In Georgia, a family member said [tropical storm] Fay's winds knocked an oak tree onto the Plains home of former President Jimmy Carter late on Saturday. One of the former president's sons, Jeff Carter, said both his father and his mother, Rosalynn Carter, were at home at the time but neither was hurt.
Enraged by the storm's attempted assault on his family, the former president proceeded to shake his fist into the heavens, roaring "You insolent bastard." The storm immediately calmed and the skies cleared providing the Carter family with warm sun and a calm breeze for the remainder of the day.
Lord sent this to me because we have this theory that Jimmy Carter can speak to whales and control the weather. There's also some evidence that Jimmy Carter was supposed to replace Ma-ti as the 5th member of the Planeteers. A scheduling conflict nixed the deal and Captain Planet was ruined.
Athlete Focus is growing pretty fast (5,476 registered action sports athletes as of this writing). With more people using the site, we noticed a gradual decrease in performance. We started talking about hardware upgrades and more advanced caching methods. Then the Yoda of code, Jim, pointed his brain-laser at a couple queries and -- viola -- site runs like a dream. Faster than ever actually. We timed it. It's wizardry like this that you just can't take for granted. Jim likes to downplay these feats by saying things like, "all you gotta do is think about it." But the truth is that he is so indispensable I don't know what we ever did without him.
Toynbee Tiles are cryptic messages cut from colorful linoleum tiles and melted into roadways. They've appeared in many major U.S. cities and several South American locations, however it appears the artist originated near Philadelphia. Most inscriptions follow a similar pattern:
TOYNBEE IDEA:
IN KUBRICK'S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER.
Paranoia + novel method of expression + bizarre message = art and intrigue. (I listed this post in the self-aware robots must be stopped category because the tiles make direct referrence to 2001 A Space Odyssey, perhaps warning us of an impending robotic doomsday)
Meg, Lord, and I enjoyed a really fantastic (if I do say so myself) wild mushroom risotto made from a mixture of store-bought oyster mushrooms and wild chrome-footed boletes (tylopilus chromapes) harvested from my front yard. To top that off, the meal was supplemented by fresh shallots and garlic from our little garden that I water every morning. Meg had the idea to add some sauteed leaks into the dish. After 20 minutes in the pan they disintegrated into thin strands that almost approximated stringy cheese -- but with a subtle oniony flavor. What a great addition.
The wild chrome-footed bolete mushrooms had a tartness that quickly dissipated into a bready (almost smoky) flavor. Maybe like a lemon-crusted pumpernickel crouton. No. Actually, more like sourdough.
I have a large stash of these mushrooms which I'm going to integrate into another meal. Any suggestions?
