Want to Make Something Delicious? Umami It!
Yum, yum, UMAMI yum. That’s the new taste sensation, according to a story in yesterday’s WSJ by Katy McLaughlin. It’s a Japanese term coined in the early 20th century by Kikunae Ikeda, a scientist who made the word up based on the word for ‘deliciousness.’ Simply put, it’s the fifth […]
What’s a Five-letter Word that Starts with Q?
Last night was a triumph of seven-letter words: Our first Scrabble Tournament at the cafe. I have been talking about this event for months, and it finally happened. In cafe tradition, it was full of energy and life–the kind of spirit I like to think our cafe brings out in […]
The Housecleaner and Cabby with the $700K House
Naira Costa is a house cleaner from Brazil who is a prime example of why the mortgage melt down happened. In yesterday’s WSJ, her story was told and it is a doozy. Through a pastor turned mortgage broker, with her taxi driver husband the pair bought a house in the […]
Cars That Drive Themselves…Yeah, That’s the Ticket
When I was about six, we went to the New York World’s fair, in Astoria, Queens. There we saw the Futurama, and one of the coolest exhibits showed cars that drove themselves as you sat back and just rode. The NY Times today has a story about this elusive, yet […]
Military Hogs Air Lanes that Passengers Need
I write a blog for my friends at Airport Parking Reservations. Here is a post I feel strongly about, that I posted tonight. It’s time we took back the thousands of miles of highways in the sky that the Pentagon has claimed for its training flights and missile tests. Over […]
Maybe This New Compensation System Isn’t Working…
When half of a media outlet’s editorial staff decides to jump ship, chances are it will be reported first on the media gossip blog Gawker — even, it turns out, when those departures are from Gawker itself. The New York Times reported today that Emily Gould, a Gawker editor, dropped […]
Venezuelans Either Love or Hate their Chavez
When I visited Medellin Colombia in June, we met several journalists from Venezuela, and the first thing we asked them was what they thought about Hugo Chavez. “Well, one woman editor told us, “people either love him or hate him. But really, we don’t care that much about what he […]
Dear Leader’s Dreary Country Comes to Life
Richard Read wrote a piece for Newhouse News service about a trip to North Korea. Here at the end, he finally breaks away, and it’s the best part of the story. “The ceaseless propaganda had gripped me, but not in the intended manner: I found myself fighting an impulse to […]
Porsche CEO’s $100 Million Pay Irks Workers
On Saturday night after we got back from our favorite restaurant, Apollo Grill, I got a chance to finish reading the Weekend WSJ, and found a story about Porsche. The headline referred to the $100 million that their CEO Wendelin Wiedeking took home for a year’s pay. That’s making big […]
Random Musings About Nudes on Bureaus and Blog Comments
It’s windy outside and there’s a bit of new snow on the ground. Cindy and I are on our dueling laptops, she doing some sort of continuing ed and I of course, having read all that I can read on line, am sitting here writing blogs. I got a comment […]
Georgi Baby!
Here is my favorite neighbor, Georgi, the owner of Georgio’s Restaurant, located next to the cafe. Every day, Georgi bellows out to me from his stove (shown here) as I run downstairs to retrieve food from the walk-in. “Moxxxy my friend…how are YOU?…what’s GOIN’ on?” He has helped us out […]
In a Scottish Oil Field, Wind Power Cranks it Up
I have been blogging regularly about what I consider a turning point in society’s view of green energy. Again and again I read about initiatives moving forward despite the government’s recalcitrance; it is the market that is pushing hard and the profit motive that keeps them innovating. Last night’s WSJ […]
The Simple Acts That Give Meaning to Life
Today I derived joy from a simple act. I bought a metro shelving unit and organized my very unorganized walk-in refrigerator and everything is now easy to reach, safely put away, and there’s even room for more! I thought for a minute about how great it was after Georgio helped […]
What the Cafe Does to Help Make the Earth Green
Yesterday I had a chance to speak with a group of high school students in an environmental awareness class at Frontier, in South Deerfield. Their teacher, Delfina, brought the group in and doled out dollar bills outside the cafe so they could buy something while I spoke to them. I […]
When Dad Cheers Your Failures, You’re Going Places
Sara Blakely is the women who invented Spanx, a pair of cut off panty hose that shapes tummies and thighs and is now a $150 million company. She was interviewed by BusinessWeek’s Stacy Perman and the last two questions were the best. You’ve said that failure was a huge part […]
Thousands of Cobras Enjoy Life Among the Villagers
I read a shiver-inducing feature today in the WSJ, it was about cobras who live in large numbers in the hot Bengali plains southwest of Calcutta. The snakes are revered by the Hindu faith, and no one except priests are allowed to touch them or harm them. One man said […]
Amusement is a Cocktail’s Real Line of Work
Oh what a trove of riches I was provided with this chilly morning in the WSJ. As Cindy and I watched the chickadees and cardinals feast on the feeder’s seeds, I read a wonderful piece by Eric Felten. His topic was ‘The Art of Drinking Well,’ and he describes the […]
The Sheik Finds a Way to Move Scrap to Market
It’s a brisk November morning and predictably, the cafe is quiet. Not dead, just quiet enough to give me a chance to sit in my favorite window seat, gaze out on the bright sun and deserted streets, and read the WSJ. I read a piece first about Iraq’s surfeit of […]