Category Archives: influences

Birthday Dinner at wd~50

Posted on December 14, 2014 by David

When chef Wylie Dufresne opened his restaurant wd~50 in 2003 he unwittingly sowed the seeds of his eventual demise. Choosing Clinton Street in Manhattan’s lower east side was a clever move, in that the rent was cheap due to the … Continue reading →

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Lunch at The Fat Duck

Posted on September 21, 2014 by David

Our August trip to attend Loncon 3 was a thinly veiled excuse to get together with overseas friends, visit three countries, and, of course, eat. Thanks to the efforts of gourmand extraordinaire Scott Edelman, one of our eating destinations would … Continue reading →

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Membership Has Its Privileges

Posted on February 13, 2014 by David

One of my regrets about not attending every one of the Harvard lectures that accompanied the Physics of Soft Matter course was that I never got to hear chef Ferran Adrià. Last night I was able to remedy that gap … Continue reading →

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Weep No More

Posted on December 10, 2012 by David

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that He Who Will Not Be Ignored is named after Miles Davis. What you may not know is that I’m named after Dave Brubeck. As friends sent me condolence emails after his … Continue reading →

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St. Julia’s Day 2012

Posted on August 17, 2012 by David

Wednesday would have been Julia Child’s 100th birthday. For this year’s St. Julia’s Day dinner (previous efforts here, here, and here), I wanted to pay tribute to what I used to call “god’s pantry”: her seemingly infinite supply of ingredients … Continue reading →

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Continuing a Mail Order Education

Posted on February 11, 2012 by David

Apart from the basics of handwriting, grammar, and arithmetic, my grade school education happened at home, between the pages of books my parents bought to satisfy my voracious curiosity. (And, I have always suspected, to stop me from asking them questions … Continue reading →

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Thinking Differently

Posted on October 6, 2011 by David

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 … Continue reading →

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Still Waiting For My Food Pills

Posted on July 15, 2011 by David

This is a transcript of a talk I presented at Readercon 22 on Friday, July 15. Images are included as they appeared in the slide show. I had submitted the following description for the conference program guide: Cooking has always … Continue reading →

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

Posted on June 15, 2011 by David

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 … Continue reading →

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Get Lamp

Posted on November 12, 2010 by David

If you are a gaming geek of a certain age, the phrase “get lamp” should evoke a whole series of memories. For me they remind me of nights spent in the basement of McGregor House at MIT, where I played … Continue reading →

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