-Last post-

Armpitball

February 8, 2010 · 6 Comments 

Why do they call it FOOTball when the ball is rarely in contact with the foot?

From what I saw of the SuperBowl yesterday, the ball spends most of its time tucked into someone’s armpit, so why don’t they call it armpitball? Soccer, at least, has a legitimate claim to calling its sport “football,” although given the number of people kicking the poor thing they should at least have the decency to refer to it as “feetball.”

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-Latest glass-

Mighty arty

February 7, 2010 · 1 Comment 

“That is not glass,” the man said flatly, “The label’s wrong.”

Well, yeah, it IS glass–I kinda gave birth to it–but I didn’t contradict him. I was having too much fun.

His wife edged up to the pate de verre panel, until her nose nearly touched it. “No, I think it *is* glass, honey,” she said doubtfully, “I can see light through it.”

The man thwocked the piece with thumb and middle finger–I winced–and it rang satisfactorily. “I guess you’re right,” he said, and they moved on.

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-TechBiz-

The importance of timing

January 5, 2010 · 2 Comments 

So I’m doing my usual newsbrowse this morning, stop in at CNN and my eyes catch a nicely done ad.

In it, a guy smiles from an ID card photo, then pops out and skiboards off the screen. The pitch reads: Getting home from the Winter Games now feels like the bunny slope

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-Restaurants-

Chez Joly (French)

December 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

“Don’t you usually have a PRAAAAY FIX-AAAAAY?” I asked the waiter.

He looked puzzled for a minute, then asked, “Do you mean “prix fixe?” he asked, “Yes we do,” and he showed me the prix fixe menu ($20 per person for salad or soup, entree and dessert) while I blushed a bit.

OK, in most places in the US (outside New York and DC), if you ask for the “prix fixe menu,” you’ll just confuse them. “Prefix to what? Do you mean an appetizer?” they’ll ask, with a little eye roll. If you mispronounce it with long aaaaaaas, they just might get it.

Except in Chez Joly, which is the closest thing to a real French bistro I’ve seen in the great Northwest.

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-On art-

Come to the museum…

December 5, 2009 · 3 Comments 

Wanted to invite anyone in the PDX area (or anyone willing to brave the airlines and come out for a visit) to stop off and see the Oregon Glass Guild’s exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. I helped organize the show, and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The guild is also doing demos for the next five Saturday afternoons, including one on pate de verre by yours truly. Here’s the schedule:

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-Photography-

Undo-it-yourself

October 8, 2009 · 7 Comments 

Paul hesitated. “Do you really need the stands for these pieces?” he asked, “I think they’d be more effective if I shot them on the table…”

So he laid a pate de verre panel down on the sweep instead of the neat metal stand I’d brought. He adjusted the lights, climbed up on a stool to take the shot, and transformed the entire piece.

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