Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Memory Map – New Orleans

Originally uploaded by Patrick Houlihan

Where was the house that you lived in when you were seven?

If you know the address, you can find that house with Google maps, zoom in on the neighborhood that you remember, and download a satellite photo for yourself.

Then, upload your photo to Flickr (an account is free) and use the “Add notes” feature to draw little boxes around places you want to comment on.

If you want to see what other people have done with this, check out this Flickr search for memorymap + hometown.

Photorecipe: Schrödinger tomatoes

Originally uploaded by funadium

Some nights it’s almost too hot to think about food–except for maybe something cold yet spicy like Funadium’s latest photorecipe.

Disclosure–I blogged another Funadium photorecipe, some fusilli called “Waves and particles” and he mailed me some fun Funadium swag from Italy. That was a surprise, not something I was expecting, and I don’t crave more swag for any future blogpost. I just try to blog stuff I think blogreaders will enjoy.

Why are these chili-topped tomatoes named after Erwin Schrödinger? Read the explanation yourself, but try not to lose your appetite when you get to the part about chocolate with bruschetta!

Frank and Betsy and a bit of CMS

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

File this under W for Wow-I-never-thought-I’d-see-this.

Big article in today’s NYT on the interplay of science discoveries and wild rumors. And…blogs are a big part of the current “God-particle” kerfluffle.

“It is exciting even if you think the chances of it being true are only 0 or 10 percent,” said Tommaso Dorigo, from the University of Padua in Italy, who helped spread the D Zero rumor in June on his blog, A Quantum Diaries Survivor.

Wow, the NY Times expects its readers will know what a blog is.

I do wish, though, that science articles didn’t lean on sports metaphors so heavily. The exciting thing about the Higgs boson is the science, not the “race” to be first to see it.

1950s kitchen with wringer-washer in background

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Ronni’s bright-red time machine and my beige-y gold one whisked us last Friday into a lovely mid-century twilight zone of stage-settings from the 1940’s and 1950’s.

The remarkable thing about NH’s “Strawbery Banke” is that wandering there lets you side-slip from the many memory-objects on display there into your own private world of forgotten memories.

What a pleasure it was to wander there riffing on memories with Ronni Bennett, who has even more photos in her blog “As Time Goes By”.

Small impromptu John Lennon tributes

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

In a beautiful riff on growing up and growings older (whose title I stole for this post) David Weinberger writes today:

By December 8, 1980, nothing had gone wrong in my life. My parents were middle middle class, although growing up I thought we were wealthy. None of my desires were frustrated (well, except for prom night, but that’s a different story)…

Another great Weinbergerism on John Lennon there: “What a great blogger he would have been, so eager to be imperfect in public.”

This photo was taken when I accidentally found myself in NYC and part of a spontaneous John Lennon memorial on the 25th anniversary of his death.

To quote John Lennon (and his Quotations Page), “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

…because I’m off to a few days of no web access.

I’ll miss you, all my internet companions! Keep on blogging and Twittering and Wikipedianizing on my behalf until I get back.

xxxx to all of you guys,
Betsy

Rob at West Side Lounge, Cambridge, MA

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Because Suw’s blog is “Chocolate and Vodka“, I wanted to introduce her to Cambridge’s reputedly best bartender–Rob of the West Side Lounge, also home to Cambridge’s best chef.

(In fact Rob is most famous for his mojitos, including (his own recipe) Mexican mojito, but that’s a different story.)

Consider this blogpost just a bit of local knowledge offered up to Google and you concerning a very good place to eat and drink in Cambridge, MA–well, at least a place I like a lot, and so now does Suw!

Suw Charman in photo destined for many Flickr notes

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Suw is in Cambridge, bringing joy and also swag from ORG.

Geeks love free stickers and stuff aka swag. This photo contains many examples, including a Tucows cow we got from Joey DeVilla, Mr. AccordionGuy.

Suw Pre-event

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Or should that be, guess whuw is coming tuw Boston?

Suw Charman! The always charming Chairman of Britain’s Open Rights Group. (Does this make her an ORG-head?)

I’ll show you my wedding dress, Suw, if you’ll show me your tiaras!