You learn something new...

While writing this post, I stumbled upon the rather pleasing etymology of the phrase "red letter day."

NYTimes Eulogizes Florent

About a year ago I started a weekly ritual. On Wednesday, I buy a copy of the New York Times and read the Dining and Wine section over lunch. On other days, my normal routine is to eat hastily acquired take-out at my desk, but this one day a week I make it a point to get out of the office and eat a leisurely lunch.

Given my reading material, you might guess that I choose high-end restaurants, but that isn't the case. Sometimes I head to Boat Street Cafe, but lately I've been going to a Yummy Teriyaki in lower QA, hardly an upscale joint. There is a lot more to a good restaurant than white linens and doting service.

Which brings me to Florent. Opened by Florent Morellet over two decades ago, this fixture of the New York scene will be closing next month. The eulogy presented in The Times paints a fascinating history of a period neatly matching my adult life. Viewed through the lens of Mr. Morellet's humble restaurant the article tells the story of a neighborhood and the cultural movements that helped shape it, from the end of disco, through the early days of the the HIV-epidemic to gentrification and New Money. It's a great article, I suggest reading it over a formica counter lightly tacky from years of accumulated grease.

Bill O'Reilly Freak Out Remixes

Of course you're seen the original, and maybe you're seen the (crappy) dance remix. But have you seen the remix intercut with snarky commentary from a fictional producer, or the split screen version showing what bill saw on the teleprompter?

I need to know who I'm gonna vote against

Marc Andreessen points out this commentary on the ongoing Democratic nomination process. Fair warning: don't watch while eating or drinking.

Incredibly Soothing Game

I find this game to be incredibly soothing (you should select that you want the music on). I wish there was a new one of these every day. It totally helped me make the transition from work to home today.

Its predecessor is slightly less soothing due to lack of mellow music.

Sleepless in Seattle

Oh, I'm ever so clever with my blog titles.

Here's the deal, I almost never sleep soundly through the night. I can't remember when my sleeplessness began. I almost always go to bed at about 10:30 pm and get out of bed in the morning at 6:00 am (in the summer) or 7:00 am (in the winter). The problem is that most nights I wake up at least once (usually 2 or 3 am) or twice (1 and 4 am). When I do wake up I really wake up and can't usually get back to sleep easily. Often I resort to browsing the web for an hour or so until I can get tired enough to go back to sleep.

This all seems pretty bad to me. I have a good bed (I think). My room is dark and my neighborhood is generally quiet.

I wish I didn't keep waking up. I've searched the web for suggestions and so far nothing has really changed this trend.

Suggestions
More Suggestions
Even More Suggestions

I'm not willing to take any drugs to facilitate sleep. Humans were able to sleep for thousands of years without pills and I'm not going to break that trend.

Embarassing music purchases

I thought the music lovers might enjoy this post:

http://www.mnspeak.com/mnspeak/archive/post-5423.cfm

A small sampling:

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"I was once dared into buying TV Terror: Felching a Dead Horse. (sfw, except for the name)

I don't even know how to describe it."

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"My first single was Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting," a song that to this day I consider sublime."

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My own embarassing musical purchases? Let me see, I have a whole shelf of stuff I've been meaning to get to Cheapo's for over 10 years...

- Nirvana "Incesticide". More terrible than the name suggests.

- The Capitol Steps "76 Bad Loans". A fun show, not much fun to put on the CD player.

- Howard Jones "One to One". Finely crafted pop single from my youth ('no one is to blame') along with 10 tracks of electronic poopery

Care to name?