Category: Consuming

I had some of the A-Mano Primitivo when I was in SF, at an amazing little restaurant called Osteria Del Forno, in North Beach, but I didn’t know its origins. Then, just yesterday, I read in The Wine Bible an odd fact that the article also notes: the Primitivo grape is genetically identical to California Zinfandel. I haven’t drunk much of that because they tend to be just a little more than I want to pay. Now, Primitivo wines aren’t the same (the NYT helpfully points out) as Zinfandel wines just because they’re practically clones: they’re still raised differently. Nonetheless, they’re worth drinking side-by-side if you’re the type to do that, and it’s worth considering one when you’re thinking of the other.

Petra’s father believes that there is no such thing as a good American wine, at least partially because his experience of the US consisted of Richmond, VA during the 1970s. I plan to convince him otherwise, if he’s ever willing to enter the country again after the trauma of living in Richmond. This determination is probably a proxy for the fact that I still resent my ex-girlfriend’s mother and never managed to convince her that software was a legitimate business.

jfleck points me to yet another article declaring the end of the party: SFGate: “Best days for the real estate market are over, says expert”.

In the past I have complained that the 21st century does not seem sufficiently futuristic. I take that back. I now own not only a robot vacuum but a robot litter box for what I will now have to admit are my spoiled, substitute-for-reproduction furkids.

I feel bad for people with a lot of high-interest-rate debt but dammit, I saw this one coming.

The NYT has finally noticed Provigil, the miracle anti-sleeping drug from Cephalon. It’s a pretty good article–covers the business the drug-maker is in, but more importantly the way that the drug probably works, and how it might or might not affect society. It’s coming into vogue as an off-label and cosmetic psychopharm product, people are beginning to figure out how it works, etc. The thing I don’t get is this: they say a lot about how important sleep is, but they don’t say how Provigil affects the quality of wakefulness you get when you’re taking it, and they don’t say whether anyone’s studying the effects of abuse, which is what I really want to know about, because there just aren’t enough hours in the day, you know?

To go with What Not to Wear we should have What Not to Build (Squat, square, monochromatic buildings that take up the whole lot! New construction that emulates the worst of old-fashioned triple-deckers!) and What Not to Read (honey, that mass-market paperback does nothing for your ass).

I had a bottle of wine last night called Solaris. Now, of course, when you search for “Solaris Wine” you end up with a nice little page of information about running WINE on Solaris. That’s not terribly surprising. I was amused to find that if you use the Sun search tool, you’ll end up with the actual beverage information in 9th place.

The wine itself was not at all like the operating system. The operating system is complex, expensive, requires fancy hardware, and tends to be a sort of indigo-purple color. The beverage was yellow-green, citrusy, and inexpensive, and it required only a screwpull– I don’t think it would be unreasonable to drink it from tumblers, although swilling it straight from the bottle would be a little much.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, at least, not in a market like this.

This weekend I met a guy as involved in motorcycles as I am. Which is to say, when he has a free moment, he browses Craigslist and EBay Motors to drool over the listings. He doesn’t have a motorcycle license, and isn’t going to buy one any time soon. I have a perfectly serviceable scooter, and nowhere to store a larger bike, but dammit, I like looking at them fancy new bikes. In fact, I like looking at the new ones better than I would like having one. I know if I had one I’d grow tired of it, but the longing is sweet.

His wife grew tired of the motorcycle talk, but later admitted to similarly compulsive, aimless browsing on PetFinder. They have nowhere to put a dog, no time for walking a dog, but dammit, she loves looking at new puppies up for adoption. They just bought a house, but they also still look at real estate listings. And so do I, even though I don’t have the time, money, or inclination to buy a home right now.

I guess it’s sort of like looking at pretty girls go by even though I’m strictly on the one-to-one– it’s pretty much just pleasant and harmless. But in the same way, it annoys and disturbs me. You don’t really want that, you know it’s foolish and impractical and she’s probably a horrible person with bad gas mileage and much higher insurance premiums, what with that huge, shiny engine and those long legs, and who’s got eighty grand for a down payment these days anyway? Shouldn’t I be doing something better with my time than aspirational window-shopping? When did I become this bourgeois freak? I could be changing the world, creating art, taking a nap, picking lint out of my navel, any of a million more productive and useful things. Instead I’m shopping for things I don’t want.

I got a great note from someone at the Blackstone Valley Housing Development Corporation in Woonsocket, RI:

Hooray on your latest post and, hopefully, soon-to-be-published letter to the globe. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1924 ruling in “Euclid v. Amber Reality” zoning has been used to inhibit, prohibit, or simply malign multi-family housing- affordable or otherwise- whatever the shape or density. Old habits die hard.
I write to you from Rhode Island where our affordable housing crisis is exacerbated by Metro Boston’s as more and more Massachusetts workers flee south to find a house they can afford (on Boston-area salaries) and, in the process, drive Northern RI’s housing prices sky-high.

People need to realize that density works, it’s not a new or inherently ugly concept (Beacon Hill? Old Town Alexandria?), and with the right application of impact fees, dense development needn’t unduly burden the community in question.

Keep up the fight in Boston. Rhode Islanders are depending upon it!

He also attached a letter he’s sent to various people with general suggestions for improving zoning in the Providence metro area, and I think they can be useful in general. See below…
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