Raccoon in Fort Tryon Park

There's a whole family living in this big hollow tree in Fort Tryon Park next to Cabrini Blvd. They're awful cute, but they're also tearing up the garbage bags on the curb in the neighborhood. Oh well. (Used the zoom feature on my Sony Ericsson W760 cell phone for this one; resolution isn't so great but it allowed me to get the shot.)

Hail Lumpy Vegetables!

The European Union has just relaxed standards for vegetables and fruit sold in supermarkets, and will now allow curved cucumbers, forked carrots, and lumpy potatoes, eliminating laws established two decades ago. More from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, here.

The United States, naturally, lags behind. If you buy fruit and vegetables in a US supermarket, its grade depends upon uniform size and shape. Here are some samples of the regulations governing our produce:

For cucumbers:

§51.2229 Well colored.
"Well colored" means that not less than three-fourths of the surface of the cucumber is of a medium green or darker color, and that at least a light green color extends to the blossom end on one side of the cucumber.
§51.2230 Well formed.
"Well formed" means that the cucumber is practically straight and not more than very slightly constricted or more than moderately tapered or pointed.

For carrots:

§51.2374 Fairly smooth.
"Fairly smooth" means that the individual carrot is not rough, ridged, or covered with secondary rootlets to the extent that the appearance is materially affected.
§51.2375 Well formed.
"Well formed" means that the individual carrot is not forked, or misshapen to the extent that the appearance is more than slightly affected.

More from the USDA here.

Some of the produce that doesn't meet the requirements for uniformity in size, shape, and color may be used for processing, but much of it is thrown away. The United States needs to reform its agricultural laws to focus on safety, rather than on superfluous aesthetic considerations.

Car Window Coverings: Reduce Heat and AC

Starting in 2012, California is set to require auto manufacturers to use special glass that will reduce the solar energy coming through the windows by 45 percent; in 2016, the windows will have to block 60 percent of the heat-producing energy. You can read more here at Treehugger.

Turns out you can go out today and have film applied to your car windows that will do the same job. Solargard claims their film will reduce heat by 66 percent; 3M claims a 99 percent reduction in UV rays but doesn't specify how much that will reduce heat in the car. 3M also makes a clear, rather than tinted, window film that will do the job without reducing visibility.

I have no idea how much this costs, and since it's Sunday morning, it doesn't look like I'm going to find out today. But when I do, I'll be back with an update.

Rainbow over Upper Manhattan

Taken with my Sony Ericsson W760 phone camera.

Useless Household Objects

In The Guardian today, Tom Meltzer fantasizes about some new household tools. The item from his list that I really want to bring home: "The silent blender: For people who love smoothies but hate excruciatingly loud noise." Other items on his list: a folding wok, a remote control that responds to "Accio Remotus," an ironing board that won't collapse.

On the other hand are all of those truly useless items we have lying around the house. I don't think I'm talking about the inkwell on my desk -- my Aunt Helen's doubles tennis trophy from 1921 (badly tarnished) -- that holds one of my quill pens made by a friend from a goose feather. These are useless, it's true, but each has sentimental and aesthetic value.

There are the weights next to the bed. At various points recently I've been ready to get rid of them, but I've used them twice in the past month. Maybe they're worth it, after all.

Kitchen appliances? Rice cooker -- used today. Blender, waffle maker, food mill -- within the week. Mortar and pestle, mixer, grain mill -- all within the past few weeks. Actually, yes, I do cook.

Clothing. Hmmm. There are, in fact, a few items in the back of the closet that I haven't worn in a long time, but haven't been willing to get rid of. I might, after all, get invited to a cocktail party one of these years, and want something decent to wear.

So, how about you? What's the most useless item in your home? Why do you still have it around?

(The green point of this post: keeping excess stuff makes us buy bigger homes, which take more energy to build, heat, cool, light, maintain, and so on.)

Piloting the Honda Fit Along the FDR Drive

For the past ten months, I've regularly been driving nearly the entire length of the Harlem River/FDR Drive -- 12 of 13.5 miles, from 178th Street to Houston Street and back -- to get The Offspring to school. At this point, I feel as though I know the road like the old river pilots knew the Mississippi.

Instead of shifting sand bars and treacherous currents, there are blind curves and lane closures for never-ending construction projects.

I know where the nasty pot-holes are, and I know the axle-eating catacombs in the road. I know the sections that are likely to flood when there's heavy rain, and I know the lanes to avoid because the road has settled into waves.

I know where the lanes get narrower and I really have to pay attention; I know where I can grab a sip of coffee. I know when it's not worth bothering to shift into a higher gear, despite the cars accelerating in front of me, because right around the next curve there will be a knot of traffic.

I know where I can pull off when my little passenger needs an emergency bathroom break.

And after countless drives past that sign that says "Triboro Bridge is now RFK Bridge," I'm likely actually to remember the name change, rather than continuing to call it the Triboro for the rest of my life.

Okay, I can count. It's been 40 weeks of school, ten drives per week, divided among two pairs of parents in the car-pool... that's an average of 100 drives per parent.

By September, barring unforeseen complications, we'll have moved down to the Lower East Side, within walking distance of school. Some day, I'll make that drive again, and the construction around the RFK bridge will finally have been completed ... and I'll get thoroughly disoriented.

Bucket List, Continued

More places I want to see:

• Dead Sea
• Jerusalem
• Pyramids -- both Egyptian and Mayan
• Berlin without the wall
• The Amazon and the Nile
• Tibet

There's a common thread here, or a couple of them. I want to do a lot more traveling (I've already been in dozens of countries on three continents, traveling on foot and by bike as well as on buses and trains), and I want to see human monuments as well as natural stuff.