Baseball and peanuts go together like peanut butter and jelly. But peanuts don’t go well with the 1.5 million Americans who are allergic to them. Peanut dust and shells drifting across the seats and floors of baseball stadiums provide no comfort to those who are at risk of anaphylactic shock from just a small amount of exposure to peanuts. A few major league baseball venues have been kind enough to set aside nut-free zones for a few games a season so that fans, often young kids, can enjoy America’s pastime without worry. Skyboxes, executive lounges, or a section of seats are cleaned and set aside as safe zones. The Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, and Washington Nationals are among the teams that have thus enabled parents to take their peanut-allergic kids to the ballgame.

How is managing a hospital like building cars? Ask the staff at Virginia Mason, a Seattle area hospital where managers were sent to study Toyota’s “lean manufacturing” system. Since their first trip in 2002, the staff has implemented several process changes to eliminate wasted time and supplies, improve productivity, and of course provide better care for patients. Their improvements center around improving workflows, taking care of problems and communications immediately, and making sure staff and tools are used efficiently. The return has been impressive, productivity has increased by 93%, lab results get to patients 85% faster, and inventory costs have been lowered by $1 million. Hospital CEO Dr. Gary Kaplan pictures a future when a patient goes from the parking garage straight to their appointment, with no waiting room in between. I suppose that will allow for a savings in magazine subscriptions as well.

On March 24th the Olympic flame will be lit in Greece. Between then and August 8th, the Olympic torch will travel the world, making one stop in North America on April 9th. The USOC chose San Francisco, location of the U.S.’ oldest Chinatown and one of the largest in North America, home of many Olympians, and as yet unsuccessful bidder for Olympic host, as the sole visit for the flame. They claim to have “absolutely anticipated” the fact that San Francisco is also, as the Chronicle politely puts it, “known worldwide for its spirit of protest and dissent.” But I’m not sure if they truly thought through how spirited this protest and dissent may be, as the USOC also said that no one has protested at a U.S. torch run before. The city is currently keeping the details of route and time secret and denying permits for demonstrations. They will instead set aside “free-speech zones.” I think we’ll be seeing torch bearers with a close security detail.

I’ve uploaded all my snapshots from the Forbidden City to flickr.

Ahhh March, time of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournaments. And ever-present at the games are the college pep bands. 30 musicians are allowed, no amplification, and the brass section rules. As the NY Times notes, the song sets have a heavy helping of the oldies. Along with the usual crowd-pleasers (“Louie, Louie” one more time, anyone?), UCLA has hung onto “Build Me Up Buttercup” (tuba solo!), and USC will likely never retire “Tusk,” the Fleetwood Mac hit that featured their own marching band (and has become their anti-UCLA fight song). New songs are added to freshen things up, but the mainstays are reminders that cheering for the alma mater is a tradition that connects back into the alumni years.

The tragic New York City crane accident reminded Bellevue, WA residents of the crane collapse in 2006 that killed one man. The proliferation of cranes continues in downtown Bellevue. We are still in the habit of counting them whenever we’re at a stop light, often handing the task off to our 3-year-old whose tally gets more accurate by the day. The City of Bellevue actually published a news release this week that listed the 18 construction cranes and their associated projects. It includes a link to a PDF of 21 major projects under construction, 12 under review, and 7 in the pipeline. That’s a lot of change to the city’s landscape.

Today’s Beijing shot is a video I uploaded to Vox: How I got down from the Great Wall of China. We went to Mutianyu which had a lovely older section of the wall which we hiked in the quiet morning hours before the crowds. Here’s a better video someone on Youtube shot during their actual toboggan ride (and there’s plenty more on Youtube).

As I noted here a few years ago, the futuristic Eero Saarinen terminal at JFK Airport, former home of defunct TWA, will be refurbished as JetBlue builds a new terminal behind it. The structure’s concourses and departure lounges, however, were removed to make room for JetBlue. The Port Authority agreed to preserve one lounge. So one was sawed off and moved aside. It has sat at the airport for almost a year, awaiting its fate. But everyone with a say in the matter has now agreed that the money needed to restore the lounge and incorporate it into the new terminal would be better used in restoring the old one. So, JetBlue is free to demolish it. The NY Times also recently covered the careful dismantling of the gigantic stained glass window in the old American Airlines terminal.

My mom’s cooking made me very picky about Chinese restaurants, and now my Beijing trip has spoiled me on Sichuan and vegetarian Chinese food. At the Sichuan restaurant we went to, there were more spices than other ingredients on some of the plates (although that didn’t hinder some of us from eating the chilis and peppers as part of the meal, while most of the, perhaps smarter, Beijing residents ate around them). We went to a vegetarian restaurant near our office twice for lunch and ate some amazing faux meats, concocted out of various vegan ingredients. It was a far cry from the places I’ve been to that just do the same thing over and over with gluten and tofu. Then again, I always wonder if truly dedicated animal lovers actually want to eat something that so closely resembles the real thing.

You may be very familiar with that blue Valpak envelope that regularly arrives in your mailbox. Do you open it and look for deals? Or does it go right into the recycling bin? Valpak has been around for 40 years and now has 200 franchises in the U.S. and Canada sending 45 million homes that stack of coupons every month. They’ve opened a plant to consolidate all their printing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and they have a deal for online advertising with Google Maps. Instead of stuffing paper into envelopes like employees did in the early days, the printing plant’s machines wrap the envelope around the coupons. And that blue color? It was what the female employees picked early on as the most enticing, and focus groups continue to confirm it.