Walden Pond

I’ve lived in Boston for nearly 6 years, and until this morning I’d never been to Walden Pond. Walden Pond is a lake (or pond, if you like) about 15 minutes drive from Cambridge, and made famous by Henry David Thoreau. It’s also an excellent place to swim in the summer: reasonably warm, clear water, beautiful surroundings, and not a great deal of overcrowding. I easily spent an hour in the water, and then more time gazing out over it. It’s earned me my first sunburn of the summer, but it was completely worth it.

More YouTube Silliness

I particularly like the pick-up sticks -> elastic bands transformation.

It’s Hard to Watch This Without Smiling

I’d recommend watching in high resolution with the sound on.

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

There’s an article (and accompanying recipe) in the New York Times today in the search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Americans tend to be devotees of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (apparently, the Toll House was where the chocolate chip cookie was invented), and this article looks for improvements on the classic recipe.

I had already implemented one of their suggestions – I use good quality chocolate chips (the best I can afford) rather than the traditional Nestlé semi-sweet morsels. I’m not sure I’d institute all the suggested improvements (I can’t imagine planning to make cookies 36 hours in advance, even though the science supporting this suggestion is very cool), but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for larger chocolate chips when I’m next in the supermarket.