(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