deguspice

I know it's a bit silly, but I am sad about the demise of the weather site my-cast.com. It had been my go to website when I wanted to know what today or tomorrow's weather would be. I've been using it for something like 10 years. It has a nice simple UI. At the top of the page was a static weather map, with a play button to show you an animated version of the past hour's radar images. Below that it had a summary of the weather for the next five days. It also had a button to switch to its predictions of the weather for the next couple of hours. It also used a cookie, so the next time you visited the site it would remember the town you searched for.

That was it for the UI. No ads, silly articles, extraneous details - just the information you wanted for a quick summary of the weather. Unlike weather.gov, it worked in both the US and Europe (I didn't try other continents).

I used the website last night, but I went there this morning, the website was replaced with a photo of a sunset on a lake and the message:

Effective July 15, 2015, the my-cast.com website has been shut down.
Thank you for being a patron of our site for the last 15+ years.
The My-Cast Team

I'll probably switch to the Weather Underground, but their UI is not as simple as my-cast was.

After a happy life with my parents, their dog Sophie died. I visited my parents for Mothers' Day, so I got to say "Good Bye" to her.

From Sophie

A Young Sophie
(If you look carefully, you can see her mother on the other side of the door.)
( More photos )

Curiosity got the better of me when I saw that the label said it's kosher/parve.

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http://www.kettlebrand.com/our_products/potato_chips/#/our_products/potato_chips/?pid=59

Maple Bacon

This natural flavor match combines the deep smokiness of bacon, the rich sweetness of real maple syrup and the subtle spice of chili pepper for a nostalgic, comfort food combination.

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What they really are is a smoky, BBQ potato chip. They are tasty, as long as you're not expecting them to be bacon flavored.

Yesterday, it was announced that Mike Nichols has died. Most of the obituaries talked about him as a director (starting with "The Graduate"), but I knew him has half of "Nichols and May". In the 1950s and 60s, he and Elaine May used to do two person comedy skits that became very popular in shows and on records.

If you've never heard their skits, I recommend finding them on YouTube. "Mother and Son" is a good place to start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5pXggZIr6I

A story with costumes and pumpkins, perfect for Halloween.

The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman, National Film Board of Canada

The theme for the crossword puzzle in Sunday's Boston Globe is pop songs from 2013. I don't listen to pop music any more, so I had no idea what any of them are. So when Ann and I found that the answer for the "#1 Billboard song in 2013" is the song "Thrift Shop", I pulled it up on my phone to listen to it.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/macklemore/thriftshop.html

Hey, Macklemore! Can we go thrift shopping?

What, what, what, what... [many times]

Bada, badada, badada, bada... [x9]

[Hook:]
I'm gonna pop some tags
Only got twenty dollars in my pocket
I - I - I'm hunting, looking for a come-up
This is f**king awesome

Another popular song in 2013 is Lorde's "Royals", another song about not having much money.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lorde/royals.html

My friends and I—we've cracked the code.
We count our dollars on the train to the party.
And everyone who knows us knows that we're fine with this,
We didn't come from money.

This got me wondering, what's changed in the pop song world, that songs about being broke are making it to #1?

Edit: I think people misunderstand my questions. It's not "Is this tread of singing about being broke new", but why have pop stars recently switched from writing hedonistic songs about:
"Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash."
to performing songs about being broke?
(it's seven years since the start of the recession)

Hidden behind WBZ's headquarters in Allston is a small alley called "Speedway Ave". Many years ago, I heard a story that it got its name because of ostrich racing. It turns out the rumor was half right. Where Soldiers Field Road is now, there used to be a race track for horses and bicycles called the Charles River Speedway

http://www.bahistory.org/TrottingParks.html

In the 1800s there used to be horse racing along what is now called Commonwealth Ave, but eventually there was too much traffic, so Frederick Law Olmsted's company was hired to design a race track for horses (and sulkies) and bicycles along the river in Allston. It ran from where the Arsenal St bridge is now (where Western Ave ends) to where the the Eliot bridge now is.

I would not be surprised if there actually were the occasional ostrich race back then. But it looks like it was mostly used for horses.

I don't know how I missed these videos. In November, Volvo Trucks released six videos to showcase the handling of their trucks in various situations. The vidoes involve bulls, a hamster, a talking head (or two), a tightrope walker, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFJ3tQvdojTHq0Zw0PUYtDTjGqi93bPe

The "Live Test" videos are the actual ads, then they have short behind-the-scenes videos.

For the first time, I made an artichoke dip. It seemed to be popular, so I want to record the recipe.
( Recipe )
I decided to make the recipe because I found cassava bread at the grocery store. It looks a bit like a large cracker. It seemed interesting, so I decided that if I wanted to bring it to a party I needed something to go with it. Hence, the sudden desire to make artichoke dip.

One person declared that artichoke dip goes well with celery sticks (they were next to the dip).

Recently, I've noticed small moths at night in the headlights as I drive near my house. I don't remember seeing them before. Has anyone else noticed a sudden influx of small (about 3/4"), light tan moths?