Today (October 29th) is my birthday. I’m a 34 year old Scorpio. I’m interested in finding out how active my readers are, so please leave some birthday comments for me. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: birthday, scorpio

When I was an undergrad, I worked as a hasher for Stanford University Food Service in Wilbur Hall. One day, probably in 1990, Rosa Parks was in town visiting Stanford to speak at a campus event and was visiting one of the dorms in Wilbur. She was with a group of students and came through the cafeteria to eat dinner on the line I was working that night, and I helped assemble her dinner plate for her. I’m glad her act of defiance many years ago helped bring about change in the world so that it didn’t strike me (or anyone else) that it was odd that a young white kid was serving dinner to an old black lady.

A year later, I was studying in Berlin and came across a section of the Berlin Wall that had been left standing and took a picture of it. I’ve always remembered the words painted on the wall, which are apparently an old African saying, “Many small people, who in many small places, do many small things, can alter the face of the world.” When I read the news that Rosa Parks had passed, this turn of phrase popped in to my head. Farewell, Rosa Parks.

Technorati Tags: Berlin Wall, Rosa Parks

A few weeks ago, we held another edition of our (somewhat) quarterly WAG (wine and gourmet) potluck dinner club. This time, David and Hillary were kind enough to host the event at their place in Mill Valley, and they also suggested that each dish feature mushrooms, in the spirit of Iron Chef.

Katherine signed us up for dessert, knowing we’d get extra props for pulling off a fungal dessert. She did all the background research and decided we’d make meringue mushrooms (faux mushrooms) and candy cap mushroom ice cream (real mushrooms). We picked up the candy caps at Far West Funghi at the Ferry Building Marketplace. It turns out that putting a couple tablespoons of ground candy cap mushrooms in an ice cream or cheesecake recipe imparts a flavor almost indistinguishable from maple, without a hint of shroomy earthiness.

Our menu for the evening:

Quartet: Morel Meringue, Hot and Cold Mushroom Soup, White Chanterelle Terrine with a Portobello Bull’s Eye

with Laurent-Perrier Cuvee Brut Rose Champagne

Mushroom Street Snacks Intermission: Crispy Mushroom Rice Ball, Cinnamon Cap Soy Skin Crepe, Mushroomlike Blue Corn Fungus

Lobster Ravioli on a Bed of Cauliflower Fungus in a Chanterelle Saffron Cream Sauce

with 2002 Stag’s Leap Napa Valley Viognier

Meringue Mushrooms and Pumpkin Spice Cake Drizzled in Dark Chocolate with Candy Cap Mushroom Ice Cream on a Pool of Burnt Caramel Sauce



And here is the photographic evidence:

I had to include two shots of our dessert, one is a close-up of a meringue mushroom, which to me look almost real. Also notice the last photo. David & Hillary get great creativity points for using a shiitake mushroom log as the centerpiece. They harvested their shiitakes for brunch a few days later. As David observed afterwards, “everyone brought their A-game” to this edition of WAG. Thanks to David & Hillary, Ezra & Shireen and Dan & Stephanie for a great meal and a great time!

As of today Technorati is now tracking twenty million blogs, and is adding many more every minute. When Mobius invested in Technorati just over a year ago and I joined the board, Technorati was tracking just a few million blogs. While the past year has not been without scaling and performnance challenges, the team has really stepped up, and right now, performance is better than it has ever been, and will continue to get even better as the year goes on. Way to go guys!

I really hope this screen shot is not a hoax. If it is on the web, it must be true, right?