I love the ocean, but this is why I don’t swim in it much

Don’t get me wrong, I can swim and I like swimming, but I don’t like taking my chances with those bitey fishies, and statistics be damned.  I am sure that most people who get attacked probably think “it will never happen to me” but I don’t want to come out of the water looking like this seal.

When I was a kid, I used to spend more time out on the Cape, usually in the Eastham/Wellfleet area since my aunt and uncle had a place there.  And Marconi Beach is a great beach, if you have never seen it.  The sand is very fine and very firm and the surf is good, sometimes quite impressive.

So having spent a lot of time out there, I was a bit surprised to see that Marconi Beach was closed today after a shark was sighted a mere 30 yards from shore.  The shark was spotted by an NPS lifeguard and confirmed by a park ranger.  Since seals are sometimes seen around there, I am guessing it was probably a great white but they were unable to confirm the type.

-Geoff

Dear Internet: You are weird

One of the most fascinating things about having a blog is seeing what it is that brings people here.  The other day a *really* strange search term popped up in our list of “why people come to KellyandGeoff.com.”

It was just too weird.  So, in honor of the truly strange corners of the internet (and The Bloggess who had this idea first), I’ve gone back through the list and picked out some of the strangest, funniest, most terrifying and sometimes offensive search terms that brought you people to this blog.  Granted, since I’m writing about them it’ll probably bring more of you here, but that’s OK.  What is that they say about any publicity being good publicity?  Yeah, that.  I think.

Continue reading “Dear Internet: You are weird”

Cooking is too much fun.

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Boiled Beef (with vegetables) with a loaf of medieval-style bread as a trencher.

I have been cooking historical recipes for many years, mostly stuff from 18th and 19th century America.  I like cooking anyway, and as a historian I find that sort of thing interesting on several levels.  More recently I have been trying to make medieval recipes, and so for the last few years I have started picking up some medieval cookbooks and reading some stuff online about it.  It seems a lot more difficult, I think.  And although I have managed to successfully make a few things  (this spinach tart turned out really well, I think), I have just not found a lot of medieval recipes that really made me want to try them.

Until a few weeks ago, when Kelly got me A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook.

Continue reading “Cooking is too much fun.”

Dragon skull washes up on beach in UK

Wow - how much Dragon Kibble & Bits did this thing eat when it was alive?
Wow – how much Dragon Kibble & Bits did this thing eat when it was alive?

So dragons ARE real….

Well, ok, not really, but it is a pretty cool promotion/publicity stunt for Game of Thrones.  I wish one of these would “wash up” on Plum Island or something.  I would drive up there just to get my picture with it.

-Geoff

P.S. Yes, this story is a couple of weeks old, but I didn’t get a chance to post anything about it until now.  So nyah.

A lesson in contrasts

I think it is safe to say that the march of human rights has made steady though inconsistent progress over the last 100+ years. In the last 48 hours some interesting stories have popped up that have reminded me not only of how far we’ve come but also of how far we have to go.

Continue reading “A lesson in contrasts”

The best thing to come out of TX since Wendy Davis

I have never heard of this particular species of turtle before, but there’s something strangely appropriate about a turtle from the Lone Star State being called a Texas cooter.

Continue reading “The best thing to come out of TX since Wendy Davis”

The customer is not always right

One of the greatest disservices ever done to workers in this country was the introduction of the phrase, “The customer is always right.”  The credit for that tidbit of wisdom goes to Stanley Marcus of retailer Neiman Marcus.  Thanks, Stanley.

The customer is NOT always right.  Anyone who has ever worked in retail, food service, or front line customer service of any kind can tell you that.  In our society comprised of increasingly entitled, unintelligent, lazy, self-centered, and generally ignorant people, giving them something so blatantly easy, so totally pandering to grab onto as “The customer is always right” has done nothing but harm.

That has never been more obvious than in the last few days when the vine video in this article, if you can call a 6 second loop a video, went viral.

Continue reading “The customer is not always right”

Wow, this is weird

Kelly and I awoke to the smell of smoke, especially when I opened the back door to let the dogs out into the yard.  Turns out there was a major fire near the Somerville/Cambridge line on the other side of Inman Square.  The fire was on Calvin Street.  It got up to seven alarms.  I hope no one was hurt.

I looked at a map to figure out where the fire was and thought “wait, weren’t there some other fires in that neighborhood recently?”  It turns out that for once my memory was right.  In fact, one morning a couple of weeks ago two fires broke out at almost the same time, just a few blocks apart: one on Lewis and one on Dane.  That alone seems fishy, but now this huge fire happens, and in the same part of Somerville.  What are the odds that three fires would break out in two weeks in the same neighborhood?   I mean, these three fires are literally within a couple hundred yards of each other.  Am I nuts or does this seem a little fishy?  I mean, we have friends who live in this neighborhood.  I am just wondering if they need to worry about someone sneaking around in the wee hours setting fires or something.  I hope that arson is not the problem, but it sure seems like a possibility.

-Geoff

We’re melting… melting…

Well, looks like Boston broke another record today.  The official temperature reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit, although Basil (our Mini) insists that it was higher than that. 

Basil is melting too.
Basil is melting too.

 So today is day six of our ridiculous heat wave here in Boston, and tomorrow is supposed to be day seven.  Fortunately this sort of heat is quite abnormal for Boston, and it should return to usual 80 something degree temperatures by Sunday.  We have had both of our AC units running, plus all of our fans, and it is just barely enough to make it tolerable.

I am definitely ready for fall to get here.  I was more enthusiastic about summer when it meant I got to do lots of fun things, but these days fun tends to be a bit limited and I prefer comfortable temperatures.  Hell, I even prefer cold winter temperatures to this. 

-Geoff