strut
pop-up restaurants
By taking advantage of underused kitchens, pop-ups allow young chefs, many with experience in San Francisco’s most highly regarded restaurants, to experiment without the risk of bankruptcy. And unlike underground supper clubs, they’re completely legal.
from the sacramento valley
spoiler below the fold Read more
sausage fingers
In Korea, sales of a snack sausage increase by almost 40%* in the winter as iPhone users utilize the sausage as a stylus in order to avoid removing their gloves.
*I was unable to locate a link to an English language website confirming the story but it appears to be real (I think this is a Korean news site).
via Byron at Bike Hugger
wake
She sat in her cubicle watching as we walked toward her waiving our mini-pompoms. We gathered around and her manager, reading from a notecard, listed the jobs she’d held in twenty years with the company. Twenty years summed up in a single 3 by 5.
A box and an envelope were handed to her. Inside there was a plaque and a note with the image of the CEO’s signature.
We shook her hand and offered congratulations.
In ten years she’d get a cake.
pork!
“I didn’t know that eating pork improved sexual activity,” Fernandez said in a meeting with representatives of the swine industry late Wednesday. “It is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra.”
the Google trike
The pictures were taken late last summer using the ‘Google trike’ – a three wheeled bike with a Street View camera mounted on it, suited to collecting images in places not easily accessible by car.
from the department of typos
Have succeeded in building strong partnerships with beers…
Submitted to my manager as part of my annual performance review.
Synergetic Hybrid Bicycle
The Sanyo eneloop bike was just named “Best of Innovations” at CES.
Momentum had a full review:
I love the fully integrated “feel” of this bike. Many eBikes seem hacked together, with a motor, battery and other components tacked onto a basic bike design. Sanyo’s 15 years of experience selling eBikes in Japan results in a well designed whole bike laden with features but without the clutter. Cables and wires are routed internally through the frame for a clean look. Regenerative technology gives a claimed 18 percent increase in battery life for a range of up to 40 miles. Even slight pedal pressure is enough to engage the electric assist, quickly boosting the rider to the 250 watt motor’s 15 mph top speed.
speaking of the universe
ritual desperation
Every week my dad played the lotto. It was a ritual. He’d pull into the small parking lot of the liquor store around the corner from our house and walk straight to the counter. Not much was said. Last week’s ticket would be passed across the counter and scanned while my dad put his numbers on a new ticket. Sometimes, if I was with him and had opted not to wait in the car, he would buy a scratcher and hand me a quarter. With the rough edge of the quarter I’d scratch off the flaky silver coating.
As far as I know he never won a dollar. I imagine that in that moment, as he passed the old ticket over to be scanned, he would think about the money he was about to win. My dad would imagine his new life. The one without the shitty job and the hard work putting four kids through private school required. The lottery would hand him the keys to his new life.
Eventually, he would get a new life. One day, in one of those surprising twists you knew was coming the whole time, he would leave. My mom would cry but mostly because she didn’t know what any of it meant.
By now, he’s found a new liquor store. And, while he probably doesn’t play our birth dates anymore, he dreams of a new escape, from his new problems, as he waits for the clerk to scan his weekly ticket.
levi’s gran fondo | coleman valley road…
We turned left. At first it didn’t seem that bad. I told myself everyone had made a big deal about this section because of how late in the day it came. I pretended it wasn’t going to be too bad.
Before the ride an acquaintance had told me, as he accompanied me for a training ride, that Coleman Valley road wouldn’t be the so bad because “you could see the top.” At the time I’d thought it was a silly thing to say. As the incline increased more than 16% and I looked up the road at the cyclists half way up the climb the only thought I had was that I was never going to make it.
Read more
octopus caps
Sometime after Christmas I’ll be ordering my own custom cycling cap from Octopus Caps.
wants for sale
Each painting shows one thing we want, and sells for the price of the real item. So you can buy A Slice of Pepperoni for $3.00 or Dinner at Nobu for $152.00. When the painting sells we use the money to go out and buy that thing.
via It’s Nice That (hat tip to Autumn)
‘the weirdest thing’
Dr Tandberg said: “I agree with everyone in the science community that this light was the weirdest thing. I have never seen anything like this ever.
“It may have been anything from an exploding missile whose launch went wrong – to a comet or other celestial object that for some reason has been behaving strangely.
Hat tip Andrea
The Beatles | LCD Soundsystem | The Kinks
Adam and Eve being electrocuted at the Playboy Mansion
On Thanksgiving Day we played a game called “Who? What? Where?” Each player draws three cards, a “who”, a “what”, and a “where”, and attempts to draw a picture depicting the random scene. The goal is to get the other players to correctly identify the who, what and where. The image above is the contribution of one of the younger players, a 13 year-old. After each player guessed the 13 year-old admitted she only knew what the “what” was.
Note the boy outside the mansion, playing.
Hipsters discussing Cyclocross
quote out of context
I’m sure he will get a much fairer hearing than those 13 Americans who were brutally gunned down the other day.
levi’s gran fondo | the pacific coast highway
Freewheeling down the 18% grade it didn’t take long to reach the left turn onto the Highway 1. Volunteers stopped traffic and waved us onto the two lane highway. We continued downhill, using most of the right lane to take the switchbacks. When the road turned and we rolled toward the ocean the cold wind blasted me in the face; I shivered.
There was a short, mild incline just after the decent then the road flattened and several short pace-lines formed. I had expected a severe crosswind as we road parallel to the beach and was happy to find that the wind was mostly behind us.
Every few seconds I wanted to stop to take a photo. I never did. Instead, I rode on, a little worried that if I stopped riding I’d never want to start again.
It was and easy tempo past Jenner and over the mouth of the Russian River. Just after the river we stopped at what would be our last break. Quickly, we snacked and filled our bottles and then we were back on the road.
Either the road turned or the wind shifted but almost immediately the ride was a lot less pleasant. Gusts pushed my bike and I around. Ahead there was a left turn that promised to lead us out of the wind and, maybe if we started in Jenner, I might have looked forward to escaping the brutal wind but at mile 75 I didn’t even want to think about Coleman Valley Road.
the 11/3 project
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The 11/3 Project | ||||
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king ridge revisited
On Sunday Sam and I returned to King Ridge. We brought his sister. This is what it looked like.
for lucy
Lucy was looking for a joke about handjobs and I promised her a story:
In a training class for some new hires a trainer prepared to have her classmates practice using the phone. Before she got started she wanted to make sure everybody had the proper equipment. She stood in front of the class and very calmly asked, “who needs a handjob?”
levi’s gran fondo | miles 49 – 62
We picked up our discarded bikes and I heard the words, “steep, technical descent.” It reminded me of the crash I’d had back in May, a memory that had weighed heavy on me since I’d started studying the ride profile. We rolled down the hill my hands on the hoods, fingers on the brake levers.
Before the first sharp turn a volunteer stood in the middle of the road, warning us of an up coming hazard and as we got closer I could hear he was saying, “Slow down. Rider down. Slow down. Rider down.” The cyclist was on the road, on his back, sipping water and talking to his pals. I couldn’t help but think it was an odd place to crash.
I took the turn slowly and Sam and few other riders slipped away from me down the hill. Around the next series of turns I found myself behind a slow moving couple and I had to squeeze the brakes constantly as I looked for a space to go around.
When I crossed the metal deck of the bridge at the bottom of the hill and saw the sign advising of another “difficult climb” I was relieved; my cramping hands would get a break. Read more
speaking of the devil
“It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream – a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought – a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!”
He vanished, and left me appalled; for I knew, and realized, that all he had said was true.
Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger