Jan

14

Book ‘Em: Going Bananas.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment

“On a traffic light yellow means yield, and green means go. On a banana, it’s just the opposite, yellow means go ahead, green means stop, and red means, where’d you get that banana?”-Mitch Hedburg
 The subtitle of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel may seem like hyperbole, a cheap [...]

Jan

11

The Longest Minute.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment

“If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer.”-Sir Clement Freud
On December 22nd, 2007, the BBC Radio 4 quiz show Just A Minute officially turned forty, making it one of BBC Radio’s longest running shows and just a little younger than Radio 4 itself, which [...]

Jan

10

I Like-A Do The ChaCha.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 10, 2008 | 1 Comment

When I read in the Chicago Tribune that a new search engine called ChaCha was now available, my first thought was, “Does the world really need another search engine?” I’m still not sure of the answer that question, especially after reading in SearchTank about one user’s less than stellar experience. ChaCha offers the new feature [...]

Jan

9

Nor Iron Bars A Cage.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 9, 2008 | 5 Comments

“What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
–William Blake
The news saying “if it bleeds it leads” always takes on an even more powerful meaning when a person is savagely and dramatically attacked by an animal, whether it’s in the wild or, in the case of the Christmas Day attacks at the San Francisco Zoo, [...]

Jan

7

Book ‘Em: What The Grown-Ups Don’t Know…

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 7, 2008 | 5 Comments

Don’t Tell The Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children’s Literature by Alison Lurie explores the world of children’s literature, covering authors as diverse as Frances Hodgson Burnett and Richard Adams. Admittedly it’s no great revelation that there’s a distinctly subversive, or at least anti-adult, streak to works such as Peter Pan, although what is [...]

Jan

4

Going Local.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 4, 2008 | 1 Comment

I’ve been known to drive friends, my wife, and even my parents crazy when visiting a different state or city because I insist on doing as much as possible that’s local. My father, at least, has a similar preference, and has even occasionally said that he won’t eat at any restaurant that has more than [...]

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