The "Baked Gloucester Scrod" at Henrietta's Table last night was equal to the best haddock that I have had in my life. It was impeccably fresh, perfectly cooked, and had a modest quantity of buttery crumbs on top. Highly recommended if, as I sometimes do, you like a very plain dish that has been made essentially as well as possible. The roasted potatoes that I got to go with it were also good.

Sure is stormy here again, after three days of lovely weather. I hope the weather on Thursday is reasonable.

For some reason, I have music from the musical "1776" stuck in my head today[1]

[1] I believe that William Daniels[2] played John Adams in the original Broadway cast
[2] You know, the guy who played Dr. Craig on St. Elsewhere... and provided the voice for KITT on Knight Rider.

Current Mood: For God Sakes, John, Sit Down!

This past Thursday I rented a Zipcar and used it to pick up friends of my mother and stepfather from the airport and take them to Gloucester. Yay, rain and heavy traffic! I had a pleasant evening otherwise though. Friday was back to Gloucester for more family visiting. Saturday was also spent in Gloucester - we had a big party. I grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for about 20 people. Got to see my dear friend Matt - who, we observed, I will soon have known for 30 years. Back home Saturday evening, didn't watch the esplanade fireworks but there were some very nice fireworks being fired from Chelsea as I was riding into the city over the Tobin Bridge.

Yesterday I spent most of the day taking the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Experienced Rider Course at Streetwise Cycle School in Hyde Park. I've taken the ERC before but this time was much better than last. Everybody in my class did well and I definitely left feeling more solid on emergency maneuvers than I have in quite some time, possibly ever. The course was exhausting and I'm still dead today. I finished off the evening yesterday with frozen yogurt with cthulhia at Berryline in Harvard Square. Alas (hi, fairnymph!), they do not have my favorite flavor of frozen yogurt - green tea - nor my favorite topping - mochi - but the plain froyo, which I had with granola, was good, with a nice lactic sour flavor and not too sweet.

Stuff in the week ahead:
- Today - birthday mob for cshiley
- Wednesday - Take Sputnik to the vet. It's been three years, he needs rabies and distemper boosters.
- Wednesday night/Thursday/Friday - Shakespeare In The Park (Twelfth Night) in NYC. I get to see katestine again, yay!
- Saturday I have a wedding to attend in central New Hampshire

I think Sunday I'll be, um, resting.

Current Mood: How exactly did I get so busy?

to my dear sweet cshiley!

This was on boingboing today. It's the Talking Heads concert video of "Life During Wartime" from "Stop Making Sense." It's awesome. You should watch it.

...but something someone said to me on irc reminded me that I meant to post about this but had not. Last night I heard Bill Moyers (who I must admit I do not like) interviewing Paul Krugman (who I must admit I also do not like) and Krugman stated that he believes the bailout of Goldman Sachs was probably not necessary. Now, I seem to recall that, probably less than a year ago, Krugman made at least one blog post the general thesis of which was "zOMG the sky is falling, bail out everyone!!!" So, which is it, Mr. Krugman, or do I misremember?

Happy Canada Day!

Massachusetts-based Zipcars now have EZ-Pass transponders. Yay!

David Rohde, a New York Times reporter, was kidnapped by the Taliban (and has since been returned). While he was in captivity, The Times conspired with Jimmy Wales to keep news of the kidnapping out of Wikipedia. What do you think about this? Discuss!

Yes, that's right, I said Nazi Zombie Battalion. Check out this trailer. Alas, so far it appears to be showing only at a single location in NYC. Hopefully it will eventually see a somewhat wider release. Links courtesy of lil_brown_bat

Current Mood: nazi zombie battalion

I recently ordered a couple of Homestar Runner T-shirts. They arrived today along with a bonus Trogdor bumper sticker... which is so going on the motorcycle. Why yes, I am a dork.

I decided to create this poll while listening to Bloodhound Gang - who, if their lyrics are any indication, are a bunch of deeply misogynistic fratboys.

Poll #1413486 Rainy Tuesday Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What is your favorite song that would cause you at least slight embarrassment if someone walked in on you while you were listening to it?

Until recently, Discovery Channel showed two back-to-back episodes of "How It's Made" starting at 9am each weekday. I enjoyed it as something to wake up to (yeah, I'm a late riser). Now they've substituted Stupid Crap (such as "A Haunting") that sucks. Bleah.

Current Mood: think I need a DVR

I have a pair of VIP tickets to the Boston Massacre vs. Denver + Cosmonaughties vs. Wicked Pissahs double-header. Starts at 4pm on Saturday at Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington. If you want to go with me, let me know :)

Last night I mentioned to brynndragon and others assembled at her house a video of Courtney Woolsey performing "Lollipop" in three-part harmony with herself. Here it is. The thing about it that I find exceptionally impressive is that... I believe the video is not lipsynced and she's not wearing headphones and therefore I think that in fact she's singing harmony with herself without having the benefit of hearing the other parts as she was recording it. Now that's difficult!

You suck. There is probably no major public transit agency in the industrialized world that is so ill-run. I have no evidence that Dan Grabauskas is a bad guy (indeed, it seems that he did a very good job when he was head of the RMV - but head of the RMV and head of the T are extremely different positions) but I also have no evidence that he knows how to run a transit agency. I suspect that the MBTA's board is packed with political cronies. I believe the T's unions are mostly obstructionist. Let me list my grievances:
- The Green Line operates more slowly now than it did back around World War II when the system was actually busier than it is now.
- The introduction of ATC[1] on the red and orange lines has made operation slower, less reliable, and more unpleasantly jerky. At the same time, it has substantially increased the rate of vehicle wear and the amount of electricity used.
- "Temporarily" cutting back the Green Line E branch from Forest Hills to Heath Street (which eventually became permanent) was a form of institutional classism because it deprived an under-served community that was unable to stick up for itself very well. I believe this move was made knowingly. Yeah, I know there are certain logistical difficulties to running surface cars on the street, but the BERy did not seem to have major problems with this (nor did the MTA/MBTA in its early days).
- In places like NYC and Chicago the attitude seems to prevail throughout the transit agencies that the service they provide is essential. Here, the attitude seems to prevail that it exists for shits and giggles and people should be grateful for the crappy service they get, lest they get none.
- When the T switched from using tokens to the current Charlie fare collection system, it was claimed that revenue would not decrease and the overall cost of fare collection would go down. It would appear, however, that there has been a massive increase in fare evasion. I believe this was readily predictable.
- Last but not least, having a major collision between green line vehicles (yesterday) because one of the operators was texting instead of keeping a sharp eye out for traffic ahead is just utterly unacceptable.

If I ran the world, here's what I'd do:
- Throw out the entire existing board. Recruit a new board of bona fide public transit advocates with no political connections. Their first job should be to replace Grabauskas and other key members of upper management with public transit professionals who have a track record of effectiveness with well-run agencies such as NYCTA.
- Negotiate some concessions with the unions along with other substantive reforms such that the system can chart a course back to solvency
- Either figure out how to make ATC work well on the red and orange lines or get rid of it and go back to wayside signals with trip arms
- Either figure out how to create a culture of safety among operating personnel (particularly on the green line) or, if that's impossible (or maybe even if it is), then institute some form of automatic protection (probably trip cocks on the vehicles and wayside signals with trip arms) on at least all underground portions of the green line plus the D branch. Do it before the state legislature or federal government forces you to do so. My greatest fear is that actually this won't happen but what will happen is we'll wind up with a 25mph (or similarly slow) absolute maximum speed limit for the whole green line.
- Do something about fare evasion. The design of the Charlie gates is terrible, there are not currently enough personnel watching the gates, and, further, they usually ignore even blatant fare evasion.
- Institute a bona fide proof of payment fare scheme for the green line and the commuter rail. Actually enforce it. Add enough assistant conductors to the commuter rail so that in general people will have to pay.

In summary, my dear MBTA, you have no pants. Get some.

No love at all,
Ben

[1] ATC is Automatic Train Control, a system of protection for trains wherein the maximum (and usually actual) speed of the train is set by a coded signal transmitted to the train. On the red and orange lines, ATC replaced a traditional system of wayside signals with trip arms and trip cocks on the trains - this system provided protection by preventing trains from passing stop signals. Ostensibly, the change to ATC was made to improve safety, but I believe that was not the real reason. The real reason, I believe, was to keep from having to maintain wayside signals. Although ATC works pretty well for BART and the Washington Metro, those systems were designed with it in mind. Here, where ATC is a retrofit, it has been something of a disaster.

Oh man, that was AWESOME. He played a three hour set and appeared just as (incredibly) energetic at the finish as at the start.

Current Mood: blown away

...because their politics mostly make my blood boil... but I haven't because once in a while they bring something awesome to my attention, such as this.

I just posted a brief summary of my experience at the Westboro Baptist Church counter-protest to b0st0n, for those who may be interested.

I'm not a member of fandom and I generally think the whole community is zealous and prone to extensive wankery (there, now I've probably offended half of my flist)... and so everything I have heard about RaceFail, as it is being called, comes second or third-hand and from reading summaries, et cetera... so really I'm not well enough informed to speak to substance here and I don't care to do the research to become well-informed (if that's even possible to do)... but... I just wanted to say the following:

I fundamentally reject the notion that I am "privileged" and therefore, on matters of race, I am required to defer to people who are "not privileged" and if I do not do so then obviously I have no pants. Okay, now I've probably offended the other half of my flist. Have a nice day.

Apparently, anywhere it wants to.