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Railing About Failing
It’s tepidly—tepidly—encouraging that Metro North representatives have been willing to show up in public forums this week before hordes of embittered Connecticut commuters to “listen” to what its ridership has to “say.” Tepid, because the effort’s entirely pro forma, since anyone with a cellphone and Twitter (do people at Metro North know about these technologies?) could…
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Littered with Beauty: a Postscript
I have to say that I was so bothered by the contrail of crap that I saw along Long Lots and Hulls Farm Road yesterday (previous post) that I woke up with an itch to do something about it. There’s something to be said for taking pictures of trash: by seeing it and then documenting…
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Littered with Beauty
Since the Arctic Vortex headed back up to Tuktoyaktuk for refueling this weekend, I decided to skip the gym and head outside for some exercise in the fresh, wet air. I didn’t exactly go for a walk, and it wasn’t quite a jog, either. It was more of a “wog,” just fast enough to break a…
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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…
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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…
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Burning Bushes, Burying Hills
It’s getting to be mid-November, and there are not many riding days left. The light’s getting sideways and our copper beech is already almost bare, decimated by clouds of starlings. They seem to exfoliate the mighty tree in just one or two seatings, dining noisily and creating a beech-nut hail that litters the ground below,…
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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…
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The Apple Store
Last Friday, I managed to rejigger my work schedule, skip the scooter/train/subway/CitiBike/walk that is my daily adventure-commute, and pay a much-anticipated visit to the Apple Store (via motorbike, naturally). I’ve had a hankering for some juicy new technology this fall, and wanted to check out some of the current crop of Apple offerings…especially the new…
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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…
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Lime Rock Historics
Last Sunday was a swampy, crappy day, with skies like wet paper towel…. The ride getting up here was somewhere between uninspired, and completely mired… There was an annoyingly long line at the entrance gate… But finally, the bridge… And I’m in. Welcome to Lime Rock Park in beautiful Lakeville, Connecticut. Tucked way up in the northwestern-most…
Longitude & Gratitude 