So I did my annual white suburbanite duty today, drove into the East Side, spent 45 minutes and $4 at the Broadway Market, and got back to Kenmore, happy to report that my car did not get 'jacked' by any 'gangstas.' I look forward to going back next year, if it's still open.

This is sarcasm, of course, but it's all true - does it make it any less terrible that I at least realize that it's terrible? No, it makes me a ponce who would rather feel guilty than do something. Perhaps I will make an effort to do regular shopping at the Market this year. Perhaps I say that every year.

Broadway/Fillmore reminds me a lot of where I used to live in Greenville, Jersey City. Both neighborhoods, obviously, have seen better days. I don't know about Greenville, but B/F used to be a bustling shopping district not very long ago. Unlike other areas of the East Side, B/F is ripe for large-scale retail investment. All the buildings - gorgeous, big, retail buildings - are still there [excepting Sattler's, which is now a gorgeous, big, empty parking lot], are largely vacant, and the real estate is dirt fucking cheap. I firmly believe that if you build it they will come - but seriously, who's going to invest millions in renovating a dilapidated old department store in the ghetto when you can spend millions on a brand-new box store built to spec out on Niagara Falls Blvd? It's fuckin' depressing.

But enough with the sadness; the Broadway Market brought me great joy today as well, for nowhere else in the world would they bother to clean 25 fresh smelt (WIKIPEDIA - Smelt) per pound for four bucks a pound. Hell yes. The noble smelt averages six inches long, and is best described as 'bait.' Smelt are extremely plentiful in the lower Niagara near Lewiston early in the spring, and all you have to do to get a bucketful is to dip your net in the river and pull it out. You have not truly tasted seafood until you've eaten a basket of fresh smelt, six hours from river to fryer - but you have also not truly prepared seafood unless you've cleaned a five-gallon bucket of fresh smelt, 25 to the pound.

One of my happier childhood memories involves my dad coming back from a fishing trip with a drywall bucket full of smelt he'd just pulled out of the river. He showed up at my aunt's house with the bucket and a hopeful grin.

"Nuh uh, no way. Get away from me with those. There's gotta be at least a hundred fish in there. If you don't want to clean them, I'm sure as Hell not going to clean them."

"No, no. It'll be great. Let's do this." So they spent the entire afternoon gutting and beheading the little fuckers, and we gorged ourselves on just this insane pile of the most delicious fried fish you can get.

I think that was the last time I ever had smelt, for obvious reasons, and this is why I love the Broadway Market. You think Danny Jr's got the cojones to offer fresh smelt at $4/lb? pfft.

- Z

The annual restaurant guide is set to be published on April 27th. It looks like it's going to be a good one - we're listing over 100 local restaurants, and I'm putting together an expanded online component for year-round reference. But what happens if you're out and about, you got the hunger, and you're one of these people who doesn't carry a computer with them at all times?

You look it up on your iPod, duh. iPods have this great underutilized feature called Note Reader [devnotes ] that lets you put plain text and hyperlinked content on your iPod. I want to preview this in front of some 'normal people' before unleashing the beast, so if you're interested, try this out.

1. Download the menu guide from gather:0801401001144445585 and unzip it. [Note: this prerelease is incomplete. The final version will have more listings and will be searchable by neighborhood, cuisine, and price range.]

2. Connect your iPod to your computer. If it does not show up on your desktop:
- in iTunes, select iPod in the Source list and click the Options button.
- Click General and select "Enable disk use."

3. Copy the "Menus" folder from your desktop into the "Notes" folder on your iPod.

4. Eject the iPod from your desktop and disconnect it. That's it! The restaurant guide is now available on your iPod by selecting Extras -> Notes -> Menus.

Please let me know your opinions on this - is it good? bad? dumb? too hard to use? needs more features?

- Z

Three things:

1. Neat event at the UB Art Gallery entitled 'NET<3: Sociable Technologies.' Some geeky computers-facilitating-human-interaction stuff, some digital art, some miscellany. I'm in; anyone else?

2. Pumpkin Ginger Soup, a la Cafe 59 [this is purported to be their actual recipe]:
Combine in saucepan:
28oz canned veggie broth
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
1/4tsp crushed red pepper (start with less to taste)
8Tbsp white sugar
1Tbsp cider vinegar
1Tbsp kosher salt
Cover & bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer 5min. Remove cloves, then add:
14oz unsweetened coconut milk
29oz solid pack pumpkin
1Tbsp + 1tsp fresh ginger, grated
Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat & simmer again 5min.

3. Current Music: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Greyhound

- Z

(e:dragonlady7,7) 's voluminous post regarding our garden is kind of offputting. Gardening is a whole lot of work, but there's really only one thing you need to remember: Green side up and mind the packet. The plants can sort the rest out for themselves.

- Z

Question: do normal people use the wireless web?

- Z

We had a brilliant idea for the cover of our annual popularity contest that everyone loved, excepting the publisher. Since it looks like it's not going to fly I feel justified in posting it here:



We never get to do anything fun.

- Z

I just discovered this excellent technology that lets you develop your own modules for Google Personalized . It was cool enough that they let you subscribe to Atom feeds, but this takes it one step further.

Atom's simplicity & ubiquity mean the content can be repurposed in a gazillion different ways - but in other ways it can be very limiting. The Google Homepage API is sweet because it lets you provide a richer interface experience to your end users than a simple list of articles. They've got everything from interactive weather maps to a Flash-based Pac-Man game. How sweet would it be to have an up-to-the-minute list of local events brought to you by your favorite alternative newsweekly, right on your Google homepage? It would be very sweet. How sweet would it be to have a mini (e:chatterbox) in Google? Also, very sweet.

- Z

I grew up in Buffalo, and spent a not-insignificant amount of time in suburban Rochester as well. Both cities take their food very seriously. Buffalo, of course, but you can't overlook the birthplace of Wegman's and DiBella's. What amazes me is that, even though we love food, new food, different food, comfort food, any kind of food - there's very little culinary crossover between Buffalo and Rochester.

To whit: wings. I knew a guy who would drive sixty miles to go to Duff's. Then a Buffalo Wild Wings opened up down the street from school and he said - God bless his heart, he's from Indiana - "this place almost makes it seem silly to have to go all the way to Buffalo for wings."

To whit: subs. DiBella's and Pellegrino's can run rings around John & Mary's, Mike's, and your friendly local pizza parlor with both feet tied behind their backs.

To whit: weck. It's not that you can't get good weck in Rochester. You can't get any weck in Rochester.

To whit: garbage plates (WIKIPEDIA - Garbage plate), which started this whole rumination. When a coworker spied my Tahou's souvenir mug, he turned me on to University Hots, which has always been around on Main, but has just opened up another restaurant on Elmwood. For those of you who are former Rochesterians, fear not the knockoff College Plate - U. Hots gets high marks for authenticity whenever possible and bonus points for innovation where necessary.

U. Hots offers the same selection of sides as Tahou's, with approximately the same selection of main dishes [snaps for carrying white hots (WIKIPEDIA - White Hot) in Buffalo] and the same toppings in a similar grungy setting. The staff is well-trained, as well: "Cheeseburg homefry macsalad everything to-go box for here" gets you exactly what you'd expect.

The improvements they've made are subtle but profound: the grease sauce has flavor; the home fries are deep fried for crispiness; they offer a barbecue sauce that's less astringent than your usual Frank's/A-1 mixture; they offer a chicken finger plate that I think is pure genius. Their inclusion of ketchup in "everything" was unexpected, though understandable. Their omission of the stale bread chunks is sensible, though some may object. We will be back.

- Z

I am going to tell you a little story about Buffalo, which happens to be approximately this [] big.

Around St Pat's day, we ran an article about Dave Moore, the uillean piper for Jackdaw. As a byproduct of the multimedia segment of the website, I came into an advance copy of their newest CD, which I promptly copied and gave to (e:dragonlady7) , who generally likes Celtic music, both classic and modern.

(e:dragonlady7) then promptly wrote some reviews where the words "anemic version of the Dropkick Murphys" were uttered.

A couple weeks pass. A couple anonymous comments show up on (e:dragonlady7) 's blog, saying you know, this may not be the best material for first impressions, maybe you should see Jackdaw live - signed "the bagpiper."

So I come home and she says, "Check this out! Do you really think that's him?" And I say, [shrug], I wouldn't be surprised. Buffalo is, after all, this [] big.

The sun sets and rises. The guy I bought my scooter from is hosting a grand opening party for his new shop. So we show up, hang out, good times ... and I'll be fucked if that one guy doesn't look familiar. No shit, it's Dave Moore, who bought his '77 Li150 from the same guy I bought my Stella from.

Turns out he's a really nice guy, and we hung out and bonded over scooters and Celtic rock and accordions, and those poor little girls with the bright orange and green dresses and the curly wigs that always end up at Irish festivals. A good time was had by all.

- Z

It has recently come to my attention that my employer is the worst kind of publisher - one who carries the banner of fair, balanced news coverage while participating in a vast Republican conspiracy . Many of you may find this difficult to believe but, to paraphrase Deep Throat, follow the hyperlinks.

Fact: Since I began collecting web usage statistics in January our web traffic has doubled. Our top two articles of the entire year have seen more traffic in the last three weeks than any other articles have in the last three months.

Where do you think all this traffic is coming from? Design and usability improvements? Give me a break, and I'll give you another Fact: The week of that issue our #1 source of referral traffic came from one site and one site only - an outlet operating under the guise of "media watchdog."

Coincidence? Then what do you think about this Fact: There is a demonstrable, concerted effort by this "unaffiliated" website -one member in particular- to drive web traffic to our site. He may seem like an angry person on the outside , but it doesn't take much to figure out it's all an act. This guy's gotta be on the payroll.

You think that's far-fetched, don't you? But you can't ignore the Fact: that 7500 pageviews per day from 3800 unique visitors don't lie. It looks like server logs to you, but to me it smells like advertising revenue potential.

You want me to spell it out for you? Check out this little-known Factoid: 'v5n10' upside-down spells 'Ol' USA.' Kinda.

- Z

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Moral: there are some real mouth-breathers all over the political spectrum. Take advantage of the situation by merchandising their arguments.