Thinking about summer, already

Google Chrome: You're Killing Me!

It drives me nuts that due to incompatibility issues I need to use Firefox to blog via the Google acquired tool, Blogger. And now, this:

Yep - Chrome doesn't support Google Earth plugins. Why?

Working 9 to 5

This, apparently, is a real help-wanted ad. I kid you not. 

Scrapbooks: An American History

From today's The Morning News, a good read by all means.

For Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press), graphic designer Jessica Helfand, who as it happens collects these meticulously bound oddities, has anthologized a broad array of samplings from over 200 scrapbooks, reaching back to the early 19th century and hurtling toward the present. The 400 images in this thoughtfully designed book are selected from private individuals as well as some well-known Americans: Zelda Fitzgerald, Lillian Hellman, Anne Sexton, Hilda Doolittle, and Carl Van Vechten.

Auditorium

Very, very nice game.

Via kottke.org

Photographs of the President

A great interview Opinion piece from the NY Times (25 January 2009). Errol Morris questions the head photo editors of the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Thomson Reuters about photographs of the 43rd President of the United States. 

Well worth the time.

MST3K Live Performance - Jan. 28, 9pm EST

I kid you not. The MST3K guys will spoof a film before your very computer eyes. Catch it here as they slaughter the 1950 film Overcoming Fear.

I hope Josh isn't working the night shift.

Leave it to Microsoft

The first time I saw this product I just shrugged; now that I hear about it seemingly every 10 minutes I thought I'd investigate a bit more and found this horror:

Egads this one's bad. But, wait; there's more misery to be shared:

Make it stop, please!

Surprise 60th

We threw a surprise 60th birthday event for my mother in Baltimore last night. As of 10:30am, today, most of the dishes are done. Boy, am I tired.

Eric Holder's AG Confirmation Hearing. . .

. . .can be followed by the 'live blogging' of the NY Times. This is an intersting confirmation as Eric Holder served as Assistant Attorney General under President Clinton and was part of the very interesting 11th hour pardon of Marc Rich, the commodities trader. (Ah, the Guliani years.)

Finally, someone realizes $150/ticket isn't right

"The Tommy Tune of basketball"; not bad.

Before and almost after

The Bush years as depicted by a before and almost after image from The Atlantic magazine.

Shorting Stock

Towards the end of last year, through interesting manipulations in stock ownership and purchasing, Volkswagen briefly became the 'richest' company in the world based on its market capitalization. Lots of articles have been written to explain how/why/who but this explanation is quite easy to understand and, while frightening, is worth the read.

Bushims: A List

Ah, there are some things we will miss and here's a list of the 'Top 25 Bushims' as proclaimed by Slate magazine. My personal favorite is 18.

18. "Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000

Tilt-Shift Heaven

I recently found a site that allows me to apply a tilt-shift technique to any of my existing photos. Here's one I took in Hawaii back in 2006. What a great way to waste time. (The tilt-shift site, that is.)

An Interview with the President-Elect

From today's NY Times, the transcript of an interview conducted with the President-Elect concerning his fiscal stimulus package and, towards the end, an interesting conversation about how he's not going to let go of his BlackBerry. 

(You can also listen to the interview, here; please note it's 28 1/2 minutes long.)

The Best (and Most Expensive) Software Ever?

From Fast Company, December 1996, an article on the software that enables NASA's Space Shuttle craft to do, well, pretty much everything.

But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

The entire article, here.

Bread for Josh

This is what you get.

Recipe:

3C flour

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 C water

Place first three ingredients in a bowl. Add water and mix until dough is shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 4 hrs in 70° F location. After first rise, punch down and let rest for 20 mins. Preheat oven to 450° F. Oil large bowl (must have a corresponding lid) and allow to heat in oven for 15 mins. Place dough in bowl, cover with lid, and bake for 30 mins. Remove lid and bake an additional 15-20 mins until top is browned. You may add sweet or savory items to the dough as you like.

Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

From this morning's NY Times, an article on dog cloning.

Living Together - Beloved Pets Everlasting? 

Holiday Movies

As a general rule, I eschew any motion pictures dealing with the Holocaust; I do not wish to spend any more time in my life discussing genocide. I've not seen a picture since 'Schindler's List' but I find myself drawn to the film, 'The Reader', which, interestingly enough, stars Ralph Fiennes. Here's the trailer.

A Player Worth Watching

Take a quick read and let me know if you agree with the sentiment posted above; I'll be watching him this cactus season. Heck - the name alone is worth a look.

Clay Zavada

Local Commercials, anyone?

Okay; this one's worth your time if you hate the fact ESPN and the like carve out 60 seconds for the 'local market' commercials. Here's a group of five gone terribly bad. My favorite is number 2 in the list.

See all five here.

Cinema Quiz

Mostly for the cinematic Mugeles, but how do you score? I was less than 50%. (No surprise, eh?)

IMBD Top 250 Quiz

For my wife

Nanowar.

Just because

If you get it, you get it; if not, you never suffered.

An acapella tribute to John Williams.

Find the real artists here.

Great Board Games for the Holiday Season

From the Morning News - the best games of 2008.

I like the first one for Josh's family as well as the second one.

NYC Beekeeper Article

An interesting piece on keeping bees in NYC but the real gem is about 2/3rds of the way down where CCD is discussed. I'm still hoping to have bees in my Brownsburg backyard by next summer.

http://www.drawger.com/zinasaunders/index.php?section=comments&article_id=6518

Operating Environments - Spatially Defined

oblong industries is very close to making the UI in Minority Report a reality. Although Jeff Han demonstated a similar device at TED back in 2006, this one is a bit more mature, and a bit scary to some degree. Take a look:

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

The ABC3D Book

The video pretty much says all that needs to be said.

In a nutshell

Yep; this is pretty much me. From this article in The New Yorker, November 14, 2008.

The Big Picture

Above image, copyright 2008 Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation

One of my favorite RSS reads is 'The Big Picture', a photojournalistic view of current events, put together by Alan Taylor, a website developer for the Boston Globe. Many times I cannot stand to look at the images; other times, like today, I am simply amazed by the beauty of nature. Take a look and see.

Final Electoral Vote Tally

Looks like one electoral vote for each day of the year went to President-Elect Obama. 

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/obama-wins-omaha-ne-electoral-vote.html

Sound advice for President-Elect Obama

Alice Walker's open letter to the next President of the United States.

Good advice, indeed.

Wave Field Installation by Maya Lin

The NY Times featured the architect, artist, and landscape artist Maya Lin in this weekend's paper; here's a link to a video on their website where Lin shares her thoughts on a recently completed series of landscape items, entitled 'Wave Field'. (To my family in Chelsea, the first in the series is at UM's School of Engineering.)

Ms. Lin is mostly known for her Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington D.C., a commission she was based on design she submitted as an undergraduate at Yale. In the article, she tells us she has attempted to shrug off the mantle of 'architect' and this piece introduces us to a far wider range of work.

See it here.

Say What You Will

But I belive in him and love the way he ran his campaign. If you're having trouble getting excited, this should do the trick.

Nels Ackerson for Congress

It's rare I tell someone what I think they should do. I am a strong propoenent of free choice - in all things - and while I enjoy engaging in conversation with repsect to religion and politics, and have ridiculously strong views of each, it's very uncommon for me to tell someone what they should believe or for whom they should vote.

So, that said, I implore those of you who live in Indiana's 4th Congressional district to vote for Nels Ackerson. There are many ways to describe Nels, his political views, and his agenda - all of which I believe in strongly. Let me say that Nels is the gentleman politician Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he discussed the model state representative. Nels deserves our vote and Indiana's 4th deserves someone who will voice the constituent's concerns as Nels will.

If you've not made up your mind, please vote for Nels. A vote for Nels is a vote for a better Indiana. 

And, if you're curious, my ticket looked like this today: Obama-Biden (D); Daniels (IN Gov, R); Nels Ackerson (IN 4th- D). 

Funniest thing I've seen this election cycle

Two teenagers, in my neighborhood, walking home from the bus stop. One faked spitting on our Obama yard sign (funny thing is, he failed to spit on the sign next to it advocating Nels Ackerson for Congress) and another had a "Nobama '08" t-shirt on.

At least they're involved in the process! (But, thankfully, not old enough to vote.)

Electoral Vote Prediction

I've been predicting my own electoral vote map for the past month or so; now that it's election eve I thought I'd share it with you.

I long thought 338 would be a huge, huge win for Obama and my call for NC to go to the Dems is what looks to be my biggest gamble. The only way I see McCain winning is to take FL-PA-OH-NC. On average, FL is +3%, PA is +7%, OH is +4%, (for Obama) and NC is a tie. 

My home state of IN, which is now -1%, would be the biggest switch state of them all. Bush had +21% in 2004 and +16% in 2000.

Hi-Tech Voting a Thing of the Past?

Touchscreen voting has been run through the wringer over the past 8 years of election cycles and it's not getting any better. For people who aren't techies at heart or at work, it must be frustrating to find 

From this morning's NY Times:

In states with early voting, there have been scattered reports of touch-screen machine malfunctions, ballot misprints causing scanners to jam and vote-flipping, in which the vote cast for one candidate is recorded for another.

Florida has switched to its third ballot system in the past three election cycles, and glitches associated with the transition have caused confusion at early voting sites, election officials said. The state went back to using scanned paper ballots this year after touch-screen machines in Sarasota County failed to record any choice for 18,000 voters in a fiercely contested House race in 2006.

Voters in Colorado, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have reported using touch-screen machines that at least initially registered their choice for the wrong candidate or party.

"I pushed the Democrat ticket, and it jumped to the Republican ticket for president of the United States," said Calvin Thomas, 81, an Obama supporter who tried to vote early in Ripley, W.Va. "I’m a registered Republican, and I’ve voted in every presidential election since 1948. I don’t like seeing my vote do something I didn’t tell it to do. I take that real serious."

Sunday Morning Politics

As our group will attend the John McLaren roundtable at this year's Spirit and Place Festival I was given the luxurious chance to watch the Sunday morning pundits. Of particular interest to me were the following:

CBS Sunday Morning's piece on what it means to be a patriot. Needless to say, my views were more blue than red but I found it riveting that more Americans found it patriotic to vote (95%) than they did to serve in the military (87%). (It's toward the bottom of the article, video will be available later in the week.)

Over on FOX News Sunday (yes, normally FOX is on purely for NFC Football and The Simpsons) David Plouffe, Obama's Campaign Manager, made a rare TV appearance and made me want to be a better man. Of interest were Plouffe's comments regarding the get out the vote efforts currently underway and the rise of first time and African-American voters in this election. He made me proud in his comments regarding Indiana and how it remains in play just two days prior to the election. The best part of today's show was watching Karl Rove admit McCain's chances were 'steep' as a result of all polls showing him -5% to -9%. (Video will appear later in the day.)

As I've said before, this is my generation's Kennedy moment. I wonder how I'll feel on Wednesday.

One of my favorite sites during election season is electoral-vote.com. I'm hoping for 370 but think somewhere in the 320s is more likely. And, to scare me, look at the same data this day four years ago - remember how much of a mess that was? 

What's wrong with Higher Education, you ask?

From an anonymous liberal arts professor, tenured, who has decided to leave academia for good:

Higher education for too many undergraduates at too many liberal arts colleges has become a puffy sofa nestled with down pillows. For a few bucks and in a few hours, students can take a test and learn that they are language disabled, or mathematically disabled, or for a few bucks more, both. Students increasingly ask me during advising sessions if a class is tough or hard, or if the professor assigns a lot of reading, because they need to “lighten their load.” “I want to take a class with Professor So-And-So. I have a lot on my mind, and I don’t want to stress out.” “Don’t worry,” I say, “you won’t.”

The rest, here.

Courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, Marginal Revolution.

More compelling reasons

And now, a little music to that interview

From YouTube, of course It's a bit like watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

This is the sort of thing I'd do if I had enough spare time

'Take on Me', by that great '80s band, Ah-Ha, where the lyrics have been changed to reflect the action in the music video. Oh, how funny it is. 

There should be more websites like this one

Why aren't there more sites like this one? Am I the only one to whom this sort of thing appeals?

I can't embed the videos due to code errors but check out the one on 'bulling' your shoes, how to shuck an oyster, and what part of the clove to remove before eating. Simply brilliant.

If it's not the goodness of '30 Rock' it's this

Oh - my - goodness; what a great impersonation by Tina Fey.

SNL Palin Clinton Show Intro
by gaijinhito

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

"You will stay in the comfy chair until lunchtime! Confess! Confess! CONFESS!"

Fox and Liberal Colleges and Universities?

What is up with Fox's fascination with the Ivy League liberals? First, we had the rather thinly veiled 'Princeton-Plainsboro' teaching hospital for House, M.D. and the new show, Fringe, goes so far as to set up shop in the basement at Harvard. Egads. At least that fluff called Bones was satisfied enough to be set in the fairy tale world of the fictitious Jeffersonian Institute. (Sounds rather Democratic, eh?)

The point is -- all of these are rather non-Fox like schools of higher learning, eh? Really; where's the Fox show that's set at Oral Roberts? Wouldn't that be more in keeping with the news division? Meh.

12!

As a kid this was the best thing in the world (and I still sing it in my head at least once a week.)

With time, however, comes perspective. I never knew twelve could be so, well - phallic. (Check following the 30 second mark.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-cxKg

Really amazing science

From today's NY Times, an article discussing a recent medical study where researchers were able to observe human brain cells summoning a memory. 

Simply amazing.

That cashier's job over at Denny's must have opened up

I'm sure many have heard but Don LaFontaine passed recently and took with him one of the best English speaking voices on the planet. Who's Don LaFontaine?



And, perhaps, the best imitation of Don is by the mimic Pablo Francisco (who, I think, gives Frank Caliendo a run for his money).




And, finally, the three amigos together.

What is it about Rick Astley?

To the tune (bad pun) of my man Barack's speeches.

Let the Roll Call Begin

The roll-call for the Democratic presidential nominee just began at 5:50pm EDT. I wonder how many states will need to report before the necessary 2,210 are met for my man, Barack.

What?

I always understood one of the unspoken rules of journalism to be that an article's title should give you some idea of the story while catching your attention. The following Reuters headline certainly caught my attention but does it make any sense? Your thoughts, please, as to what it means before you read the article.

Hantuchova Swept Aside By Big - Serving Groenfeld

Okay, but what does the graphic mean?

Not helpful!

No kidding - I'd love to try this in person

From this week's New Yorker magazine. Yet again, I've missed my true calling when it comes to Olympic opportunity. (No bad skin, though, and I stopped biting my nails a long time ago - please tell Hayes.)

Graphic onscreen: Twenty-two minutes until John Kenney.

We see John Kenney in his office cubicle, listening to an iPod and looking really closely at the tip of a pencil.

AL TRAUTWIG: Twenty-two minutes now until we see John Kenney try to medal in the elusive sport of bi-monthly-status-meeting commenting. First time for this event, and one that’s unfamiliar to some of our viewers. Mary Carillo, you competed briefly in this event. What should we look for?

MARY CARILLO: Al, this is an event dominated by the Dutch, the Swiss, and, to a great extent, the North Koreans. These are active participants in bi-monthly status meetings, people who really prepare, whereas Americans— new to the sport—tend to be far more lethargic, taking it more as a pastime than as something to really prepare for.

A.T.: John Kenney.

M.C.: Indeed. Kenney has a unique approach to the sport. He appears, at first, almost completely ignorant of what’s happening in a meeting, often looking around with a puzzled expression.

A.T.: A cat-and-mouse game.

M.C.: No. He genuinely has no idea what’s going on.

A.T.: How does he catch up?

M.C.: He might borrow the minutes of the last meeting from whomever he’s sitting next to or even whisper to his neighbor, asking something like “What’s happening? Who’s this Phil guy?”

A.T.: He never attended college.

M.C.: No, not even close. And that’s the remarkable thing. He’s able to glom on to something someone said and repeat it as if it were his own thought.

A.T.: As only a true Olympian can. Mary Carillo spoke with the two women who spurred John Kenney on to meeting greatness.

A montage of photographs of John Kenney as a baby, a child, a teen-ager. In every one, he’s sitting at a conference table. In one photo, age four, he appears to be pointing to a staffing chart. During this montage, we hear the voices of two women.

MOTHER: The first words out of his mouth—

SISTER: I’ll never forget this—

MOTHER: His first words were “I’d like to speak to Ted’s earlier point on the Q1 numbers.”

We now see John’s mother and his sister, speaking to Mary Carillo.

MOTHER: We knew he was special.

SISTER: And very different.

A montage of John and his mother and sister eating unusually large waffles, playing cards, and playing miniature golf. Throughout, we hear Mary Carillo.

M.C.: John never knew his father, an out-of-work freelance U-boat captain. His mother had to make ends meet on her salary as the senior vice-president of global marketing at Brown Brothers Harriman. But, always, John loved meetings. So much so that one Christmas he asked only for a conference table, easels, and an overhead projector.

MOTHER: We never even knew that meetings were an Olympic event. But that’s when John met his social-studies teacher, Mr. Bluth.

A montage of photographs of young John with Howard Bluth.

BLUTH: He was just different from the other kids. And not just because he drooled a lot.

Howard Bluth being interviewed by Mary Carillo.

M.C.: What made him so different?

BLUTH: He was . . . weird. Odd. Quirky. A little annoying. Short. Very bad skin. No one liked him. Not even me. He was a horrible athlete, didn’t say much. In twenty-five years of teaching, I’d never seen a student with less energy, interest, or charisma. It was almost like he was catatonic. But then, when called upon in class, he was able, at an early age, to take a fresh, cogent thought that a classmate had made moments before and restate it as if it were his own. I knew then that he had the raw skills to become a truly great middle-management-meeting Olympian.

A montage of John Kenney in meetings over the years: Now looking lethargic, now biting his nails, now staring out a window, now spilling coffee on himself, now laughing out of context at something he thought was funny in his head. Followed by a montage of comments he’s made in meetings.

J.K.: Maybe let’s regroup in two weeks?

J.K.: I’m not sure I understand what Alan means when he says “profit and loss.” How can you have both?

J.K.: Larry’s point is an important one. I’d just like to recap what he just said.

J.K.: How about a round of applause for Tina’s thought about the outsourcing thing she was just talking about.

Back to Al and Mary.

A.T.: An amazing story, a bizarre sport.

M.C.: Like the trampoline, like beach volleyball, like archery in many ways, so few people understand why or how or even the point of bimonthly-status-meeting commenting. But herein lies the mystery—and the power—of this odd, odd sport.

A.T.: We take you now to the conference room, where the meeting is already in progress . . . .♦

Think the worst is over?

Courtesy of the NY Times Magazine, this past weekend's edition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17pessimist-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

@#$%&?!!!

Apparently, it's known as a grawlix, as evidenced by this blog. Who knew?

Nothing new under the sun

An article from the NY Times detailing the research of Dr. David Pritchard, an immunologist, focused on hookworms and auto-immune illnesses.

Saffron

More about saffron than you need to know. Simply amazing.

The Monster of Florence

A mesmerizing but highly disturbing article from the Atlantic detailing an American novelist's take on the Monster of Florence, a series of killings in Italy from 1974 - 1985.

A giant gets a new logo

Walmart (WAL-MART, WAL*MART, et. al.) has announced a new logo. Hmm.

Is it real?

Rémi Gaillard, part street urchin, part artist, and his piece called 'Foot', courtesy of YouTube.

Sensory Itching

A link to Atul Gawande's piece in this week's New Yorker; I find Atul's writing to be a great combination of everyday man meets medicine and this article on faulty sensory mechanisms is a good one.

WALL*E

WALL*E is a must see.

For Josh and Jody's Consideration

The AV Club website lists what they consider to be the 19 best cameo appearances in modern movie making. I'm fully behind them on Alec Baldwin's iconic sales manager in Glengarry Glen Ross and Ned Beatty in Network but find some of their other choices a bit puzzling (David Letterman?) . What do you think?

Want to make your own Ginger-Ale?

Here's a recipe posted in the NY Times earlier this week as part of a larger article on artisanal gin by Raj Patel. (Registration may be required; it's free.) Can't wait to try it out myself. Oh, and if you skip the accompanying article and are not up to speed on gin slang, Dutch courage is gin! (Substitute regular basil if you've got it.)

Ingredients

* Soda water
* Gin
* 4 ounces ginger, peeled and grated
* 2 inches of lemongrass, finely chopped
* 1 cup unbleached cane sugar
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed chipotle skin (no seeds unless you’re brave)
* Pinch of salt
* Juice of one lime
* Pinch of tarragon
* 1 leaf holy basil

Method

* Bring the ginger, lemongrass, water, sugar, chipotle and salt to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes.
* Turn off the heat and add lime, tarragon and basil. The holy basil is a little esoteric, I know. We’ve only got some out back because it’s an Indian cultural icon. But it’s a grand thing to have around though, and is very easy to grow. It’s worth crushing into this drink just for the smell on your fingers afterward. If you don’t have any, a hint of anything astringent will do.
* Allow to cool. Strain out. The left-overs look like the sort of thing that’d be happiest in a cookie, but I’m still trying to figure out my baking game.
* Finally, to about a finger of the ginger syrup, stir in some home made soda water and, oh yes, don’t forget a shot of your favourite Dutch courage.

Dinner last night

Quiche with brie, gruyere, and cheddar with apple wood smoked ham, scallions and parsley; pan fried potatoes; greens from the garden.

Dinner last night

Silverbrite salmon with a mustard cream dill sauce with egg and roasted onions, sweet potato fries, and greens from the garden (arugula, dill, parsley, scallions, little gem lettuce).

Reviewers on the Rampage (I think they're upset)

First, an astonishingly rude movie review (but funny!) from The New Republic (from what I've gathered every reviewer panned it); second, a parody of the movie under review from The Guardian.

A Professional comments on the career of another Professional

From Wednesday's ESPN.com site; the Professor, John Clayton, on the career of my favorite Raven, Jonathan Ogden, or Chewie, as some in Bawlmer knew him. Next time you see Amy, ask her about the time she and Janet saw J.O. at an event.

So long, J.O.; we'll miss you dearly. (So will the quarterbacks.)

One of the smarter things Bird and Co. have done in recent memory

The hiring of Sam Perkins, former Pacer and member of the 2000 NBA finals team, has been retained by the Indiana Pacers as the Vice President of Player Relations, according to ESPN.com today. Way to go, Larry.

Brilliant; but waaayyy too late for this fan.

In Praise of Cocktails

From the archives of The Morning News, one of my favorite alternative reads each day, by way of 3quarksdaily. I'm especially fond of the Negroni, by the way, but I'll pass on the MBA. And, good advice is found at the very end regarding martini glasses which we should all follow.

The Case for Cocktails, by Margaret Mason.

Don't Like the News?

Try this on for size.

Another great graphic from the NY Times

The NY Times have done a wonderful job over the past 18 months or so with interpreting news via graphics. Frequent readers may remember I listed some here in the past; here's one from today's edition that focuses on the varying impact of gasoline prices on budgets, average fuel cost, and median income, all by US county.

I think the most shocking data is found on the first tab: Percent of Income Spent on Gasoline.

Click here to view in the article in full.


Image courtesy of the NY Times.

I already know how she feels

A piece by Perdita Buchan in the weekend edition of the NY Times:

LOOKING out the window to see who was at the bird feeder, I noticed buds on the Carolina jessamine. It was one of the first things I had planted in the garden; when I found it at the nursery, I was transported back to an island off the Georgia coast where it climbed high into the trees, perfuming the air and showering me with golden petals. That was eight years ago, and it had never bloomed.

I rushed outside to be sure, and, yes, there were quite a few delicate pale yellow buds. I was thrilled, but eight years is a long time, and that thought brought a faint chill to the bright spring afternoon. Time hovers over me and the garden. Time does that a lot these days.

Gardeners will tell you smugly that you can’t have a garden overnight, although I have seen them put in pretty fast, mature trees and all, in upscale California developments. But for the rest of us the garden is a process, and our relationship to that process depends on our own age.

Eight years ago, when I started to garden, I wouldn’t have bought a parrot. Parrots are extremely long-lived and get very attached, and one would easily outlast me. Of course, gardens are meant to outlast their creators; world-famous gardens can be centuries old, and I well remember the poignancy of finding clumps of lilacs near the old cellar holes of long-vanished houses in the Vermont woods. Just as I can imagine a life in which I would grow old with an African gray parrot, I can imagine what it would have been like to garden in my 20s and 30s, translating to my flower beds that unhurried youthful horizon. I could have experimented more because I wouldn’t have seen every lost plant as lost time, simply as an interesting experiment. There would have been plenty of occasions to plant it again or to plant something else.

I would have taken the chances I avoid now, just as I took chances then with transient jobs and transitory people. I could have planted an acorn and looked forward to an oak. A sapling planted when my daughter was born, for instance, would be huge and bowery now, and my grandchildren could play in its shade.

The great English gardeners Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West began designing gardens when they were in their 30s. In my 30s, I borrowed other people’s gardens — large gardens like the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, especially on Lilac Sunday, when I wandered drunk on the fragrance of hillsides of lilac; small gardens belonging to city friends; and everything in between.

I spent most summers in England and, with everything from Kensington and Kew to family gardens, there was plenty to admire. Staying with my cousin Emma, shuttling between her gardens in Herefordshire and Scotland, I learned about 19th-century roses and the charm of mixing flowers and herbs.

However, the garden I really considered mine was the chapel garden of the school where I lived and worked. Stone steps led down through mountain laurel to a sweep of lawn bordered by beds of peonies, poppies and other perennials against tall dark hedges of arborvitae. It had been planned to bloom in June for graduation ceremonies, but when snow fell and the lamp by the chapel was lit, it looked like the entrance to Narnia.

Propertyless, I squandered decades, and now here I am, seduced by the selective tangle of gardens pictured in magazines, a carelessness that I know takes years to achieve. I guess you could use annuals to similar, if brief, effect, but a garden full of cosmos, zinnias, morning glories and the like would have no structure. A garden needs shrubs and trees. It needs bones, and bones take time.

My garden in coastal New Jersey, when I finally acquired it, had trees and shrubs, but except for two white lilacs and a native cherry, they are not ones I would have chosen. Yet I know if I took out the Norway maples, it would take 20 years to grow shade trees of similar size. So I live with them and their endless seedlings.

There is no question that time has shaped, and will continue to shape, my garden. Time tells me that I will never have allées of anything, that copper beeches need many years to mature, bluebells spread slowly, peonies can take seasons to flower, even lavender is slow to produce bushes the size of the ones in Emma’s borders. At some point in life, you realize that certain avenues are closed to you. If you haven’t become a doctor or a ballerina, you probably never will.

I no longer buy those mail-order perennials in the three-inch pots; I go for gallon containers. Reading the catalogs, I look for “vigorous grower, flowers in first season.” My heart sinks at “slow to establish.” Even “vigorous but well mannered” is doubtful. I consider fruit trees that flower young, but flowers on a spindly sapling, despite their adolescent bravura, don’t have much presence.

I want to plant Baptisia “Purple Smoke,” but when I read “mature plants in three to five years can bear over 50 blooming stalks,” I move on to Baptisia “Twilite Prairie Blues” — “long lived, easily grown, quickly maturing.”

I have had slow starters in addition to the jessamine. For five years, I got no blooms from either the blue “President Lincoln” lilac, a favorite from Lilac Sundays, or the trumpet vine I had planted. I tried everything — applications of phosphorous, girdling the roots of the lilac. Finally I was rewarded. The trumpet vine bloomed for the first time last summer, and this year “President Lincoln” came into its own. But I have decided to pass up “Adelaide Dunbar,” the gorgeous dark purple double lilac I covet; five years seems too long a wait.

If you could be sure of your garden’s permanence, you might take the long view, in the spirit of seeing beyond your own earthly years. But over the fate of a garden you have no control. My mother had her garden for 40 years, and it already had mature plantings from the 1920s. When the house was sold, the buyer tore out the box hedges and much else.

So I live in the garden present, resisting the temptation to plant an overnight forest of bamboo or the royal paulownia tree, advertised in the back pages of magazines, that grows 10 feet in one year and is listed as invasive in a number of states. There are even days in summer when I am staggered by how much I have managed to cram into the space and time my garden has occupied. So I am willing to garden for a limited future, hopeful that something, like the lilacs in the Vermont woods, will remain.

Long Island Oysters

Courtesy of the New York Times, an article on Long Island oysters. Mmmm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28oysters.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

How is it I'm not the target audience?

Apparently one of the lines of business my employer is targeting has employees who spend much of their time watching the Discovery Channel where flint knapping, is a key survival tool. I just get a kick out of my son telling me SAP's on Mythbusters. (Now that I think of it, 'lithic reduction' does sound better.)

Two random thoughts (NSFW)

Is anyone else watching TED? The Mark Bittman piece is very interesting and something Amy and I have discussed for quite some time. That's what she said.

A f*!#$ing Saturn?

Apparently the good folks at Saturn had a little fun when making one of their more memorable commercials of late. (Yes, it's suitable for work.)


Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Brijit's Dead

While I haven't written an abstract for months, six to be exact, I'm sad to see it go. Brijit was a fun fling and I enjoyed playing copy writer for a few days but it looks like this model was difficult to sustain. And while the main site indicates it's all done the writer's site is still accepting assignments.

Look at it this way; I was too young to play in the first boom/bust cycle so any chance to live that experience vicariously is a hoot.

An absolutely brilliant movie box office graphic

Courtesy of the NY Times, a fabulous graphic depicting box office revenue, by week, of movies from 1986 to present. (How did Patch Adams do that well?)

Be sure to use the slider at the bottom to move through time. Look here.

This is fun

Have you ever wondered what might have been cropped with respect to CD or album covers? Wonder no more, my friends.

Extending album art.

I can finally eat in Chicago again

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/chicago-overturns-foie-gras-ban/

Finally this ridiculous intrusion on a gastronomic's night out has ended.

Looks Like I'm Getting Married

http://amyharrison.blogspot.com/2008/04/mark-your-calendars.html

Well, a 20th anniversary special would be nice. Plus, Amy would get the ceremony she really wanted.

Why Baseball is the Best

As seen on kottke.org today - Why baseball is the best game ever. From the Boston Review's article on John Rawls, baseball fan and philosopher. (A lot like my friend Tim Dillon.)

First: the rules of the game are in equilibrium: that is, from the start, the diamond was made just the right size, the pitcher’s mound just the right distance from home plate, etc., and this makes possible the marvelous plays, such as the double play. The physical layout of the game is perfectly adjusted to the human skills it is meant to display and to call into graceful exercise. Whereas, basketball, e.g., is constantly (or was then) adjusting its rules to get them in balance.

Second: the game does not give unusua1 preference or advantage to special physical types, e.g., to tall men as in basketball. All sorts of abilities can find a place somewhere, the tall and the short etc. can enjoy the game together in different positions.

Third: the game uses all parts of the body: the arms to throw, the legs to run, and to swing the bat, etc.; per contra soccer where you can’t touch the ball. It calls upon speed, accuracy of throw, gifts of sight for batting, shrewdness for pitchers and catchers, etc. And there are all kinds of strategies.

Fourth: all plays of the game are open to view: the spectators and the players can see what is going on. Per contra football where it is hard to know what is happening in the battlefront along the line. Even the umpires can’t see it all, so there is lots of cheating etc. And in basketball, it is hard to know when to call a foul. There are close calls in baseball too, but the umps do very well on the whole, and these close calls arise from the marvelous timing built into the game and not from trying to police cheaters etc.

Fifth: baseball is the only game where scoring is not done with the ball, and this has the remarkable effect of concentrating the excitement of plays at different points of the field at the same time. Will the runner cross the plate before the fielder gets to the ball and throws it to home plate, and so on.

Finally, there is the factor of time, the use of which is a central part of any game. Baseball shares with tennis the idea that time never runs out, as it does in basketball and football and soccer. This means that there is always time for the losing side to make a comeback. The last of the ninth inning becomes one of the most potentially exciting parts of the game. And while the same sometimes happens in tennis also, it seems to happen less often. Cricket, much like baseball (and indeed I must correct my remark above that baseball is the only game where scoring is not done with the ball), does not have a time limit.

TV on Demand

In a move that makes many of us who work from our computers a bit happier, Fox has opened the floodgates and is offering Fox on Demand so you can get your TV fix without actually watching TV.

http://www.fox.com/fod/

Two of My Favorites (NSFChildren)

Snorg Tees is a great place for t-shirts and to see what the kids think nowadays. These two, below, are some of my favorites.

'The Life Aquatic' in Lego Form

Look here.

April Fools!

What would 1 April be without great web hoaxes? This year promises to be another bang-up occasion for April Fools as evidenced by the following I've seen early today:

Virgle - A New JV between Virgin and Google, dedicated to the colonization of Mars
http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

The Kia Kee-Wii - A new vehicle which utilizes Wii controllers to drive
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/01/april-foolery-kia-introduces-the-radical-new-kee_wii-sans-stee/

iPark - A new joint venture between Apple and Disney that puts a Disney theme park on your iPod
http://www.iparkland.com/
http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al040108a.htm

Mentioned elsewhere but a hoot is the fact all 'featured' YouTube videos are posting to this gem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI

A compendium of Google gags may be found here
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-04-01-n71.html

Not satisfied with the 'time' your G-mail was sent? No sweat.
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

Death Match, Winner Take All for the Democratic Presidential Nomination
http://www.espn4.com/

This one's just plain painful
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2008/04/01/mccain-chooses-al-gore-for-vice-president/

Whereas this one's a little bit funny
http://science.howstuffworks.com/air-force-one-hybrid.htm

I've still not heard nor located NPR's annual treat. I'll update when it becomes available. In the meantime, here's an article from Slate magazine, a sort of self-defense kit for this day.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187681/

***Update 2 April***
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89284569

You think Easter's early this year?

Well, you're right; it can only be one day sooner in the year than it was in 2008.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Wie wollen Sie ändern die Glühbirne unter der Mikrowelle?

One of the most helpful Google gadgets of 2007 was the announcement of translation services within Google chat. While I use their chat client sparingly, it does have some great features. For example, if you start a chat with 'en2de' you can enter "How do you change the light bulb underneath the microwave?" and the translation immediately appears as a response.

As someone who wore out freetranslation.com for many years, this is a welcome change. Link here.

Come on; you know how he feels

It's amazing when cynicism meets objects from your youth. Wouldn't you agree?

Go plant, go!

It's almost time.

Sen. Obama in Indianapolis

Amy and I secured tickets to see Senator Obama in Plainfield today. I've been a supporter of the junior senator from Illinois for quite a while and it was great to see him in person today. His candidacy is equivalent, in my time, to a previous generation's Kennedy moment; I consider him to be the real deal.

'The Man Trap', and Others

Wow; this site brought back memories of my freshman year in college. The in thing to do in my dorm was rush back from afternoon class and watch 'Star Trek' on WBFF-TV45 in Baltimore, MD. Seated in barcaloungers you'd find up to a dozen 19 year-olds drinking beer and yelling at Spock and McCoy on the tube.

My personal favorite? Well, that'd have to be 'The Enemy Within' (season 1, episode 5) and 'The Trouble with Tribbles' (season 2, episode 14). Watch them here, courtesy of cbs.com.

How is it my dog has one of the 50 most powerful bogs?

See listing from the Observer, here.

Jezebel, here. And, below. (She doesn't even have opposable thumbs!)

Not exactly the gardening kind

I'm a huge fan of this blog. Not only does the author seem to have an endless supply of strange and unusual maps but they always seem to capture my attention. Perhaps I should've been a cartographer with a strange sense of humor.

For example: Ludacris' Rap Map of US Area Codes. Only in America, my friends.

The worst roads in the world?

I think they're pretty lousy but I deal with them in the summer only. My brother-in-law, however, gets them every day.

Link here.

Saul Bass and Star Wars Mashup

Saul Bass brought the art of titling to film; his work with Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, and Martin Scorsese is legendary. Here's a look at what might have been had George Lucas run into Saul sometime in 1977.