Miscellany

Macaroons. I've become obsessed with them. Not what we in American call macaroons, but French macaroons(macarons). The party-colored delectables below are what I am speaking. Not that I've ever tasted one. There's a couple of bakeries in my areas that have them, but I have journeyed to get them and of course I could bake them myself, but let's face it-I'm just too lazy at this point in time. (even too lazy too drive to pick up these mouth-watering treasures-the height of laziness, which you would think that I would be too ashamed to admit)

What's sort of crazy, but then this always happens is focus. Once you focus on something it then appears to be everywhere. I keep seeing them in magazines, baking blogs, and I found out about cookbook author Dorie Greenspan's blog and voila-look at her Monday, August 6, 2007 post.

For some non-confectionary news, congratulations to Charles Simic, the new U.S. Poet Laureate. I confess to never having heard of Mr. Simic, but am looking forward to reading some of his poetry. And if you care to know who all of the U.S. Poet Laureates were, take a gander at this handy dandy timeline provide by LOC.

Science Hack-science video (hours of fun).

Just in time for Halloween-possessed books.

PC World has listed the 100 Blogs We Love.

After 40 years of being in deep freeze at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the complete Apollo Image Archive is available for browsing or downloading. Here is an article about the archive and here is the link for the archive.

I have always wished that every tree and flower, especially those in public spaces, were marked with not only their common name, but their classification, order, family, etc. You get my drift. Sometimes it's just inconvenient to carry all of the different printed resources on tree and flower identification with you. I can remember as an undergrand at Seton Hill wishing that someone would do that on campus. Seton Hill is a beautiful tree-heavy campus and I always wondered what was there besides maple and oak. Reed College in Portland, Oregon has a website devoted to their trees. Very cool.

3191 is a photo blog that two women share. They live 3, 191 miles apart. One in Portland, Maine and one in Portland, Oregon. They each post one photo every day. I really like this blog. It's simple and elegant and a very clever idea.

"Bakers of bread rolls and pastry cooks will not buy grain before eleven o'clock in winter and noon in summer; bakers of large loaves will not buy grain before two o'clock. This will enable the people of the town to obtain their supply first. Bakers shall put a distinctive trademark on their loaves, and keep weights and scales in their shops, under penalty of having their licenses removed." 1635 law introduced by Cardinal Richelieu