Seattle: creeping toward water
Our waitress at dinner tonight, on finding that Lissa and I are from Albuquerque, asked what brought us to Seattle. “The water,” Lissa said. “We’ve got lots,” the waitress said, pointing with a smile out the window to Elliott Bay. “Happy to share.” Seattle wraps around Elliott Bay, both geographically and historically. I guess that [...]
Fountain, then and now
Above is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. Below, the Drinkwell Original Pet Fountain. Homage?
Vijf Mei
We’ve been doing this all wrong. Growing up in LA with a May 5 birthday, I was steeped from the beginning in the whole “Cinco de Mayo” thing, the “Mexican Independence Day” that’s not. It had yet to turn into the beer marketing event that it is today. I realize now that the community I [...]
irritable?
Typo found in my notes: “irritable” where I meant to type “irrigable“. Looking at century-old estimates of possible agricultural land in the desert southwest. Notable mistake.
So “playground activists” were a thing
In early twentieth century America, there were playground activists: Playground activists in cities across the nation, drawing from prevailing theories in psychology and sociology, championed organized play as the path toward stronger bodies and higher morals. That’s from Matthew Klingle’s fascinating Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle (The Lamar Series in Western History).
Ebert
The reaction at the office today to the death of newspaperman Roger Ebert was striking. I cannot think of another writer of American English with the same broad, beloved appeal. One friend, a younger-generation journalist who’s from Chicago, sent around a collection of particularly delicious fragments from Ebert movie reviews, and I was struck by [...]
Technology is not just the gizmo
Here’s a great reminder that technology properly understood is not just the gizmo, it’s the human-gizmo interaction. The old people apartments where Mom lives some time ago added big-screen TV’s on the wall between the elevators on every floor. The idea was to use them as a messaging system, giving residents up-to-date information on stuff. [...]
So this happened
2013 Earth Science Achievement Awards The 2013 New Mexico Earth Science Achievement Awards will be presented on February 4 to John Fleck, for outstanding contributions advancing the role of earth science in areas of public service and public policy in New Mexico, and to Tien Grauch, for outstanding contributions advancing the role of earth science [...]
Baby I’m becomin’ a PC whiz
Lotus 1-2-3, circa 1983
Turtles. All the way down.
In today’s XKCD, Randall Munroe makes fun of the Wikipedia talk page for the new Star Trek into the Darkness movie: And then the Star Trek into the Darkness talk page people discuss whether to include a mention of the XKCD comic on the Star Trek into the Darkness page: I think this talk page [...]
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