The Cornell Waste Management Institutue, in its most recent attempt to tell me where the bogus statistic they published came from, pointed me to William Rathje, an anthropologist/archeologist who’s excavated landfills and studied the waste disposal habits of Americans. He hasn’t responded to my email inquiries yet, but at this point, it’s not that important:…
Month: May 2007
Our Memorial Day Parade
One of our favorite neighborhood traditions is the annual Memorial Day parade. It begins just half a block from our house, on the street just behind the nearby elementary school and winds for about a mile past our local playground and to another elementary school. Children from both schools comprise a choir that sings patriotic…
The Too Smug Bicyclist
I’ll admit that I am smug about my bicycling instead of driving. I like the exercise, I love never having to hunt for parking, and most of all, I’m having fun. But the smugness can go too far. To wit, here is a letter from today’s Mr. Roadshow column in the San Jose Mercury News:…
Russians versus Germans
I recently joined a Yahoo group for German-language children’s activities. I’ve been in Yahoo groups for Russian-language activities, but I am overwhelmed by the difference between the two nationalities. On the Russian boards, the Russians almost always write in English. Sure, some of it is due to the fact that not everyone has a font…
Poolside Summer School
My blogging has been light lately because my mind’s been on putting together an educational curriculum for Neil (and to a certain extent, Kelly as well) this summer. It’s no secret that I’ve been disappointed in his teacher this year, and I think in some ways he’s fallen behind milestones he achieved in third grade….
The Strawberry Man
For all I know this phenomenon may be nationwide, but I think I’m pretty special and lucky to live in a neighborhood where, during strawberry season, a man appears on a street corner just a few blocks away selling farm-fresh strawberries at a below-market price. It’s always the same guy, though I have yet to…
Matt Dusk’s Journal Entries
I love jazzy singer Matt Dusk’s vocals. He has fabulous diction, pitch and phrasing. He’s often compared to Michael Bublé, but if you listen to Matt Dusk, Michael Bublé sounds like a drunken karaoke singer, IMHO. If Matt Dusk sounds like anyone, he sounds a carefree cross between Frank Sinatra and Shirley Bassey. Since I…
Queen of the Pool
It’s summer again, which means I’ve returned to my Sisyphean quest of getting the perfect chemical balance in my pool. Just as background, if you hire a pool guy to take care of the pool, he typically siphons the dirt off the bottom and sides and throws in some chlorine with each visit. I fired…
Shakespeare in the Redwoods
Yesterday was Open House at Neil’s school. As part of their Open House presentation, his grade 4/5 class selected 5 scenes from Shakespeare plays and performed them. We saw Hamlet fight Laertes and die by Laertes’ poisoned sword; Romeo grieve and commit suicide when he finds Juliet, seemingly dead; and Neil, as Petruchio, ably teasing…
Round and About at Happy Hollow
Kelly’s been asking me to take her to Happy Hollow for a few weeks now, and I figured it would be a pleasant thing to do today while Neil and Peter were at the Maker Fair. We didn’t get a chance to see the zoo part today, which was probably good news for the zoo’s…