Friday Catch-Up

It seems every time I turn around, my Bloglines account is overflowing with posts I’ve saved – either to read them at a later time when I can pay more attention to them, or to post links to them here so I can share them with all of you. If I were more organized I could probably post one or two per day, but I’m not – so here’s another dose of a bunch of things I think are worthwhile... Enjoy.

First, from An Exploration of Portland Food & Drink, an interesting article on what constitutes “good service,” and whether that’s really what we go out to restaurants for. There’s also an interview with Carafe’s chef and owner, Pascal Sauton, who reveals that he loves to have women working in his kitchen… And it’s not for the reasons you’d think!

Next, the fine folks at Damn Interesting have spotlighted an interesting endeavor called The Rosetta Project, which is trying to preserve something of the dying languages around the world.

My favorite round-the-world traveler Conor has posted details of a day at the kids’ school in Nepal (he’s still at the orphanage there), as well as a way to help pay for the kids’ tuition.

James Tata has posted a few things worth linking to recently:

• a snippet from an essay entitled “Shy” which is heart-breaking and beautiful (the same post also links to a very cool article about a woman leading a double life – she’s an accomplished pianist who also happens to work in a cubicle);
• a collection of pieces about New Orleans;
• and (my favorite) an incredibly eloquent Wynton Marsalis talks about his home city. As I read the Marsalis bit, I realized I was nodding emphatically. I’ve said before that New Orleans captured my heart immediately when I was there, and yet its allure is still somewhat inexplicable to me. Marsalis describes it as a place “where elegance met an indefinable wildness.” All I could think when I read that was, YES.

From Ride My Handlebars we read about – and see evidence of – the tree that ate a fire hydrant.

Finally, William Bragg has once again won the tally for the most blog posts I’ve saved by any one author, with a grand total of five. Here they are:

• If I believed in fairies, this is what I’d want them to look like.
• Someone clearly needs a geography lesson here.
• The breakdown about the wiretapping.
• This hasn’t happened to me in many years (and I’m trying to not think of that as an insult), but in case you’re on the receiving end of some unwanted attention, here’s one way to get ‘em back.
• Bush isn’t telling the truth? Again? Huh, how shocking.