Understandable

While Googling around for information on UV radiation in LA I came across this friendly message:

Bonjour,
le service est indisponible momentanément...
Merci de votre compréhension.

This service is temporarily unavailable...
Thank you for your comprehension.

Scissors cuts paper, questions unnerve architects

I went to the Syracuse Connective Corridor open formum yesterday.  Four teams of architects presented their visions for our city, and the audience submitted questions to a moderator who posed a few of them to the presenters.  I asked the second team about their ideas for preserving parking availability since their plan calls for the reclamation of a number of parking lots for green spaces.  After receiving the questions all members looked nervous, and one fellow said softly to his teammates, "Do we rock, paper, scissors for it?"

Since 1984

Happy twenty-second, Claire!

Boom-da-da-boom-da-d—

I was walking back from the Warehouse, and a Ford Excursion with chrome rims rolled up at the red light next to me. The bass it was putting out easily surpassed anything that I've ever heard from an automobile, and I think I could even hear the glass of the car behind it and the windows in the building next to me vibrating. The twenty-something driver was looking rather pleased with himself, and the girl in the front seat seemed impressed—until the light turned green, that is. Almost as soon as the signal changed, the SUV stalled, the music went silent, and all I could hear were the usual sounds of a car starting up. I guess he must have diverted a little too much juice to his beats.

Syracuse international

Syracuse has been in full party-mode this past month. We've had a Latino Festival, an Irish Festival, and now we have Festa Italiana. This most recent one was only a half block away from my apartment, so I couldn't possibly miss out on the fun. (Nate and I strolled through the Irish festival a few hours before Plumtree died). I ate a light dinner so that I could sample some foods, but I still wasn't able to try everything I would have liked. I greatly enjoyed some "Greens Gentile" (escarole, sausage, broccoli, cherry peppers, and cheese) from Gentile's Restaurant and cooled my mouth with some gelato (which wasn't anything spectacular). Tonight I'm going back for the bacon-wrapped scallops on a stick, which will hopefully tide me over until the next big party: Oktoberfest!

Computer Over

The hard drive of plumtree, my primary computer, died today. I'm going to be stuck with quidnunc, my old Dell, for the next three weeks. quidnunc has no wireless, so updates to this blog before early October may be infrequent. (So what else is new?)

Wish me luck.

For whom?

I've always been one to look at the dedication pages of books, and I'm usually please when I find one that is interesting due to the presence of a familiar name or a bit of humor. In the last few days I've eyed the one in Francis MacDonald Cornford's translation of The Republic a few times. It reads:

TO
F. C. C.
in gratitude for many hours
patiently given to the amendment of this version
by one whose sense of good English
in a never failing guide

which I don't consider very interesting, although somewhat preferable to

For Louise, again, always

which precedes James C. Scott's rather excellent book Seeing Like a State. Today my real estate development textbook arrived, and I was pleased to find a freer spirit at work:

This book is dedicated to the memory of Jim Graaskamp—
dynamic, insightful, slightly opinionated,
and one helluva guy.

It sounds like a good way to be remembered to me.