Architectural Toys. Scans of box covers of several decades' worth of building-related toys, with background info.

on my annual dinner in the Boston area we picked Lumiere in West Newton...very nice stylie place, food was Provencal and very good....need to find a great place for next year, so far Radius is the best meal for me in Boston but better must exist!!

If we take Christmas far enough (that is, to Easter), we’ll wind up drinking blood. Like they do in Malawi.

Reversing the previous administration's position, the city now favors turning Chelsea's old High Line elevated railway into a park.

Russ and Daughters gets the Lovevibe
"Asshole Retailer of the Year Award" for 2002!!

Dinner at Annisa last night (Barrow Street just East of 7th Avenue). Along with Wallsé, this restaurant has restored my faith in the concept of dining outside of your own kitchen—and I’m always excited to go to Lupa. Annisa is smart and unpretentious with glorious food. I looked around the dining room and wondered how WD-50 could acquire a clientele like this: real people. The partner/manager showed me her new Table Top software that tracks reservations and customer details, there were diners who had been there 70 times. This is what you want, less of the obscene scene; more people, less press.

Mrs. Dweezil Zappa's cam. Click "reload" to see if she's on. No nudity.

With just a few weeks left in 2002 I have after a 3rd stunning meal at Jewel Bako, decided to give it my #1. Each year we dine at three spots on the last few days of December. This years picks are a return to Fresh, Kai for the first time, and a long awaited meal at Honmura An (I have wanted to go for years but have sadly never made it, my food guru gives it one of the top 5 overall restaurants in NY over the last 20 years).

Top Restaurants 2002

NYCity
#1 Jewel Bako
#2 Lupa
#3 Jean Georges
#4 Grand Sichuan Int'l Midtown
#5 Felidia
#6 Union Pacific

El Mundo
#1 Da Guido (Piedmonte, Italy)
#2 Taubenkobel (Burgenland, Austria)
#3 Zur Rose (Sud Tyrol, Italy)
#4 L'Astrance (Paris)
#5 Temple Club (Siagon)
#6 Altwienerhof (Vienna)
#7 Locanda Dell Arco (Piedmonte, Italy)
#8 Les Tonnelles (Loire, France)
#9 Indochine (Siagon)
#10 Walter Bauer (Vienna)

Special Merit/No Particular Order
The Minnow, Veritas, Sistina,
Fresh, Holy Basil, Al Di La
Manducati's, Willi's Wine Bar (Paris)
Tomasso's, Gramercy Tavern, Picholine
Locanda Vini Olii, Al Ponte (Verona, Italy)
L'osteria del Vignaiolo (Piedmonte, Italy)
L'Oste Scuro (Verona, Italy)
Il Gattopardo, Jaglhof (Styria, Austria)
Weininger (Vienna), Loibnerhof (Wachau, Austria)
Zur Blauen Gans (Burgenland, Austria)

another great meal at Jewel Bako!! will go back in the spring, once a season is great, the summer trip had my favorite one fish (a mountain bass textured like silk), the fall meal overall was more interesting but not better than tonight, love this place.....last night at Aix was better than the first

modern drunkard magazine

anyone have a good bread pudding recipe? jeanne?

and stevie

Yesterday I sat around waiting for the phone company to send a repairman, and looks like tomorrow I'll be doing it again. Yesterday they restored the dial tone, but there's still a loud hum on the line. This happens on the average of once every 3 months. The phone poles behind my apt. are old and decrepit and whenever it snows (or the sun shines too hard) my phone goes out. They never really fix the problem. The repairman does some kind of patch and then the phone's OK for a while, then the cycle starts again. I'm supposed to sit and wait from 8 am to 7pm and if they don't show up (which they often don't) I go through the whole thing on another day. According to one of the repairmen, the company had several million marked for infrastructure repair and it all went to CEOs in the last merger. I totally believe it. Anyway, the company's name is VERIZON (stupid name--like a ten year old's idea of clever: "vertical + horizon"? gimme a break) and they SUCK.

Range Rover

A double helping of Wylie in today's Post. He and the new stove are featured (with photo) in a piece on favorite kitchen equipment, while the gossip column includes a tidbit about WD 50 opening "at the end of January."

noisome?

im working this one (truck driiver) Recomended

Trent-chant Commentary

Just when I thought I had this war-blogger thing figured out, 2nd generation neocon John Podhoretz comes along to explain what's really going on in cybersville. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and, you know, powerful, ha ha ha…

froogle your holiday shopping.

O

From the (extended) family:
Bird artist Jonathan Alderfer talks about the new edition of the National Geographic Field Guide.

nudie suits

for the first time in a long while i didnt have to work on a saturday so i took the time to cook, nap and be a couch potatoe......to get in the spirit of the holidays i watched the following 4 movies in a row 1) No Mans Land (Bosnian War), 2) Pearl Harbor (WW2), 3) Full Metal Jacket (Vietnam War), and 4) ???title?? CNN news team in (Iraq/Kuwait) War.....

bird blogger

robert redford's great op-ed on energy independence from monday's LA Times

New (to me) get your war on page.