The Mercury News takes its turn with hearth cooking expert William Rubel (I posted an SF Chronicle piece about him a month ago). Their profile takes a Valentine’s Day spin with a romantic fondue by the fire. Also mentioned are upscale s’mores with gingersnaps, Valrhona chocolate, and hand-cut marshmallows from Whole Foods. Just like our colonial forefathers used to make.

“Enterprise”‘s Linda Park (Ensign Sato) grew up in the Bay Area and attended Notre Dame High School in San Jose.

U.S. fans of Rowan Atkinson‘s Mr. Bean series may not know that there was an animated series which aired in the U.K. last year. Better send in those PBS pledges.

AT&T; Broadband is finally combining their cable tv and cable modem services into one account, which means one bill. It’s about time. Of course this facilitates their plan to offer discounted billing for those who subscribe to both, but I still hail the convenience.

Happiness is coming home to find your neighbor has put out a huge basket with the sign “FREE LEMONS.” Even more happiness is finding out that they are Meyers, riper than the ones in your own backyard (different sunlight placement I suppose), and boy are there a lot of them. One month from now we’ll have preserved lemons. Tomorrow I’ll buy white vinegar and make pickles. Somehow, experimenting on someone else’s free lemons takes away a bit of the pressure for perfection. If something doesn’t work out, I’ve still got our lemons.

The NY Times declares It’s the Season to Stomp Fish Into a Tangy Paste. In Cambodia that is. And the writer makes it sound so appetizing: “prahok – fish cheese, if you will – a Cambodian staple with a smell as piercing and terrifying as the sound of an air raid siren.” Later on the words “raw and horrifying” are used. You can tell he’s not a food writer.

Appliance maker Salton continues to improve on their computer for the kitchen ideas while I persist in lambasting the hefty price point of the Microsoft Smart Displays and continue to dream of a thin hardware client terminal that could sell for under $500.

At an H.M.S. Pinafore performance I played in sometime in the mid-1990s a dear friend of mine, visiting from out of state, brought along a guy who barely made an impression on me. We all went to Denny’s afterwards and my friend and I were so engrossed in catching up that I don’t recall speaking much to her friend (I am now picturing myself rudely never asking him anything about himself). Months later when she confided that he was courting her most gallantly in old-fashioned Southern style, I couldn’t remember his face. And what a shame that was, because I found out he was a most unique and memorable person: an M.D., a varsity gymnast, and a Navy pilot who was accepted into the NASA astronaut program in 1996. Grasping onto my extremely tenuous connection to the fascinating world of actual space travel, I checked in on David Brown’s NASA bio occasionally to see when he was finally going to get to go “up.” I kept checking even after he was no longer under consideration for Mr. “dear friend of mine.” His mission kept getting rescheduled, pushed back, again and again. But it did eventually happen. It ended in great sadness on Saturday morning.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked us if we own a compound miter saw, I’d well… well, I’d have a couple dollars. That’s not enough to buy any power tool. But I do have the power of the Internet and guess what I found out? There are such things as Tool Lending Libraries. San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland’s public library systems lend out tools to residents. Here’s the San Francisco list, here’s Berkeley’s info page, and here’s the Oakland list. Pacific Gas & Electric has a Tool Lending Library for designers and builders to take energy usage readings.

It’s always sad when you don’t hear about something neat until it gets publicity for closing down. Kasuri Dyeworks specializes in selling traditional kimono fabrics from Japan. Shop owner Koji Wada has spent years cultivating relationships with the master craftsmen who spin, dye and weave the labor intensive fabrics. But the craftsmen are becoming extinct and supplies are low. Demand remains high for Wada’s wares, but he’s packing up the store’s emptying shelves. While demand for sections of the beautiful fabrics may bring him satisfactory business in the U.S., demand for kimonos in Japan has shrunk considerably. They are no longer a mandatory part of a wedding dowry, nor are they considered practical for most situations. An exceedingly formal ceremony may call for a kimono, but in those cases they are rented. The entertainment workers who used to patronize the kimono makers are suffering from the economy crash which slowed their business. So there are few customers left for the fabric makers, and no incentive for newcomers to learn the trade. Bonus link: Professional quilter, Pamela Hill, a long time customer of Kasuri Dyeworks.