Six-word memoirs

The thing I like most about using twitter is the brevity of it. Few of my ideas fit naturally into 140 characters. They need to be distilled, concentrated. I'm forced to pare away every extraneous shift in thought, to ask myself "What is it that I want to say". The end result of this process is not always beautiful. I sometimes find myself resorting to abbreviation, poor grammar, or other shortcuts. But in the best cases, I end with a pure thought inless than 141 characters.

Now that you know what I like about twitter, you might correctly guess that I 'm a huge fan of smithmag's six-word memoirs. Even more brief, and requiring a degree of concentration that's a bit frightening - an entire life distilled into six words. Of course not everyone tries to encapsulate a life. There are six-words discussing love affairs, New Year's resolutions, job loss and every other thing that might feel like a whole life in a given moment. But, in my opinion, the entries that actually attempt to encapsulate a life are the best. I'll list a few here for your perusal. Mine's the last one.


Not quite what I was planning.

Shy mother bewildered by self-confident daughter.

I do not snap: I flex.

Brought it to a boil, often . (This one by Mario Batali)

I am stronger than they think.

Found a few worth my time.

Those Bicycle Building Norwegians

So, there I am last week, surfing through google's book search, looking for stuff about the old Green Bay Trail. (I'm a bit obsessed about that old road, you may have noticed). Once I'd exhausted those hits, and being of a genealogical mindset, I started searching for info on my ancestors, among them the Huseby family. My Great Great Great Uncle Arne Huseby was a bicycle manufacturer in Milwauke in the late 1890s through early 19-teens. The company was called the Huseby Cycle Company. Innovative, no? They specialized in wooden frame bicycles, but also made some more unusual bikes like the bamboo-frame bike shown at right.

Searching google books, I got a hit on one of those old vanity publications they used to do all the time - the kind where you pay a fee, and they do a glowing writeup of your company and include it in their book along with a photo of your premises. Or, you don't pay a fee, and you get half a paragraph, and no photo... or you don't get mentioned at all. This book was an overview of Milwaukee manufacturing at the turn of the century. And there was the Huseby Cycle Company! The listing was very nice. It included a pic of the main building (shown at left), and gave a location. I've seen the location of the company described before, but it never helped me locate the building. Milwaukee changed a lot of street names, and most of the street numbers sometime in the 20s or 30s. An address was almost useless unless you have a map from before the names changed - which I don't. But this time, the building was listed as being on the corner of Lake and Ferry. And thanks to "the power of the internet", I was able to find a listing of street names before and after the switch. Lake and Ferry translated to "2nd and Pittsburgh".

A quick check of google maps showed what looked to be the building! Sadly, street view is not available for the streets in that area, so I'd have to visit in person to see what the building looked like now. Happily, I'd be a few blocks away over the weekend!



View Larger Map

And sure enough, it's the same building... or at least what's left of it. There's no trace of "Huseby" on the building. The name Laskin does appear in the stonework, indicating that, while the Husebys used the building, they weren't the original owners. Despite, the bricked up windows, awful paint job, and other atrocities inflicted upon the building, it was still pretty cool. I mean there I was, standing in the same spot that relatives of mine stood over 100 years ago!



So, photographic documentation of the exterior complete (see here for the full set of photos), I checked to see if I could get inside. It was a long shot, this being 9:15 on a Sunday morning and, sure enough, no luck. One entrance featured a sign for a theatrical supply company. Closed on weekends. The other entrance seemed to connect to a series of artists' studios/galleries. Glancing over the names I saw that I recognized one! James Hempel, a highly talented portrait painter has space inside the building where my long-gone relatives made bicycles out of inappropriate materials! Now, I've never met James, but I'm familiar with his work because a good friend of mine has known him for ages... went to school with him or some such. So, once I finish typing this up, I'll have to shoot an email to my friend. Perhaps there's some Huseby Cycle memorabilia floating around the building. I'd love to get a look at it if there is!

Restaurant Webpages

Can anyone tell me why a restaurant wouldn't put up a web page? I can't conceive of a reason, but there must be one. Is it laziness? Technophobia? Secret desire to fail?

Just about every restaurant does ads in the yellowpages, but how many people are still using them? Whenever, and I mean WHENEVER, I consider going to a new restaurant or out to eat in a new area, I do a quick google search on them. A good web page will not only give me their location, their hours and their phone number, it give me a chance to see what their menu is like. And the menu is what can hook me.

Show me a good menu description (for instance cerca de cielo at Cempazuchi in Milwaukee - "Symbolic of the thirteen layers of the Mayan heavens, corn masa cakes are stacked with beans, spinach, squash, peppers and cheese on a roasted tomato salsa" [ed.- and oh my god, it's so good!]) and even if I don't hit your place this time, you'll stay in my mind for next time. If they're smart, it will also show me a map of their location, and maybe a shot of the front of the place.

It's just good business. There are a variety of operators that have frameworks ready to go - just dump in your info. And I can't see how a simple website with menu, hours and pictures, with a nice domain name would run you much. I'll bet you can lock it down for less than the cost of an inch of column space in the yellow pages. And not doing it because of the cost is self-defeating - you'll be at such a competetive disadvantage if you don't. So PLEASE! for the sake of my dining pleasure, put up a website for your restaurant. Don't be a dolt.

Scott Meyer is very likely a genius.

or so I must assume after flipping through the last few months of his web-comic: Basic Instructions by Scott Meyer: Your all-inclusive guide to a life well-lived. This guy is not only funny, he is funny while presenting disturbing truths about the universe that you've been trying to deny. For instance, the comic at right... it's all becoming so clear...

Google Flu Trends

This is pretty cool. It turns out that by aggregating daily search numbers for certain influenze-related terms, google can track regional flu activity about as well as the CDC (see chart below). It's all part of googles Predict and Prevent initiative. The coolest part, is that googles data is available essentially in real time, while the CDC data takes two weeks to gather and compile.

So, watch google flu trends to see when the flu hits your area. You'll be reading about it from the CDC about two weeks later.