by David | Oct 7, 2013 | reading & writing, urbanism
This morning the estimable editors at UniversalHub described a truck as “freshly storrowed,” meaning that it had been driven under a famously (but not famously enough I guess) too-low overpass on Storrow Drive and either gotten stuck or had the top ripped...
by David | Sep 30, 2013 | eating
Occasionally, you can smell the ocean from outside my office near the North End. Maybe it’s just a nearby fountain or open hydrant or the aquarium, but it serves to remind me that Boston has a seafaring heritage. That said, if you’re not careful buying...
by David | Sep 24, 2013 | reading & writing, working
Via BoingBoing, a verb for all seasons: knoll. I drew a blank with knoll in this sense on the usual dictionary sites, but Wikipedia is hep to it, as is Urban Dictionary, admittedly with a few dubious variants. Cory sez, “Knolling is ‘the process of...
by David | Sep 23, 2013 | reading & writing
I’ve been having a terrible allergy season. That, and maybe just a little too much They Might Be Giants, caused me to research the word miasma (as in a cloud of ragweed that follows you around) for a possible Word of the Day post. Here’s what I found,...
by David | Sep 22, 2013 | reading & writing, science!
You probably know that today is the Autumnal (in the Northern hemisphere) Equinox, the end of Summer and the start of Autumn. In fact, it’s right about now, 5:44pm ET. I thought it was odd that the “day and night of equal length” was at a particular...
by David | Sep 20, 2013 | photo, transportation, urbanism
Helsinki buses are not the only mode of transportation delivering serendipitous inspiration.
by David | Sep 19, 2013 | photo
A lot can happen in a crepuscular half hour.
by David | Sep 18, 2013 | science!
Top search terms for this blog, largely in order, lightly curated, in haiku form: Babka, Bialy, Square car, Linkedin API, Ferris wheel at night. Murphy bed, Fisheye camera, Man bag, Blackboards, Sfogliatelle. Wine with fried chicken, Scrabble, Limeduck, Shrubbery, Pig...
by David | Sep 17, 2013 | design, urbanism
At IKEA, $200 will buy you 25 cubbies of modern storage in a six by six foot monolith of melamine and ground up Chinese newspaper*. Similar items from fancy furniture providers can cost over a thousand more, so what apartment dweller with too many books, albums (said...
by David | Sep 16, 2013 | science!, travel
We all know that parallel lines never meet, and it’s convenient to think of the lines of longitude and timezones as parallel, but they really aren’t. The former because they’re inscribed on the (more or less) spherical Earth, and the latter because...
by David | Sep 13, 2013 | transportation, urbanism
You may remember back in June when I reported that the MBTA was eliminating a couple of stops on the number 1 bus line, I wondered what would happen to the space freed up. Well, I’ve been watching those stops and seen no changes. Still no parking, still marked...
by David | Sep 4, 2013 | culture, eating
As a child in New York City, I thought that Chinese New Year and the Feast of San Gennaro were among the High Holy Days probably until junior high school. I may have been a little slow, or maybe just an early adopter of multiculturalism, but I ate well at every...
