Recommended:
Movie: The Station Agent. It stars Peter Dinklage, who you may remember as the dwarf author from Elf who beats the shit out of Will Ferrell. It was just an excellent little (really, no pun intended!) movie, the kind that isn't really going to change your life or anything, but an extremely pleasent way to spend an hour and a half.
Beer: McNeill's Scotch Ale. Ann and I picked this up on our way to NYC last weekend, and we just got around to drinking it. A delicious Scotch Ale, slightly smokey, malty, but very smooth. None of the cloying sweetness that you sometimes get in a Scotch ale.
Music: Brad Mehldau Largo. Yes, yet another white jazz keyboardist that plays cool cover songs in the proud tradition of Medeski and the Bad Plus. But his version of "Paranoid Android" kicks ass.
Essay: It isn't in the online version, but Jonathan Lethem's (author of Fortress of Solitude which you need to read if you haven't) essay "The Beards" in this week's New Yorker is amazing. The way he describes the relationship of the teenage male and his music (and to a lesser extent, books and movies) is exactly the way I felt, and the way I would write it if I had a modicum of talent. If anyone out there wants me to save the issue for them, let me know in the comments.

This is an actual question from the exam I mentioned last week:

You have just started your own lab at Red Sox Nation University and you decide you want to start a new research direction for your group. You have isolated a new organism called Yankees loserii that, upon infection, causes an abnormal swelling of the head. Your first mission is to gain a better understanding of how Y. loserii colonizes the host and causes disease. You have a few pieces of preliminary data you've gleaned from the literature that provide a starting place. An in vitro system has been set up in which Y. loserii has been shown to colonize a particular host cell line called AROD-S. In this model system, Y. loserii is cytotoxic and thus kills the AROD-S cell line after 48 hrs of exposure. Standard genetic tools such as transposons, gene fusions, plasmids and antibiotic-resistance markers are also available to you. However, no one has yet felt it is worth the money to sequence this organism. Of course, your lab is well stocked with all the typical equipment including incubators, microscopes, etc.

A. Design a genetic screen to identify factors required for Y. loserii to kill the AROD-S cell line.

B. Design a second screen in which mutants identified in the screen above can be sorted into the two following classes: a. Genes required for the colonization of the AROD-S cell line, or b. Genes required for killing of the AROD-S cell line

C. How would you use an enrichment to facilitate the screen you designed in Part A?

D. As a result of the screen performed above, you identify a key toxin called WS-04 that is required for killing the AROD-S cell line. In the course of your experimentation, you discover that this toxin is only expressed when Y. loserii is exposed to the AROD-S cell line, but NOT when Y. loserii is grown on laboratory medium. Based on your preliminary data, Dr. Taylor hyothesizes that expression of the gene encoding WS-04 is repressed on laboratory medium. Using the genetic tools at your disposal, describe how you would design and implement a genetic slection to identify the repressor of the gene encoding WS-04.

I got a kick out of it (well except for part C, which kicked my ass).

I was going to write a post about some thoughts I was having about country music while listening to Johnny Cash. But I changed my mind after hearing the new Burger King commercial, which takes the venerable old tune Big Rock Candy Mountain and creates new lyrics about chicken breast trees, bacon-ranch dressing streams, cheddar paved streets and other fast food fantasies to promote some sort of chicken sandwich. I wish I had something profound to say about this, but I am too disturbed by the image of chicken breast trees.

The Gates.

So I had a big test today. It sucked. Kind of unfair to have a test on Valentines day, but it also let me off the hook. Anyway, all Ann and I did for Valentines Day was order Chinese take-out. So what was my fortune? "You will pass a difficult test that will make you happier." Well, that's a relief.

Blogger finally got around to fixing their comment system - the comments show up in a pop-up and you can put your name in without registering.

I also started up my own del.icio.us account. Now I can put up links with very little commentary just like Jake. Of course Jake will probably be the only one who ever looks at it, but that's fine.

RIP Jimmy Smith.

Dynasty! It wasn't always pretty, but they got it done. To use the worst pun I've heard in years, it's a Boston Three Party!

It will be weird in a couple of years to see the Pats lose a playoff game - I've forgotten what it's like. Go Pats! This never gets old.