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Today was Open Day at the NSW Fire Brigades' fire stations.
It's a means of communicating fire safety information to families, but most of all, it's a chance for kids of all ages to check out the fire engines and the fire stations. We took Ed along, and naturally he loved it. Here's a selection of photos, and you can click on the thumbnail for a larger view.
Milton and Rose Friedman had a couple of nice houses in which to live. Not quite what I had expected, if I'd ever bothered to think about it before. Much greener, and a bit post modern.
Bonus: From the same blog, Architecture and Morality, here's a blog post about the architecture and design of President Bush's western Whitehouse in Crawford, Texas. Again, not quite what I had expected, and confounding to the image I had of W.
[ tip from Marginal Revolution ]
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote a recent column about his cancer and related surgery which has left him without a voice:
"I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers. So what?
I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks. I still have my brain and my typing fingers."
He's still going to go to his annual Overlooked Film Festival.
Bravo, Roger Ebert!
[ tip from kottke again ]
I like my food just as much as the next person. And I've eaten at some nice restaurants. And worked in and around some nice restaurants. The antics of restaurateurs is a frequent source of amusement to me.
The Fat Duck in Bray, a restaurant I'd heard of but to which I had not paid much attention is cheffed by Heston Blumenthal. ("cheffed" - do you like that word? I think I just invented it. Let's see how long it takes before "cheffed" is picked up by Good Living.)
Check out this blog post from primo food blogger Chez Pim to read about the iPod she was issued at the restaurant to enhance the dining experience.
"Heston Blumenthal, the chef, said he wanted to experiment with using sound to enhance a dining experience. Hence the iPod, playing the soothing sound of the sea breeze and waves gently caressing the seashore. The dish itself was dubbed Sound of the Sea, with different components on the plate representing something from the seaside."
I don't expect to get to England anytime soon, so the delights of The Fat Duck will have to await my personal consumption for a long time.
[ tip from Kottke ]
And no, apparently I did not invent the word "cheffed". Googling that word gives this result.
Checking out the iTunes USA store, I saw in the out of left field section the "5 minutes with Wichita" series.
Wichita Rutherford interviews Bluegrass stars, and also answers questions from listeners, such as a request to expain the Theory of Relativity.
His blog is here, and you'll see that his bluegrass band Van Heffer specialises in bluegrass covers of Ozzy Osbourne songs.
Check out the iTunes podcasts here.
You don't have to know much about bluegrass to enjoy it. I don't, and I did.
Ed and Gabrielle are baking as I'm writing this. Ed's first job was to grease the baking tin with some butter. He's a good cook.
Here's the recipe for GoodTaste Family ginger bread.
Just as a bonus, I'll include this photo I took of Edward while he was asleep earlier this week. He's covered with his favourite quilt which was a gift to him as a newborn from our friend Lorraine.
There's a great oral history project underway in the USA called StoryCorps. I stumbled across it on iTunes, and looked up the links to the StoryCorps site on NPR,
They try to inspire people to record each other's stories:
A StoryCorps interview is an opportunity to ask the questions that never get asked because the occasion never arises. How did you come to this country? How did you and mom meet? How did Uncle Harry get the nickname "Twinkles"?
The stories are gathered in a few different ways; sound proof booths set up in trailers travelling around the country, at booths inside many NPR affiliated radio stations, in some carefully placed semi-permanent booths (site of the World Trade Centre), rental of do-it-yourself-kits, and a door-to-door operation.
Here's an example of a story mentioned on one of the StoryCorps' blogs :
The Day the Clowns Cried
In 1944, Maureen Krekian, at age 11, walked a few blocks by herself to see the Flying Wallendas perform at the Barnum & Bailey circus in Hartford. Little did she know she would be at the center of the Hartford Circus Fire, the most tragic event in circus history. The event became known as the Day the Clowns Cried, as 168 people died as a result of the fire, whose cause is still debated.Maureen barely escaped the flaming tent thanks to the heroics of a young man who slit the tent and pulled her out. She shared her story with her two daughters, Lynn and Joanne. Their whole family stopped by the booth on their way to an Easter feast, thankful for the unknown young man who saved Maureen's life over 62 years ago.
You can check out the StoryCorps MobileBooth East blog here, and the Story Cops Mobile Booth West blog here.
How about this story:
Laura Livingstone-McNelis (left) interviews her mother Phyllis Knighton (right) about how Laura's formerly non-verbal daughter Mary learned to speak after spending one magical summer with her grandmother Phyllis. Phyllis, who was encouraged to go back to school in her 70s for speech therapy, had developed a method--to write down every activity she and Mary had done, reading it aloud together at the end of the day. One day, Laura received a call. The voice on the other end was Mary with the simple message of "I love you" for her mother.
It's not every day you return to your car and find an Aston Martin DB9 coupe parked behind it, but that's what happened yesterday in Chatswood. The DB9 Coupe is north of AUD$335,000 worth of motor car hence rarely seen around and about. So I thought I'd better take a picture while it was stationary. This particular one can be seen regularly on weekday morning around 8am travelling along Warringah Road and Eastern Valley Way through Frenchs Forest, Chatswood West and Willoughby.
The stationary view in no way conveys the elan and mystique of the vehicle when it's being driven, even sedately along suburban roads. A head turner.
Personally, I'm trying to avoid reading and looking at stuff about the homicidal maniac who rampaged earlier this week. Apart from some initial news reports which told me everything I need to know about it, I turned off.
Doc Searls however has a very thoughtful take on the dissemination of the clips which were delivered to NBC.
You can read the Doc's take here, which includes many further links.
The reason I shun such coverage is because I want to take no part in granting an attention seeking murderer exactly what he or she wants. I draw the distinction between drawing your attention to Doc Searls' comments about the ubiquity of modern media and news coverage - as opposed to the obscenity itself.
You could take a picture and send it to this website.
[ tip from the Doc ]
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