Did you save your clothes from 1990? Because if you did, you can wear them again and be fashionable!

What is on sale at your local Urban Outfitters? Sperry Top Siders! For those urban hipster yacht owners.

But nothing says 1990 like Hypercolor t-shirts, and now American Apparel is selling them again to satisfy your so bad its good fashion trend nostalgia.
http://store.americanapparel.net/rsa6407tc.html#i

Now if someone started mass marketing gangsta Looney Tunes character apparel, I might just be convinced I'm actually in 6th grade again. Hopefully no one's going to make me wear braces too.

http://bio-rad.cnpg.com/lsca/videos/ScientistsForBetterPCR/

OMG hilarious!

So I thought I'd do this again this year. Happy Holidays All!

Favorite Books I read in 2007:
The Echo Maker - Richard Powers
The Foreskin's Lament - Shalom Auslander
Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones
Darkmans - Nicola Barker
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky
Best Non-required Reading of 2006 - particularly pieces by Julia Sweeney, Kurt Vonnegut, and David Foster Wallace as well as the list of Chuck Norrisisms.

Favorite Movies I Saw in 2007:
Sweeney Todd
No Country for Old Men
Simpsons Movie
Paris Je T'aime
The Bourne Ultimatum
The History Boys
Hot Fuzz!!!
Pan's Labyrinth
Sherrybaby

Favorite TV Moments of 2007
Battlestar Galactica - Bamber Towel Scene (ok, so this aired before 2007, but it was first etched into my everlasting fantasies in 2007)
Heroes - Every Shirtless Milo Ventimiglia scene
Heroes - "Stings Like a Bitch Doesn't it" - Bennett to Elle
Ugly Betty - Betty White as a vindictive bitch and Judith Light clobbering Vanessa Williams.
Project Runway - Heidi's disgust for David Beckham
Weeds - "Thug means never having to say you're sorry."
Amazing Race - The current season is an excellent return to form.
Pushing Daisies - I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!!! - one gem of many -> "Kick Pooh Kick!"
Friday Night Lights - Connie Britton is amazing. Also, Pantherama. I think that concludes the several moments that involve hot shirtless guys.

Favorite Albums I First Heard and Listened to Repeatedly in 2007
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Spring Awakening Sdtk
Once Soundtrack
Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall - Rufus Wainwright

Favorite Radio Program Moments I First Heard in 2007
This American Life - #328 What I Learned From TV
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - 2/11/07
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - the one where they discuss Viagra as a cure for jetlag in hamsters

My Year in Trips
January - Visited my Grandmother with Mom and Rachael, Coconut Creek, FL
February - AAAS Meeting, San Francisco, CA
August - ESEB Congress, Uppsala, Sweden
- Amy and Chris' Wedding, Bay Area, CA
November - Home for Thanksgiving and 10th High School Reunion, Warwick, RI
December - Compositae Genome Project Meeting, Davis, CA
- MORPH Minicourse on Conceptual Issues in Plant Evo-Devo, Boulder, CO

Dear Sarah Bernhardt,

How's death? I hope it's treating you well, because the cookie that is your namesake treated me well recently. I'm sure you know that the Danes named a fabulous cookie after your fabulous self, but this was news to me. And I had to travel to a bakery on the remote island of Uto in the Baltic Sea to find out.

One bite and I was hooked. I'll have to learn to make them now. But making such a smooth soft marshmellowy macaroon crisp sugar cookie, topping it with half inch layer of smooth chocolate ganache, and sealing it with a brittle outer layer that satisfyingly crackles like the coating of the ice cream bar I bought from the lunchlady in elemenary school...that just may be beyond my abilities. I mean, the recipe I found involves a pastry bag and lots and lots of chilling and gold leaf, for goodness sake. According to the interwebs, there's a bakery that makes them in Minneapolis, so I may just have to wait till I go to a conference there next summer...but the agony!

But I shouldn't complain, you can't eat them anymore. Or can you? Let me know.

If you've become the patron saint of baked goods in the afterlife...I'm sure Napoleon was easily bumped off as you already had the nickname "The Divine Sarah" in life...kudos. I'd build you a shrine, but it would have to be edible, and I can't be trusted. So I'll just toast you at brunch from now on.

Your adoring fan,
Ben

Next time I'm going on a summer trip to Europe...whenever that may be...and I ask you what I forgot to pack, this is what you should reply:

1) Passport
2) Plug adapter
3) MANPRIS

I remembered one and two, but forgot number 3. Yes, I own manpris. I have a pair bought on a ill-conceived whim at the San Francisco H and M last April because I thought I looked good in them. Indeed, I do look good in them. However, I have worn them out a total of ONCE in Bloomington, because, well, manpris are not in style here and I was mercilessly taunted.

But in Europe....they're all about the manpris! Even the straights! And so I spent my trip cursing my lack of foresight. I almost bought a pair at Topman because they were on sale, but I was not to be fooled twice. Thus my lonely, unloved pair of manpris breathes stale closet air evermore.

So i got back from Sweden last Sunday. And then I was in btown for several days while my sister visited. And then I went to San Francisco for the weekend to see Amy and Chris tie the knot. But now I'm back and blogging. I'll get to writing about most of this period eventually I suppose, but I think for now, I'll just post random snippets.

For instance, on my fifth day in Sweden, I had a couple of hours to kill in the morning in Stockholm before grabbing the train to Uppsala for my conference. I used those hours to visit the Stadshuset, Stockholm city hall. It's a crazy building with lots to tell about it. However, I'll just relate one aspect. There's one circular room lined with tapestries called the marraige room where civil marraige ceremonies are held. You can sign up for two service formats. The first is only two minutes long. But if that's too long for you, the other format is 30 seconds long! I'm not sure how one can get married with such a short ceremony, but in my fantasy world, I imagine it goes something like this:

Officiant: You two want to get hitched?
Couple: Yup.
Officiant: Everyone see and hear that? Everybody cool?
Witnesses: Yup.
Officiant: Then by the power of Thor, I HAVE THE POOOOWWEEERRRRR!....to pronounce you hitched. You have three seconds to kiss...two...one...NEXT!

Since I last wrote you, I spent several hours awake in the middle of the night because my body has been resisting the 6 hour time difference. However, during that time, a drunk Brazilian who has been living in Dublin for 6 years (and has an Irish accent though he denies it) but spent his senior year of high school outside Muncie tried to bum a cigarette off me. For real, that's not code for something dirty.

After a bit more sleep, I made my way to the part of the city known as Djurgarden. The island is essentially a giant park, complete with several museums, a huge historical park with buildings towed in from all over the country and people dressed up in period costume and a small zoo, and an amusement park for kids. I first visited the Vasamuseum where a gigantic warship from the 1600s is on display. It was lifted from the depths of one of the rivers around Stockholm where it capsized due to insufficient ballast on its maiden voyage.

Next, I went to Skansen, the historical park. There were some really cool old buildings, seemlessly placed into the new landscape. Old farms, two old mills along a small river, shops and craftsworks in a town center. Plus, a zoo with reindeer and elk and bears (number one threat!).

The most memorable experience of the day was lunch though. Both guidebooks and my sister's Swedish med school friends recommended I go to Rosie's Tralgard in the heart of the park. To get there, you have to walk up a gravel path for a while till you come out of the woods at a pasture dotted with vegetable gardens, an apple orchard, and an orangerie. Leaving the path to walk through a playground and the orchard, you reach this out of the way set of greenhouses and trellises which houses a gourmet cafe that patronized by hundreds of Swedes dining amongst the flowers. I had a lamb burger over bulgur wheat and chickpeas followed by a slice of an apple cake. It was all delicious, and with the sun, the breeze and the setting, a really delightfully unparalled meal.

After the lunch, I made my way back to the hostel where I relaxed for a little while before striking out on the town shopping. I bought what Adrienne would call a typical Ben sweater at H & M. I also bought some underwear which I have later discovered is problematic...no fly! I confused as to how Swedish men pee with their pants up. I mean, ALL the jeans in the stores are button fly. No zippers to be found. And then, the underwear has no utility gap...unless they've got a surreptitious tube down their leg, it's pretty difficult. And yet, they seem to have no problems in the mens room.

For dinner, I went to Chokoladkoppen, a pretty well known cafe on the church square in the old town. There, same place I saw the mimes, were people dressed in period costume fencing. I had my meal of pie: a slice of salmon and spinach quiche followed by a fantastic slice of blueberry pie covered in a healthy ladle of cream.

After dinner, I watched some of a culture fest concert by an Egyptian funk band on another square by the water before heading back to bed. It was hard to sleep with one of the people in my 6-bed dorm having sex for a long period of the night. Squeaky metal bunkbeds. I guess I should be thankful I wasn't sleeping above them but on another bunkbed.

Thankfully, my next night was spent not in a hostel, but I'll get to that in another post.

I still don't know how to say goodbye in Swedish, so I'm going to use the word for exit.

Utgang,
Ben

I made it to Sweden. I'm here for the European Society for Evolution Biologists annual meeting, but I'm tacking on several days of personal travel first.

Minor airplane issues. In Indy, boarding happened on time. But as soon as everyone was in, air traffic control lay down a blanket delay due to wind in Newark. So then it was off the plane and back on, and fortunately once we did get to Newark, I was able to power walk across the terminal fast enough to make final call for my flight to Stockholm. Not stopping to pee...VERY good choice.

The US delays were a stark contrast to the <10 minutes it took to get through passport control, pick up my bags, and get on a bus at the Stockholm airport. Shockingly swift these Swedes. Or perhaps we are just shockingly slow.

I spent the morning wandering around Stockholm, trying to stave off the jet lag. Turns out there are two major festivals happening this weekend. One is for youth and features lots of corporate-sponsored tents. Including an XBOX360 tent. Where people were loudly playing Guitar Hero. Freezepop. Get Ready to Rokk. I felt at home.

The other festival is a giant culturefest with performances all over town at all times of day. For instance, after dinner I saw a swing dance troupe perform. That was pretty normal. But while I was having lunch, I got to see mimes dressed in SWAT team outfits drinking out of juice boxes. That was not at all normal. But AWESOME.

I went to the Nobel Museum and the Royal Palace before my energy flagged and I went back to the hostel for a nap. In the queen's dining room of the palace, there is a painting of a monkey holding a violin bow. There's also a toy boat in the picture. The room description implicated that picture was meant to represent fire. If anyone can describe that connection for me, I'm all ears.

Also, be warned, if you or someone you know ever wants to send a crayon drawing of themselves and the princess of Sweden in which both people look like tomatoes (all head, no torso, minimal stick arms and legs, a couple tufts of hair and a big smiley face), they should know it will end up in the palace for all to see. And it will be hilarious. Francis, I think you have a mission.

After my nap, during which I dreamed about giving the talk I have to give in a week...stress induced dreams, woot...I went back out and walked over even more of the town. Ate Swedish meatballs for dinner. So, that's checked off my list. Now I just have to eat more fish and maybe some reindeer. Yes, reindeer. Preferably one named Rudolph. And I'll be sure to eat a fish named Nemo too so I'm an equal opportunity offender.

I would sign off in Swedish, but I realize I don't know how. I can say thanks though...and that's about it. So, tack.

Ben

And by jc, I mean Jorge Cham. Because my day has been exactly like today's Piled Higher and Deeper comic.

only 5 more hours till timecourse 3 of 4 is over.

I've been on a major cooking spree lately. We're in the heart of my favorite time of year in Bloomington: berry and stone fruit season. Strawberries and cherries have come and gone. Blueberries and peaches are about to hit mid-stride. So much opportunity for pie! I've already made one cherry pie from scratch this summer. I also made the first of this summer's blueberry blackberry buckles, and a mexican chocolate cake.

Veggies have been excellent to me too. First, loads of spinach, then a bountiful crop of sugar snap peas, and green bean season is getting into gear now too. Plus, with eggplant coming into phase with zucchini, there will be lots of ratatouille. And the cucumbers are amazing right now which makes for extra large, tangy batches of refrigerator pickles. Another great tangy favorite of mine is green beans in a sesame vinaigrette.

Thanks to the great produce, I've been making good use of the S.F. Farmer's Market and Tartine cookbooks I purchased back in February. The most frequently used recipe out of the Farmers Market cookbook has been for peas and morels (though any type of mushroom will do, just gives it a different, equally good flavor). It's so simple and so satisfying. Basically, take some snap peas, trim and lightly chop. Lightly chop up some mushroom heads too. Saute with S&P and 2 tbsp melted butter in a covered pan for 8-10 minutes. Add a quarter cup of heavy cream and cook for 1 more minute. Then serve. So good, so quick. I've probably made it 8 times already.

From Tartine, there were strawberry buttermilk scones for brunch, and Roberta and I made a raspberry claufoutis two weeks ago that was tasty and relatively straightforward (though that didn't stop us from making a mess and setting off the smoke alarm :P).

Last night was our chance to really challenge ourselves though. Roberta and I made a Blueberry Lemon Chiffon Tart. We had a couple things working against us from the start as we were trying to make a tart crust from a recipe calling for a stand mixer without a stand mixer and a lemon pastry cream from a recipe essentially calling for a double boiler without a double boiler. However, we perservered with a hand mixer and spoon and a jerry rigged double boiler system involving a saucepan, my bamboo steamer, and a small stainless steel pot. It took a little while to get the system right so the pot was close enough to the water bath without actually touching it and yet still getting hot enough to thicken the sauce.

The first roll of the crust was awful because we didn't include enough dough. The second roll of the crust was great. Indeed, we arrogantly commented on how perfect it looked just before I forgot the tart pan had a false bottom and lifted it away from the frame by accident, causing irreparable damage. The third time was the charm though, and definitely the best attempt.

In the end, after four hours...both dough and cream needed to chill intermittently...we had a beautiful tart filled with soft, pastel lemon cream, topped with fresh blueberries and dusted with shaved semi-sweet chocolate. Plus, the extra tart dough made for bonus sugar cookies.

Up next on our list of Tartine recipes to conquer: chocolate friands. I'm not sure exactly what friand means, but based on the recipe I think it must be what they call cupcakes in heaven.

The IDS ran my most recent article on green dorm projects with a unique education component underway at Stanford and Duke. Check it out. The editor made a couple ill-advised edits that I didn't approve before printing, so I'm not completely happy with it. But the heart of the story is still there for the most part.

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=42375

Gay marraiges at Disneyworld!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/disney.weddings.ap/index.html
Now they just have to allow interspecies marraiges, and Mickey and Donald are set.

In other news:
For all you Buffy fans, I saw this book at the AAAS conference, but forgot about it till I heard the NPR clip this morning.
Physics of the Buffyverse by Jennifer Ouellette
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9458702

Also, there's another flavor of Manischewitz wine out there I'd never heard of. I knew of the standard Concord Grape and the even sweeter Blackberry. But there's also ELDERBERRY! I don't think I've ever consumed elderberries in any form till now. Thanks Manischewitz! Now if only Kroger would sell your griddle cake mix and coffee cake mix.

The Dalai Lama's coming back to town, and he's going to teach too.

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=41580

Hey y'all,

This is the last update on my trip because, well, it's over. I'm back in Bloomington as of 20 minutes ago. I feel like I've been traveling forever because I took the red eye and feel asleep three times over the course of the whole trip. So I'm kind of rested, kind of wishing I hadn't developed a kink in my neck from sleeping funny on the plane. Oh well.

So, the last installement of my AAAS trip. Well, Friday morning started out with a session on the neurobiology of chocolate, but really more specifically cocoa. It's been shown very well over the course of the last 7 years or so that flavanols in cocoa can dramatically improve cardiovascular performance when consumed in high enough doses (not so high that they're unthinkable like the dose of wine you'd have to drink to extend your life). Now researchers are showing that these same substances help improve learning and memory due to direct or indirect effects on the vasculature of the brain. The effects especially pronounced in combination with exercise in mice. How do you test memory in mice? You toss them in a pool of murky water with a hidden platform underneath. Do this over and over again, and somehow they map the pool so they can go direcctly to the platform. If you now take the platform away, mice fed flavanols tend to swim in the part of the pool that had the platform more than controls and they do so up to a couple weeks after removal while controls only do so for a couple days. Flavanol enriched chocolate also enhanced brain activity in women performing a cognitive task.

So, if you ate lots of commercially available chocolate, will you improve your learning and memory? Unlikely, because most of the flavanols are processed out because they're bitter tasting. Even if you stuck to dark chocolate, the wisdom that darker is always better is a faulty guide because companies don't tell you how they process the chocolate or the flavanol content. Mars, who sponsored the symposium and also supports a lot of this research, has a new line of chocolates called CocoaVia that's supposed to not be quite so bitter but is enriched for flavanols.

Could you get flavanols another way? Sure, pure cocoa, but have you ever tasted that? I don't recommend. A better alternative...blueberries, green tea, pomegranate juice. They've all got them.

I snuck in a trip to King of Thai Noodle for lunch, completely satisfying as always. That was followed by a topical lecture by Michael Brown of CalTech called "Planets, Dwarf Planets, and Ice Balls at the Edge of the Solar System." He also gave it a second title of "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming." It was a fun lecture which brought me up to date on the whole state of the solar system, and I have to say it's pretty amazing how many objects there are out there beyond Neptune and what they may tell us about the formation of the solar system. I taped it on my digital recorder if anyone's interested. I can't upload it to the web though because my recorder doesn't have a USB.

Afterward, I went to a seminar on sedimentaton in reservoirs that I'd been inteding to cover for the Bloomington Alternative. However, after interviewing one of the speakers in the morning, and then attending the seminar, I'm not sure it's really newsworthy anymore. The pitch I sent to the editor a week and a half ago never garnered a response, so I may just drop it in favor of Pluto or why high performing individuals have big math anxieties instead.

The last seminar I went to was on Urban Sustainability, and I will say up front that I went because Gavin Newsom was supposed to speak. Sadly, he did not, but a rep from his office did, and it is really totally amazing the steps that San Francisco is taking as a leader in this field. One example: to place priority on green building practices, they've given permitting priority to any projects that seek LEED gold certification or better (that is, certification that they've incorporated substantial green building principles into their designs). Because there's so much construction in San Francisco, there's usually a year wait for a project to get assigned a planner, and during that time a developer can lose millions of dollars. The LEED projects are assured to get a planner within 2 weeks. As a result, there's been a flood of projects coming into the office that aim to be LEED Gold. In fact, he said, developers are learning that the actual cost per square foot of a green building is only a couple dollars more than a "brown building" and those costs can be recouped in a very short time by savings on gas and electricity. So that and a number of other great initiatives were really inspiring.

After that, I was done. Mentally, I was pretty wiped. But I had priorities...that is, I had to go shopping at H&M! I bought a shirt and a scarf. You'll see the scarf soon if you live in Bloomington, as it's replacing the mommie dearest pocket scarf that's developed lots of holes this winter. I also walked around the expanded downtown mall and went to Zara. Sadly, this great jacket I liked was $100, and I couldn't really justify that after all the spending I'd already done.

From there, it was back to Celia's to pack. I had an hour to spare for dinner, so I went to La Mediterraneae, a wonderful Mediterranean restaurant right around the corner from my old apartment. I had a delicious dinner of kefta over rice with salad, hummus, pita, and a glass of wine. The kefta was really superb; I'd forgotten just how good their food is because I haven't eaten there since moving to Bloomington.

Anyway, quite sated (and well-mellowed from the wine), I then had to set off for Indiana by way of a 5AM - 9AM layover in Detroit. Detroit has a surprisingly beautiful and interesting terminal. Somehow I had the idea that I'd flown through there before, but I can't imagine I have, because this terminal is really unique. The underground tunnel that connects different concourses blows O'Hare out of the water in the atmosphere created by the shape, glass wall art, lighting, and music.

Fortunately, despite the 4-6" of snow that came down while I was away (on top of what was already there) I was able to pull out of my parking space with easy. Aside disconnecting my car from the ground by kicking out some icicles, there wasn't any real problem and I made it home just fine.

That's all. I'm not sure if the IDS editor is going to run my brief on taste cells in the gut tomorrow, but he has it, so take a look at www.idsnews.com then.

Yesterday, i took things pretty easy in terms of attending seminars/press briefings because I was on deadline for writing my short on taste. In the morning, I went to a session titled "Television Dramas: Education, Entertainment, or Both?" so later I can write an op-ed article on the question. It was a pretty fun session. A doctor/writer from House was there, and one of the original writers for ER who is now an executive producer for L&O:SVU was also on the panel. Their shows are pretty noteworthy for the accuracy and thoroughness with which they depict medical science and health care. However, they are also noteworthy for the extremes to which they find bizarre or controversial cases or science to base their programs on. Overall, though, I'm pretty convinced that the do an admirable job in storytelling, spurring greater public discussion and awareness of medical issues, and that there's general disdain for Grey's Anatomy. After the session, I interviewed Vicky Rideout from Kaiser Family Foundation about research on viewer impacts of these shows to get more stats for my article, and that went really well.

I also went to Robert Sapolsky's topical lecture on stress, coping, and disease. It was his usual spiel, which I'd heard at least twice in college, but he was as entertaining, fascinating, and articulate as always. Plus, he was racier than normal, discussing the relationship between stress and erectile dysfunction - everybody loves penises wrapped in postage stamps - and context-dependency of stress. Specifically, he gave the example of how when a high status dog wants to play with a low status dog it crouches to show submission. This indicates everything's all good and they can gnaw at each other's crotches without fear of repercussion.

Other than that, I wrote and edited, and my deadline got moved up on me, so it was good that I left myself the time. In food news, I ate more favorites I can't get in Indiana: another batch of dim sum for lunch, a whopping huge burrito for dinner, and Sweet Inspiration chocolate noisette cake for dessert. Miranda also told me the color off her bridesmaid's dress for Amy's wedding is Bronzed Olive, and I can't wait to see just what that means.

This first full day of the conference has passed, and I have a story to write for a short brief. That's good because I have to turn it in by tomorrow at 2. However, it's not exactly the story I want. My strategy was to focus my almost exclusively on one particular symposium about taste perception and its associated press briefing. From my backgrounding I knew 2 of the 5 speakers were unlikely to talk about something new, but 3 were likely to have something breaking. In the end, of those 3, one couldn't make it due to travel issues, and another pulled the omnipresent conference title bait-and-switch. That is, you submit a general title to a conference because you don't know months ahead what new data you might have and what you'll talk about. Then, when the conference comes, if there's no new story, you're still good under that title to present your old work, which is what this speaker did.

The last speaker, fortunately, collaborated with the absent speaker on new work showing that cells in the gut have the same signalling machinery as taste buds...that is, your gut can taste things just like your mouth, and it can stimulate paracrine hormone release rather than the brain accordingly. Furthermore, they showed that by knocking out part of the signaling mechanism involved in sensing sweet sense, these gut cells don't respond to glucose by releasing incretins which in turn stimulate insulin release. If you can't taste sweet, you don't secrete.

I approached the speaker to interview him about the work, and WHAM! "I'm not giving interviews on that research because it's not published yet." Totally denied. I can still write about it because he talked about it, but I won't get his quotes or, more importantly for the course, his signoff on the factual accuracy of my piece. Luckily I talked to another of the speakers at the press briefing earlier in the day, so I think I'm safe on that front, and I did get a good quote from him. So it's writeable, but at the end of the day I just felt like I'd made bad decisions. Misery loves company though, and I was consoled that several of my friends had the exact same experience.

Enough about reporting...MORE ABOUT FOOD! I had a delicious rugelach the size of my fist for breakfast yesterday from this great diner across from ACT. For lunch, I met with my mentor through the National Association of Science Writers mentoring program. He's a commercial editor for science and an ex-bench scientist, who was great to talk to and had good advice. Where did we have lunch? DIM SUM!!! I'll probably go back today. There were these shrimp and crab dumplings that were amazing. And being only two people, we could only try about seven things...and there were oh so many more! Finally, I had sushi with my cousins for dinner. The ichiban roll with hamachi, avacado, and eel was fantastic.

At the end of the day, I went to a house party called Nerdfest 2007 thrown by two science writers who live in the mission. My friend Jessica who works for Discover was awesome to pass on the invitation to me. I ended up talking to probably the only other scientist there and a lawyer for most of the time because they the were great. However, they introduced me to the hostess who writes news for Nature, and I also met a couple other science writers. It was definitely a nerdfest. Where else might I have nearly committed a fashion faux-pas by wearing the same Threadless Nothing Rhymes with Orange t-shirt as another person!!

Walking over to the party, I passed all the SF hipsters out at Sparky's, in bars and clubs along Valencia, or partying up in apartments, and I couldn't help feeling wistful. I miss my urban tribe, gaggle, whatever.

Today, I went to Tartine. Yes, Tartine, the amazing bakery of cookbook fame in my previous post. I had a piece of quiche - good. I had one of the buttermilk scones with currants that was featured in a recent NYTimes video clip - excellent. Finally, I had a meringue to polish the meal off on a sweet note - a religious experience. Best. Meringue. Ever. It was sweet and foamy on the inside and had a nicely thin crunchy and powdered shell exterior. Plus, there were cocoa nibs scattered throughout it. I will never be the same. I will wake up in the middle of the night with uncontrollable cravings for this meringue. Trader Joes meringues will no longer satisfy. I have tasted perfection and am forever ruined.

Other than this amazing highlight, my sunny day in San Francisco had many other great moments. I had a nice breakfast date. I received my official press badge and attended a press briefing where I learned that plants flash frozen under Peruvian mountain glaciers 5,000 years ago are seeing the light of day for the first time since then due to accelerated melting cause by global warming. I also went shopping at two of my favorite shops in the Mission-Therapy and Paxton Gat-where my insula could no longer repress my shopping urges. I can't reveal all the contents of my purchases, but I will say that together they involved ferns, echnioderms, chickens, and puppies. When Sara arrived, we spent an hour chilling in Union Square at the cafe/wine bar there. I got very tipsy off a single glass of pinot grigio, and then we went to look at the view off the top of the Westin St. Francis. Finally, I had dinner with Amy, Chris, Miranda and Sara at King of Thai Noodle...so good.

I should go to bed, but before I do, I have to relate that both Sara and Roberta independently also got stuck half-in half-out of parking spaces at the Indy airport this morning. CRAZY!

This week I'm attending the American Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting in San Francisco as part of the science writing class I'm taking in the School of Journalism. And suddenly, I'm a reporter. Look at me go, waving my little digital voice recorder in your face! I may try being a real blogger this week too as a parallel effort, but we'll see.

Day 1:
Woke up at 5:30 so I could shovel my way out of the driveway. There were about 2-3 inches of fresh powder on top of the ice I hadn't shovel-as-pickaxed less than 12 hours earlier. Fortunately, the winter weather had passed eastward, and my flight was pretty likely to take off. So, I get out of the house all packed up at 6:45 and manage to do the slow drive up to Indianapolis airport in along poorly plowed state highways. I make it into airport parking at 8:10.

Here's the thing. It's an overnight parking lot. The aisles are plowed, but the space...6-12 inches deep in ice/snow. I decide to give a space a chance since someone had clearly vacated in the recent past. But my little Jetta that could, could not. I got stuck half-in half-out of the space, wheels spinning with abandon. Fast forward to me with soaked jeans and icy gloves clawing out the 4 inch thick bed of snow beneath my vehicle with my window scraper. A kindly Hoosier stopped to try to push my car out but it wouldn't budge. I had to get the parking lot attendant to send for a crew to dig me out. Which fortunately worked! I managed to get myself into a magically plowed spot in the boonies of the parking lot, onto the shuttle, and at the check-in counter at 8:55, 35 minutes before my flight. And I made it to the gate (after changing into the extra jeans and shoes I'd managed to grab before my bag was checked) as boarding was in progress. Thank goodness I left so early and thank goodness I brought a non-essential second pair of shoes.

The rest of the trip was fine. Easy connection in Minneapolis, walked back on to the same plane I came in on, having eaten a tasty curry chicken sandwich in between. On the second flight, I did more backgrounding for the symposia I plan to cover at the conference. One is on taste receptors, and I learned the following distressing thing. The tastebud map of your tongue you are taught in school...WRONG! There's no such spatial distrbution of broad taste categories in your mouth. Most tastebuds can actually sense multiple combos of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Some sense one taste more strongly than the others, but overall they are scattered randomly across your tongue. Crazy. The signaling mechanisms that govern each of those tastes, pretty cool variations on direct and indirect effects on ion channels to set off release of neurotransmitters. I'm excited for the talks.

That was part of the flight, the other part was showing these really sweet old German ladies from Winnipeg sitting next to me the Golden Gate Bridge and other landmarks as we flew into San Francisco. They also fed me crystallized ginger, which was nice. I am thankful that they didn't try to feed me the completely raw ginger (!)they were eating deep purple cole slaw-esque "Herbal mix" they brought with them. Apparently, this mix of things like hibiscus and whatever else gets mixed into your juice like Fibersure, except it says on the bottle that you shouldn't expect an therpuetic effects but is supposed to brighten your day. Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's just the equivalent of a Jamba Juice "boost" but not in an innocuous tasteless industrial powder format. Because really, it was pretty purple, oily, grassy, and eww.

The rest is pretty straightforward. Got my bags and BARTed into the city. YAY! I miss my city. Picked up an apartment key from Celia at work and then dropped off my bags. Went back to my old barbershop in the Castro for a very very necessary shearing. Needless to say, my head feels several pounds lighter. Then I bought the new SF Farmers Market cookbook because a) it's the best farmer's market ever and b) the first recipe in the book is for fresh apricot cobbler. If apricot cobbler is the leadoff hitter for a cookbook, that's my sort of cookbook. I couldn't bring myself to pay the $35 for the Tartine cookbook sitting nearby though. Tarting is one of the most amazing bakery in existence, but my insula was holding my buying urges in check. That said, I'll probably cave and buy it by Sunday.

Finally, got my sushi fix for dinner with Celia. So so so good.

Tomorrow: my first encounter with a newsroom, the belly of the reporting beast.

Ben

So I thought I'd do this again this year. Happy New Years All!

Favorite Books I read in 2006:
Intuition - Allegra Goodman
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Kafka By The Shore - Haruki Murakami
The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud

Favorite Movies I Saw in 2006:
Little Miss Sunshine
Brick
Before Sunrise / Before Sunset
Brokeback Mountain
Thank You For Smoking
Transamerica
Mad Hot Ballroom

Favorite TV Moments of 2006
Project Runway - Tim Gunn brings out the puppies! Holy Hotpants, Captain Save-a-ho!
Weeds - "BE MY FRIEND! BE MY F***ING FRIEND!!!!!!"
Ugly Betty - All of it. So good. Also, Eric Mablus, so dashing.
Arrested Development - Annyong
Lost - "I DON'T DO TACO NIGHT!"

Favorite Albums I First Heard in 2006
Imogen Heap - Speak For Youself
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sufjan Steven - The Avalanche
Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels
Jonathon Coulton - Code Monkey
Marie Antoinette Sdtk

Favorite Radio Program Moments I First Heard in 2006
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - November 5th Episode - Dick Cheney, Butter Sculptor
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - Drunken Monkeys
This American Life - You and the Little Mermaid Can Go F*** Yourselves
This American Life - #322 Shouting Across The Divide
This American Life - #317 Unconditional Love: Act One

My Year in Trips
January - New Year's in San Francisco; Cruise in the Caribbean with Mom, Dad, and Rachael
April - Miranda and Joe's Wedding, San Francisco, CA
May - NSF IGERT National Conference, Washington DC
June - Evolution Meeting, Stony Brook NY
- Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, Seattle, WA
July - AGA Meeting: Genetics of Speciation, Vancouver, BC
September - Sunflower Seed Collection trip to OK and TX
October - Stanford 5th Reunion, Stanford, CA
- Rachael's White Coat Ceremony, Minneapolis, MN

I hope that chalk dust doesn't count against my fast when G-d's making his final notes in the book of life today. Because I just taught discussion section and probably ingested a stick of chalk's worth. Mmmm...chalk.