My orchestra stand partner mentioned that when she was in Russia she attended several concerts (as musicians tend to do in foreign countries) and noticed that much of the audience would spend intermission walking in a circle around the lobby. How odd, I thought, I am certainly going to look that one up on the Internet! Surprisingly, the only real hit popped up from my frequent haunt, Ask Metafilter. Someone had read about the observation in Fred Plotkin's "Opera 101" that German audiences will walk in a circle in the lobby. Interesting.
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We've been using Stone-Buhr flour since we discovered it at random at our local Safeway or QFC and noticed it made our bread extra yummy. I never researched the company, I just figured that any producer can do better than generic supermarket flour, though at some point my husband pointed out that Stone-Buhr did even better than King Arthur and Gold Medal (my mom's "reserve for special occasion" flours -- she's frugal that way). Last week the N.Y. Times, attracted by a great P.R. gimmick, wrote about Stone-Buhr's FindtheFarmer program. Buy their flour, go to the website, and find out what farm grew the wheat. Actually you get the actual names of the families running the farms, a photo, and a bit of history and future plans. Stone-Buhr is owned by Josh Dorf who bought the company from Unilever six years ago. Previously, Dorf worked in e-commerce.
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Monday, March 30, 2009

Marianne Perlak has created sculpture out of old books by folding their pages into flowing forms. Perlak is a former art director of Harvard University Press and her career as a book designer has of course informed this endeavor. Her exhibit, "Text to Texture" is at the Wellesley Free Library in Massachusetts until the end of the month.
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Tweedy & Popp Ace Hardware is the oldest hardware store in Seattle. The Wallingford store, opened in 1920, is a neighborhood institution. When the store moved across the street on Saturday almost a hundred customers and neighbors showed up to help out. They formed a bucket brigade, moving inventory to the new digs despite the cold rain (it's Seattle after all). Flaggers helped handle the cars at the crosswalk. Volunteers passed hinges, bags of grass seed, and other hardware store staples from hand to hand. Others made good use of the wheelbarrows.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I just saw this HP Touchsmart commercial from last year on an old Tivo'd program. It has lovely special effects of a man conducting and gesturing his way through documents and other files, set to Vivaldi's Four Seasons (Summer). According to Youtube comments, which are of course suspect, the conductor/actor is Philip White (the one listed on IMDB perhaps; another guy didn't fit the bill). The music is performed by Sejong, which is, perhaps ironically, a string orchestra that does not use a conductor.
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This N.Y. Times article about the government auction of 605 diamonds seized in a drug-related sting operation has some interesting facts on auctioneer Rick Levin's recent business. "In the last few years alone, he has sold for the government smuggled horses in Arizona, stolen cab medallions in Boston, 54,000 pounds of smoked Chinese scallops, a shipping container of blue jeans, illegally marketed Freon and a million packs of untaxed cigarettes." But most relevant to these economic times, Levin also holds a contract with the FDIC to sell the furniture, fixtures, and equipment from failed banks. I guess when the FDIC takes over, they salvage whatever assets they can.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff captures the appeal of Roz Chast and, well, much of Jewish humor in this description: "A classic cartoonist who represents certainly a Jewish sensibility is Roz Chast -- a real inward-looking sensibility, and the world as a worrisome, neurotic, yet humorous place, a sensibility which combines anxiety with humor." (here's a video of Steve Martin interviewing Chast at the New Yorker Festival in 2006)
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David Letterman got married. He actually went to a courthouse in Montana with Regina Lasko and their son Harry and finally got married. And he even announced it on his show. They've been together for over 20 years.
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Monday, March 23, 2009

Car dealerships are having great difficulty nowadays, but I always expect Subaru dealerships in this area to pull through. It's the unofficial car of the Pacific Northwest and Subaru actually made a profit in 2008. But when we drove past Eastside Subaru this weekend, both their used and new car lots were empty. What happened? Apparently the manufacturers have seized the cars from the Rainier Automotive Group (don't click, loud music!). So Burien Nissan, Eastside Subaru, and others are operating with no cars to sell on the lot. Service departments remain open, but without cars and financing, the dealers have nothing to bring money in. On the flip side, the owner and execs of a Toyota dealership in Nebraska spirited away 81 of their new cars to sell fraudulently at auction and elsewhere. I can see how manufacturers may be spooked about getting paid for their valuable property.
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I don't expect the little corner of Connecticut where I spent my childhood to remain the same as when I left. But there are some traditions that I consider immutable and one of them is Sunday brunch at Silvermine Tavern. Their sticky pecan-cinnamon honeybuns are legendary. Swans in the mill pond glide along to live jazz. But the 80 year old Norwalk institution closed in February. The 3+ acre property is for sale, including the restaurant, inn, and other historic buildings. Locals are of course concerned that the land will be developed. Local community groups have lost a meeting and event location. The N.Y. Times took note of the closing in an article covering the rough going of these quaint Connecticut taverns, many housed in the stagecoach stops and mills from bygone days. These historical places, because of their origins, may be near former major roads, but are out of sight and out of mind for most local and out of town diners. Three Bears Restaurant, a Westport institution for 100 years, closed in January, replaced by a new restaurant. Cobb's Mill Inn in Weston, where my best friend held her wedding reception, has new owners who have evolved the business to survive. I suspect olde-tyme New England character will one day be found only in tourist locations dedicated to its preservation.
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Friday, March 20, 2009

The new Broadway revival of West Side Story uses Spanish dialogue for the Puerto Rican characters. Arthur Laurents, one of the original creaters of the musical, was inspired by a production in Columbia where the Sharks were the heroes of the story.
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You can now have your wedding on the Verona balcony designated as the "real" setting for Romeo & Juliet. No climbing, and no tragic endings please.
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Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Seattle sports scene may be focused on March Madness with the Huskies basketball team, but soccer fever starts on Thursday with the debut of Major League Soccer in Seattle with the Sounders FC expansion team. The Space Needle was lit up with the team colors and traffic is expected to be messy in the afternoon. Over 20,000 season tickets have been sold (better than the Mariners).
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A friend of mine got her husband to understand the appeal of owning a KitchenAid stand mixer by telling him "it's like a tractor for your kitchen!" I have to imagine someone must have also used this analogy in the 1920s and 1930s when housewives justified the extravagant purchase of this new invention. And once you've paid for the mixer, the attachments, which make it so tractor-like, add to the cost as well. Most of them, not surprisingly, are made by KitchenAid; there aren't many third party attachments out there. Three companies have taken on the "scraping down the bowl" problem and sell mixer blades with soft 'wings' that scrape the sides of the bowl as they turn. The SideSwipe was recommended by Cooks Illustrated. There's also the Beater Blade and the POURfect Scrape-A-Bowl. A less practical but enchanting attachment is the confectionary coating pan that lets home and small-scale candy makers evenly coat nuts, chocolates, and fruit just like the pros. The accessory I ran across that I actually want isn't an attachment. It's the MixerMaid which holds the beater, dough hook, and paddle that come with the mixer. Ours are always getting banged around in a drawer, collecting gunk on the counter, or stuck in the mixer bowl. I need to check this great idea out.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Hawaii Superferry went into regular service in December 2007 after delays from legal action over potential environmental impact. On Monday the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the law allowing the ferry to operate without a full environmental impact statement was unconstitutional as it was written specifically for that company. The Superferry has now suspended operations. Farmers and other small producers who were able to ferry produce to the larger market of Oahu are disappointed.
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The organ at Boston's Old South Church has been "offline" for three months after MBTA work damaged a sanctuary wall. The Globe shot video of the tuning process to get the Skinner organ ready to play again with Jonathan Ambrosino adjusting the pipes and cleaning the reeds with cotton paper, specifically a nice dollar bill.
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Isaac Mizrahi designed a handbag for the New York Times. A New York Times signature medallion swings from the bright red twill and leather. 600 are available through the N.Y. Times online store.
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Today the final print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer hit area driveways and newsboxes. The P-I will continue online with a greatly reduced staff and the iconic globe will keep spinning. Subscribers will now receive The Seattle Times, which will inherit some of the P-I content including comics Dilbert, 9 Chickweed Lane, and Pearls Before Swine. The P-I's memories section includes a photo gallery from each decade starting with 1920, a journey through the history of Seattle (construction of the 520 bridge and the Space Needle appear in the 1960s). Lewis Kamb gives a play-by-play of the final day as "documents and sacred records that took years to accumulate were pulled from filing cabinets and discarded into dumpsters, gone in a matter of minutes." The Seattle Times has posted shots of the final press run.
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Monday, March 16, 2009

Odd things can happen in this Internet age while watching the space shuttle launch. Within minutes of mentioning on Twitter that I was concerned about the bat that was comfortably resting on Discovery's external fuel tank, I received notification that "DiscoveryBat" was following me on Twitter. Said "bat" then proceeded to post tweets through to launch time and even after its subsequent characterization by NASA at the post-launch news conference as "unexpected debris." Status updates from the ghost of a fruit bat... it's a great age we're living in.
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Jellyfish exhibits have been popular additions to aquariums in the past few years. Special tanks are carefully lit and designed to show off different types of jellyfish, creating lovely photo opportunities. The jellies are soothing to watch and it's no surprise that those with the means want to display them at home. But you can't just plop a jellyfish into a regular fish tank. The title of this N.Y. Times Bits blog posting speaks to the unpleasant results if a jellyfish hits a normal filter instead of having a gentle current to drift in. The Jellyfish Art start-up specializes in building and installing jellyfish habitats for homeowners, and also providing suitable food. The JelliesZone website has an extremely detailed write-up on the challenges of keeping captive jellyfish.
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Friday, March 13, 2009

Years ago, I watched E.R. religiously and thought about catching the return of George Clooney and Julianna Margulies on TV this week but realized I'd be able to see it online instead so I did -- and then... OMG, Susan Sarandon shows up, FTW! See it all or just the good parts online at NBC.
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Boston's Hancock Tower is scheduled to be put up for auction at the end of the month. Owner Broadway Partners bought the building in 2006 for $1.3 billion and has defaulted on some debt payments. They have the option of filing for bankruptcy to protect themselves from creditors and are likely negotiating to restructure their debt to allow them to survive the devaluation of so many of their properties. The Hancock was designed by I.M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb and is the tallest building in New England.
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Thursday, March 12, 2009

In this compilation of "Roadside attractions for Bay Area commuters," the S.F. Chronicle offers up the observation that the Waldo Tunnel rainbow archways were not painted by "happy hippies" in the 1970s but Caltrans engineer Alan Hart who decided it would be a nice touch. Hart passed away in 1994 but wrote about the paint job: "I was so certain that the bureaucrats at Sacramento would find 1000 reasons why I couldn't paint the rainbows that I never made any effort to get their approval." Hart oversaw construction of two of the most aesthetically appealing highways in the area, the gracefully curving I-280 which sports a "World's Most Beautiful Freeway" sign, and I-80 as it crosses the Sierra Nevada which has been dedicated as the "Alan S. Hart Freeway."
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Speculation continues as to the date of the Seattle P-I's final print edition. The staff has prepared the content for the farewell, but has no idea when it will run, and parent Hearst is keeping mum. Evidence that there will be an online-only version of the P.I. include the renewal of the seattlepi.com domain which would have expired this month and offers extended to some staff members. But Hearst is keeping quiet about those plans as well. The only certainty is that the staff will be paid through March 18th. All bets are on a final edition being printed by then. Don't miss P-I photographer Joshua Trujillo's awesomely executed photo of March 10th's full moon rising behind the P-I globe, taken from a kayak in "10 knot winds, 500 yards offshore, with about $8,000 worth of camera and lens in hand."
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

If Art Nouveau is your thing, the exhibit "Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique" at San Francisco's Legion of Honor may be of interest. But the Chronicle points out that for the largest collection of Tiffany glassware west of the Mississippi, you can head over to Alan Schneider's Antique Traders on California Street. He's gathered the top specimens of Tiffany lamps, vases, even windows, and other craftsmen of the period, and it's all for sale -- if you can afford it.
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Cash registers may not have been invented if everyone was honest, though their ability to track sales for accounting purposes is equally useful. The first "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier" came from the Ritty brothers in Dayton, Ohio with a patent granted in 1883. National Cash Register acquired the patent in 1884 and is still in business today with a history that took NCR from electric registers to LCDs to the signature capture devices of today's computerized systems. The brass registers of the past are now coveted by restaurants and bars to lend a nostalgic air to their establishments. Known as "tombstones" by bartenders, these old machines harken back to their origins quite well: James Ritty was a barkeeper when he invented that first mechanical register. His Pony House Saloon survived him and Prohibition, closing in 1967. On the Bowery, former cash register central of Manhattan, the Faermans of Faerman Cash Register still make a business of keeping those "ka-chings" in good shape.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs" fame is an Eagle Scout and he promises to personally fill out and sign his own letter for any Eagle Scout who requests it. It's a letter with a reminder that becoming an Eagle Scout isn't a reward of entitlement but a foundation that should be put to good use. This is from his site mikeroweWORKS (audio) that promotes skilled labor.
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Last Wednesday, Malia and Sasha Obama came home to find a new swing set on the south lawn of the White House. Rear Adm. Stephen Rochon, Chief Usher, conducted extensive research at the request of the First Lady before the set was chosen, including a trip to Brookings, SD home of Rainbow Play Systems where, according to CEO Greg Foster, "he climbed on the set. He slid down the slide. He swung on the swings." The selected model has many features: 3 swings, a tire swing, climbing wall, slide, monkey bars, and "penthouse" with bubble windows. Foster and a factory crew came to D.C. to install the set, bringing along a custom picnic table with brass plates engraved with the names of all the Presidents. The last full swing set at the White House belonged to the Kennedy children. I dug up two photos from Corbis of Caroline on that same south lawn: a posed shot of her on the set, and a long lens candid shot. It looks like they had a little treehouse with a slide as well as a jungle gym.
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Monday, March 09, 2009

In these difficult times, it is good to know we can still pamper our kitty cats with indulgences such as this Swarovski crystal-encrusted cat flap. I'm pretty sure I can crank one of these out with one of those cell phone bling kits or just a hot glue gun and a trip to the craft store, so maybe this is just the Etsy business I've been waiting for.
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Jewelry retailers have of course been suffering through months of low demand. The Christmas season was down sharply from previous years. Whitehall Jewelers Inc., Shane Company, Fortunoff, and Robbins Bros. Corp are among the larger retailers who have filed for bankruptcy protection or gone out of business. Zales is closing 115 stores. Online shop Blue Nile is weathering out the storm so far with no debt and $54.5 million in cash. They're smartly keeping their inventory focused on classics that will sell as couples continue to get engaged and married. Over on the materials side, the price of platinum plunged by half last year, which meant that jewelers who bought inventory when prices were closer to $2000 an ounce, had to take losses selling in the more recent $700-1000 range. Gold, considered a safe haven in a volatile market, has risen, causing a different problem for jewelers who need to buy. DeBeers, who made a huge business of controlling diamond inventory, though new suppliers have halted their monopoly, has taken out a $500 million loan to make it through the downturn. They are also slowing down or halting production at their various mines. The expected demand from the growth of wealth in China and India was curtailed as the recession spread and DeBeers has excess stock to work through.
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Monday, March 02, 2009

I'm going to take it easy here for a week or so. Work and sleep need some attention (also a little bit of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix for DS). In the meantime, it's Girl Scout cookie season and sales are, not surprisingly, down this year, so if you love those Thin Mints and Samoas please buy a box or two. Try the cookie locator from the Little Brownie Bakers to find a location near you.
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