Romance, with everything on it

Sandra and I went out to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day. The first place we went was full. (Nothing like getting honked at in the parking lot by a Mercedes who was in a hurry to find out that there were no parking spaces.) We drove around a bit and found ourselves at Coney Island Hot Dogs. The special hot dogs are a great comfort food. A kid of seven or eight had great fun playing "Who Let The Dogs Out?" on the jukebox. We read the graffiti on the sides of the booth and imagined all of the people who have come through there over those many years. It was a fine night out.

Storms on the western track

Our biggest snowstorms typically take a route right over the Cape Cod Canal, keeping us on the cold side of the vortex. Today's storm ran to the west of us. We started as snow, as much as a half a foot, before the warm air came in from the southeast, changing the precipitation to freezing rain and sleet, and, finally, to heavy rain. The temperature crawled slowly upward from 20 to about 34-35, giving us a cold, dense rain.

The wet snow is tough to move whether by shovel or snow-blower. The machine packs the heavy slush into the chute, often blocking the output. (As a side note, we spent several hundred dollars getting the snow blower repaired after a storm in December. Within 10 minutes, the machine was tilting to the side because of a flat tire. We'll see about getting solid rubber tires.)

So, after an hour of shoveling, it was wonderful to get back inside and into dry clothes. Once again, I'm deeply grateful that I don't have to work outside.

On this day in 1990, we had a mild day:























Happy 18th Birthday, Michael Francis.

This week's Roaster Boy's playlist

• Don Robichaud - Wooden Ships ( Tuesday, Feb 12 at 05:53 PM )

  RIP DER

• Abdullah Ibrahim - Siya Hamba Namhlanje (We Are Leaving Today) ( Monday, Feb 11 at 03:23 PM )

  A plaintive song about the forced relocations during the apartheid years in South Africa.

• YouTube - God's Song (Randy Newman) - The Truth ( Friday, Feb 08 at 10:46 PM )

  "Lord, if you won't take care us, would you please, please let us be." YouTube - God's Song (Randy Newman) - The Truth

• MilkandCookies - Marvin Gaye: Inner City Blues (Hughes Brothers Video) ( Friday, Feb 08 at 10:24 PM )

  Makes me wanna holler: MilkandCookies - Marvin Gaye: Inner City Blues (Hughes Brothers Video)

• YouTube - Willie Nelson - Amazing Grace ( Thursday, Feb 07 at 07:11 PM )

  There are lots and lots of versions of this song, versions with great and strong voices , the heart-breaking renditions of pipers at funerals , and many others. What I like about Willie Nelson's versions is that they're sung by someone who is truly grateful to be redeemed from sin. The…

• YouTube - Jimi Hendrix - Royal Albert Hall 1969 Causes Near Riot ( Wednesday, Feb 06 at 10:23 PM )

  YouTube - Jimi Hendrix - Royal Albert Hall 1969 Causes Near Riot via Milk and Cookies

• YouTube - Queen and David Bowie - Under Pressure ( Wednesday, Feb 06 at 05:35 PM )

  Not only is this is a great song , it shows off how well David Bowie does duets. He finds the right balance whether working with a voice as strong as Freddie Mercury's or an ego the size of Mick Jagger's or as rich a baritone as Bing Crosby's .

• Cyndi Lauper - Money Changes Everything ( Wednesday, Feb 06 at 03:02 PM )

  There ought to be a way for us to reward a singular achievement properly, such that the artist/creator can live well and satisfied and we don't have to endure their labored attempts to equal or exceed their nearly perfect first outings. For example, Cyndi Lauper should never have to make another…

• YouTube - Marianne Faithfull, Broken English ( Tuesday, Feb 05 at 08:28 PM )

  YouTube - Marianne Faithfull, Broken English And while you're at it, on this election day, here's her version of John Lennon's Working Class Hero

This week's miscellaneous links

• Coffee: Coffee-Tasting Robot Makes Our Tongues Obsolete ( Tuesday, Feb 12 at 05:54 AM )

• Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop - TIME ( Monday, Feb 11 at 07:38 PM )

  Heaven ain't there yet and, when it's there, it'll be here.

• Artificial sweetener tied to weight gain ( Monday, Feb 11 at 05:30 PM )

  The researchers said sweet foods may prompt the body to get ready to take in a lot of calories, but when sweetness in the form of artificial sweeteners is not followed by a large amount of calories, the body gets confused, which may lead to eating more or

• How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free - New York Times ( Monday, Feb 11 at 04:58 PM )

  “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

• English language succumbs to Symbiotic Ephemeralization | The Register ( Friday, Feb 08 at 09:18 PM )

  "Symbiotic Ephemeralization, in the context of this submission, refers to a series of autonomous communities-of-practice that though nodal collaboration channels produce a unique ephemeralization hypercycle."

What we come to expect from the air

My mother liked the idea of the third place - a gathering place that's neither home nor work. With the nerdification of society, Internet connectivity becomes part of these settings. One thing that I don't think Starbuck's understands (besides not knowing how to serve coffee that isn't burnt) is that free wi-fi brings people to stay. The Panera Bread chain gets it. They offer free wi-fi. They understand that free wi-fi is like free air-conditioning, a part of the business that people come to expect.

I needed to spend an hour someplace today. I'm in Marlborough and had the choice between Starbuck's and Panera Bread. I chose PB because I could get free wi-fi. Simple as that.

[Update 2/11/09: Starbuck's is replacing T-Mobile with AT&T for their hotspot service. AT&T says that, beginning this spring, anyone who uses a Starbucks Card (a prepaid gift card, like one you would give to a friend) will be able to get up to two hours of free WiFi service per day at any Starbucks location with WiFi service.

Between a rock and another rock

There's a strong and biting northwest wind, piling up snow drifts that are inches deep across the path to the wood pile. The temperature has sky-rocketed to 16. This is the winter weather that we missed in January. There's talk of heavy snow tomorrow night.

All of which makes me glad that I don't have to work outside, particularly in granite quarries. This morning's Boston Globe included an article about the difficult times for the Vermont quarries. Imports, it seems, are taking away their markets. Amazing. It's cheap to get granite from China, shipping it halfway around the world, than it is to get locally-mined stone.

Both of my grandfathers worked the New England granite quarries during their early years after arriving from Finland. My mother's father worked in the quarries south of Rutland VT before setting up a dairy farm in Jaffrey NH. My father's father worked in Milford NH, later to move to Gardner to work as cabinet maker in that city's furniture factories.

I guess it turned out that keeping the immigrants at home and buying stuff from across the ponds is much cheaper than having the immigrants come here to do the work. And cheap is what we want.