. I still have a few pairs of flats from that era, and they indeed are much barer on top than anything I wear now. With all reports of the 1980’s making a fashion comeback, will shoe tops be cut back as well? I found one article on this phenomenon. Printed in July 2000, it states “toe cleavage is an emerging look for fall, seen on haute couture runways as low-cut pumps, mules and sling-backs.” I had no idea we were being so racy! I rebelled and I missed it. Ah well, at least I’m prepared for the next round. Better get those no longer demure flats out for resoling.

I believe this is the first set of weblog items I’ve written while experiencing a violent case of the hiccups. Hic. Hic. HIC!

Garden.com‘s website says Burpee has “has decided to continue serving Garden.com customers on the Internet.” Taking a closer look at the press release, it appears that while Burpee has purchased the Garden.com brand, Walmart has acquired their “major content assets, including editorial,
interactive and film content.” Which set of assets, I wonder, is worth more? Burpee has essentially purchased a domain name, an essential one for their business. Walmart has purchased the blood, sweat, and tears of a lot of hard work. Getting a domain name is easy (though sometimes expensive). Content is another story. (this article spotted on Anil Dash)

The Holy Order of the Lemon appears to be another example of the absurdely sublime. Or perhaps the sublimely absurd. I think I’d like to form a suborder, perhaps the Diocese of the Meyer Lemon, in order to worship my favorite lemon variety. (via Larkfarm)

Tuesday was National Handwriting Day, brought to us by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association. They picked John Hancock’s birthday to commemorate the declining art of writing things with pens, pencils, markers, etc. In this news article, handwriting identification expert, Emily Will, says “the best protection against forgery is good, skilled writing. No one can write better than their skill level, so the better skill level you have, the less number of people can successfully forge your handwriting.” An interesting observation. However, the faithful reproduction of a person’s signature seems not to involve skill at handwriting as much as a muscle memory of how you’ve degenerated the writing of your name into an efficient set of squiggles. (via LTSeek)

Ever wanted to eat dinner in bed? There’s a Miami restaurant called B.E.D. where diners recline on mattresses. Business is booming for this great gimmick. Perhaps it is not as awkward as it sounds, but they don’t serve soup and food is cut into manageable pieces. Why someone would go out to lie down and eat is beyond me. Haven’t they heard of take-out and delivery? I guess it’s more permissable to go lie down with a new friend in public than in private. (news article here if it hasn’t expired)

It’s getting to the point where I don’t remember how I did things before the World Wide Web. How did I get directions, prep myself for shopping trips by doing research and pricing, look up store hours, get back in touch with old friends, learn about something I just discovered, and spy on people? I do know what I used to do with all that time I can waste surfing. Sleep.

Some years back, a few people told me what I assumed was an urban legend about the wild parrot flock of Sunnyvale. When Marine World moved from the peninsula up to Vallejo, the story goes, a flock of parrots escaped and settled down in Sunnyvale. Residents will often report seeing a group of loudly squawking green birds. And, of course, the story teller always said he or she had actually seen and heard these parrots. I didn’t give the tale much thought, but I remembered it today when I noticed Yahoo’s Weekly Picks had featured The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. No joke, there’s a flock of parrots in San Francisco. Ah ha, I thought, this is the flock of parrots I was told about, they are in San Francisco, not Sunnyvale. But, since the web was at my fingertips, I did a search, just in case. The first item listed a 1998 article from the city paper in which the reporter, having heard the same rumors, made some calls and verified that there is indeed an infamous flock of parrots in Sunnyvale, in addition to the flocks in Telegraph Hill and Palo Alto. There is an urban legend component of the story though. The birds are most likely descendants of escaped house pets, but creative myths have been circled regarding their origins: “they escaped from a sinking ship, a local pet story (sic) burned down, a smuggler lost track of them”. I like the one I heard the best, because it also gives you the history of Marine World. Most newcomers don’t realize it used to be a lot closer.