Mine Disaster

I hate reading about coal mine disasters. Having worked underground, I can identify with the emotions of the people involved. When you work in a mine, you are trained and trained and trained for safety. But there is no way you can anticipate some of the problems that will occur. You can’t predict an earthquake. You can’t anticipate an unrecorded oil well location (which is what flooded that mine in West Virginia a couple of years ago). You never have a great idea of the integrity of the rock you are digging into. A friend of mine worked in a gold mine in Durango, CO where they “glory holed” (punch through) into a lake. Needless to say, the lake flooded the mine.

But reading about this mine made me wonder what are the most dangerous occupations. As with everything these days, it seems as if the Internet is your friend. A quick Google gave me this link, with this table:

The 10 most dangerous jobs by fatality rate are:

Rank	Occupation	Deaths/100k	Total Deaths
1	Logging workers	92.4	85
2	Aircraft pilots	92.4	109
3	Fishers and fishing workers	86.4	38
4	Structural iron and steel workers	47	31
5	Refuse and recyclable material collectors	43.2	35
6	Farmers and ranchers	37.5	307
7	Roofers	34.9	94
8	Electrical power line installers/repairers	30	36
9	Driver/sales workers and truck drivers	27.6	905
10	Taxi drivers and chauffeurs	24.2	67

Taxi drivers? Who knew. I guess it is because the US 42,636 people were killed in vehicle accidents in 2004 (http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/RNotes/2005/809897.pdf)

The other interesting conclusion that I drew from this chart is that there are not really many more pilots in this country than loggers (91,991 loggers vs 117,965 pilots)

And here is a little tidbit from the report I linked to above:

“Fatal injuries from being struck by objects jumped 12 percent...that is now the third most common fatal event, surpassing homicide on the job, which dropped 9 percent to 551. That continued a steep decline from a peak of 1,080 on-the-job murders in 1994.”

“on-the-job murders”???

I guess I am glad that I worked underground afterall.

Crazy people online,

I follow a small number of online forums and newsgroups. It is amazing the emotions that can be raised by, say, whether you steam your milk BEFORE or AFTER you pull your shot of espresso. Or maybe the type of waterplants you have in your backyard pond. I have seen numerous threats ("Come down to Atlanta and I will beat your face in") but never heard of anyone actually carrying them out.

Until now:

Techdirt: Taking 'Flamewar' A Bit Too Seriously: Man Drives 1,300 Miles To Burn Down Home Of Online Critic

I guess the moral of the story is: Don't upset crazy people who don't have anything better to do than drive across the US to burn down your house.

Book List

My brother Chas, who recently moved to Wyoming, years ago encouraged me to keep a book list. I have been doing so for about 12 years now.

Through the miracle of Google, I now have that document online. It can be viewed here. This should be (may be?) a live document.

I apologize for all misspelling and typos. This was an unedited document. I’ll fix it by and by.

See how walkable your neighborhood is!

Walk Score - How walkable is your house?

This is why!

A note from my niece:

Go Badgers!!!

Just the fact that I participated in Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge is an enormous reason for why I've been hired at great firms in the past.

Alors, the UW Madison Concrete Canoe team /*follows the rules*/. This may seem quite simple, however, it takes hours of dedication and some nights of sleeping in the lab to accomplish. A hefty packet of rules comes out each year which has various changes from the previous season.
The majority of these changes pertain to the concrete mix itself (the amounts of water, cement, ash, glass beads, etc). We paid a lot of attention to this and up to 40 different mixes were cast into cylinders, tested under ASTM standards, and documented in the technical report - another portion of the competition. A surprising amount of teams do not entirely obey these concrete mix regulations and, thus, get disqualified.

This is all good and proper, but UW takes it 100 steps further with the amount of time each teammate dedicates to the effort. Let's not forget the races. The paddlers on our team practice together as though they were training for the Tour de France. This is clear if you've ever been to a Concrete Canoe competition.

Another thing that always makes us stick out is that our concrete canoe literally feels as smooth as glass. When I was on the team (and I'm guessing they still do this), shifts were set up so that several students were in the lab sanding the canoe - all day long for many days.
This helps with the aesthetics portion of our score.

Beyond that, the technical presentation is practiced many, many times and the co-chairs always put canoe before everything else for that school year. Several sub-committees are set up to allow for more concentrated efforts on each division of the competition as well as _fund raising_! The companies which support the team are really what allow us to be so successful since, without them, we'd never be able to afford all the needed supplies for the mix and mold. UW takes it extremely seriously, but we have tons of fun (for lack of a much less cliche expression).

Joining the team was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I made in my college career, along with my beloved, but far less known, Steel Bridge Team (which demands just as much time and effort).

Well I tried to make this as brief as possible, but there is much to say about the Concrete Canoe team.

Please do not hesitate with more questions! I enjoy reminiscing.

So why does UW dominate in the concrete canoe game?

Badgers do a 'fivepeat' to rule 20th concrete canoe event

Five in a row cannot be a coincidence. One of my nieces used to compete in this event.

So, Domi, why is the UW the big dog in concrete canoes?

Puns

(1) King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan. Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it." "But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!" Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."

(2) Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. However, all the Swiss league records were unfortunately destroyed in a fire, and we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.

(3) A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."

(4) A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.

(5) Back in the 1800s the Tates Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products and, since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California . This, of course, is the origin of the expression, "He who has a Tates is lost!"

(6) A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on."

(7) An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."

(8) A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

(9) There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant, and the first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This goes to prove that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

(10) A skeptical anthropologist was cataloging South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal brujo who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation. When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the brujo looked him in the eye and said, "Let me tell you, with fronds like these, who needs enemas?"

What a difference a comma makes!

Blind, drunk man shot entering wrong home | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

"Corpse closet"?

BA sat corpse in first class - Times Online

DO you think that if you ask nicely they would let you sleep in the Corpse Closet?

Ratatouille

We went to see the movie Ratatouille this weekend. If you have not heard of it, you are probably not a “foodie” or a “wine geek” While it is an animated Pixar film (implying that it is aimed at kids) it is in reality a very sophisticated representation of the modern Celebrity Chef and Three Star (not five as in the movie, oddly enough( restaurant phenomenon.

From what I understand, the restaurant that is featured in the film is the Tour d’Argent, a place widely considered to be over the hill by many critics. This is based on the look, and location of the film restaurant.

Thomas Keller, the brains behind The French Laundry and Per Se was a consultant in the movie. It really shows – people (well, pixels) are really cooking in this movie. Guy Savoy and Ferran Adria also helped.

Here is a review from the San Francisco chronicle.

The movie is about a rat (yes, a rat) who wants to be a chef. He is a “super taster” in the rat world, and knows how to combine flavors to make new, and more spectacular food experiences. All he needs is a place to cook. And so on.

One interesting thing is that the rats in this movie look like RATS! Scary, nasty dirty rats. At least for part of the time. Beady little eyes, brown or black fur, scurrying about on all fours.

It was a fun two hours.

On a scale of 0 to 100...

I enjoy wine. And if you enjoy wine it is impossible to get away from wine ratings. The following blog puts ratings in perspective:

The Point of It All - The Pour - Dining & Wine - New York Times Blog

Empty Space

The link below is a hydrogen atom. In scale. Make sure you scroll to the right.

Hydrogen Atom Scale Model

That's a lot of nothing!

Hot goes on the left.

I always heard that there are only two things a plumber needs to know:

1. 1. Hot goes on the left

2. ((water) flows downhill.

But when you Google this phrase, you get a couple of very funny variations:

1. (water) flows downhill

2. Never, ever lick your fingers

1. (water) flows downhill

2. Don’t chew your fingernails

1. (water) flows downhill

2. Payday is Friday.

So I guess plumbers need to know four things.

This was prompted by the fact that the sink in our new kitchen at the office has the hot on the right.

Yesterday's Birthday

Yesterday was my 50^th birthday. I did not work, and Doreen took the afternoon off. After the requisite napping, we had two events that evening. One was the wedding of the son of a good friend, the other was my birthday dinner.

It was raining so hard that the wedding was delayed for an hour. We got there on time (thank goodness and the Harris County Toll Road Authority for EZTag lanes) but most of the people didn’t. It was inside, but the weather yesterday was cool. The wedding was nice, and it included a martial arts display. The son is an instructor. The food was good, though we just had a taste due to the dinner we were about to attend.

After that we went to eat at Mark’s American Cuisine. Doreen had one last gift there on the table waiting for me. It was Roy Blount Jr’s new book Long Time Leaving – Dispatches from The South. And it was inscribed to me! She wrote his agent and asked if he would autograph it. He said:

To Dan: Happy 50^th. Doreen must love you very much to give you such a great present.

We laughed and laughed about that.

Earlier she gave me the book Timothy by Vernon Klinkenborg

The meal was great. We started with a glass of pink champagne, and it was a seafood medley after that. Fried Puget Sound oysters with some raw oysters as well, covered with some greenery and lump crab meat. I ordered a nice Gruner Veltliner to go with the meal. It was very aromatic. This looked like the photo on this page.

For our main course we had fried soft shell crab. It looked just like the photo on this page. It also had lump crab meat on the side. Oh my, but it was delicious.

For dessert Doreen had a Blackberry and Butter Pecan cake, I had the blueberry tart. My tart looked like the photo on this page. We each had a glass of the 1999 Rieussec Sauternes.

The Ethical Mind

This is a pdf of an article in the Harvard Business Review:

harvard study.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Read and heed!

Rice Biz Plans

I have been a judge at the Rice Alliance Business Plan competition for three years now. I enjoy it more than any of the other organized events I attend.

36 schools from all over the world come to Houston and compete for over $300,000 in prizes. They present real business plans for real businesses. In some cases the businesses are already generating some revenue. In others, they are just getting started.

I participate in several of the events. The first is the feedback round. This is an informal round where teams present their plans to a group of judges and they get (unscored) feedback. This is the best. It is very interactive, and the teams generally take the feedback and make their presentations better.

The next is the Elevator Pitch competition. This is where each team has 60 seconds to pitch their idea and company. Intense! Some of these are quite amusing.

Then I judge the competition itself, followed by the while card round. (The wild card round is the #2 teams from each of the 6 flights). I don’t judge the final round. Too hard to make a decision!

The awards dinner is tonight. I know who my favorite is.

Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

St. Patrick's Day

Today is St Pat's day. I have not really celebrated this holiday for a while. But we do have an Irish Sports Bar down the street from us called Griff's.

All the street parking is full, and you can hear the music pounding in the yard. It is 2:12 in the afternoon.

Erin go Braugh!

Analogy Punctuations

Punctuation in Politics

Skilling gets 24+

Skilling

Lay's conviction vacated.

Vacated

Justice may be served, but it sure doesn't feel right

Hitch Quote

"What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof."

Christopher Hitchens

College Excuses

Top Ten No Sympathy Lines

On the road again

I have been spending too much time at work, and on my other, self indulgent aging blog to post more of my interesting insights (right) here.

And now we will be taking another trip to France – part for work, part for fun (does this seem to be a habit?). During this time, I will be reposting to my Europe 2006 blog, since it is still 2006, and I will be once again in Europe. We will be eating at some interesting restaurants (at least ONE three star!) and I will be posting comments about the food and wine.

Send me an e-mail if you want me to send you a post card.

Hitch on Terrorists and The Left

Stranger in a Strange Land

Science backs up the Pope!

CTV.ca | Long work hours linked to high blood pressure

Pluto a Planet No More.

SciGuy: Pluto's fate has been decided -- NOT A PLANET

So sad.

It will always be a planet in my heart.

Makes you glad to be Catholic!

Pope: Working too hard harms the spirit

Good site for bad science

Not Even Wrong

Not necessarily about Global Warming

The most interesting thing is the heat equation. We are making our cities hotter for sure - that heat has to go somewhere:

The deluded world of air conditioning. By William Saletan

Bad news for secure passports

Wired News: Hackers Clone E-Passports

Summertime

These are really the dog days of summer. It seems as if half of our staff and ¾ of our clients are on vacation. We always forecast a low July, and we were able to meet that. Or even end up lower that forecast! Man oh man.

I recently finished the book Theft by Peter Carey. It is set in Australia and New York City. It is a novel about the art community. What is good, how do agents and galleries work, who is hot, who is not. What gets stolen and why. Oh, it is also a love story. I have read several of Carey’s other books and was fond of them. Well, all except for Oscar and Lucinda. I could not abide that one.

If you like wine, here is a great v-blog worth spending some time with. Very fun.

Poor Andy!

Law Blog � Duck, Andy! (Or Just Stand There and Take it Like a Felon)

Another great Jon Katz dog story on Slate

Can a dog be a workaholic? By Jon Katz

Whining Nuts

Are nut allergies taking over the planet? By Emily Bazelon

You got to hand it to her!

Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar - New York Times

On the Radio

The Business Makers Radio Show

Is Louisiana Sinking?

SciGuy: Louisiana isn't sinking after all? Maybe.

I am uploading this to make sure my "hello" software works 

100 hits a day?

Not a chance.

Who blogs? And why? By Jack Shafer

Probably not even 100 hits a week.

From the NYTimes

You will need a subscription to the NYTimes to read this, but it is a good article:

Talking Points - The Rise of the Super-Rich by Teresa Tritch - New York Times

Income inequality is getting worse in the USA

The link below is to a PDF file discussing income distribution in the USA.

To be in the top 1% of income in the US in 20o4 you had to make more than $315k (that is per household)

pikettyqje.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Screw tops: Bad. Corks: Good!

Vinography: A Wine Blog: Uh oh. Screwcaps Will Ruin the Planet.

The WWF is against screwtops. I find that odd.

Ken Lay and James Byrd???

That is the most absurd analogy I have ever heard:

Chron.com | Lay praised by family and friends

Next thing you know, Ken was walking on water while he fed teh poor with loaves and fishes.

He was convicted. That may be vacted, but the fact is that he was convicted by a jury of his peers.

One of my wife's buddies

Wrote this play.

It is a shame that Bruce won't give us his e-mail address. I would ask for his comments.

I would like to get to Chicago to see this:

Acerbic, sociopolitical farce takes no prisoners, needs soul Chicago Tribune

(You may need to register. It is worth it)

I have posted photos of our house before. But here is a PDF file of the history of the house. It is on the National Register of Hysterical Places. 

Tricks of the Trade

Tricks of the Trade

Houston Crime

This:

Houston Crime Maps

is a Google "mash up" site with the latest Houston crime stats. Interesting - I live in 1A20. AKA "The Crime Free Montrose"

Icehouses

This is a good story about Icehouses in Texas. It is mostly in San Antonio, but Houston is similar.

One of the more famous Icehouses in town is just down the street from us - The Alabama Icehouse.

NPR : Texas Icehouses Melt Away

Interestingly enough, it is illegal to advertise "Cold Beer" in Texas. That is why you always see the signs "Ice Beer Soda" on the stores.

Quote for Today

"To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself."

- Albert Einstein

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

- Thomas Jefferson

In Europe

I am currently in Europe.

Read about it here.

I want my food MY way!

Diner's Journal by Frank Bruni - The Unseasonal Table - Dining - New York Times Blog

Animal Welfare

Michael Pollan - On The Table - Opinion - New York Times - Profiles in Courage on Animal Welfare

PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

I like lists like this. I don't know all the products, but I have used enough of them to agree wholeheartedly with the assessment:

PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

New Orleans Gangs

blogHOUSTON - HPD introduces New Orleans criminals to Texas law

Enron in the Houston Chronicle

Click here

Balzac Loved Coffee

This coffee plunges into the stomach...the mind is aroused, and ideas pour forth like the battalions of the Grand Army on the field of battle.... Memories charge at full gallop...the light cavalry of comparisons deploys itself magnificently; the artillery of logic hurry in with their train of ammunition; flashes of wit pop up like sharp-shooters.

Honore de BalzacFrench realist novelist (1799 - 1850)

What Enron means to me.

The Enron trial is over. And with it goes a piece of Houston history. (I’ll ignore the appeals for now.) It was a spectacular failure that hurt plenty of people. The architects of the plan will be, or have been punished, and justice will be served.

Houston was proud of Enron during those booming energy trading days. I have plenty friends who made a ton of money from Enron, and some made money on Enron stock. It was an audacious attempt to change the rules of accounting. It was an amazing group of smart people who looked at the rules and found ways around them. Some of these were legal (Mark to market was approved by the SEC, after all) but the deception came back to haunt the players.

We could cay we (My sweet ever-lovin’ and I) benefited from Enron sort of indirectly. We bought our house from an Enron coal trader after she skedaddled to New York City in disgrace. That is a great thing for us as we feel our house is the best place we have ever lived.

A friend introduced me to the Photofete group and tried to get me to do some consulting (Jennifer Binder was as arrogant as Jeff Skilling. No work for me there)

I dealt with the Enron Capital and Trade folks briefly when one of the companies I was with was looking for investors. (We were too mundane)

I have friends who worked at Enron, interviewed at Enron, or hoped that they may get a job at Enron. I worked with a woman who was an executive assistant at Enron (and she said those jokers were just as mean and mean spirited as you thought they might be.

Young professionals in school wanted to work for Enron when they got out because they made so much money. Whenever you ran into someone who worked for Enron, whether they were an accounts payable clerk or an energy trader, they let you know it. They really and truly thought they were smarter than anyone they met – and wanted to prove it.

I live in Houston during the last big boom (1980-1984 or so) and there were plenty of people on the make. But they were all trying to build something (dig wells, apartments, strip centers). They all knew it was not a zero sum game, and they could win by coming up with a better idea to deliver something. These Enron jokers were there to game the system.

If Lay and Skilling every get out of jail, it will be too soon.

Good Energy/ Bad Energy

Michael Pollan - On The Table - Opinion - New York Times - The Great Yellow Hope

Are you a Laupe?

Are you a Laupe?

The Bean 

Face 

Face 

Self Portrait with Bean (Millenneum Park) 

Chicago 

This is sort of creepy

Two Splits Between Human and Chimp Lines Suggested - New York Times

Neighbors

It is fun that we are all provincial.

I am sitting on my porch, drinking a glass of (not too good) Chilean Pinot Noir, and I see a guy and his wife walking down the street pushing a stroller mit baby. Blaze for some reason doesn’t bark, and as they turn the corner and get closer to me I see that the fellow is wearing a Green Bay Packer’s shirt.

I ask if he is from Wisconsin, and he says no, they are just fans. I said I am heading up there this weekend and he tells me that they went to school in Chicago (and Blaze starts to bark now).

I think Kurt Vonnegut called these “Granfalloons”

The death of the independent bookstore. By Tyler Cowen

Is it so bad?

Maybe not:

The death of the independent bookstore. By Tyler Cowen

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

I just finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It goes into great detail about what we eat, and why we eat what we eat in this country. It is disconcerting on some fronts, sad on others. It does not try to make one a vegetarian (he is not a vegetarian) although I can see how that may be an outcome of reading this book.

It is well written and compelling (He writes for the New York Times Magazine, and I have read one of his other books – The Botany of Desire, which is also very good.)

This book follows the food chain of three meals – one “industrial” one “organic” and one “perfect” (ie hunted and gathered) It is fascinating to see him follow the river of corn that this country produces and turns into any number of products (including, of course HFCS) and how our government encourages that industry (he lays a lot of the credit for that to Earl Butz. You youngsters may not remember him, but he was Sec of Agriculture who had to resign after a ribald and racist joke)

The “Big Organic” part is interesting too. DO you really think that it makes sense to eat “organic” food that was grown in Chile? Talk about energy intensive! And the “free range hens and eggs that I always buy to assuage my guilt are probably treated little better than battery hens.

There is relief in both his “grass farm” chapter, and oddly enough in the hunting and gathering part of the book. While neither are touted as solutions to the problems raised (hard to scale) it is nice to see that these things are possible.

An interesting statistic in our energy hungry world that he points out is that it takes more than a calorie of fossil fuel energy to grow a calorie of corn. Think about that when you think about the energy efficiency of producing ethanol from corn.

Well worth the time invested in the read.

Do you know what a bubbler is?

Dialect Survey Login

Not as secure as you would think...

Wired 14.05: The RFID Hacking Underground

Can't see the white bucks, but I am wearing them. Along with a white belt. 

White Bucks

I bought a pair of Johnson and Murphy white bucks last week. It was for a Gala at the Hermann Park Conservancy. The theme was summer whites. I was wearing my blue seersucker suit, and I thought that there was nothing that would go better with that than white bucks and a white belt.

I was feeling like Atticus Finch. I didn’t wear my Panama Hat just because it was going to be dark, but I thought that I would be lookin’ good if I had.

I was stylin’!

The Glass Wall

We bought season tickets this year to the Alley Theatre with our friends Tom and Gary. We saw some good plays this year, including one about WWI, one with Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter, and one about spies in the cold war.

This last Saturday, we went to see the last of the series, a new edition of Moliere’s The Miser which was created by the Jeune Lune theatre ensemble. Quite a play! It was written in the 17th century, but it is (like all good works of art) independent of time when treated correctly. You can read a review of it here and here. It was a fun experience.

Prior to the play, however, we always try to find someplace interesting to eat. I am always wanting to try new restaurants, and when I read this review, I knew where we had to go to the Glass Wall.

So we made reservations at a place that had not even been open for two weeks, something that I am usually loath to do. (well, ok, not really. I love trying new places, and will cut them a lot of slack) So we made reservations for four at 6:00 PM. Early enough to catch the show.

The place looks pretty cool as you drive up to it, and as you walk in. After some minor confusion emblematic of a start up restaurant, (what is table 14 again?) we were seated promptly. I will not rewrite Alison’s description, but I will talk about the food and service.

The waitress was great – ready to describe the food and wine, explaining that they had already changed the menu after only 12 days in service. The kitchen was open, and you could see the cook standing back there making (yes, not just supervising) every dish. They had some nice wines by the glass, which is good when you are in the pre-theatre mode and don’t want to drink too much.

The menu was great (not exactly the one I am linking to, as I mentioned above). Well laid out and simple. Between the four of us, we had Beet Gazpacho, Tuna Tartare, Crabcakes and Risotto with Parmesan Cheers and Morel mushrooms. (I had the Risotto. Each grain was separate and well seasoned. The cheese was shaved over the top, not grated, and the mushrooms were firm but not crunchy, full of flavor.) I had a taste of the gazpacho and it was something else. It looked like it should taste like borscht, but it tasted like creamy gazpacho. Interesting.

For our main courses, we had Crabcakes (the appetizer as the main course – twice) the halibut, and the roast chicken. (I had the chicken). The chicken came with mashed potatoes which were nier an chunky, with roasted asparagus on the side. But the chicken! Poems are written to such birds. Crispy skin, tender, juicy flash. That bird must have died a good death, because it tasted great.

For dessert, we had three sorbets, and the napoleon. I had the napoleon. The crispy part was crispy, the creamy parts were creamy. And it was all great.

We will go back.

Bistro Moderne

I will talk about the Bistro Moderne.

We attended the wake of a dear friend of my wife, and had been looking for someplace interesting to settle afterward and take the edge off. I had thought Mark’s but we could not get reservations on such a short notice. So we called Bistro Moderne, and they had no problem giving us a 7:30 spot on a Friday night. We called at about 5:00 pm. That seemed like a bad sign.

The first problem we had was just getting into the place. I am not fan of valet parking, but when them make you go around the block and THEN valet park, I get especially annoyed. But we had turned north onto the feeder road from Westerheimer (heading east) and were forced to drive around the hotel, back onto Westheimer heading west, and then into the hotel valet area.

We gave our keys up, and walked inside the restaurant. There was exactly ONE other table occupied at the time, although I believe that there was a rehearsal dinner going on. We were seated at a nice banquette, both of us looking into the restaurant. I liked that.

The waiter came by shortly and gave us the menus. He they asked if we wanted sparkling, still or (tsk) tap water. We chose the last. A few minute later, ANOTHER waiter cam by as ask if we wanted sparkling, still of (hmmm) tap water. We told him that we had already played that game, and water was on its way.

The menu looked nice, and the wine list looked good. We were offered bread, and I asked for some of the sliced baguette. It was exactly the consistency and flavor of Styrofoam. But you put enough butter on it and it seemed fine.

We had decided on our meals when the waiter returned and ordered an appetizer each – my wife asked for the foie gras saute a la rhubarbe, ($17) sauteed foie gras with fennel and rhubarb, dandelion salad, vanilla black pepper sauce and ordered the suggested glass of Chateau de Segur, Sauternes, ($11) as well.

I ordered the joue de veau ($11) veal cheek braised on a thin open lasagna with morel mushroom sauce. For wine, I ordered the Joseph Drouhin, Vosne-Romanee, Beaune, Cote-D'Or 02 ($80)

The Sauternes came almost immediately but we had to wait over ten minutes for the Burgundy, and even had to ask the manager after it. I was getting thirsty.

I have to say that the wine and the veal cheeks were delicious. However, the rhubarb was soggy and tart (and I come from Wisconsin where we know our rhubarb) the foie was cool and stringy, and the salad was best left on the plate.

For our main course, I had the l'onglet sauce moutarde ($19) a 9 oz hanger steak, mustard sauce and pommes frites. My wife had the magret de canard ($27) (duck breast with grapes and chanterelles, broccoli flan and a fried duck leg ravioli)

The duck was ordered rare as per the chef’s recommendation. It was tough and chewy. The broccoli flan was great. The duck leg ravioli was OK, as well.

The hanger steak tasted like liver, and the frites were coated with grease and cold.

We skipped desert because of the quality of the rest of the food.

Good article about rating wines

The Pour by Eric Asimov - Do Ratings Rate? - Wine - New York Times Blog

How many words are there in English?

Word Count By Jesse Sheidlower

NYC Day Four

On our last full day in New York, we again woke up late. We had an appointment to meet Doreen’s decorator (mentioned below) at a Fifth Avenue apartment. When we did, I was floored by the opulence. It was enough to make you a Bolshevik. I won’t say any more about that for now.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and saw a couple of their shows. In particular we saw the Rauschenberg show, and the Kara Walker exhibition. (A funny story: We have a Rauschenberg print from an illustrated version of Dante’s Inferno that I bought at Doreen’s first Evening in the Park silent auctions. I told a former boss that I had bought Doreen a Rauschenberg and he looked shocked that I could get my hands on such a thing and asked me “Did they know it was a Rauschenberg when they sold it to you?”)

We then met one of Doreen’s other New York Friends, Linda, for brunch at Café Ronda. That was great fun, as always. As we were leaving Woody Allen and Soon Yi walked by me on the street. I didn’t say anything, just was cool. I didn’t even stare.

After lunch Linda walked us down to the Boat Basin Park, very close to where we were staying. It was a very nice place. We walked back to her place for a cold drink, and then we picked up our tickets for our final show.

That show was The Three Penny Opera. It had just opened in Previews, and Jack was able to get us seats. Doreen really wanted to see this because Cyndi Lauper is in it. Alan Cumming is in it, too. We saw him in Cabaret a couple of years ago.

Since it was a Sunday night, the show was full of working actors. I knew some of them – Cynthia Nixon was there, Michael Cerveris (he played Sweeny Todd, and is a Yalie. Doreen went up and introduced herself to him) and Tony Roberts was there as well. Those are the only ones that we could recognize (well, that Doreen could recognize. I think my hit rate would have been lower than that)

The show was startling, set in sort of a modern day mythical city. Brecht is trying to teach us something. As he often said:

Erst kommt das Fressen First the grub (lit. "eating like animals, gorging")
Dann kommt die Moral. Then the morality.

We ate, then we were moralized.

Then after we were moralized, we at again. This time at Molyvos, a fancy Greek place not far away.

Then we walked home, got to sleep late one more time, packed, and flew Home.

NYC Day Three

The next morning (and another late morning, I might add) we again walked through the park. This time, our goal was the more conventional galleries on the East side.

But we couldn’t get there without first going into Bergdorf Goodman. Doreen was in search of something white that she could wear to Evening in the Park, her fundraising gala. We saw plenty of peasant blouses, plenty of gauchos. Plenty of Empire Waistlines. What a trip!

We had the great fortune to have lunch with Doreen’s friend Bruce Norris. He has a very dark worldview. Oddly enough, Bruce went to Africa and wrote a blog about it. He did not have a fun trip. But it did make for some fun stories.

We ambled down to see the Shake Shack in Madison Park, and then just walked around in the afternoon.

That evening we went to see the new version of Sweeny Todd. What a great production! Only ten people total – the actors also played instruments.

After the show we had dinner at ViceVersa, another wonderful theater area restaurant.

Sweeny Todd and Fleet Street

Sweeny Todd and Fleet Street

NYC Day Two

Our second day in New York started late and slow. Considering we didn’t get to bed until after 1:00 AM (Amazing when you think about our usual Houston bedtime!) I figure sleeping until after 8:00 AM was fair.

We spent the morning looking at geegaws at some fancy Geegaw shops. Doreen has a designer she is now working with who sent us the names of these stores. It was fun, but sometimes a little much. There was an Asian antiques store that had some wonderful, but rather expensive, pieces. We looked, we did not touch.

We did stop by the Thomas Moser’s store, as we have ordered one of their beds. It may be here in another month or so. They have some very nice furniture. We may be ordering some kitchen stools from them. A tall one for Doreen, and a short one for me. That way we can look each other in the eye while we eat at the counter. If we would eat at the counter.

In the afternoon, Jack had invited us to see Martin Short promote his new one man show. It was twenty minutes of his show that was being pitched to group ticket sales people. He was very funny. Beside, he grabbed my hand in a soul grip as he walked by. This was the first of many celebrity sightings we had on this trip.

After the comedy, we went to the art galleries in Chelsea for a different sort of laugh. We started at the Hotel Chelsea which is both a hotel and a gallery. Yes, it is THAT Chelsea Hotel (“I stayed up all night, in the Chelsea Hotel, writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you”) Disconcerting.

Then we visited Sonnabend. Scary and disturbing.

Paula Cooper.
Max Protech
Mary Boone
Pace Wilderstein

That evening we saw Spamalot. It is the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was really very silly. But we did sit across the aisle from Alice Cooper! I must admit we did not know who he was. But the people in front of us did. The funny part of that story is that the woman was there with her brother, as she and her boyfriend had a big fight that day. The boyfriend is a huge fan of Alice Cooper. He (Alice) volunteered to call the boyfriend to rub it in for the woman. Ha!

We ate supper at Angus McIndoe. A hot spot for the theater crowd.

NYC Day One

We left Houston in good time and arrived at the airport when we should have. We had relatively good seats (exit row – I should say excellent seats for me, just OK for Doreen as I had no seat immediately in front of me, but she had to sit in the middle seat) and the flight was uneventful.

We got in a cab that had the smell of a stale men’s locker room at the end of a long week. That was not really too much fun. But we got to the place we were staying (a b&b type hotel called the Inn New York we stayed in the Vermont Suite) without any difficulty.

We checked in and decided to take a walk through Central Park. It was a very pleasant day, and we had a great time. The birders who keep constant watch on Pale Male were in the park, and graciously let us look through a scope at him standing on an aerial some distance from his nest. It was a nice walk.

We returned to the apartment for a quick nap before venturing out to Café Boulud, one of Daniel Boulud’s restaurants. We met Jack Thomas there, one of Doreen’s college buddies.

We met at about 8:00, and Jack came by minutes later. We had just received our drinks (a martini for me, a cup of Champagne for Doreen) when Jack sat down. He got a martini as well, and we started chatting.

Several minutes later the waiter came by, and we asked about the Tasting Menu. She didn’t describe it all that well, and sent off for the Captain. He came by and warned us that it would take at least two and a half hours to eat our way through the tasting. We didn’t mind, and asked if they had a flight of wines ready to go with it. They sent off for the sommelier, and he assured us they did.

I won’t even attempt to describe the meal here. Mainly because I can’t remember much of it. Suffice it to say that we spent four hours in the restaurant, ate an amazing variety of wonderful food, and drank what seemed like gallons of high class wine that was suited to the food we had. What a treat.

Cock a Doodle Do By Jon Katz (Slate)

Cock a Doodle Do By Jon�Katz

Here is the tagger's sig file... 

Our house, well, our fence actually, was tagged by the knitting taggers. It happened on St Pat's day. Here is the tag.

We looked at Art while in NYC. Here is a photo of 3,000,000 plastic cups set up to look like a landscape. It was pretty darned amazing. It was selling for $350,000. Here is a review.

We were in New York City this weekend. Here we are at Rockerfeller Center 

Chez George

We went to the New Chez Georges last night – the one that is now on lower Westheimer. It is in the space where Aldo’s was before they closed. They have been open since Valentine ’s Day, so we figured that the kinks would be worked out by now. We were not disappointed.

We had reservations at 7:00 PM for four of us. We were the first to arrive, and dropped our car off with the valet. I am no fan of valet parking, but they really don’t have too much space available. We would have walked over, but it started to rain just as we walked out our back gate. So we hopped in the car and got there tout d’suite and were greeted by a friendly American hostess.

There were only about three tables occupied (out of about ten, maybe? I didn’t go into the back room or upstairs. It is not a huge place) and we chose a nice big four-top in the quiet main room. The room had been renovated nicely, with some of the wood being restored to just wood, and the coffers in the ceiling being painted in contrasting colors. The overall effect was quite calming.

While we were waiting for our friends, we luxuriated over the great wine list. The presentation was wonderful – one wine per page with the label pasted to said page. I talked to the sommelier and she said that they liked this presentation even though it took up more space. The selection was great, too. They had, of course, the Grand Crus at hundreds of dollars per bottle. But they also had a nice selection of lesser known wines from around France, including some nice white burgundies and red Bordeaux.

We started off with a bottle of a Roederer NV Brut Rose just as our friends walked in. They were happy with the selection, and we all relaxed and enjoyed the friendly ambiance as we chatted and started looking at the menu.

They then brought over a little amuse bouche, Frog Legs wrapped in paper. Oh! If we could have had a plate of those little hoppers! Succulent, tender, and a bit greasy, just the way frog’s legs should be served. They went perfectly with the Champaign, and we knew we would be in for a nice treat.

We were trying to decide what we would be eating from a rather simple menu – starters and main courses, about eight of each. It is apparent that the philosophy is offer great food that you have the right stuff to make. There is a statement somewhat to that effect on the menu. Personally, I am all for that sort of a plan. (I once mistakenly ordered mussels in an Italian place on Richmond and was served something that turned my stomach.)

As we chatted and ate, we also picked our food. We had a nice selection, with only two duplicates. To start with we had the Chef’s pâté (a country pâté), the scallop salad, oysters in puff pastry and the pâté de fois gras (that was mine) My pâté was served with a warm brioche, and it was great. My wife had the oyster, and I had a taste of one. Tremendous – buttery, salty, and soft – no overcooked. I did not try the other two appetizers, but based on the reception they received, I think that there were no complaints.

Then on to the main course. We had two bottles of wine ordered, a red (a 2000 Bordeaux Haut Brisson) and a white (A Jadot Montrachet, but I don’t know which one). Our Bordeaux was an excellent choice for what we ordered – I had the veal filet and veal sweetbreads in a reduction sauce. My mouth is watering as I write this. I had a small potato gallette, and some baby spinach. A great combination. I am a sucker for sweetbread, but they too often come out overcooked and chewy. These would melt in your mouth, and you knew why they were called sweet-breads.

My sweet ever-lovin’ had the Filet Mignon. She said it was good – that is a piece of meat that ends up being tender and tasty when you have the right sauce (which I believe she did). Our friends had the salmon (which looked great) and another order of the veal.

Dessert was profiteroles and another ice creamy treat, as well as a couple of cheese plates. A very nice way to end the dinner.

The only real downside was that the water glasses got awfully low before they were refilled, and occasionally I was wondering if my wine glass would go empty (it never did).

Overall, the ambiance was lovely (quiet and calm, especially compared to Dolce Vita down the street) food was great, and wine selection was superb. We will be going back.

Oh wait. The damages? $460 total with tip – but that did include $190 worth of wine. Well worth it.

St Patrick's Day

I live a block away from an Irish Sports Bar.

Today is St Patrick’s Day.

Ordinarily this bar is not too crowded. It is as close to a neighborhood bar that Houston has to offer without being an Icehouse (more on Icehouses by and by). It is owned by the staff, and I always fear that they are about to go out of business. They have bands three or four times a year, and we stop in for burgers or wings maybe a half dozen times a year.

We don’t go in on St Patrick’s Day.

First of all, they charge a cover. Second, it is really crowded. Third, it is filled with a bunch of green drunks!

I always enjoyed the St Pat’s day festivals that I visited in the past (did you know that St Pat was an engineer?) and always had my share of green beer and sang my share of Irish songs.

I guess I am getting too old. And not being Irish, it just seems like a lot more trouble than it is worth.

But, unlike other festivals, I don’t begrudge the participants their fun. They usually don’t break anything, they tend to vomit in the streets and not on my lawn, and the music stops at 10:00.

What could be better?

Pass me if you can.

I drive about 18 miles one way to work. Because I have a ‘reverse commute” I am able to drive fast and watch traffic ebb and flow (as in the story below). One thing that has become apparent to me, however, is that people HATE to be passed.

I understand that it is bad when someone passes you and then they slow down. Or someone passes you, and then get in the right lane in front of you and don’t turn right, thereby keeping YOU from making a right turn.

No, I am talking about people that are just poking along on the freeway, and then try to speed up as you pull along side them (usually on their right, of course). These are people that invariably think that they are in the right (I was doing the speed limit!) and yet no doubt cause more accidents and road rage than any slipshod lane changing without signaling fool.

The other day I was getting on the freeway (before my entrance because two full lanes again) and I zipped by a fellow in a pick up truck (who was dawdling) and he flipped me off! I mean really. Did he need to touch his brakes? No. Did he need to swerve to miss me? No. All he had to do was keep his foolish hands on his wheel and get his tiny mind behind the fact that my car was faster than his. No value judgment, just a fact.

What a loser.

Speed Sting

Every Friday we have donuts in the office. Usually our sales guy buys them, but today he was out of town (selling something, I hope) so I picked them up. I get a dozen glazed and dozen mixed. It is nice to have variety.

I met someone I had not seen in 20 years at the donut shop, but that is not really the subject of this entry. I pull out of the strip center and headed over to the freeway (my beloved US 59, entered via Spur 529). There was a motorcycle cop waiting at the light to get on, and I pulled in behind him.

We all got up to speed and bunched around d behind the policeman. One dopey guy started to pass the cop, and he just made a downward motion with his hand to have the guy slow down. Slow down he did, and the cop eased over to the right lane and took the next exit.

Of course, as soon as he took the exit, two cars – one a brand new BMW 750Li and the other a late model Lexus took off like a scalded cat. You have to realize that the average speed of this freeway, as we are going against traffic, is probably 75 mph. The speed limit is 60 (which see). So these jokers were feeling hemmed in.

But from my viewpoint, I could see a drama unfolding. This is one of those exits where you can get off the freeway, and then immediately back on without going through a stoplight or crossing a road. The cop was just watching the freeway, and keeping pace with these two cars. He had a plan

And he jumped back on the freeway without and further adieu, popped his lights, and fell in behind the BMW. Poor dumb fellow. He didn’t know what hit him. AND HE SHOULD HAVE!!!

He got a ticket.

Some Interesting Calculators

Hugh's Mortgage and Financial Calculators

David Bromberg in Conroe

I first heard David Bromberg when I was living in Kemmerer, WY. I was working for the Kemmerer Coal Company (now owned by Pittsburgh Midway. See a satellite image of the mine here.). This was in 1978. Well, I didn’t hear him live, but I was introduced to him on vinyl. It was his David Bromgberg:Wanted Dead or Alive! album. I fell in love with his music almost instantly. I mean, anyone who can sing a song about a fellow who killed his girlfriend, and then pleads with the judge to give him the death penalty, and make you LIKE it. (Send me to the ’lectric chair.“I said Judge, Judge, Mr Sirica, PLEASE!”) as well as a song about how he should be happy, but somehow he has the blues (Someone Else’s Blues) has my vote.

I first saw David Bromberg perform with his large band in a converted church in Madison called (cleverly enough) The Church Key. I am not sure if it is still open, but it was a great venue. It was inexpensive, and you had a great view from most of the pews. I frequently saw a band called ‘Out of the West with Beverly Jean” which was sort of a local Cosmic Cowboy band. Once when Jerry Jeff Walker was in town for another gig, he sat in with OOTWWBJ. So did The Amazing Rhythm Aces.

When Bromberg performed in a small venue, and that venue was a bar, it was a wonderful experience. Whenever he looked at the crowd, you felt as if he was looking straight at you. I am not sure how he did it, but everyone I talked to experienced the same thing. He put on quite a show, with talking, laughing, singing, and performing. He is one of the best stringed instrument players that I have ever seen.

I saw him at least two other times in Madison, I think that both of those time he was playing at a purpose built facility called Headliners that was next door to The Church Key. Bromberg would walk on the tables while playing and singing. It was quite an experience.

I moved to Houston in 1980, and back then Bromberg and his band was still touring. I saw him at Fitzgerald’s at least once, and at Rockefeller’s at least twice. Sometimes he would have his big band, sometimes his small band, and one time I even saw him with a gospel choir. On one of his trips here is had the flu, and yet the show went on. One of the local music reviewers mentioned it, and it made him mad.

How do I know? I ran into him at a local BBQ place the next time he was in town. I introduced myself to him and told him how much we enjoyed all his shows. He started complaining about the reviewer (I think it was Marty Racine) whom he said gave him the review. I found that review (see it here). It was not bad, but then memory plays tricks. (Bromberg opened for Arlo Guthrie! Talk about inversion!)

So that gets us to recent times. Last December (or so) I was listening to our local Pacifica station (KPFT) which does some local music especially on Saturday. One of the DJs (your friend and mine) Larry Winters mentioned that Bromberg would be coming to the Historic Crighton Theatre in Conroe. Now, Conroe, TX is about 50 miles from my house, but it only took about 10 minutes for me to decide I needed to see David again. (The last time I saw him was the night the US attacked Iraq – the FIRST time. It was January 16, 1991! Way too long)

Of course, the first person I thought to call was my old buddy David Chandler. He and I had gone to many concerts, and have had many adventures. Some were even fun! He agreed that he and his new wife would be glad to come. So I bought tickets and we waited.

The wait was over yesterday when we finally made the long trip up to Conroe and the music. David had called Larry Winters and asked for a place that we might grab a bite before the show. He suggested a small taqueria near downtown Conroe. We drove up with the sketchiest of directions (across the street from the Donut Wheel) and amazingly enough found ourselves in front of (a quite empty) Taqueria Vallarta.

We have never been a group to shy away from new food, so we walked in. They were obvisouly setting themselves up for a party, and we sort of walked over to the emptier side of the room. Then a fellow came up to us, all smiles and introduced himself. “Hi! I’m Larry Brown!” We all though he was the manager of the place (and an unlikely one at that) as we said hello in turn. “So it’s y’all’s birthday today?” He asked. Uh, no. OH, he then told us that they were having a birthday party for anyone whose birthday was in March. It was free, and we were welcome to join, birthday or not. He said that they eat, drink, and then go dancing. He pointed at Doreen’s strappy sandals (very cool, by the way) and said “Those just won’t do.” We all laughed, thanked him, and went to sit down. This is why one loves small towns.

We ordered and ate. The food was good, the service was well intentioned. We finally made it out the door and over to the theatre. They had Main Street blocked off in front of the place, and after picking up our tickets, we milled about outside.

The theatre itself was quite nice. Built in the 1930s, renovated in the 70s. The seating was good, the sight lines were good. After several introductions (including one by Larry Winters) James McMurtry got onstage.

James in Larry’s kid. He is a good guitar player, but man! Is he a downer or what!

After a 40 minute set, there was a 15 minute break and Bromberg got on (All times were strictly adhered to. Unlike in my youth when a 10:00 pm concert seldom started before 11:00)

Bromberg was playing with his quartet, which was (nominally) a violin, David on guitar, a bass guitar, and mandolin. I say nominally because everyone but the bass player would change instruments with some frequency.

They played one set, about an hour and forty minutes. It was all great. There were instrumental pieces, “Bad women done him wrong” pieces (the staple of the Bromberg oeuvre) and several of his older classics like “Summer Wages”, “The New Lee Highway Blues”, and (thank you!) “Sharon” (Whoa whoa whoa Sharon! What do you do t ho these men?)

It was a great show. If he comes to your town, go see him.

I graduated Phi Beta goddamned Kappa from THAT school!

The most important part of espresso making is the grinder

Several weeks ago I decided that I need a new grinder. It is not that my current grinder (a six year old Rocky) is failing, it is just that I felt I needed to take the whole process up another notch. So I started to do some research, and as always I was led to CoffeeGeek, Alt.Coffee, and various other random websites.

To recap, my coffee history goes something like this: (skip to the *******s if you want to get right to the review of the grinder. Here in Texas, we feel you need some back story before you jump right in. Think of it as foreplay)

Back in 1999 I stayed in an apartment that had a La Pavoni Europiccola. I thought it made the best coffee I ever had. So when I got home, I decided to get one, and bought it from Italy Direct. I played with that great machine for a while, and decided that the beans I was using (Starbucks. Sure, go ahead and scoff if you want, but the fact is that Starbucks has done a very good job of introducing a lot of people to the fact that you can get better coffee than Folgers.) at the time.

Making a long story short, La Pavoni led me to a Hearthware Precision, which led me to a Silvia/Rocky combination, which led me to an Alpenröst, which led me to an Isomac Rituale, which led me to a Hottop, which lead me to last week. That was six years in 45 words.

So I started looking at ways to improve on what I thought was a pretty good thing. And the most obvious point that I came up with was a new grinder.

Of course, if you read anything about grinders, you will feel that you need a couple of things. First is a big stinking motor, second is a stepless adjustment, and third is chrome. (I made that up.) All three things point in one direction – The Mazzer Mini.

So I started searching and searching for a good price on a Mini. (I didn’t really search too hard. I looked at e-bay, and I checked out the big internet sellers, all the while knowing that I would get it from Chris’s Coffee. I have had such good experience from him in the past that I saw no reason to go elsewhere) I realized that this was not a cheap piece of kit, and something I have not heard of before – a MACAP started coming up in the reviews.

But the MACAP seemed to have a flaw – a stepped grind adjustment. So I asked around, sent Chris an e-mail or two, and he let me know that MACAP was coming up with a stepless adjustment. He recommended it strongly, and I was sold. (having been a salesman for a large part of my career, I love talking to people who love their products. I am an easy mark for passion)

So I ordered a chrome stepless MACAP from Chris, and it arrived in my office yesterday.

SO here is the review part:


The machine was well packed and wrapped, with no transit damage in the box or in the packing material. The box was much taller than it was wide, and I worried a bit about getting it into my car. It was also pretty heavy, but as I not infrequently buy cases of wine on the internet and have them delivered to my office, that was not too much of a problem.

I got the machine home and removed it from the box, putting at the pieces on the counter. It was very easy to assemble, with the hopper fitting into the grinder and then tightening down a set screw. I did not put on the tamper, as I have a Reg Barger tamper in Purple Heart (the short one. It is a great tool). The tray for spilt grounds fits loosely under the grinder, slipping under one of the MACAP’s rubber feet. It is nice to catch coffee that doesn’t make it into the portafilter.

The hopper has a little guillotine that you can use to stop bean flow, but as I only put in the beans I will grind immediately, I removed that. I also removed a finger guard from inside the doser (DO this at your own risk. I don’t recommend you do it at all) so I can sweep out the path between the burrs and the grinder.

The portafilter stand is a nice thick piece of steel that holds the PF nice, but doesn’t collect grounds. The machine is very good looking. There is a lot of shiny chrome on my countertop right now.

The grind control mechanism is an easy to use and intuitive worm gear that is on the back side of the bean hopper. It moves effortlessly, and makes changing the grind a charm. I have not used the Mini, nor have I used the stepped MACAP, so I cannot compare and contrast, I can only offer my impartial analysis of the device, and it is a good one.

I had some old grounds that I wanted to run through the machine before I used my homeroast, and turned the thing on. (It has a rocker switch covered by a clear soft plastic guard.) It hums – a little noisier than the Rocky. I slowly tightened the grind until I could hear the whisper of the burrs kissing, and then backed it off several twists.

Dumping in the beans, I thought that it was taking a long time to grind. I then took these old washed out beans and tried to pull a shot, and the Rituale was chocked. It took so long to grind the beans because I had the grind so fine! I moved it back to what I thought was a more reasonable grind, and the beans just flew through.

After grinding the beans, I take a small brush and clean the chute into the doser. As this is my first day, I don’t have the doser tuned yet to deliver my 17g of coffee (and I probably never will) but the fins sweep the doser much, much cleaner than I have ever seen a Rocky sweep.

I am still tuning the grind, and will post more later, but I wanted to get a first look in for y’all.

The short end of the story is:

This is a big, serious grinder. The stepless mechanism works effortlessly and easily. The grinder is fast, quiet, heavy, and very good looking. It is probably worth a look for anyone who was going to spend money on a top quality grinder.

Are smart people overrated? more from Gladwell

gladwell dot com - the talent myth