Just dropped off Noah at his first day of preschool. Such mixed feelings.

I guess working through it is a good idea, msbelle.

Good god, I'm still trying to process Noah being old enough for all this. I just realised I dreamt about him again, because I have a picture of him in my head I'm pretty sure I've never seen. It's cute, though.

Why must my installation of Visio default to saving stuff in Visio 2002, which ruins what I've been working on? Now I pretty much need to start again from the top.

Tetris-inspired furniture. If only you could get a row of it to disappear when you made it all red.

Insulated Babies Grow Faster (Apr, 1933)

TO MAKE your baby grow faster, insulate his crib against the electricity of floor, walls, ground. To slow down his growth, ground his crib with flexible bands of metal. This is the extraordinary conclusion reached by M. Vies, of Strasbourg, France, who conducted such experiments on two groups of three babies. The insulated set grew more rapidly than the grounded trio, presumably pointing to the fact that the electrification of soil and air has a real influence on human growth.

eta: "Two groups of three babies"? Um, that sample size is a bit... small.

That furniture would be fantastic for kids.

This restaurant review has made me hungry for goat.

Stephanie Izard: America's sweet tart

Two years ago, after Izard had emerged victorious in the fourth season of "Top Chef," I joked that she should get out of the restaurant business, reasoning that "she hasn't ruined a sauce or overcooked a fish in three years."

Four weeks ago, I made my first visit to Izard's long-awaited restaurant, Girl & the Goat. It reaffirmed what I wrote five years ago, and made me happy that she ignored my advice two years ago.

...

"It's fun," she says, "to get people to try things they're afraid of."

Which explains the presence of Escargot & Goat Balls on the menu. These are not, thankfully, goat testicles (though Izard says she considered that), but merely ground-goat meatballs with a sausagelike texture, bolstered with pieces of escargot and anchovy under romesco sauce. It looks prosaic, but there are layers of flavor here uncommon to most meatball dishes.

The menu also lists Crispy Pig Face, a variation on head cheese that offers more textural contrast than traditional versions and is a very tasty dish besides; if you can say the name out loud, you're home free.

Anyone want to join me for some Escargot & Goat Balls and Crispy Pig Face? (Seriously, the Crispy Pig Face sounds tempting.)

Tommy, next time I'm in Chicago, we can totally go.

Cool!

And this is intriguing:

Servers bop around in black, goat-logo T-shirts with goat-themed phrases, some more printable than others.

Probably not "goat-fucker," huh?

RIP, August Haffenreffer: [link] I'm going to pour out a 40 for him....

My heart fell when it became apparent no testicles were involved. Still, yay goat!

Looking at the blank Visio page still. Pfft. At least I've saved it in the right version before putting anything on it. I'm so pissed.

It was obvious this would happen, but perhaps this might be a good story to forward to those opposed to the "ground-zero mosque":

Taliban officials know it’s sacrilegious to hope a mosque will not be built, but that’s exactly what they’re wishing for: the success of the fiery campaign to block the proposed Islamic cultural center and prayer room near the site of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. “By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor,” Taliban operative Zabihullah tells NEWSWEEK. (Like many Afghans, he uses a single name.) “It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.”

America’s enemies in Afghanistan are delighted by the vehement public opposition to the proposed “Ground Zero mosque.” The backlash against the project has drawn the heaviest e-mail response ever on jihadi Web sites, Zabihullah claims—far bigger even than France’s ban on burqas earlier this year. (That was big, he recalls: “We received many e-mails asking for advice on how Muslims should react to the hijab ban, and how they can punish France.”) This time the target is America itself. “We are getting even more messages of support and solidarity on the mosque issue and questions about how to fight back against this outrage.”

Zabihullah also claims that the issue is such a propaganda windfall—so tailor-made to show how “anti-Islamic” America is—that it now heads the list of talking points in Taliban meetings with fighters, villagers, and potential recruits. “We talk about how America tortures with waterboarding, about the cruel confinement of Muslims in wire cages in Guantánamo, about the killing of innocent women and children in air attacks—and now America gives us another gift with its street protests to prevent a mosque from being built in New York,” Zabihullah says. “Showing reality always makes the best propaganda.”

[link]