Category: Observations

  • 2015: The Year in Rear View

    2015: The Year in Rear View

    ‘Tis the season of the 5″x7″ personalized state-of-the-union address. Rejoice! Unless you happen to have a mild Grinch-streak and unlimited-space motoblog, in which case you’re rejoicing at the opportunity to dissect the holiday card phenomenon while you simultaneously indulge in it. (I may be a hypocrite, but at least I’m self-aware and honest). So here’s the thing. Every December, our…

  • Blue Friday

    Blue Friday

    It’s the day after Thanksgiving. And if, like me, you hosted yesterday’s ritual food orgy, you’re waking up to a one-third filled sink, a two-thirds reassembled kitchen, and a three-thirds over-extended duodenum. The remains of your turkey carcass probably looks like a giant aluminum foil ball, jammed into the fridge and balancing on top of yogurts, barbecue sauce…

  • American as Apple Chai

    American as Apple Chai

    Well, it’s Thanksgivukkah eve, and I have to say it is kind of weird standing in the kitchen up to our ears in butternut squash, shallots, Libby’s canned pumpkin, cornmeal, sweet Italian sausage, and Knorr’sclassic brown gravy mix (we’re hosting tomorrow), and simultaneously having the kids pester us to light candles so we can hand…

  • Smart Thrones

    Smart Thrones

    Given that this is the age of big data, geotracking, and location-based services, I wonder what The Cloud might tell us about the confluence of human biological needs and mobile behavior. Specifically, what do people actually do with their smartphones when they’re doing their business? I don’t mean this as a tasteless scatological jest. And…

  • Deer Poof

    Deer Poof

    If there was a mammals awards show on, say, Animal Planet, maybe something called “The Mammies,” and I was laying down odds for who’d win for Most Fecund Species, I think the White-tail Deer of New England would have the category locked up, hoofs down. Forget about rabbits. They’re reproductive amateurs by comparison. Have you ever…

  • Like That, Fall

    Like That, Fall

    I’m not one of those folks who’s in a mad rush to be done with summer. Labor Day barbecues feel kind of prematurely funereal to me, like you’re rushing the patient, folding up and stowing aluminum beach chairs while a loved one lies there, still eager to chat. Even in September here in southern New…

  • Helmet Full of Honeysuckle

    Helmet Full of Honeysuckle

    I had an intoxicating scoot ride home from my train station last night (the safe and legal kind), and just had to share. It was a stunner of an evening—puffy clouds, sharp, angled light–and the New England air was sweet with summersmells. Sweet cut grass…sweet lilac…and sweetest of all… Honeysuckle. The smell of the stuff…