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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]