Very little snow has fallen in Central Maine since December, but some of it has stuck around in spots thanks to the cold temperatures. On Sunday, we took a crunchy snowshoe walk in the woods with our friend John through his family's 85 acres east of Dexter. Lovely and quiet. We followed an ice-covered stream to a frozen cascade, opaque, frothy blue-green ice like blobs of tinted whipped cream. Deer had left scat here and there, but we did not see the animals themselves. Deer population is way down in Maine this year.
The chickadees were everywhere, especially at the feeder in front of the house. Four red squirrels feasted on the seeds fallen to the ground beneath the feeder, poking in and out of the burrows they had dug in the snowbank.
Met John's nephew and chatted awhile. Lovely winter morning.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Polish Fast Food - Zaps
A Zap is a cheap and delicious open-faced sandwich served at Zaps restaurant on Brighton Avenue in Allston. The slim, 16-inch loaf is sliced lengthwise, topped with cheese, mushrooms, and onions and toasted. The basic Zap costs $3.99, and you can add keilbasa, ham, olives, corn, and other goodies for another dollar or two.
The bread is soft inside, crisp on the outside, and the melted cheese is just gooey enough to be divine.
Zaps, sodas, and chips are all the restaurant serves, but what else do you need?
The young owner of Zaps is from Poland, where the sandwich originated. He faces a challenge because the restaurant is tucked in behind another business, and only the door is visible from the street.
I hope the place catches on. It's getting a lot of buzz with the shop owners and the BU crowd. I love seeing someone walking down the street with a foil-wrapped, torpedo-shaped package under the arm.
The bread is soft inside, crisp on the outside, and the melted cheese is just gooey enough to be divine.
Zaps, sodas, and chips are all the restaurant serves, but what else do you need?
The young owner of Zaps is from Poland, where the sandwich originated. He faces a challenge because the restaurant is tucked in behind another business, and only the door is visible from the street.
I hope the place catches on. It's getting a lot of buzz with the shop owners and the BU crowd. I love seeing someone walking down the street with a foil-wrapped, torpedo-shaped package under the arm.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
20 years of the Internet
The Internet is 20 years old, and I can barely remember the world without it.
Our first Mac (1997-ish) came with a super-fast modem (1400bps). We signed up for AOL, plugged it in and stared at each other in amazement at the staticky "connected" sound. We finally cancelled AOL after we got DSL at the cabin, and the customer service woman seemed genuinely sad. We'd had the account for 13 years.
In my web development class, we looked at the evolution of the White House web site from 1996 to 2009. It started out as a plain gray window with black type and a few blue, underlined hyperlinks. The following year, it featured a small color photo of the White House, and then gradually became more colorful and full of information. Today the first page of the site contains slide shows, video clips, and an extensive index to rich content.
While the site reveals how the web has changed, the class itself is an astonishing example of how the Internet has changed the world.
For one thing, I couldn't make it to class that night, so I watched it online a few days later. I ordered the textbooks online using a gift card, but I got an email notice that shipment would be delayed. No problem. I discovered that I could read the books for free on Pro Quest with my Harvard ID.
It's possible that I could complete a Harvard course entirely on my laptop without ever leaving the loveseat in my living room. And I don't have a souped-up laptop. It's 6 years old and a little clunky.
But the course is just the beginning.
Spencer was looking online at a house for sale in Vermont and went to Google maps to take an eye-level stroll down the street to the town center, past the newspaper office and the Yummy Wok restaurant.
Want a pair of golf knickers? Google the phrase to find GolfKnickers.com, where you can get knickers in dozens of colors and fabrics, plus coordinating argyle socks and sweaters.
Can't remember who played the father in the first Flipper movie? Ask a search engine, and you'll have the answer in three seconds.
I know I'm stating the obvious. For more than half the people on the planet, life without the Internet never was. For the rest of us, it's becoming a distant memory, but there was a time when you couldn't check the weather in Athens, Greece, and the only way you could find something like knickers was to visit several specialty shops or have them made.
And if you didn't actually go to class, you were out of luck.
Our first Mac (1997-ish) came with a super-fast modem (1400bps). We signed up for AOL, plugged it in and stared at each other in amazement at the staticky "connected" sound. We finally cancelled AOL after we got DSL at the cabin, and the customer service woman seemed genuinely sad. We'd had the account for 13 years.
In my web development class, we looked at the evolution of the White House web site from 1996 to 2009. It started out as a plain gray window with black type and a few blue, underlined hyperlinks. The following year, it featured a small color photo of the White House, and then gradually became more colorful and full of information. Today the first page of the site contains slide shows, video clips, and an extensive index to rich content.
While the site reveals how the web has changed, the class itself is an astonishing example of how the Internet has changed the world.
For one thing, I couldn't make it to class that night, so I watched it online a few days later. I ordered the textbooks online using a gift card, but I got an email notice that shipment would be delayed. No problem. I discovered that I could read the books for free on Pro Quest with my Harvard ID.
It's possible that I could complete a Harvard course entirely on my laptop without ever leaving the loveseat in my living room. And I don't have a souped-up laptop. It's 6 years old and a little clunky.
But the course is just the beginning.
Spencer was looking online at a house for sale in Vermont and went to Google maps to take an eye-level stroll down the street to the town center, past the newspaper office and the Yummy Wok restaurant.
Want a pair of golf knickers? Google the phrase to find GolfKnickers.com, where you can get knickers in dozens of colors and fabrics, plus coordinating argyle socks and sweaters.
Can't remember who played the father in the first Flipper movie? Ask a search engine, and you'll have the answer in three seconds.
I know I'm stating the obvious. For more than half the people on the planet, life without the Internet never was. For the rest of us, it's becoming a distant memory, but there was a time when you couldn't check the weather in Athens, Greece, and the only way you could find something like knickers was to visit several specialty shops or have them made.
And if you didn't actually go to class, you were out of luck.
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