Mary Mac's

Not around the corner...

Blue Lobster

A rare blue lobster was caught near Beverly Harbor. Full story in the Boston Globe here.

Fall in the city

Boston book fair

I

Alway something to do. Listening to authors of speculative science books in the trinity church sanctuary. Ironic

Don't buy your beer in the south

Paella al fresco

It's the little things

On my brief walk to my car, just before sunrise, I pass a patch of sky that has a wonderful opening to the ecliptic. This morning was particularly clear. Saturn, Venus and a handful of stars were visible even with streetlights. I took quick picture with my phone. You can clearly see Jupiter and Venus in this photo.
Have a great day!

There is hope

It's easy to find fault in the world, listen to the news and you can easily become depressed. Even though study after study shows most if not all pundits on tv are wrong with their predictions, we still find it easy to be swept up in the artificial drama we call the news. This week a TED conference was held just down the street. The first 2 hours was an open exhibition of several local startup companies showing their stuff. Older companies also had a few booths showing their technology and looking for talent. Everything from hand made post cards to robots to dairy free ice cream was on show. The main event was six speakers each having a 15 minute talk on their research. Both Cindy and I were "blown away" with the ideas. A data scientist from the city of Boston talked about how they use data to make the city better. I had no idea all the solar powered garbage cans actually call in to report how full they are each day, so they can be emptied when necessary. They use Waze data to dispatch police to hand out tickets for double parking. He showed the dashboards they use to monitor and control many parts of the city. Forget the news, forget going to the opera, these TED talks gave us a brand new healthy outlook on life. It was transformational. Yes Virginia, there are people doing great things for this world.

Privateer Distillery

A beautiful fall drive up the coast to Ipswich, lies a boutique rum distillery, with a wonderful history.
What the building lacks in charm is made up by passionate people telling you their story of how they make the best rum in the world. The tour starts with everyone doing a taste comparison between the raw products they use versus what the big distilleries use. There is a big difference between domino brown sugar and well made brown sugar.

Lobster Reuben

Just up the the road a bit in Ipswich, is a wonderful little gastro pub named Salt Kitchen and Rum bar.
It seemed like the perfect place for a late lunch after our distillery tour.
Wonderful food and beer selection, along with a long list of rum and rum cocktails.

Beautiful day for a walk on the river