A Drive-By Shooting

A car with this funny looking contraption mounted on top drove past my office building yesterday afternoon. I can only assume that the driver was being paid by someone associated with some mapping software such as Google Maps or a web-based real estate service such as Zillow.

I'm not a particularly paranoid or private person, and I make my living, in part at least, by using the web. I'm used to being visible and "out there," so I only thought briefly about the privacy implications of a guy driving by with enough hardware to record me from four angles, presumably with the date and time of my leaving the office. I thought a little bit about the photos turning up on the web. But only a little bit.

As I pulled out of the parking lot and stopped at a light, I saw the car that had just driven past me in my parking lot. So, I decided to snap the picture above. And in the interest of maintaining transparency and openness, here's the car, with New Hampshire license plate # 247 0788. The driver is pulling onto Linden Street in Wellesley, Massachusetts at 2:04 pm on Friday, October 24th, 2008. The police can cross-check my information against the data from the recently-installed video cameras at the light next to Jimmy's Cafe at 151 Linden Street. Good place to eat, by the way. Not fancy, but I'm partial to the corn and black bean salad.

On Mitzvah Mondays and Simon Shepherd

The smiling fellow on the right is Simon Shepherd. He used to work as a research analyst in my European Storage Research team back when I was head of Storage Research at IDC. Simon has a wife, Stephanie, and a lovely little daughter, Scarlett. More on Simon in a minute.

Another of my former IDC colleagues, Djuna Woods, posted a recent blog entry on the idea of a Monday Mitzvah. For those of you who are Hebraicly challenged, mitzvah refers to one of the 613 Jewish commandments, but has colloquially come to mean "an act of kindness." Djuna's challenge to us is to perform a guerrilla good deed and share the good-deed idea with the rest of the world. Kind of "random acts of kindness" meets "viral marketing."

I was reading through some of my favorite storage bloggers this morning and came upon one written by Taylor Allis at Sun Microsystems. In it he writes about Simon, who left IDC a number of years ago to join StorageTek, which was later acquired by Sun. That's where Simon met Taylor. Sadly, Simon passed away recently, after battling glioblastoma, or brain cancer, for 14 months. Stephanie requested that friends and acquaintances of Simon support the search for a cure by making donations in Simon's name to:

The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign

The Institute of Cancer Research

123 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3RP

You can donate by check or credit card online using this link:

The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign

If you note that the donation is in Simon Shepherd's name it will be directed to the correct fund.

I made my donation to the fund today. Now, I'll say thanks to Djuna Woods for the inspiration to make this a viral mitzvah. Please join me in celebrating Simon's memory and helping to find a cure.

Independence Day: Time to Leave the Nest

Like many parents, I struggle with the balance between protecting my children and being over protective. When I was growing up, my siblings and I were allowed to travel only as far as the sound of the car horn would carry. In rural Colorado, that was probably a mile. Three toots from the horn was our instruction to come home. I was five years old and free to wander independently through the neighbors farms, in the woods and across the fields. I learned, early, to avoid the neighbors pig pen. Pigs can be quite mean.

We had a fort in the rocks, a fort in the woods, a fort in the sagebrush, and a fort in the willows. I didn't think much about the independence and freedom I was given. It's just the way it was.

Times are different, I hear, and I'm told I have to watch my children more closely now. My children aren't as independent as those of my friends. It's summer now. The time when many children go away to camp. Mine prefer day camps and home to the idea of overnight camp. It's Independence Day in the United States, and I wonder just how independent I should let (or force) my children be.

I found this little fellow out beside our pool. I hope he was not pushed out of the nest too soon.

I Hate to Waste

As anyone who spends time with me knows, I hate to waste. I hate wasting anything. But especially food. There's nothing like Great Depression Era parents to teach the lessons of frugality, especially when the experience is layered on top of a healthy dose of Scottish breeding.

Last night we had a barbeque with a few friends, and I made potato salad. Some people like potato salad with the potato skins on. Some don't. I could never figure that one out, but when cooking for friends whose food taste I don't know well, I will default to the blander (in my opinion) option.


Still, I can't waste the potato peelings, which leads me to this little dish. Take the peelings, toss with a little canola oil and your favorite seasonings. I use salt, garlic powder, and onion powder when going milder, and Tony Cachere's Creole Seasoning, when I'm cooking for my taste. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray, and cook at 400 - 450 degrees. They are thin enough, that you don't have to turn them, but watch them closely, so they don't burn. and take them out when they look crispy, like the ones in the photo.

The best part of not wasting is eating the peels. These were gone in no time. We're still working on the potato salad.

Ciao Bella

I'm a big fan of pizza, and I remember rather fondly J Burns Pizza, where I would go during my high school days back in Lakeland, Florida. The crust was crunchy and the pizza was cut into bite-sized squares, which was perfect for sharing with a crowd of hungry teenagers.

My brother and his wife, who still live in Lakeland, recently treated me to dinner at their current favorite, Ciao Bella, which is located on the north side of Lakeland, Florida.

I can't find a web site, but if you are in the area, look them up in the phone book. The restaurant is not flashy, but these guys are the real thing - Italian immigrants who love food and love to talk. The pizza is the opposite of J Burns'. The crust is thick and the slices huge. Bring a big appetite. Look at the size of that pie. Mangia, mangia!!!

Ruthless Turkeys

Turkeys have made a comeback in Massachusetts and are a regular sighting around Holliston, but they are also making their way into more urban areas, such as Framingham. I saw this big tom, which has obviously escaped the Thanksgiving table for several years, on the drive through a well-established Framingham neighborhood.

The crime report in Holliston is usually pretty benign, but the turkeys can be quite vicious. The local police log, which is published weekly in the Holliston Tab, once included a report of an elderly woman who was trapped inside her house by a menacing turkey.

Before you doubt the ruthlessness of a turkey, check out the spurs on these legs.

Daffodils: The First Sign of Spring

For me, the arrival of daffodils represents the first official sign of spring. Yes, crocuses come up earlier, but they just don't have the same impact. Yellow is my favorite color and the daffodil my favorite flower.

My grandmother, Pearl Stainton McArthur, was an artist, who mostly painted still life. Growing up, I had a painting of hers hanging in my bedroom. The painting was of daffodils in a brown vase. Unfortunately the painting seems to have been lost to the family, but I still remember it in great detail and spring always brings back fond memories of my grandmother, one of the most gracious women who ever lived.