If there’s one place I expect old traditions to die hard, I know it’s at my alma mater, but it’s still nice to see, year after year, the women of Wellesley sacrificing their vocal chords for the morale of the runners in the Boston Marathon. Here are the choice quotes from the papers this year. From the Globe: “‘Nothing can compare to Wellesley.’… The stretch along the route is often cited as one of the more vocal and supportive, as students hit the streets with signs and voices of encouragement for the athletes passing by.” Daily News Tribune: “Bentley College senior Dan Badavus, running in his second marathon, attributed his success to the legendary cheering section from Wellesley College. ‘The Wellesley girls – it was just deafening,’ he said. ‘The noise just gets you going, and you can feel the adrenaline surging.'” And leave it to the Herald to put it all in perspective: “‘This is the best day of the entire year,’ said Emilie Papageorgiou, 22, as she took it all in outside Wellesley College. ‘All that sisterhood crap we talk about all the time is true today.'”

Fans of the Car Talk guys may want to catch their television appearance on the “Car of the Future” NOVA broadcast this Tuesday. John Lithgow narrates as Tom and Ray learn about the world’s reliance on petroleum and what can or can’t be done about it.

Nalgene rose from being a supplier of lab equipment to a well-known brand of water bottle, available in trendy colors. Now that consumers are aware of the controversy over bisphenol-A and whether it is safe or not, Nalgene is protecting their brand by phasing out BPA in their Outdoor line and publicizing their other bottles without BPA. They’ve put up a web site with a comparison chart of their products and their qualities while still maintaining that BPA is safe. Popular baby bottle maker Avent has not publicly caved yet to any BPA controversy and states that they are following approved standards as are other polycarbonate bottle brands like Dr. Brown’s and Playtex.

At certain periods in the 8+ year lifetime of this weblog I’ve had time to research posts at greater depth, attempting to add value and usefulness to this vast Internet instead of just linking to interesting things. Working a full-time job and also being a parent doesn’t leave me much time for research these days, just finding interesting things to point to takes enough time. Which is all a self-centered way of me leading up to pointing out that Andy Baio does what I wish I had time to do with a weblog. Not only does he have interesting links on the side, but he has now committed himself to adding interesting weblog content to the World Wide Web on waxy.org. And his latest is just a mind-blowing doozy to someone like me who worshipped both Infocom and Douglas Adams. So, instead of trying to find anything interesting today to link to, I’m taking the time instead to read about his amazing find from the “Infocom Drive” which I’m sure will be on every popular linksite in a matter of hours: Milliways: Infocom’s Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Thank you Andy!

The Seattle P.I.’s Edibles column has been focusing on what fruit trees grow well in the area. The first column gives high marks to Italian prunes and describes exactly what we went through with our apple tree (and why we decided to remove it when we landscaped the back yard): apple maggots appeared here in the mid 1980s and apple trees are no longer low maintenance. The second column details all the things that can go wrong when you grow cherries, peaches, and apricots. I’m sure I’ll never see a recommendation for an outdoor citrus here, but I’m going to try an indoor pot of Meyer Lemon again one day.

“A dozen plump tomatoes, sea salt, cayenne pepper and Demerara sugar” in a traditional glass bottle from Heinz will appear on food store shelves in the U.K. this month. This gourmet ketchup for sophisticated palates won’t be released in the U.S., but now that Heinz has discontinued their kid-friendly pink, blue, purple, green colored EZ Squirt line, maybe they’ll go after the American adults soon.

Former (and current) New Englanders take note: herein lies a photo of the dismantling of the “last original Dunkin’ Donuts sign standing anywhere.” It’s a neon original from 1957, now rusty and in bad condition. The Brighton Dunkin’ Donuts franchise is putting up a new-fangled flourescent backlit plexiglass sign instead. The old sign is sitting in a yard, with an uncertain fate. (via Serious Eats) Speaking of sign replacements, blog comments about this sign led me to the very old news that Boston’s landmark Citgo sign went LED in 2005. It uses half as much energy and stands up to the weather better. But some people actually miss the buzzing.

In 2006, Ralph O. Esmerian bought luxury jewelry retailer Fred Leighton using a loan from Merrill Lynch. He defaulted on the $185 million loan in January, prompting Merrill Lynch to call in the collateral. Christie arranged an auction of the jewelry collection Esmerian put up for the loan, which includes a pink diamond ring ($15 million estimate) and a diamond brooch ($6 million estimate) that once belonged to the wife of Napoleon III. But Esmerian took legal action to block the auction, calling it a “fire sale” and stating that the jewelry would fetch better prices in private sales. The auction was called off, but you know Merrill Lynch wants to see that money soon. Shiny jewels aren’t liquid and Merrill has had enough. Esmerian had also hired Peter Bacanovic as CEO of Fred Leighton which didn’t impress his creditors. Bacanovic used to work for Merrill Lynch and had his 15 minutes of fame and 5 months in prison for being Martha Stewart’s stock broker.

Considering that Merchant & Ivory’s production of “A Room with a View” is my favorite movie, I took it incredibly well when I read about PBS’ Masterpiece new version of the E.M. Forster novel. Since ultimately it is the book that is the heart of the film, I’m open to this new “Room” that debuted last night, much as I’d welcome a fresh production of a classic play. This version is not reimagined in a different era or departures of characterization, but it is wrapped within a flashback that provides an ending twist that several critics have called out as alarming to purists. Of course it’s unlikely that my favorite movie will be replaced anyway.

This article on posh barbershops that offer salon services for men (“don’t call them spas”) briefly discusses the difference between hair stylists and barbers. The skillset for cosmetology and barber’s licenses are different. These upscale barber shops often hire stylists with cosmetology licenses to give massages, manicures, and facials in addition to haircuts. The cosmetology license is more versatile for the range of services these shops offer, but barbers take 300 hours of training with clippers and are skilled in that ultimate luxury service, the straightedge razor shave. Shop owners are hiring stylists who specialize in straight-razor shaves instead. Some states have combined their cosmetology and barber licenses, but that means aspiring barbers have to sit through learning how to do nails and updos. Barbers and barbershops continue to decline in number as stylists grow.