Boston By Foot Tour of the Month: Historic Roxbury

For the penultimate Boston By Foot Tour of the Month of the 2007 season, and my last as co-chair, we visited Historic Roxbury. This is my favorite tour of all, because it’s full of surprises.

Photos from Boston By Foot Tour of the Month - Historic Roxbury

Roxbury was once an expansive city in it’s [...]

Agony of Defeat

Not a good week for spectator sports. Yesterday morning, the United States national team was crushed by Brazil 0-4 in the semifinal of the Women’s World Cup. Quite an upset in some senses, but Marta is an amazing player and Brazil really deserved their win. One of the things I’ve like about [...]

Beer is good for memory…and other science news

As someone who is far too forgetful and loves to drink beer, the news from Scientific American that beer consumption is good for recall is a wonderful two-fer. Of course the whole story is not as good as it sounds, but it’s worth reading:

Don’t Forget: Drink a Beer-Or Two-Daily!
Study in rats suggests long-term, moderate [...]

Wenceslaus

Like a lot of saints, I know Wenceslaus from just scraps of information in popular culture. In this case, a Christmas carol that was one of my favorites growing up. It tells a good story of a man of wealth and privilege providing a feast for a poor peasant. It’s a good [...]

Book Review: King of the Vagabonds by Neal Stephenson

King of the Vagabonds is the second book of the Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle and the second book in the first volume Quicksilver (2003) (see previous review).  This book is very different from it predecessor.  In fact it has an entirely different cast of characters.  Gottfried Leibniz made a cameo in book 1 appears in [...]

Come Back to Jamaica Plain

Our new urban home! *

Thanks to the friendly, efficient and strong crew from Isaac’s Relocation, Susan and I are now officially citizens of Jamaica Plain in the city of Boston, MA!

Apart from owning property instead of paying rent, our new home has considerable advantages.

First is location, location, location! Within [...]

So Long Somerville

 
Today is my last day as a citizen of the city of Somerville where “Municipal freedom gives national strength.” While in many ways I’m moving on to a brighter future, leaving Somerville is bittersweet. I’ve lived here just four days short of nine years, the longest period of time I have ever lived [...]

Book Review: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Jesuits … In … Spaaaaaaaaaaace!!! That’s the basic plot of the science fiction novel The Sparrow (1996) by Mary Doria Russell.
The novel proposes a future in which the exploration of new worlds, much like the age of discovery in the 1500’s & 1600’s, is led by a vanguard of missionaries. While [...]

Book Review: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

I’ve begun reading The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.  In quote I found on Wikipedia, Stephenson describes the Baroque Cycle thusly:
“Why Baroque? Because it is set in the Baroque, and it is baroque. Why Cycle? Because I am trying to avoid the T-word (”trilogy”). In my mind this work is something like 7 or 8 [...]

Friday Sillies: Simulacraceae

Simulacraceae
I heard about this project on the Scientific American podcast “Science Talk“.  It is no less than exhaustive, six-year project in the taxonomy of artificial plants.  Be warned, the Ethnobotany Journal article (pdf) contains requires knowledge of Pig Latin.  The publication date is interesting as well.