Innis & Gunn – Oak Aged Beer is one of my favourite beers. Because it is aged in oak, it has an unusual taste for a beer. I really like their “Blonde” beer: if you think you might not like such a beer, try that one first, since it is lighter. And check out their site: it has all you want to know about the beer, from where to buy it to what it goes well with. Regardless of which one you try, you owe it to yourself to discover it. Treat yourself!
Here in Canada, I think of Facebook as an interesting way to keep in touch with family and friends, nothing more. It’s just one of a number of social media that I use. However, for the government of Iran, Facebook is seen as a serious threat, as shown in this article: Iran blocks access to Facebook from The Globe and Mail.
I am not sure how successful this will be. I recall James Fallows writing that Iranians were using the same technology that the Chinese were using to get around the Great Firewall of China. I suspect that this blocking of access will be more of a slow down than a stoppage of use of Facebook in Iran.
Regardless, it just shows you that Facebook is more than throwing sheep and sharing pictures and other such silliness that some take it to be. For some, it can be a powerful means of organization and communication.
In a few simple words and with a beautiful melody, this song captures what it means to be in love: the admiration for the one loved, the passion of the one who loves, the timelessness of it all.
Here’s Tony Bennett, still, wonderfully, singing “The Way You Look Tonight” by the great Jerome Kern.
P.S. And to add to all that, Tony Bennett takes the time to promote his pianist, Bill Charlap. It goes without saying that Tony Bennett is a class act.
…can be summed up like this. Here’s one speech via wordle.net
…and here’s the other:
I think it is obvious which one belongs to which speaker. For more on this, see Word Cloud Of Obama And Cheney Speeches | Political Hotsheet – CBS News
….then you owe it to yourself to check this out: How to Pack Everything You Own in One Bag : NPR
As for me, I am hopelessly inefficient at packing. This is something I aspire to. 🙂
Personally, I think I am too old for this. But if don’t have alot of money and you have to see NYC, then this article, Manhattan hostels for less than 25 dollars, could be just the ticket. For instance, this place, the Central Park hostel, is one block from Central Park. And hey, if you do stay some place and you think it is amazing…then let me know. At the very least, you will save alot of dough (which will come in very handy in Manhattan.)
One good thing to come out of this recession, ahem, I mean Great Recession, is the rediscovery of how good certain low cost / free things can be. One of those things is low cost meat. Certain meats, for example, if prepared properly can taste superb, with loads of flavour you won’t find in more expensive and tender cuts.
But don’t take my word for it. See this article, It May Be Cheap, But It’s Also Tasty in NYTimes.com that gives the rundown on cuts of meat that contain the words chuck and shoulder.
(Mouthwatering picture of beef stew from the startcooking kathy & amandine’s photostream at flickr.com. Bonus: if you go to the photo, you get a beef stew recipe.)
That’s the provocative question the blog The Map Scroll poses. I think it pays to read the blog post to get a better understanding of what the map above implies. To me, at a minimum, it indicates that parts of the U.S. are worse off than other parts. And of those parts that are worse off, most of them are in the South, in places like Arkansas.
Fascinating. See the post.
Whether you have barely room for one pot or a enough space to fit 1000 pots, there’s alot to be said for growing your own vegetable garden. The food tastes better, you save money, you help the environment, etc. What’s not to like? The only thing stopping you are some instructions and a few things to pick up. You can get the former from this article:
Growing a Vegetable Garden at Epicurious.com. The rest you can get from any number of places, easily. Once you get something that you can harvest, let me know, and I’ll come over and share a salad with you. 🙂
Recently Jane Austen has followed up her masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, with a sequel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PPZ).
Ok, that’s only partially true. There is a book known as PPZ that is a…monster hit! But it is by one Seth Grahame-Smith, not Jane A. One of the many good blogs published by the NYTimes.com, Paper Cuts Blog, has a run down on the new novel.
I’ve heard people complain about how hard it is to get. I believe that has to do with the overwhelming success that small publisher Quirk Books is trying to deal with. If you can snag a copy, you should do so. In Toronto I’ve seen some at Urban Outfitters; if you have an UO in your city, try there. To their credit, not only did they have PPZ, but they had the original PP as well. Having them side by side is great stuff.
For more on the phenomena, see Jane Austen Ate My Brain – Paper Cuts Blog – NYTimes.com
Well, there are two of them. One is a famous philosopher. A second is a famous 20th century painter. The latter has a retrospective in NYC at the MoMA that I recently blogged about.
If you are interested in who he is, kottke.org has a great posting on a documentary concerning the artist. You can find the details here at Francis Bacon documentary
from the superb blog, { rose-coloured-rain }
P.S. when I see blogs like this, I think: this is why I read more and more from blogs and less from print media. It’s not that the print media is bad: it’s that the blogs are just so good.
What I love about the web now is how many more people contribute who are not techies/IT people (like myself). In particular, there are alot of artists who are using blogs and tumble logs to post their work (as well as using sites like Etsy.com to sell their work).
I’ve already highlighted Tim Moore’s Letter to Jane as a great example. He recently highlighted another photographer who has some wonderful work, Jody Rogac. The wonderful photo is just one of a number of great pieces from her blog. Check it out.
I hope she is ok with me using this photo. Which leads me to my next point. For people who have such blogs and web sites, I would like to suggest that they mark at least some of their work with a creative commons designation that allows others to use it. I am always hesitatnt about pulling in the works of others. Most people are ok with it: big agencies like Getty Images are not. If I was American, such use might fall into the category of Fair Use, but even that is debatable (and I am Canadian, so Fair Use shouldn’t apply to me). Regardless, copywright laws are not internationally consistent, but the Creative Commons designation is. I recommend you use it. And of course, you keep posting great work for others to enjoy and share.
Speaking of recycling, the excellent blog Ushahidi has a great idea for anyone with an old cell phone they want to replace. The organization Hope Phones will recycle your old phone and use it to buy new cell phones that will help ultimately in providing medical services in developing countries. Go to Hope Phones for more on this smart idea. Better yet, if you have an old phone — and you likely will in the next year or two — why not send it to them?
A good chef will take anything not used in the final dish and use it for something else. Extra dough gets baked as a smaller cookie or cake, extra vegetables are turned into a soup, and extra batter goes to hovering children. Nothing gets wasted.
Same with carpenters. Good carpenters will plan their cuts to maximize the wood that they have.
We need to have that same attitude in the way we live and work now, given all that we produce. Waste should be seen as failure to innovate. We should look at what remains and think: what can we do with that? Ultimately nothing should go to waste, for everything will have a use somehow. We need to get creative
P.S. I thought of this while reading the tweets of Andrew McAfee (amcafee) who is at an MIT conference, and who wrote:
#mitee: McDonald’s Mike Cramer: “I hate waste. We’re allowed to fail forward, but we’re not allowed to waste.”
If you are lucky, you can find a book store with books from this series from Penguin called Great Ideas. I was reading this one from Orwell today.
Penguins refers to them as books, but in a number of cases they are excerpts or essays or something short of a book. But this is quibbling. They are a nice price and the design of the books is superb. The size of them makes them perfect for short trips. And since there are so many of them, you are bound to find at least one that you want to read. For more info, see Great Ideas – Penguin Books
Why I love lookbook.nu:
For more on what’s behind it, go here or the home page, LOOKBOOK.nu
Thanks to Tim Moore, writer of the blog, Letter to Jane, for pointing this out. I believe anyone who has seen and liked The Sarorialist will like Lookbook.nu.
this morning I blogged about the NYTimes and their somewhat old write up on Dublin. Today they had a new write up:
Living in Toronto, I must say that they’re done a great job of capturing all the “hip” places you might want to hit if you flew into my city for 36 hours. Anyone following their recommendations would have a great visit to Canada’s largest city. It makes me think that anyone following these “36 hours” articles in the NYTimes.com will have a great experience.
The Tate’s Francis Bacon retrospective is coming to NYC soon. It will be a great show of a great artist. I wish I had an oopportunity to see it: Bacon is one of my favourite artists.
For more on the show, see Richard Lacayo blog, Looking Around at TIME.com.
If you take alot of commuter flights in the U.S., you may not want to read this article: The Reality of a Pilot’s Life Defies a Glamorous Stereotype – NYTimes.com. It’s much worse than the title suggests. Not only is the commuter pilot’s life not glamourous, but it difficult to the point that it poses a danger to those that fly with them.
If you do live in the U.S., you should start by sharing this with your local political representative. It poses a real yet preventable danger. I hope changes are made soon.
This travel article, 36 Hours in Dublin in the New York Times, is a good reminder to me of how wonderful a time that I had visiting Ireland’s great city a few years ago. It is one of the loveliest cities that I have seen, and if you haven’t visited, perhaps this article will convince you to move it up on the places you should go.
Interestingly, this article was written in 2007, when Ireland was still booming. Sadly for them, it isn’t now. But what’s bad for the locals may be good for tourists, in that you may find much better deals on flights, hotels, and other expenses that you’d incur on your trip there. All the more reason to head to there soon.
(Photo from david.nikonvscanon ‘s photostream at flickr.com)
Star Trek has opened to both popular and critical acclaim. Based on the numbers at Rotten Tomatoes, it is viewed highly by almost everyone.
One exception is Anthony Lane. His review, Highly Illogical, is so cranky it is a joy to read. I get the sense that he hates Star Trek, and yet, for whatever reason, had to review it. The title of his review is perfect, for that’s what his review is.
There have been many different productions of Star Trek: some good, some bad. Not only is this one really good, but it will appeal both to fans of Star Trek and those who just want to have fun at the movies. I recommend you boldly go and see it, if you haven’t already.
I also recommend you read Lane’s review. I read it after seeing the film and had a great laugh. You will too.
Not too long ago, a politician known to have taken drugs would have been more or less disqualified from office. Lately, however, confessions of drug use are met with a shrug and voters and other politicians focus on — I hope — more relevant matters.
I have argued that the next behavoir that politicians are going to run up against are public acts of sexuality. It appears that my home province of Nova Scotia is providing a early test of this. A candidate there, Lenore Zann, is also an actress who has appeared topless on the TV series, the L Word. (I have known her for a long time. For what it’s worth, this wasn’t the first time: I recall her appearing unclothed in at least one serious play in Toronto theatre in the 1980s.) Regardless of where or how many times this has occurred, a controversy has arisen and her party, the NDP are dismayed after Liberals circulate nude photo of candidate (i.e. Ms. Zann).
I am hoping she wins, and that she wins because she is the best candidate for the riding. Not only will this be the best thing all around, but it should also help stop anyone else from using photos or other images of a similar nature to prevent people from serving others. Unless some harm was done, then these things should be met with a shrug and people should focus on the main thing: who is the best person right now for the job?
Hell Burgers, no less. Awesome.
President Obama & V.P. Biden Go Out For A Burger [Ray’s Hell Burgers]
Originally I was planning to write this:
I hate flip flops. I hate the sound of them. I believe they’re cheap. I think they are mostly inappropriate to wear. They are like sweatpants, except for the feet. They say: I don’t care. Sure flip flops are fine if you are six, you are poor, or if you are on the beach. But to wear them with a business suit, or when you have to wear layers of clothing because it is cold, is surely a sign of bad taste.
To make it worse, there are so many other shoe choice women (and to some degree, men) can wear. Why wear flip flops when you can wear something better? It drives me crazy.
That’s what I was planning to write. But two things happened to me when I started to write this. And it illustrates a greater point. The first thing is that I discussed it with someone who not only dared me to write it, but also (very nicely) critiqued my thinking. The second thing is I thought: if I write this, is it really true, or is it just lazy thinking on my part? If it is lazy thinking, how do I feel about people who many not be as nice (as Cynthya was) in criticizing me for writing my dislike for possibly their favourite footwear?
Thinking about it more — but not too much more: we are talking flip flops here – I have to concede that some flip flops are actually half decent, and not all that different than a dress sandal (though I prefer the sandal or most other shoe). I also concede the thing that bothers me more about them is people wearing them inappropriately rather than the actual shoe itself.
And that is the greater point. Regardless of the topic, be it flip flops or life or death, it can be helpful to state a negative position rather than holding your tongue. If you do it constructively, you may find either that you change your position (if it is faulty) or strengthen it (if it is strong). Either way, you will learn something; something you may not of learned if you kept your thoughts to yourself.
You may get some bracing criticism. It pays to be humble, or at least open to the idea that you may be wrong. But if you do express a negative viewpoint, you may learn a lot more than if you keep it to yourself.
To sum up, you could say I flip flopped on flip flops. 🙂
As you may know, Lysistrata is a character in a classic Greek play by Aristophanes, who “convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands as a means of forcing the men to negotiate a peace (to end the Peloponnesian War), a strategy however that inflames the battle between the sexes.” (Wikipedia)
Apparently the women of Kenya are doing something similar. As outlined in the Globe and Mail:
” On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 20 women’s groups began a weeklong boycott, withholding sex from their husbands in protest against what they call poor leadership in a patriarchal society that risks plunging their country back into chaos.”
Comparing the wikipedia article to the globeandmail.com article, it seems there are a number of similarities. See Lysistrata in wikipedia then head over to the Globe and read Cure for chaos: no sex tonight
It would be good if Kenya’s problems get sorted out. It would also be good if someone wrote a play or screenplay comparing the two situations. Or adopting Lysisrata in a Kenyan setting.
One of my favourite restaurants in Toronto, Grano on Yonge Street, held an event recently called “Recession Reds”. The
globeandmail.com’s Beppi Crosariol was there as well as 120 everyday wine drinkers. The article is worth reading, but the short of it is these wines were the winners:
Some thoughts on this:
Billy Munnelly hosted this event. You can get his take on some of the wines here.
There is something intangible lacking in Joe Versus the Volcano, something not quite right with the direction, that prevented it from being the classic film it could have been. There are parts of it that are so intelligent and beautiful, but it still seems off. Which is a shame, because it has a number of great scenes in it. This one struck me years ago and has stayed with me ever since.
I love Tom Hanks playing with the moon like a toy ball. But mostly I love how he stands up and says, “God, thank you for my life”. A great scene.
For those of you who care about design as much as you care about technology, I highly recommend the blog Tech Style from Style At Home. It’s got all kinds of great stuff, including these pillows! And lots more…
What is the value of a telephone? If you were to listen to a random set of phone calls over a day, what would you hear? You’d hear a lot of “Hey”, “Hi”, “How’s it going?”, “What’s up?”, “Not much”, “um”, “yeah”, “no”, “I dunno”, “ok”, “bye” “see ya”. Clearly not much value there.
Worse, not only is the content poor, but, but the interface is useless. You can’t see the person you are talking to, which as we all know is a terrible limitation. To contact them you have to remember this 10 digit number. And you have to pay a fee to have the conversation. Truly awful.
Of course this is absurd. Telephones are essential. We have more and more of them in our lives. And not just for simple exchanges. How many of us have waited by the phone in the hope – or dread – of receiving an important call? And having received it, how many of us have cried or laughed or slumped in relief or yelped for joy? I can remember many such calls. I am sure you can too.
This brings me to Twitter (and for that matter, SMS). So much of it may seem trivial or pointless at times. But I have heard the relief in someone commenting on the revived health of their parents or the joy of a loved one returning or the sadness of a relative dying. I have seen beautiful photos of places and people via Twitpics. I have heard the songs that make people dance and sing and lament via blip.fm. As time passes, I expect to see more ways that these short bursts of text allow me to communicate with others.
So when people write and complain about this or that regarding Twitter I wonder what they are thinking. What I am thinking is that it is a reflection of people and the human condition through this particular medium, just like the telephone or the letter or any other media we use. Sure, it can be mundane. And the tool itself is limited. But what is expressed is often as rich as anything that we can express as individuals. People who miss out on that are missing out on a lot.
I thought of this after reading a number of critical articles at the NYTimes.com web site recently. There’s this one (Let them eat tweets), this one (What annoys me about twitter), and this one (To tweet or not to tweet). After I read them, I wrote the above. Clearly they struck a nerve, for some other people wrote some critiques of them at the same time as I did, including this one here (In defense of twitter) and here (Maureen Dowd interviews telephone inventor).
It’s interesting: I can’t tell if the title of this article is what I read (“Want to Go Faster? You Need a Trainer”) or what the link says (“Proper Training Is a Critical Element to Athletic Success“). In my experience, you don’t need a trainer to get faster as a runner (or likely any other sport). However, you do need to properly train.
Training properly doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does help to get some guidance. It doesn’t have to be a trainer, though. For example, if you want to become a better runner, you can ask friends who run seriously for help. You can do research on the web. You can join a running group. You can even ask me. 🙂
All these things can help you go faster. As the article in the NYTimes.com says:
If your goal is to be faster, you have to train.”
It’s as simple as that. And yes, you can get a trainer as well. Just don’t believe that the only way you can get fast is by getting one.
Lucy Waverman knows food: not only how to prepare it, but how to communicate to others about it. She has appeared on television and has written numerous cook books, magazine and newspaper articles, including the Globe and Mail. I was fortunate to get to know her when we both took informal Italian classes at Grano’s years ago. She’s delightful.
Recently Lucy has taken on a new challenge: using Twitter to talk about food, including the sharing of recipes. For example, here is the classic spaghetti carbonara recipe reduced to a demi-glaze of 140 characters:
Carbonara: 12 oz spaghetti cooked. Mix with 6 slices ch fried pancetta, 3 eggs, ¼C evo, 1C grated parm, S&P. Garnish ch parsley.
Impressive! I think this is another innovative example of what you can do with Twitter. Lucy writes about the experience here: globeandmail.com: Cooking on Twitter. I highly recommend it.
According to USAToday, quite alot. I think the headline says it all: Oprah effect: 43% jump in Twitter traffic
(You can see the traffic spike up at the end of the line in the great graph from hitwise)
Even with Twitter’s exceptionally strong growth, this was alot.
More good stats can be found in the article.
If you love blooming flowers, but feel you have to cut back or stop buying fresh flowers, consider Carlos Mota Silk Flowers (featured on The Moment blog at NYTimes.com). They’re exceptional, if for their price as much as their look. If you want to buy them, you can go here from HSN.
CNN reports that Twitter, WordPress and other Web 2.0 executives are in Iraq to help country use new media.
It’s part of a mission led by the U.S. State department. Like many places in the world, Iraq doesn’t have alot of homes with Internet access (around 5%) but practically everyone there has a cell phone. That might seem like a serious limit for new media, but it is becoming less and less of a limitation, based on stories I have been reading concerning places with similar usages of technology.
For more on this story, see the article linked to above. I look forward to seeing more contributions from the people of Iraq, soon: perhaps I’ll get some Iraqi followers on twitter.
P.S. Not sure what Hillary Clinton is apparently “bogging”, though. I suspect she is “blogging”.
…well, talking like an Elizabethan. Or what you might think that would sound like. Not sure? CNN has the details here:
Unleash thy inner bard on ‘Talk Like Shakespeare Day’
I think this is almost as good as talk like a pirate day. 🙂
If you have the money, TIME has a list of 10 things you should buy right now. Some of them are investments (e.g., stocks, houses) and some of them are simply good bargains (e.g., luxury items). As a rule of thumb, the more discretionary something is, the chances are that now is a good time to buy it. So, yes, now is the time to buy that Ferrari that you always wanted. And if that is out of your price range, well, there is always lobster.
Smart People I Know 