Here’s a very nice article on the architecture of the new terminal at SFO. Craig Hartman was the lead architect in a joint venture of three architecture firms. Requirements were lofty: the terminal is designed not only to withstand an earthquake, but to remain functioning after one. They accomplished that, we hope, with “stainless steel sliders that sit in giant, concave dishes”. Yes folks, it’s not only the airplanes that can roll up to the terminal. The building itself can move 20 inches in all directions. I do think it’s one of the prettiest terminals I’ve seen. I hope function is as good as form. (via rebecca’s pocket)

I really did mean to personally respond to each of the wonderful birthday wishes I’ve gotten from readers (except the, ahem, anonymous ones), but instead I’ve been…working. So, an impersonal, but no less heartfelt, thank you to everyone in the interim. A Very Nice Reader gave me my very own PowerPuff doll (emphasis on the puff, as in puffy — her head is like a blimp!).

I spend more time watching the Food Network than I do cooking. I’ve been a happy viewer since I became addicted to Sean Donellan on “How to Boil Water” a few years ago. I also enjoyed “Taste” with David Rosengarten. With the snazzy new productions they have now, those vintage programs look quite primitive. But they are still endearing. After all, Sean had a “magical mystery oven” he would pull toys out of. They didn’t actually install an oven in his studio, so he had a hidden shelf with the finished goods and other surprises (and his electric stovetop never got hot fast enough). The New York Times recently ran an article on the Food Network, noting that it no longer tries to teach people how to cook — in prime time at least. Instead “the network for people who eat” is creating entertainment programs. No more slow-paced educational yawners. Now it’s exotic locales, jerky (and they don’t mean dried meat) camera shots, and glamour. Still, I’ve been pleased with additions like “Good Eats” with Alton Brown, a worthy, if somewhat overproduced, successor to “How to Boil Water” and “Taste”. But I can only take about ten minutes of Emeril at a time.

Special Feature Today – Taking A Summer Off : The Upshot

I keep getting unsolicited email from t-shirt manufacturers in places like Turkey and Egypt asking me, in overly polite English, if I would like to perhaps purchase their products for distribution in the United States. I assume that these businesses are either doing web searches or perusing Yahoo’s t-shirt collection category, finding my T-Shirt Chronicles site and sending me email. But it is quite obvious, though perhaps only to someone who understands English well, that I do not sell t-shirts. I just wear them. It’s neat getting email from foreign lands, but I wish people would be more careful about what they think is targeted unsolicited email.

All I wanted to do was find out if the squeaking noise I keep hearing at night is a bunch of bats cavorting outside. Instead I stumbled upon the vast world of bat detection. You can buy a bat detector or get details on making your own. And of course there are pages devoted to bat frequencies, recordings, and other batty links.

I am employed again. I started Monday and the outside temperature hit 100 while I happily froze in air conditioning. 105 degrees is predicted for Tuesday.

For my birthday, my cat got a gigantic cat tree. Yes, that’s right. My birthday. Cat got a gift. You see, she got used to having me around all summer, and so somebody nice decided that a distraction was in order for my return to the daily grind.

Xenote is discontinuing its iTag service. I assume the company itself is also going belly-up. Now I have a cute, translucent blue keychain that just makes space-age chirps. I suppose it could be reincarnated as a cat torture device. I’ll have to look out for all the surplus iTags next time I’m at HSC.

The Dictionary of Symbolism has some items which I never would have thought to look up for deep meaning. Like almonds, which apparently are quite, uh, symbolic.