culture

Thinking Differently

October 6, 2011
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Steve Jobs changed my life. It was a gradual process that began in the fall of 1984, when I first interacted with a Macintosh. I had moved into Castle Moose, a house full of game-playing Harvard graduates and later the location of some of my culinary milestones, including the legendary pumpkin pie story. In addition [...]

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Goin’ to Chicago

July 29, 2011
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Starting tomorrow, She Who Must Be Obeyed, He Who Will Not Be Ignored, and I are taking a well-deserved vacation. We’re driving out to Chicago by way of Cleveland (Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Lola restaurant), spending a week sightseeing and eating (Next, Publican, Boka, and various hot dog emporia), then returning by way of Buffalo [...]

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I Don’t Have to Show You Any Stinking Badges!*

June 15, 2011
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Iwas a Boy Scout, but I never worked my way up the ranks to Eagle scout. That achievement required at least 21 merit badges, a few of which (swimming, lifesaving) were mandatory requirements completely beyond my physical capabilities. It should come as no surprise that I did acquire the cooking merit badge before I gave [...]

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Vespers

March 21, 2011
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I used to be a Catholic altar boy, long enough ago that one Mass every Sunday was still recited in Latin. The ecclesiastical Latin I had to memorize back then has been more useful than I expected, first in my biology training (learning how to read Linnaean taxonomy), later in my appreciation of classical music [...]

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Baby’s First Hydrocolloid Kit

March 9, 2011
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Today I had a revelation: My fascination with food and food chemistry began when I was a child, and it started with a toy. While my friends all begged their parents for Creepy Crawler sets, I asked for – and was given – an Incredible Edibles set. Both of these toys worked on the same [...]

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What I Say

April 29, 2009

We’re back from our London vacation. I was reviewing some of the video footage we shot, and found this, taken by Diane at the British Museum: We were concerned that Miles would be either bored with or overwhelmed by the amount of information at the museum. As you can see, our fears were unfounded. Not [...]

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Monkey Tuesday

February 3, 2009

I work at home, in an office on the top floor of my house. I listen to music non-stop while I work, but from January 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007, I listened to a radio talk show. Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller, hosted Penn Radio every weekday afternoon during that year and a [...]

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Burns Night

January 25, 2009

Today is the birthday of the great Scots poet Robert Burns. It will be celebrated by true Scots everywhere with the traditional Burns night supper, a meal that features a haggis for the main course. Although I will not be observing Burns night this year, I did for the first time three years ago, made [...]

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