Schuman Symphony No. 8
This piece is becoming one of my favorites. Right from the opening chord I knew I was going to like it, although I couldn't tell you what the chord is (I never did very well in ear training). My sister gave me this CD with several William Schuman pieces, performed in 1962 by the NYPO under Leonard Berstein, as a belated Christmas present. A while ago I decided I needed learn more of Schuman's work. For some reason, none of my education really touched on him, even though he is considered one of the premier American composers. I guess he is largely overshadowed by Aaron Copland and Charles Ives. An annoying sidenote: When I ripped the CD to MP3 [Note to RIAA: for purely personal use only], CDDB came back and told me the composer was Robert Schumann.
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Hell freezes over; UNH considers parking garage
Well, this is about 15 years overdue: UNH moves forward with parking garage A-Lot is the most likely location ... because it provides maximum access to the planned Loop Road, Whittemore Center, rail station, football stadium, Field House, and future performing arts center... proposed parking fees [are] from $1,000 for a reserved, core-lot [A- or B-Lot] space to $400 for a nonreserved core lot to $50 for a West Edge Lot permit. The current price is $32 a year for faculty and staff. OK, the reserved idea is great, but $1000!!! or, $400 for a chance at getting a spot. For those of you who might not have tried parking at UNH in a while... it is impossible to get a spot, even in A-Lot, after about 8:30am. The "West Edge Lot" is way the hell out on 155A (it might even be in Lee) and is also typically very full. Let's say you work and are just taking one class at 10am: You will need to add another 20-25 minutes on each side of the class to park and shuttle to/from campus. Crazy. | #

Pedestrian Right of Way
I am with Kreblog on his post about pedestrians who think they have the right-of-way on a Don't Walk sign. I drive in downtown Portsmouth almost daily. Most of downtown is a pedestrian right-of-way-no-matter-what free-for-all, but the intersection of Congress and Fleet has Walk/Don't Walk signs. If you are on Fleet trying to cross Congress, the green light is extremely short so jaywalkers can easily make you miss your light. Personally, I try to educate people a little with my horn. (I follow the same education policy at the 4-way stops which seem to baffle people on Pease and Fox Run Crossing). | #

Hey you with the pretty face, Welcome to the human race
Since we have a TiVo I rarely see commercials—well, I see them, but in fast -forward. It has to be something different to catch my eye. I think the latest VW commercials are pretty clever. Chain Reaction and Squares are neat, but my favorite is Bubble, in large part due to the use of ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky". No doubt, ELO is not a cool band to like, but I think they're going to come back in style with the next retro craze. :-) ELO always reminds me of the summer of 1991 I spent travelling between Orleans and Chatham for work daily, in my father's old Chevy Blazer which had a tape player and two tapes: ELO's Greatest Hits 1 & 2. (I even recently bought it used on CD). | #

Only YOU can prevent a double-dip recession
We did our part for the economy: Disney Earnings Helped by Park Rebound Our trip in November is largely responsible for the rebound at the Magic Kingdom. Now you all get out there and buy a DVD player or a computer or a car or something... | #

Great gift idea for your wife!
Wild Women on Wine! Wild Women on Wine is an international non-profit organization (501c4) that offers a program designed to bring women together with wine, cheese and chocolate. OK, well, this web site is not exactly what I hoped for—I was thinking more along the lines of Lettuce Ladies but promoting wine—but it's still great! How many guys would think to(a) form a beer club with their drinking buddies; (b) make the club an international non-profit organization (501c4)? This means members can take a deduction on their taxes for wine expenses, right? [Thanks to 4KMnD for the link]. | #

Bowstreet Tewksbury Industrial Park Software
e-Coast mainstay leaves Portsmouth This week Bowstreet is moving its corporate headquarters out of Portsmouth to Tewksbury, Mass., for reasons company officials weren’t willing to discuss Wednesday. I'm sad to see them go. I always thought their technology was cool, although the two times I evaluated their product for potential purchase, I could not figure out what the product actually was. I don't think they ever did either. It is almost criminal though, how much money they burned through so fast. | #

Peace at any cost—no peace at all
Well here's a fine example of France's "peace at any cost" policy not faring so well. Ivorian Accord Falters, France Ready to Evacuate: Ivory Coast's peace accord neared collapse on Wednesday....Opponents of the deal say Paris pushed President Laurent Gbagbo into agreeing to give too much to rebels... Wow, a demonstration against someone other than the US! To quote Jon Stewart: "I didn't even know other countries' flags were flammable!" The picture on this article is great too: A demonstrator holding a sign: "France USA we need help". I can not quite agree with Granite Rants' comments though: As a recent former colonial power to Ivory Coast, I think France is justified to get involved without a UN resolution, much like we have done in Latin America and the Carribean. | #

Make sure the house has external water, sewer and 220V electrical hook-ups
My in-laws are perhaps the ones most concerned that we buy a house. I think it's mainly because they need a place to park their camper when they visit. | #

Rochester Opera House
I read a bit in The Rochester Times about the plan to bring professional theatre to the Rochester Opera House. They intend to use professional talent from New York for three shows this summer: Greater Tuna, a very funny two-man show about a town in Texas; The King and I and Guys and Dolls. I think it is really great what they have done with the Opera House. It used to be a run-down mess, but they have totally renovated it, put in A/C, and seem to have a full bill of entertainers— and even a good looking web site. Nice to see a city theatre put back into professional use. Too bad Dover's very cool opera house was destroyed by fire in the 30s. | #

Dude, Where's My Driver?
Ashton Kutcher is stoked, because the sequel to Dude Where's My Car just wrote itself. Utility Wires Save Teen Thrown From Jeep: A teenager was catapulted at least 25 feet in the air during an auto accident but grabbed onto overhead utility wires like an action hero and dangled for about 20 minutes before a rescue crew brought him down by ladder...The driver of the other car...came immediately to check on [the teen]. "I just started saying, `Dude, turn off my car.' He looked around at first, he couldn't find me. Then he looked up and saw me," [the teen] said. No, wait, it gets better. "I was told he was hanging on for dear life," [the teen's father] said. "I didn't know they meant he literally was hanging on for dear life." Remember: Accident scene humor is never inappropriate, especially when contacting the family members of those involved. | #

Hysterically idiotic
From Yahoo: Dr. Guiler, a surgeon being sued for branding a patient's uterus with the initials of his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, defended his actions Tuesday as a routine part of a hysterectomy. I don't know what is more idiotic: doing this in the first place or trying to tell us that it is routine. Apparently we need to make medical school harder, so they can weed out people this stupid.
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Dashe 1999 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel
We tried this wine, which was a gift from a friend who really likes it, with dinner tonight. Wine Spectator scored it an 84 and describes it as: "Very ripe, with candied cherry, grape and cranberry flavors that are fleshy, if lacking in complexity," which I think is right on, although I would have just called it "fruity". This was a good wine but just not my preference in taste. I prefer my Zinfandels spicy, not fruity. I think I liked the lower-scored "funky and weedy" Haut-Médoc we had last week better. (And the label features a monkey riding a fish through space. What's up with that?)
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Job hunting tips from Bangalore
Who would think it is a good idea to merge job hunting with one of the most despised scourges to plague the earth (no, not smallpox): SPAM!? Quite a few people, apparently, because I receive several everyday. If we have an email address on our web site specifically for jobs, why would you also email every other email address on the web site? And why would you write an email that purports to be very specific ("I have reviewed your web site very carefully and feel that I am the perfect match for your company") and yet visibly include hundreds of email addresses in the "To" line? | #

Welcome back BeastEE!
Glad to see WTFIT is off the bench and back in the game! | #

Revitalizing the bosom of downtwon
The Cape has managed to keep the likes of WalMart, Target, Costco and BJ's from crossing the canal, and many towns fight tooth-and-nail to keep Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King and their ilk from opening, but some things you just can't fight: Licensing board OKs Hooters renovations. Actually, I guess they tried: After a number of residents complained about a Hooters restaurant opening in Hyannis ... the 11-member board asked [the] Town Attorney to look into ways to prevent the restaurant chain from moving to Hyannis. Is it me, or does that just seem wrong? Should the local government be targetting a business based upon the complaints of some residents? How many of the "concerned residents" also happen to own bars in town? Let the market decide: If Hyannis, really doesn't want a Hooters, let it open, don't patronize it, and it will close. | #

Gradual demise (again) of the Cape's trains?
That's a photo of the railroad drawbridge over Cape Cod Canal. Built in the 30s, I think it's pretty cool looking. When I was a kid trains were just starting to make a comeback on the Cape to: (a) haul trash off-Cape; (b) bring tourists on-Cape (there's a certain symmetry there). Amtrack even ran a train up from New York, but that stopped several years ago. Now from the sound of recent articles, the Bay Colony Railroad (Rail line seeks bids to truck trash during bridge repairs) and Cape Cod Central (Bumpy ride for tourist train) might be in trouble. It's too bad they can't figure out some sort of vacation train, but it will never work: The lower Cape(?) tracks were torn up and paved over to make a bike trail, but any viable train would need to get tourists to Provincetown.
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Orange Sesame Chicken
Today at Rye Gourmet I picked up a bottle of Drew's All Natural Sesame Orange Salad Dressing & 10 Minute Marinade. I marinated some chicken breast for about 30 minutes and grilled them on The George and wasn't very impressed. The chicken did not seem to have much flavor. I also warmed up a little of the sauce to put on the cooked chicken, but it was too tangy. I can't imagine it as a salad dressing. This one wasn't for me; I don't think I'll try it again. I have also had Drew's Rosemary Balsamic Salad Dressing & 10 Minute Marinade which I would recommend. | #

Oh my god, Portland is like so totally last year
What is up with Kathy Gunst the Food reviewer for the Portland Phoenix? Reading her restaurant reviews, you're left with the impression that Portland is "the hippest, most urban, most modern-looking," most LA-like city on the east coast, and the NH Seacoast is a mere backwater. For example, in her review of Crescent City Bistro: Shake me. Throw cold water on my face. Am I dreaming or has hipness finally arrived in Dover, NH — arguably one of the most unhip cities in America? ... despite recent attempts to bring color to downtown Dover, the place is still fairly drab. OK, poke some fun at poor old Dover, that's fine. Dover's certainly not the bright spot of the NH seacoast. (At least she got one thing right: The best seat in twon is at Todd's bar.)

Now Portsmouth, that's different. Our intrepid reviewed has been at least a couple good places in Portsmouth. Let's read the review of Pesce Blue: Anyone living in the Seacoast region in the 1990s had to travel north to Portland or south to Boston to enjoy a truly great meal. What? Are you kidding me? "I wasn’t sure if Portsmouth was ready for this,” says [the owner]. “I wanted to provide a place for people who have been a little more exposed to the world and eaten different foods. There are a lot of restaurants around here all serving good food, but it’s all so much of the same food.” Sakura, Shalimar, Chiang Mai, Cafe Med, Anthony Albertos, Muddy River, Lou's Grille, Blue Mermaid, Cafe Mirabelle... am I the only one that thinks Portsmouth has a diverse variety of absolutely great restaurants? The best example of duplication is opening Pesce Blue a few doors down from Jumpin' Jay's.

Let's read on: Now there is hope that the long drought is finally over...Pesce Blue is the hippest, most urban, most modern-looking restaurant in town. You've got to be kidding. Have you seen Pesce blue? It looks like a Trading Spaces episode where they only got $400 and three hours plus Vern and some groovy candles. What exactly characterizes this "hip" look according to our reviewer? ...a partition wall with dozens of small black shelves, each one holding a flickering votive candle that appeared to be floating in the air... a long room with cinder block walls; a black industrial grid ceiling; big, hanging, white, globe-shaped lights; and mosaic columns of tile separating the little bar from the dining room. A huge, beige curtain hangs along the length of one wall... Wow, I never realized that the decor of BJ's Club was so hip.

Well, aside from the dearth of good restaurants for the last decade, at least Portsmouth is not as tragically un-hip as Dover—oh wait, I'm wrong: From her review of Jumpin Jay's: Where am I? New York, L.A., Portland? No, oddly enough it’s Portsmouth, New Hampshire. and from Pesce: The dining room was full: families and couples looked around the chic room disoriented. The looks on their faces seemed to say, “Could this really be Portsmouth?” Groan. Perhaps they were looking around wondering "Couldn't they afford paint for the walls?" Maybe she'll end on a positive note? Nope. While many people grieve the loss of small-town Portsmouth, a place like Pesce Blue gives us hope. If she is perhaps searching for someplace so trendy that it has techno music and a waiting line with velvet ropes staffed by burly young men in tight black t-shirts and headsets, she might want to check out the dressing room at the GAP downtown. | #

Amtrack, ABBA and Alcohol
We had a busy but fun weekend. It started with dinner at CCB (their web site does not do them justice) Friday night. We were too late to get reservations, but that's OK, it's just as fun to eat (and drink) at the bar. Some interesting items we tried included pan-seared ostrich (tasted like rare steak to me) and strawberry crème brulée (very subtle). We had a bottle of some red wine, but I don't remember what. Of course the best thing about CCB is that we can walk home, which came in handy. While we felt like we had been out all night tearing up the town, I realized the next day that we were in bed by about 9:20pm.

Saturday, we walked over to the train station and took the 3:06PM Downeaster to Boston. The decision to take the train was pretty much last minute, but the idea of not driving really appealed to me. I reserved the tickets on the phone and then picked them up from the automated machine in the Dover station, which was a pretty neat setup: swipe the credit card, enter the confirmation number and out come the tickets. Round-trip for two of us was $54 which probably cost more than driving, but once you factor in convenience isn't too bad. I like the ride: it is quiet, smooth, and there is something novel in being in something that sort of seems like a plane, but you can stand up and walk around anytime you want or use your laptop the whole time. The train got into Boston at 4:45PM.

Dinner was at Fleming's Steakhouse and Wine Bar. There were actually 9 of us: my mother, step-father, sister, step-father's nephew and niece (my cousins, basically) and their spouses. Dinner was great, and I had a nice time talking to my new step-cousin-in-law (Dr. Frankenstein, no joke) who is German and has just moved to the US. In addition to topics such as German vs. American welfare and educational systems, we discussed whether German Potato Salad is really German: He didn't think so, which seems to make sense given that French Fries aren't French, Canadian Bacon isn't Canandian, and Turkey Bacon isn't Turkish (he didn't get the joke, and no one else at the table seemed to think it was funny, but I am standing by it). I didn't get a chance to broach the subject of what the heck the Germans see in David Hasselhof, but maybe once I get to know him a little better... We got two bottles of wine: a 1997 Montevina Terra d'Oro Zinfandel (I actually ordered the 1999 Montevina Amador County Zinfandel but they brought the wrong thing and I never noticed) and something Portugese that was listed under "Interesting Reds". They were both good but I couldn't tell you much else since I had already zapped my palette on a martini.

After dinner we headed over to the Colonial for Mamma Mia, which is a musical made out of ABBA songs. This was not a show I had any interest in seeing, but my mother and wife both wanted to see it, so why not? (As my step-cousin-in-law Dr. Frakenstein pointed out, no man can admit to liking ABBA. Good to see that macho-ABBA-ambivalence transcends international borders.) It wasn't bad, good fun, certainly no worse than ballet or hockey ;-) I only recognized 2 songs but my Mom recognized all of them. I think Chess, also by the ABBA guys but with lyrics by Tim Rice, is definitely a better show (remember the song "One Night in Bangkok"? that's from Chess). After the show we headed back to our hotel and had a few more drinks. Although I started off well enough with a "real" drink (gin martini), my step-father was scandalized when I "back-slid" and ordered a Blood Orange Martini (Absolut Mandarin, Chambord, Pineapple juice) but hey, I wanted something sweet to go with my Chocolate Hazlenut Torte before bedtime.

Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel and took the Noon train back to Dover, which arrived exactly on-time at 1:39PM. We wound up the weekend with several TiVo'd "Trading Spaces" episodes and then the movie Traffic which definitely goes on my "Most Depressing Movies of All Times" list, but I'm glad to have seen it because I know it was critically acclaimed, and we needed to work on our Netflix log jam (as Kreblog calls it). And that was our weekend. What's that you say? Didn't we watch super-what? Oh was that this weekend? | #

The floor recognizes the Honorable Mr. Stern, junior senator from New York
Senator Springer? I think this is great. Who else understands the problems of the common people, like discovering that your 14-year-old lesbian daughter is sleeping with the transexual ex-life partner of of your baby's baby's daddy. I hope we see Howard Stern in there next. Not only will he and Hilary make a great team for NY, but think of how it will spice up C-SPAN: "Mr. Bush, I am willing to vote for your economic stimulus package, but first I need I need some stimulus of my own. How about your wife takes off her top and makes out with Ba Ba Booie for 3 minutes?" | #

Dragon Rub Steak
Dinner last night was steak grilled on The George which had been rubbed with sesame oil, a little lemon juice, and a Christmas gift: Dragon Rub Asian Seasoning. Dragon Rub is a combination of lemon grass, ginger, Chinese garlic, Chinese cinnamon, star anise, cloves, lime peel, green onion, cilantro, tumeric, red pepper and sesame seed. Where does such an exotic spice rub come from? Why Nantucket of course! It wasn't bad, but it smelled much more exotic while cooking than eating. It seemed to be lacking a little in flavor, and I now realize why: Notice anything missing in the in the list of ingredients? No salt! Oh well, next time. We had the steak with brown rice, spaghetti squash (mmmm!) and a 1998 Châteu Cantemerle Haut-Médoc (which was fine for a weeknight dinner even though Wine Spectator described it as "rather weedy and funky"). | #

Oh yeah? Well Alan Greenspan says that you're a...
Well, so big surprise, Rumsfeld runs off at the mouth again and ticks off the French. The funny part: Who in the French government responds? That's right, the French Finance Minister and the Ecology Minister. "If you knew what I feel like telling him, to Mr. Rumsfeld ...," French Ecology Minister Roselyne Bachelot said...She then stopped herself and said the word would be too offensive to use. Wow, hold her back. I say we send Rodney J. Brown (Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics of the Department of Agriculture) over there to open a USDA Grade A can of whoop-ass. | #

I still don't understand how we know
When I saw the title of Condoleezza Rice's op-ed piece in the NY Times, Why We Know Iraq Is Lying, I thought "Alright, finally!" Unfortunately, the title should really be "Why We Don't Trust This Guy and Therefore Think He is Lying". I was hoping for a satellite photo or something. I really want to believe that this is not all about Bush's personal grudge or distracting us from the economy, and that there is really some scary piece of intelligence the White House has but can not share. I really don't get the "this is all about oil" argument. Yes we use a lot of oil, but aren't our needs pretty well met now? Iraq's oil has been buttoned up for 10 years and the SUVs are fine. We don't want to see the market suddenly flooded with cheap oil. I mean seriously, can someone explain to me how the economics work out that this is all about oil? Do triumphant armies plunder anymore? Will every soldier be bringing home his own barrel of crude? | #

Random Link: Mark Romanek
I found this via Kreblog via Granite Rants' link to Johnny Cash singing a NIN song. Mark Romanek is a director of music vids and the recent movie One Hour Photo. He has a cool selection of music vids on his site. Don't tell RIAA. | #

Eh, I don't really mind the cold. Yes, it sucks.
[Obligatory New England "Damn Its Cold" blog post.] Most people from New Hampshire have had a conversation something like this when visiting anyplace south of Boston: "Where are you from?" "New Hampshire." "Wow, cold up there." "Eh, it's not that bad. I don't really mind the cold. It actually gets into the 90s in the summer." I take it all back. When I said "I don't really mind the cold" what I meant is "as long as it stays between 20° and 35° all winter with maybe an occasional dip into the 10s at night but under absolutely no circumstances should it be in the single digits for over a week." Not that I am ready to move—I still hate hot humid weather more. So far. | #

I'm pretty sure Napster is responsible for the layoffs at my company too
From a Wired article about RIAA's Hilary Rosen: "It's absolutely clear that the reason our sales are on the decline is the Internet and CD burning," Rosen declared... Really? Wow. I think it's great that the music industry keeps such detailed financial books that they can make a statement like this with such certainty—I would have assumed the general downturn in the economy had something to do with it, but I guess not. She goes on to explain how Napster and its ilk are responsible for Enron, 9/11, the hanging chad debacle, and the rise of facisim in Europe during the 1930s. Seriously: I think RIAA has some valid complaints (I personally don't feel sharing MP3s with a total strangers worldwide is fair) but this sort of blanket statement is just asinine. Wake up RIAA! Everyone's business is hurting! Instead of running around suing everyone and trying to legislate Orwellian ISP surveillance, hire some out-of-work dotcommers and get working on a better solution. | #

RSS: WWW @ HTML 1.0?
On Kreblog's recommendation I downloaded NetNewsWire to try playing with an RSS client. Pretty neat, but it occurs to me... doesn't this sort of bring us full circle? This reminds me of firing up Mosaic on my Centris 610. As far as I can tell, the RSS client is all about delivering only the content and stripping out the GUI stuff. Isn't that basically the web circa 1994, when all page backgrounds were gray, and before trendy pony-tailed web designers in black turtlenecks and square thick-framed glasses [some of you know exactly who I am picturing] discovered the joys of tables within tables and the one-pixel-trans-gif trick? | #

"What do we want? Renewable energy! When do we want it? Now! Where do we want it? umm—Somewhere else!"
Wind energy. Sounds great doesn't it? Clean, safe, renewable... Wired has sung of its promise: In the United States, Cape Wind Associates aims to build a 420-megawatt farm in Nantucket Sound by 2005. What could go wrong? NIMBY. Turns out Nantucket Sound is one of the best places in the US to build a wind farm, but from the reaction of some Cape Codders, you'd think they were proposing to store nuclear waste on the beach. The thing that continues to perplex me about Cape Cod: Things like the rusting hulk of the Target Ship (purposely run aground in Cape Cod Bay to be used for bombing practice) or the architecturally inappropriate Pilgrim Monument can be celebrated as a part of the historic beauty of Cape Cod, featured in sunset photos,etc, but the line is drawn at windmills!?!? | #

Pork Chops with Lemon & Pink Peppercorn Cream Sauce
Tonight's dinner attempt was inspired by something I had at a restaurant in Florida. I breaded, sauteed and baked the pork chops, and they came out fine. I really wasn't sure how to make the sauce, and I couldn't really find any good leads on the web, so I got some advice over AIM from my brother (a chef). He suggested I start with a bechamel sauce, and add some lemon juice and the pink peppercorns. OK, I had never made bechamel before, but I looked it up in my new copy of Encyclopedia of Sauces for Your Food and it turns out to just be butter, flour and milk. Easy enough. Unfortunately, the sauce didn't quite live up to my hopes though. It tasted basically like a creamy nothin', with a hint of lemon (even though I squeezed in half a lemon) and then crunchy peppercorns. Notes for next time: My brother suggests using some lemon zest, and crushing the peppercorns more. I am going to try this again, although I may need to make another trip to Florida for another taste of the original. | #

I Spit in the General Direction of Your Diplomatic Effort!
Although it is really tempting to make a WWII reference here, I will abstain. "War is always the admission of defeat and is always the worst of solutions," President Jacques Chirac of France said. "And hence everything must be done to avoid it." I am not a hawk and I do not think we should be rushing headlong into war, however statements like this just seem reckless. I believe we need to look very serious about war. Chirac has played right into Saddam's hand, weakening the threat of military intervention. It's like we're playing poker but France & Germany are looking over our shoulder and saying to Saddam: "Oh call, he doesn't have a royal flush. And besides, two of those cards belong to us."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/22/international/22CND_EURO.html | #

Restroom Update
Latest update on the restroom situation at work: Someone got himself locked in the bathroom and had to be rescued by passing a screwdriver through the drop-ceiling and over the wall, so he could disassemble the door handle. The kicker: It was the women's restroom. Authorities have provided no explanation... A similar thing actually happened months ago (except that time a guy got locked into the men's room). This perhaps points to a chronic problem with the door locks in our building... and I'm often at work alone after everyone else has gone home... I need to remember to always carry my cell phone. | #

Spooks.com
I heard about this site on NPR's Marketplace: DEBKAfile is a self-supporting Internet publication devoted to independent, investigative reporting and forward analysis in the fields of international terrorism, intelligence, international conflict, Islam, military affairs, security and politics. One look at the site, and you think they are kooks?but NPR vouched for them, and on the About Us page they list plenty of citations from the likes of Forbes, USATODAY, Time, Le Monde, Wired. They seem to have some amazing scoops... ("Spooks.com" as in "spies", get it?) | #

WADSL - 137Gbps upstream / 3.1 Kbps downstream
You probably don't know much about DSL, but there's a few flavors... ADSL (Asymmetric DSL), SDSL (Symmetric DSL), IDSL (ISDN DSL — how geeky is an acronym made of another acronym, eh? ) and among others: VDSL, which stands for "Very High Speed DSL". Is it just me, or does that acronym sound like a total cop-out? First of all, the letters don't even match: It should be VHSDSL. I think the rule is you can skip prepositions in acronyms, but dropping "high speed" is pushing it. Maybe they were afraid people would confuse it with videotapes. And... "Very High Speed"... how lame is that? Undescriptive, and totally relative to what is "fast" today. They must know that people are going to come up with faster and faster DSL. My vote for the next DSL: Wicked Awesome High Speed DSL (developed by a Boston company). | #

Do they serve Raspberry Mochas in the Prison Cafe?
A man hoping to get free Starbucks coffee got the chance to taste jail brew instead after he was charged with impersonating a police officer Tuesday. Hmmmm. I didn't realize cops actually got free coffee. I thought that was a cliché. Now, I have a great love for Starbucks, and I have a brother who is a police officer...
http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/011603/LOCbadge.shtml | #

Trade Secrets
An ancient amphora taken from the floor of the Black Sea last summer has provided the first direct evidence of an ancient triangular trade route in the Baltic and Mediterranean regions, U.S. researchers will announce today.
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/tradesecrets16.htm | #

Hello! Occupied... I'm in here! I'M IN HERE!
My cube at work is near the bathrooms, which has led me to notice distinctly different bathroom-door-knocking habits of men and women. We have single-person restrooms at work, 2 for the women and 2 for the men. The women daintily tap-tap the door, wait a very generous 10 seconds, and then gently try the handle. If someone inside says something, the knocker says "oh I'm sorry!" and quietly moves on. Men however always seem to rush up and throw their entire body weight against the door while trying the handle. If they find the door locked, they try a loud, rapid KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK until someone inside yells in panic, at which point the knocker departs without any acknowledgement to the occupant. | #