Monthly Archives: April 2024

Restaurants loved and living: Le Paradis

Posted on April 26, 2024 | Comments Off on Restaurants loved and living: Le Paradis

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Starting during the pandemic, I wrote a series of posts on restaurants loved and lost, inspired by a piece in the New York Times on places that vanished due to the pandemic.

I’d like to go in a different direction and talk about restaurants loved and living. These are places I’ve loved long before the pandemic that are still going strong. First up is Le Paradis.

I’ve been going to Le Paradis since the 1980s. Back then it was known for reliable French bistro style food and great prices. Jump forward 40 years and…it’s still the same.  If anything, I’d say the cooking in the last year has improved greatly. Before you could excuse the so-so cooking because it was so inexpensive. Now you don’t need an excuse, because the cooking is really good. And still inexpensive.

I was worried about it during the pandemic, and even went and dined in the alley near the restaurant just to give them a chance to stay in business. Lucky for me they made it. Lucky for you, too.

So ignore reviews like this and go and have a $12 cocktail, a $45 bottle of wine, and a steak frites dinner almost half as expensive as other places in the city.  If you’re by yourself, take advantage of the zinc bar up front. Or sit at the banquettes near the kitchen (my favourite spot).  There’s plenty of places to sit — it’s a fairly big place — though a reservation is still a good idea. Especially if you want to sit outside when the weather is warm.

Did I forget to mention that the service is great? Well, it is. So tip well. You’ll have no excuse after all the money you save.

 

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Another dozen good pieces on artists from Richard Serra to Robert Mapplethorpe

Posted on April 24, 2024 | Comments Off on Another dozen good pieces on artists from Richard Serra to Robert Mapplethorpe


Here’s 12 good pieces on artists that capture a range of feeling, from sadness to gladness and more.

Sadness: the great Richard Serra passed away recently. So too did Patti Astor, head of the Fun Gallery in the 80s. Her obit is here. Deeply sad is this sobering piece on art being made in  Ukraine during the current war.

Badness: The Tate continues to struggle with racist elements in a famous Whistler mural. This story talks about how they brought in artist Keith Piper to help with that. You be the judge of all that.

Also bad: a story of how Jeff Koons squashed a review he didn’t like. Bad in his own way and so very Damien Hirst:  Hirst shark that sold for about 8m is fourth 2017 work dated to 1990s here. Not bad, but controversial is Gerhard Richter’s most divisive work returning. to Auschwitz.

Gladness: things that made me glad are these prints by Lucy Cooper. These great photos by my friend Jared Bramblett, seen here also fill me with gladness. Also great is this story of David Hampton, an 98 year old artist who think making art keeps you alive. He makes a good case.

Longing: Written during the pandemic, this piece on Jason Polan as a flaneur was worth revisiting…there’s so much longing in that piece. (Image above from that piece.)

Boadciousness: not my word, but I think it applies in this piece on ex-Vogue editor Edward Enninful and his thoughts on  Robert Mapplethorpe.

 

 

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If you use the New York Times app, you should clear your cache from time to time. Here’s how to do it

Posted on April 22, 2024 | Comments Off on If you use the New York Times app, you should clear your cache from time to time. Here’s how to do it

It’s shocking how much of your iPhone storage the New York Times app can use.

Recently I was going to apply a software update to my iPhone and I was told it didn’t have enough free storage space. I clicked on Settings > General > iPhone Storage and I saw that the app from the Times was using around 4 GB of my storage. I didn’t want to delete it to free up storage, so I opened the app instead.

On the top right of the app is an icon for My Account. Click on it, and then the gear icon on the top right. Then scroll down and click on Data Usage > Clear Cache.

It took a few moments, but when I went back to check my iPhone Storage I had just reclaimed over 3 GB.

After I did that, I was able to apply the software update. As for the app from the Times, I haven’t noticed any loss in how it performs.

The Times app is great, but it can be a storage hog. Luckily you can use the app to fix that.

 

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Two good pieces on the recent Keith Haring bio

Posted on April 22, 2024 | Comments Off on Two good pieces on the recent Keith Haring bio

If you didn’t know much about Keith Haring other than what you read in the recent piece in the New Yorker (which I criticized, here), you might a poor impression of this great artist.

Fortunately more prominent writers than myself have written good things on Haring and the biography in the New York Times and The Guardian. I think they provide the right context for the artist and his times too. Plus they hold him in high esteem. Highly recommend you check them out if you were a fan of the painter or want to know him better.

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For fans of tiny homes….

Posted on April 19, 2024 | Comments Off on For fans of tiny homes….

We here at this blog have always been fans of tiny homes and have written about them often.

It turns out the New York Times are fans as well, and have a section of their web site devoted to them called living small.

Some of them are quite grand, like the one above. And others are simpler, like the one below. They’re all great in their smallness.

Check them out. Even if you prefer larger accommodations, I think you’ll like them.

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Posted in decor, design

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The real cost of a peloton (and other good fitness and health links)

Posted on April 17, 2024 | Comments Off on The real cost of a peloton (and other good fitness and health links)

Do you wish you could do gym workouts but you don’t have access to a gym? If that’s you, IKEA is here to help, with their new pastel-colored DAJLIEN collection (shown above). Especially good for people with small spaces.

Maybe you think the secret of working out at home is to go the peloton route. In that case, you own it to yourself to read about the real cost of a peloton.

Do you want to get fit but are feeling stuck? If so, read this: Here Are 5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Life. Mental health experts suggest exercises to knock down the internal roadblocks that are causing burnout and holding you back.

If you think you are too old to get fit, then check this out: can I build enough muscle in my 60s to make it to 100 even though I’ve never weight trained? If you need a workout to get started with, try this 10 minute bodyweight workout.

If you think you have high blood pressure, see your doctor. But also read this: Why High Blood Pressure Matters to Your Health And how to get it under control. Apparently a good way to lower your blood pressure is by doing this:  wall sit isometric exercise.

People who are already pretty fit and are considering running a marathon, read this: Running a fall marathon? Here are 26.2 tips to help you finish.

Finall, this is a funny and artistic way describing how to lose weight.

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How to simply merge PDF files on a Mac for free with no additional software

Posted on April 15, 2024 | Comments Off on How to simply merge PDF files on a Mac for free with no additional software

If you want to merge PDF files on a Mac, you might be tempted to use a tool like www.ilovepdf.com. Worse still, you might try and do it from Adobe’s Acrobat site and end up signing up to pay $200 or more per year for the privilege!

The good news is if you are on a Mac, you don’t need to do any of that.

Instead, open your PDF files using Preview. Make sure your view shows Thumbnails of the pages in each document. Then drag the thumbnail pages of one document into another. Then save the document you added the thumbnails to and you are done.

For example, let’s say you have two PDF files: abc.pdf and xyz.pdf. You want all the pages in abc.pdf to be in xyz.pdf. You open them both using Preview, you drag the thumbnails of abc.pdf over to the thumbnail section of xyz.pdf. Then you save xyz.pdf. (You can save abc.pdf as an empty document or quit and have it revert back to how it was.)

If you want to leave abc.pdf and xyz.pdf untouched but merge them into a third document, first copy xyz.pdf and give it a name like abcxyz.pdf. Then open abc and abcxyz.pdf using Preview. Then copy the thumbnails of abc.pdf into abcxyz.pdf and save abcxyz.pdf and quit and do not save abc.pdf. Now you have three files: abc.pdf and xyz.pdf are unchanged and abcxyz.pdf are merged copies of the two of them.

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On the end (?) of the Cape Breton Post, and other stories of the Maritimes

Posted on April 12, 2024 | 2 comments


It’s not the end of the Post yet, but it could soon be. Saltwire, the company that owns the Cape Breton Post and plus 22 more papers from Eastern Canada is seeking creditor protection. It’s possible that the Post survives that somehow, but it’s looking grim. I can’t imagine a world without being able to read the Cape Breton Post, but I might have to.

Speaking of reading materials, Atlantic News in Halifax celebrated its 50th anniversary not too long ago. That’s awesome! I loved going there when I was a Dal Student in the 80s. They had every possible magazine you could imagine, and plenty of newspapers too. It was a readers dream, and no doubt it still is. (Photo above from that story.)

I would like to be living near it still, but like many Maritimers I ended up heading out of province to look for work. Here’s a good story on someone who used to judge people who chose to leave Newfoundland for work until she had to leave too. Well worth a read.

Finally, this story is a reminder of how isolated it can be in parts of Cape Breton: trapped for 5 day as water dwindled, this Cape Breton couple was thankful for snowmobile delivery.

 

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Posted in maritimes, memories

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The City Harvest lunch at Le Bernardin is still a good deal

Posted on April 10, 2024 | Comments Off on The City Harvest lunch at Le Bernardin is still a good deal


One of the best meals I’ve had around 7 years ago this month was also one of the greatest value meals I’ve ever had. It was the lunch in the lounge at Le Bernardin and back then it was $55, with $5 of that going to the charity City Harvest. Even four years later, Eater NY said it was only $60. Still a steal.

So I was somewhat shocked when I heard it was now $127! That’s quite a jump from $55. Alas, I got that wrong. $127 is for the lunch. The City Harvest lunch in the lounge is $94, of which $5 still goes to the charity.

I still think it is worthwhile at that price. I know between 2019 and now the restaurant was dealing with the pandemic like everyone else and spent a lot on upgrades to keep the place going. And going it still is. You should go, too.

For more information to help you to decide, here’s the Lounge Menu (and more). The wines by the glass are also good value. To get a lunch at one of the best restaurants in New York with 3 Michelin stars for under $100 is still worth stopping for, I believe.

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Posted in food, newyork, nytimes.com

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Happy Birthday to Gmail, from this old Yahoo email user!

Posted on April 8, 2024 | 3 comments

Happy birthday, Gmail! According to the Verve, you are 20 years old! The big two-oh! Sure, you had some growing pains at first. And then there was the whole period when you and your users felt snobbish about their gmail accounts and looked down on people with yahoo accounts. But that’s all water under the bridge. We’re all old now.

Google is notorious for killing off services, but it is inconceivable they’ll ever kill off you, Gmail. I expect you and your users will be around for a long long time. Heck even an old yahoo email account user like me uses Gmail from time to time. There’s no guarantees, of course, but I expect to be revisiting this post in 2034, god willing, and writing about your 30th. Until then…

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Posted in google, history, IT

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Making art for your wall with Lego

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Comments Off on Making art for your wall with Lego

Normally when I think of Lego, I think of using it to make something recognizable (e.g. things from Star Wars). So I was surprised to see this: Piece Together Your Own Wall Art With the LEGO Modern Art Set. If you love Lego and abstract art, then you can make your own art with those kits featured in that article.

Of course you don’t need a kit to do it. Just go to Etsy and you will see plenty of abstract art pieces made of Lego for inspiration, like this piece here shown below:

Neat!

Now all you need is a pile of old Lego. I have just the thing in the basement from when my kids were younger. I should go down and make some art with it.

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It’s a miracle! Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia will be completed! In 2026

Posted on April 3, 2024 | Comments Off on It’s a miracle! Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia will be completed! In 2026

According to CNN, Barcelona’s famous Sagrada Familia will finally be completed in 2026. That’s amazing. Miraculous, in fact. For much of the 20th century it was in a state of semi completion. I went there as a young man in the early 90s and even then it was taken as a fact that it would NEVER be completed. But that was not a fact at all, thank heavens.

Barcelona is an amazing city to visit: it’s going to be even more so once the church is done. Go see it if you can.

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Some thoughts on blog posts vs reels for advice

Posted on April 1, 2024 | Comments Off on Some thoughts on blog posts vs reels for advice

I spotted this post — Eponis | Sinope (Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to…) — and as usual I thought: I should share this because it contains a few nuggets of good advice and others would find it helpful.

Sadly, though, it reminded me of a reel I have seen in various forms on Instagram. Like many reels, that particular reel was less about passing on good advice and more about gaining attention to the creator of the reel.

That’s the thing I do like about blog posts and I don’t like about reels. You could come across a blog post, get the information you need, and never know or care about the person who made it. When you come across most reels (and I assume tiktoks), you might get information you need, but they seem more about the maker than the advice.

I realize this is a matter of preference and not a matter of right and wrong. I prefer just getting the information, while others prefer knowing the person who is giving the advice. Given how Tiktok and Reels are overtaking user generated content, I am likely on the losing side.

I’ll keep sharing helpful things here: that’s been the purpose of this blog since the late 2000s. I’ll also try to 99%**of the time not make it not about me. 🙂

 

(** did I say 99%? Ok, maybe it’s closer to 90%…😄)

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