Congratulations Seniors

America's future looks bright!

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/06/16/valedictorian/CwokHyMYq2i672rzaP1YBM/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw

Boston Strong

Grocery Prices Update

Added a local store in Wayne County, actually a shopping center. It was the most convenient location that had all the items, actually thats not exactly true, as it did not carry tuna (or many other items on my list) but I was able to find the price online from another Wegmans. I did not shop around, just did what I normally do.

Spotlight: Boston chops

My, we do eat well.
I read about this new steakhouse in an airline magazine as being special. You guessed it, it's right around the corner, near the cathedral. Certainly the best steak I have ever had, it was in another category. Ambiance and wait staff were superb. Shown are our sides we could not finish. Onion rings and pork belly mac&cheese.

Finally found a good beer

Anyone ever heard of this?

Farewell drink

A perfect storm, grand marnier, ginger beer, lime juice, bitters

Boston throws huge parade for Bruins

Oh wait, maybe this is the gay pride day parade. Never mind

What we are reading @ Nemo

A romantic comedy about swarming drones modeled after the killing tactics of weaver ants. Romantic because it has the themes I cherish, intelligence that emerges from evolved collective behavior  and the benefits of autonomous versus centralized decision making. Comedy because I laughed at how the story parallels the current headlines of drone fear and government wire tapping.

Ah French finally paid off

Actually this was a play on words as it was made from raisins. I think my days of experimenting with different beer types is coming to an end. This was terrible.

White House Scandal Exposed

After months of investigation, agents Dunn & Hogan went undercover and dressed as a random middle age couple visiting a college bar. This bar just down the street from HQ was coincidently showing the final period of game 3 of Bruins/Penguins game. The increased traffic only made the apparent money laundering scheme more visible. Here is how it works. Just follow the flow of the money.

The government issues extremely low interest loans to college kids under the guise of getting a better education. In turn the local bars inflate their beer and wine prices ($7.50 for a local pint!). The college kids not really having worked for their $, spend it freely. Having such a good time the kids drink more than they should, thus unable to function at a higher level the next day for class. The entire campus is infected with this cheap money and as a group  must take more classes to be competitive. Fortunately everyone is infected with this cheap money, so everyone people must go to graduate school, and therefore ask for more cheap loans. So in reality the college kid is nothing more than a vector for money from the White House to the local bars, and the entire debauchery of beer/wine/liquor markets that serve them.

Cheers

T&C

Our appologies

We received a complaint from a regular reader, that we had not considered their data. Here is the redacted transcript.
The problem our chief data analyst had is "whole bean", we specifically asked for ground coffee, so the price is irrelevant. That leaves us with a solid entry of bananas at $.48. It is true your response was first. Thank you for completing a fractional portion of the request. And no we do not discriminate on age, gender, ethnicity, or home planet, only on the verifiable completion of the task.

Respectfully,
Data analysis dept.

Male or Female?

Trust but verify

Had an anonymous crank ask me to verify my beer and bourbon prices, since they could not be found on the Internet. Here you go doubter.

Grocery Prices

Well the results from our little social experiment are in. It was a disappointment in the lack of response. As you may remember I put out a list of grocery items (brand, size..) and asked everyone to get back to me with prices in their neck of the woods. Thanks to good folks in the great state of NC, and CT for their efforts. Those combined with mine make up a statistically insignificant report. Having said that here are the results.

The first entry was from JM from NC. Thanks JM, to be honest I lost your report but the internet in all its greatness allowed me to reconstruct the grocery prices by visiting the Harris Teeter web site. Since liquor is state controlled I was able to find prices for the bourbon online as well.

SL from CT was the first to send back a full list. So I guess the t shirt goes to SL. Sue I will catch you later this summer and you will have your choice of Syracuse t-shirts I own.

Now a bit of disclaimer, my prices came from a combo of places. We have started using the internet service PeaPod for much of our groceries. There is an app on the phone, and a web browser version for those that like to stay chained to their desk. Anyway, you shop, add to your cart, say when you want it delivered and bam someone shows up at your door (even on the 3rd floor) with bags of groceries.  Its usually the next day, and we choose something early in the AM.  These prices are generally somewhat cheaper than the same item I can buy at my local store. The beer and bourbon prices came from Shaws, just around the corner. The price of delivery is $6.99 for all items greater than $100.00. Now I learned my math from a politician, so I can take a bit statistical latitude and amortize that $6.99 over $1,000.00 and it pretty much approaches zero. Also Its free delivery for the first six months.  While I have purchased meat and poultry this way I tend to like to look at the meat before purchasing. Also I have seafood shop I can look the fish in the eye before buying. 

To be honest the separation in prices is small, and I suspect shopping for deals of day would dwarf any significant savings. 

If you are inspired by this or feel your prices would bust the curve here, please send them on. My next step it to get prices of these items in Huron. I suspect I will have a hard time finding some of the items though.

Happy Shopping,

T&C

Rocks in a tree

How can that be?
Sorry Dave, Cindy saw this and has some new ideas...

Just around the corner

We visited the Christian Science church and grounds today. The reflecting pool was beautiful. Next to the church was a museum dedicated to the founder of the church, Mary Baker Eddy. I can remember my father having no kind words for her movement, and in all likelihood she was a complete quack who used the placebo affect to prove her cause. Anyway, highly recommend the area for exploration. On the wall was the following quote from a physicist who are the antithesis of the super natural and mysticism.

"What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed through our method of questioning"
Werner Heisenberg

Collaboratory 4.0

Just around the corner from us an upscale Hostel. Today after I was schooled by Cindy on a run, we decided to walk over and check it out. Forget everything you know about the hostel experience, this was clean, cool, and modern. Had a movie theatre, coffee shop and a nice outdoor area. Also upstairs in an open area was something called Collaboratory 4.0. It was the offices of a co-working and start-up incubator that helps young women entrepreneurs get going. Cheap well connected office space.

http://www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/2012/12/collaboration_o.html

Dinner view

Sat outside next to trinity church and the Hancock tower. In the reflection you can see the old Hancock tower with tonight's forecast, clear and pleasant.

Spotlight : Public Market

Home of carrots size of a football, goat heads, goat parts, and tuna steaks at $3.00 per lbs. picked up Vidalia onions dirt cheap too.