Does Anyone Know What Floor This Is?
On left, elevator buttons in my hotel in Kaunus; on right, Vilnius. See any difference? Universally - until my visit to Kaunus - ground floors are Floor 0 in Europe…
Pods That Don’t Encourage Sleeping!
I'm currently at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, waiting for my connecting flight to Vilnius, Lithuania where I'll be speaking at BuildStuff 2024. Upon arrival in Vilnius, I'm driving to Kaunus,…
Record Store Coolness
I assume that Revival Records isn't the first album/music store to emulate Led Zepplin's In Through The Outdoor, but it's a first for me. This album had different album covers,…
Geeky License Plate
A person after my own heart. Black license plates in Minnesota were only introduced in January, so gotta wonder how s/he got such an obvious plate. Go Geek!
Random Learnings #49
Dexter Gordon's Wikipedia page mentioned that he was unable to perform in New York City bars or dancehalls - essentially any place that served alcohol, more importantly the places that…
Pazzaluna
Pazzaluna, the beloved Italian restaurant in downtown St. Paul, has reappeared after four years ... at least temporarily. After twenty-two years, Pazzaluna closed in May 2020 just months into the…
Random Learnings #47
Czechoslovakia first came into existence at the conclusion of World War I and the collapse of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The new country immediately needed to create a working government, establish…
Death of a Tree
Our neighbor's tree has not had a good summer. The left-most branch cracked during a storm, dropping its canopy on their porch roof and slightly breaking a window, loud enough…
No Tips, Everyone!
The US tipping culture has, no pun intended, tipped over. At restaurants you're expected to tip 20-25% - and watch out for those pre-printed amounts, which often include taxes or…
Random Learnings #46
"A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuriev Day" by Sergei V. Ivanov I thought that Russian serfs were essentially slaves - a belief supported by many English-language references - but…