Ann and Dan's News

Yes we can!

2008-11-04T23:52:00.004-05:00

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi - from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring - when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

-MLK

Thank you America. And thank you New Hampshire!

Vote!

2008-11-04T12:28:00.003-05:00

I voted for Obama today because, among other reasons, he is the first politician in my life who has excited me and made me feel like progressive change in this country is a real possibility.

No matter who you support, I urge you to vote.

Mini Debate Live Blog

2008-10-15T22:28:00.002-04:00

Does John McCain not know the difference between autism and Down's syndrome? I think even Joe the plumber knows that.

This is genius...

2008-10-08T10:19:00.000-04:00

Good Cop, Baby Cop

2008-08-06T15:07:00.002-04:00

See more Will Ferrell videos at Funny or Die

Go Celtics!

2008-06-17T11:07:00.002-04:00

It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift.

-Roger Angell, The Sporting Scene, "AGINCOURT AND AFTER," The New Yorker, November 17, 1975, p. 146

Dr. Seuss Contributes to The Onion

2008-04-02T12:57:00.002-04:00

On the fourteenth of March, in towns nationwide,
In every cinema, multiplex, on every barnside,
Gleamed another adapting of one of my books,
CGI-ed and digitized by another sly crook.

The rest is here: Stop Making Movies About My Books.

Shrimp!

2008-03-18T19:53:00.001-04:00

I made Dan stop the car so I could capture this sign.

Mmmm. Shrimp.

It's funny because it's true...

2008-03-04T13:50:00.000-05:00

Stuff White People Like.

The Pats...

2008-02-04T17:06:00.000-05:00

...drove me to drink:

The State of the Union

2008-01-28T20:04:00.000-05:00

Get psyched people!

Free Rice

2007-11-12T15:22:00.001-05:00

Test your vocabulary and donate to the hungry at the same time at FreeRice.com.

Malkmus Sings "Maggie's Farm"

2007-11-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

With an assist from John Medeski on organ.

From the "I'm Not There" soundtrack.

Thank You Jacoby Ellsbury!

2007-10-30T17:39:00.001-04:00

The Rockies Playoff Run...

2007-10-30T09:58:00.000-04:00

...Super Mario Style:

Woohoo!

2007-10-29T12:51:00.000-04:00

Go Red Sox! Bob Ryan put it best - 2004 was an exorcism, 2007 was an exclamation point. Never in my life did I ever think I would see the Red Sox lead the AL East for basically the whole season then go on to win the World Series in a sweep. Just amazing stuff. And I don't think they are done either - they might have the best young talent in the majors. What a great time to be a Boston sports fan.

My only regret is that I didn't buy any furniture from Jordan's last Spring.

Widespread Panic

2007-10-21T21:11:00.000-04:00

Does anyone else find it weird that Fox is sometimes using a short clip from "Ain't Life Grand" by Widespread Panic when they cut to commercial during the ALCS? It's a pretty good song, but kind of a random choice.

Oh yeah, go Sox!

Only in New Hampshire...

2007-10-21T21:04:00.000-04:00

We went to Riverview Farm in Plainfield this morning to pick up some pumpkins. We got some good ones - don't worry, we will have the annual Jack-o-lantern post as soon as they are carved. But Ann overheard a very funny conversation:

Mom (to worker): I want you to know your cat just scratched my daughter!

Worker: Well, your kid shouldn't have touched the cat. We don't call him Mr. Bitey for nothing!

Mom: (walks off in a huff)

Only in New Hampshire.

Award Winning Beer

2007-08-21T19:12:00.000-04:00

My Belgian-Style Strong Pale Ale was the overall winner at the annual Lebanon Health Food Store homebrew contest! Granted, there were only 9 other entries, but I still got a $75 gift certificate out of the deal. Anyone reading this who wants a bottle should let me know, I'll put one aside. Although at around 9% alcohol, I'm not drinking them that quickly.

Beer Business

2007-07-30T16:04:00.000-04:00

Here is an interesting article (from the always entertaining Lew Bryson) comparing the beer business of today to the wine business of yesterday. It would be really amazing if, when Sadie is legal, the #1 selling type of beer in the US isn't light lager but pale ale, or even something else. Although, I would put money on Anheuser-Busch brewing it, whatever it is - they seem to be catching on to the craft thing in a big way (Michelob makes a great Hefeweizen), and the amount of money they can throw at it would be unbelievable. The only thing stopping them might be the inability to swallow their pride and have Bud no longer be their flagship beer.

Blue Steel

2007-07-30T13:00:00.000-04:00

...is what I like to call this look:

This is what happens when people take your picture without telling you as you stare into the sun. It is from our lab retreat on Squam Lake, and was taken by Franck Mennechet, a member of my lab.

More France Pics

2007-06-28T08:33:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but here are a few more pics I took while in France:

The Institut Pasteur. Louis Pasteur is actually interred in a tomb below this building. The tomb is very elaborate; the entire ceiling is a tile mosaic depicting Pasteur's achievements - studies on the fermentation of beer, the spoilage of wine, the rabies vaccine, an anthrax vaccine. Also in his tomb is his plaster death mask...that's got to be my favorite 19th century tradition.

A sculpture on the grounds depicting the boy that was the first person successfully vaccinated for Rabies.

This is the Tour Montparnasse, which is the tallest building in Paris. (The Eiffel Tower counts as a structure, technically).

It is a little known fact that there is a small branch of the casino in Paris.

Ch�teau de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley. This was a summer home for French Royalty. Now it is a tourist trap (but a pretty nice one).

The gardens on the grounds of the Ch�teau.

Well, that's it, I'll try to get back to posting on a more regular basis, because I know you are all dying to hear from me.

Je suis d�sol�...

2007-05-16T14:10:00.000-04:00

...or "I'm sorry" that I haven't posted in a while. I've been working a lot and have had a little less time for interesting activities to write about. I did get to go to the Mus�e Picasso last weekend where I snapped a picture of this sculpture (taking pictures of the paintings was interdit):

It's called "The woman with an orange or the woman with an apple." I guess Pablo couldn't make up his mind. It was an excellent museum, and after the overwhelming vastness of the Louvre, it felt much more manageable. On Sunday I was invited to lunch by a woman in the lab - this turned out to be a 5 course (not including the aperitif) meal that took about 3 hours. We drank quite a lot of wine and discussed politics, child rearing (they have 3 daughters and 1 son, the son being about 6 months older than Sadie) and basically any topic that came to mind. They wanted my opinion on who would be the next president of the US (I told them I had no idea) - and my reassurances that Bush couldn't run again. I was happy to tell them that he can't, and that you even see bumper stickers printed with his last day in office. It was a great time.

Other than that, I have been settling in. My French has not improved, but I can get my daily baguette with no problem which serves as dinner (sandwhich) and breakfast (jam). I even branched out a bit and grabbed a slice of Quiche Lorraine the other night, which was by far the fluffiest, most delicious piece of Quiche I have ever had (apologies to my mom and Ann of course). Here is the view down the street from my front door (and yes, that is the Eiffel Tower in the distance):

I'll try to post a little more often, I'm going to see a Castle tomorrow so I will definitely have some pictures.

Les souris

2007-05-11T15:35:00.000-04:00

I got to meet les souris (the mice) today. Any doubt I had that my research could have been done in New Hampshire was erased when I saw the gigantic isolation unit the mice live in to keep them germ-free. The Institut Pasteur is an impressive facility - it's packed into a place much smaller than Dartmouth, but they have every piece of equipment one could want.

After work I went to the Louvre, which is open late on Fridays. Of course I had to continue in my series of bad pictures of famous art, so here is the Venus de Milo:

I was told at the lab that I had to check out the Napoleon III Apartment. I was glad that I did - it was probably the closest I'll ever come to walking through a palace. Here's the dining room:

But overall, I probably spent the most time checking out the Egyptian artifacts. I never knew, but the Louvre puts the British Museum to shame as far as Egyptian stuff goes (with the exception of the Rosetta stone which is probably the coolest archaeological find ever). The had a great display of a mummy taken out of his sarcophagus:

And his organ jars below him:

I don't think I'd ever seen a mummy in such a state, it was really interesting, and I didn't see Brendan Fraser around so I figured I was safe. There was also a cool exhibit of the old Louvre deep in the basement of the new Louvre - it's amazing they built around it the way they did:

On the way home, I got off the metro a couple stops before mine to check out the area around the big station. I saw a place called Cafe Leffe, so I decided to give it a try for dinner. Now this place goes against everything I believe in as a beer lover - it is a chain restaurant owned by the biggest beer conglomerate (InBev) in Europe (and second in the world to A-B). But damn if it wasn't good - the Leffe 9 was pretty tasty (nowhere near as good as a real Triple, of course, but not bad) and the Moules Marnier Frites (mussels with fries) were amazing. The waiter brought a 3 quart pot filled to the brim with mussels with a ton of white wine/onion broth, a huge plate of fries and, of course, bread. There was absolutely no way I could finish it - at 11 euros, it was a great value. I may have to go back.

Aujourd'hui

2007-05-09T15:10:00.000-04:00

I think the title means "today" and it's a perfect example why learning Spanish is useless if you want to know French - in Spanish today is "hoy" and pronounced with a silent h. Easy. I don't even know where to begin with "aujourd'hui."

Anyway, today was my first day at work (mostly administrative stuff, if you think beuracracy is bad in the US, come to France), but I didn't have a full day, so I left mid-afternoon to do some sightseeing. I popped over to the Muse� d'Orsay, which is only a couple stops on the metro from where I am. For those of you who may not know, this museum has nearly every impressionist painting you have ever seen reproduced (well, not really, but it sure seems like it). It's kind of weird seeing paintings that you have seen pictures of over and over. And then taking your own pictures of them.

Afterward, I grabbed an Affligem blonde at a cafe and watched a guy on a bike get hit by a car. Hard. It even shocked the Parisians. He's still alive, but I think he had a broken leg, probably some ribs too - I didn't stick around to watch him get loaded into the ambulance. It was his fault though (riding in the crosswalk against the light), and of course he wasn't wearing a helmet.

Funniest sight today: You know how when cops in the US are together, invariably one of them grabs a bunch of doughnuts? Well, it's the same in France, except one of the cops brings a bunch of yogurt.