Pink phone. Pink water. Pink Panther (remake).

Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy. That’s me! (via the hungry tiger)

Eye opening WSJ article on celebrity chef endorsements. There is a table at the bottom that lists some chefs and their sponsors. Most aren’t as obvious as Emeril putting his name on everything that he can “bam!” For example, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute pays one “restaurant group $10,000 a year to have the word Alaska in front of its king-crab and halibut dishes.” There’s nothing wrong with chefs accepting goods and payment for endorsements, but it’s nice to know what deals exist. (via Saute Wednesday)

Yet Another Baby Blog? Yup, I started one in order to have a repository of information that I felt would be helpful to new parents. It’s not a chronicle of our baby’s life nor a place for cute photos. It is a place for sharing what we’ve learned about products and situations. I have a number of draft entries from the past months and will publish them as I have time to edit. I promise if I write something particularly fascinating I’ll let you know here. I also wanted to try out MSN Spaces so I could recommend improvements. Oh, and guess what? Thanks to some nice friends, http://www.momhacker.com redirects to my baby blog. Cute!

Troels Overdal Poulsen brought 12 liters of fresh, whole milk with him from Denmark to help him win this year’s World Barista Championships in Seattle. I suspect next year’s winner is already planning the logistics for bringing along a Holstein cow.

Cybill Shepherd is turning her portrayal of Martha Stewart into a habit. CBS has slapped together a sequel Martha movie called “Martha: Behind Bars” and may air it during May sweeps. Actually, it’s not strictly a sequel since the first Martha movie aired on NBC and was based on the book “Martha, Inc.” The producer of the CBS telepic has said “I don’t do schlocky things” (a critique of the last movie perhaps?). Perhaps Shepherd will get a chance to put in a more understated performance this time. (I still think Candice Bergen would be much better as Martha.)

Amtrak had enough woes already without this. Brake problems have forced them to shut down the high speed Acela service indefinitely. Cracks were found in 300 out of 1,440 disc brake rotors. Next week a Senate committee will discuss the Bush administration’s recommendation to end Amtrak’s hefty subsidy. Somebody smart needs to figure out what to do with Amtrak, with or without government funds.

Bring back Ben & Jerry’s White Russian!!! OK, maybe it wasn’t your favorite flavor, in fact it wasn’t mine either, but it was yummy fun to eat in college and I miss being able to taste it. Go nominate a flavor to resurrect from Ben & Jerry’s flavor graveyard (White Russian! White Russian!) and return in May to cast your vote. In late August the flavor will be available in their scoop shops. Oh, and Free Cone Day is coming up on April 19th.

Here’s a description of a software project that solved a complex problem: take an old scratchy mono recording of a piano performance and recreate it in MIDI on a Disklavier Pro piano so it sounds like the original artist is playing it. “The team at Zenph Studios analyzed the audio waveforms and extracted every nuance of the original performance: articulation, technique, pedals; everything needed to recreate the performance.” You can hear the Disklavier play Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” the same way Glenn Gould did in 1955. (via Robot Wisdom)

New York’s famous Plaza Hotel, the setting for many movies and home to Eloise, was going mostly condo until the hotel workers union and Mayor Bloomberg had their say. The updated plans will retain a larger number of hotel rooms and keep the landmark ballroom, Palm Court, and Oak Room open to the public. But this resolution doesn’t help the bride whose parents are suing the former and present owners of the Plaza for ruining their wedding plans. The renovation closure has forced them to move the nuptials to another hotel and they’ve submitted a pricey laundry list of associated costs such as “$20,000 more in floral arrangements to accommodate the different space” and a lost deposit of $4,525 for the band. Sounds like the wedding budget can afford a few lawyers.