Thomas Moser offers a vacation idea to end all vacations

Eclipse dining by Thos. Moser

The Thos. Moser company makes exquisite furniture by hand. I've written about them repeatedly in the past and the more I see fine furniture, the more convinced I am that my lede sentence is as true a sentence as I can compose. If it's possible for furniture to be lyrical, Moser's is that and more.

The Eclipse dining table

Moser's offerings aren't just pretty and poetic, they're the perfect marriage of form and function. Joinery is ornament; the promise of comfort and longevity whisper in the background. If it's possible for furniture to achieve timelessness, this furniture does.

The Eclipse dining chair

The people who appreciate fine woodworking tend to be fanatical about the creations that pour out of the Moser workshop in Maine. Thomas Moser's cabinetmakers still do things the hard way and the results speak for themselves. Ever since 2007, the Tomas Moser company has offered a program for its buyers that sounds like an armchair woodworkers fantasy come true.

The Customer in Residence program

Meet the Thos. Moser Customer in Residence program.

The Customer in Residence program they offer is a one-week apprenticeship in the Moser workshop during which fine furniture customers can work alongside a master cabinetmaker. These lucky customers will build the heirloom that will some day grace their homes. I'm solid in my belief that everything someone owns should tell a story. Now just imagine having a group of friends over for dinner and while everyone's sitting and enjoying a meal, starting a story that begins with "I helped to build this table during a week I spent in Maine..."

Thomas Moser offers the Customer in Residence program eight times per year and they've been conducting these working vacations since 2007. For people who can't take a whole week, there are now weekend programs available too.

Space is limited as I'm sure you can imagine and while working on an eventual heirloom, "apprentices" stay in the nearby Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, ME. Fine dinners every night allow participants to get to know the Moser family and the week wraps up with a signing ceremony. During that ceremony, the piece a participant helped create gets signed by the participant, the master cabinetmaker and Thomas Moser himself. Talk about furniture with a story to tell after all that. My head spins at the very idea.

You can find more information about Moser's Customer in Residence programs on the Thos. Moser website. There's contact information there too in case you're interested in attending or if you'd like more details about the program. If you'd like to read a first hand account, a writer named Dawn Klinginsmith wrote about her Customer in Residence experience for the Chicago Tribune last year.

It's easy to fall into the belief that craftsmanship is dead and Thomas Moser's Customer in Residence program proves yet again that it isn't.

Fire

My neighbor's house burned the other night.

I live in a historic neighborhood. All of the homes here are at least 100 years old and all of them are wood-framed. Because this neighborhood was platted out in a time before such things as zoning, all of our houses sit very close to one another. The roof lines of two of my neighbors are separated by around three inches in fact.

We tend to be pretty paranoid when it comes to fire around here. All of us on this block have been particularly vigilant about fire safety because we know that if one house goes up, we'd lose the whole block.

Well, my neighbor's house burned the other night and mercifully, there was no wind blowing. The lack of wind and the fast response of the St. Pete Fire Department kept the fire contained. Had it been a windy night I'd be writing this from a Red Cross shelter.

Even so, the 20 minutes that the fire burned destroyed his home and left him with nothing but the clothes on his back.

He's a disagreeable guy. He's alienated all of us over the years but even so, my heart goes out to him.

I cannot imagine what it's like to lose everything in a fire. Despite his losses, he's fortunate to have made it out the back door before he lost his life to smoke inhalation. As it is, he and his dog made it to safety but his cat didn't.

Fire's not something that occurs to most people as a viable threat but it is. Do yourself a favor and guard yourself against it. Get at least two fire extinguishers. Keep one in your bedroom and one in your kitchen. Install and maintain smoke detectors. Put one outside of your bedroom and another one in your kitchen.

Think through an escape plan. If your house were on fire how would you make it out?

My neighbor was lucky, blessed even. He had no extinguishers or smoke alarms and that he survived that fire is something that borders on the miraculous.

Despite his suffering, this event has proved itself to be a cautionary tale to all of us on Seventh Avenue. It ought to be a cautionary tale to people everywhere. Fire extinguishers and smoke detectors will save your property and may very well save your life.

My carpet arrived!

Here it is in situ.

I wrote about this originally a couple of weeks ago. I'm thrilled with my Novica experience and if you're in the market for handmade goods from around the world, check out their site.

I was worried about ordering something as complicated as a carpet over the internet but this thing has exceeded every expectation I had. The colors are more subtle than I was anticipating and it works like a charm in my living room.

I came into this carpet with the help of a $200 credit from Novica, a website that allows craftspeople from the developing world to sell their wares to westerners directly. As you go through the ordering process from Novica, you get a glimpse into the life of the person who made whatever you order.

In my case, my carpet was made by a man in India named Kahlil Ahmed. Kahlil sent me a note along with his carpet and the money he made from the carpet I bought will go to feed his family and help him to keep working as a carpet weaver. Not only did I get an item to make my living room look better, I got a story and the opportunity to make someone's life better.

I ordered my carpet on 6 June and it shipped from India the following day. It arrived here on Saturday the 16th and the shipping charges were negligible when I think about how far this carpet came.

Novica provides a forum for direct interaction between westerners and the developing world and that's really cool. The carpet in my living room just made the world a smaller place. Thank you Kahlil for making my home a more welcoming place and thank you Novica for the opportunity to make the connection with Kahlil. I have a handmade living room carpet!

Novica is promoting a couple of products lines in particular now. Check out these links.


Women's shawls from Peru
Men's silver cufflinks from Indonesia
Leather belts
Women's accessories from Mexico
Men's clothing from Peru
Silver floral bracelets

Check out this great method to peel garlic

I love garlic and I cook with it all the time. I swear I go through two full bulbs a week and I live alone.

via

I usually peel it by flattening a clove with the flat side of my chef's knife and peel from there. However, if I need a lot of it I have another method to peel it that I got from Saveur.com. People don't believe me when I describe this way to deal with fresh garlic and this morning, my good friend Nancie Mills-Pipgras (editor of Mosaic Art Now) posted the video that got me started on this whole thing on her Facebook page.

It reminded me that this is something that needs to be spread around. Check it out.




How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

How cool is that? I can tell you from first hand experience that it works every bit as well as it does in the video above.

It's Father's Day today, a day set aside specifically to be grateful for fathers. I'm endlessly grateful for mine and I'll be telling him that in a few hours when I call him. If you're close enough geographically to see a father today, make him something garlicky for supper. If you don't cook don't sweat it, just let him know you're glad he's in your life.

¡Adios mosquitos!

See this?

It may be the thing that saves my summer.

That's an InaTrap, a mosquito trap that's actually attractive.

Most mosquito traps and bug zappers are an eyesore, but the InaTrap turns all of that on its head.

I have a big table on my patio and as often as not, I use it as a dining table. When I have people over, that's where we eat. Not only that, my next door neighbors and I tend to sit out there and talk long into the night. This set up works out perfectly for most of the year. However, when the rainy season kicks in every May, the mosquitoes come with it. The rains continue through the end of September and during the wet months, lingering at my patio table becomes an exercise in mosquito evasion.

I've thought about mosquito traps before but they're always such an eyesore. Not so the InaTrap.

The InaTrap is the result of the collaboration of Acase, a manufacturer of acessories and cases for iPhones, iPads and the rest, and the design house Inadays. The InaTrap won the 2012 Taiwan design excellence award and I can see why.

Its compact design uses just five watts of power and how it works is pretty ingenious. Here's a diagram:

The device uses a combination of UV light and a photocatalytic reaction that produces low levels of CO₂. The CO₂ convinces the little monsters that there's a tasty human being at the source of that gas. Once the mosquito enters the trap, it gets caught up in a nearly silent downdraft and it lands in a chamber that's out of sight. Oh, and they don't survive the trip across the fan blades. Boo hoo.

Here's the whole collection:

The InaTrap measures 215 x 215 x 315 mm (or 8.46 x 8.46 x 12.4 inches) and weighs 1.2 kg (2.64 lbs.), its lamp has an 18,000 hour lifespan and it carries a one year warranty.

The InaTrap is available in North America now on Amazon. I know I don't live in the only part of the world where mosquitoes descend en masse every summer evening.

So what do you guys think? What's the best way do deal with mosquitoes?

Architecture Thursday: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

Two weeks ago, I was treated to a tour of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. There are few things I appreciate about a city more than an obvious commitment to the arts, and Costa Mesa has that commitment in spades.

The Segerstom Center for the Arts is a campus of buildings dedicated to the best humanity has to offer. The theater and original hall were spectacular of course, but it was the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall that impressed me the most.

©RMA Photography Inc. - 714.259.1332

Lord knows I love a curtain wall, but to see a glass curtain wall made from undulating glass was something I never thought was possible.

The concert hall opened on September 15, 2006 and the architect was Cesar Pelli from Pelli, Clark, Pelli and Associates in New Haven, CT.

Once inside, the building continued to amaze. Here are some photos from the lobby and grand staircase.

©RMA Photography Inc. - 714.259.1332

Looking up at the lobby ceiling. 

©RMA Photography Inc. - 714.259.1332

The docents who led the tour kept saying that the acoustics inside the auditorium were spectacular and part of me thought that no building this grand could have as great a concert hall in it as the docents claimed. I was wrong. Here's looking at the main stage.

©RMA Photography Inc. - 714.259.1332

And here's the view from the stage toward the back of the house.

©Doug Gifford Photography

When we were touring the Concert Hall, we were fortunate to stumble upon a children's concert being performed by the Pacific Symphony and yes, the acoustics are every bit as perfect as the docents claimed.

Our small group stood in one of the upper tiers and just let the music wash over us. Nothing affects me the way a symphony orchestra does. Nothing. Standing in a truly grand concert hall while that orchestra's performing is my idea of heaven on earth.

If you live in Orange County, consider yourself to be fortunate indeed. In a time when arts organizations all over the world are facing threats like extinction, it was beyond affirming to see that the opposite is happening in Costa Mesa.

Thank you again goes to Blanco and Bosch, you sure know how to show a guy a good time, especially when my definition of a good time revolves around classical music.

If you live anywhere near Costa Mesa, buy tickets and go see some performances. Here's the link to the Segerstom Center for the Arts website. Go!

Thermador's Freedom Induction

Last February, I wrote a post about an induction cooktop from Gaggenau I'd seen in Germany the previous month. Gaggenau calls it Full Surface Induction and I was completely blown away by it when I saw it for the first time. Full Surface Induction dispensed with the idea of burners all together and turned the entire cooktop surface into a cooking zone. The appliance could sense the size of the pot resting on it and only activated the induction coils beneath that particular pot.

I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. When I wrote that post almost a year-and-a-half ago I summed it all up with a lament about how that technology wasn't heading across the Atlantic any time soon.

It turns out I was wrong about that, Gaggenau's Full Surface Induction will be available in North America in August of this year.

In the meantime, last January, my friend and colleague Susan Serra wrote a post about Thermador's new Freedom Induction cooktop. Thermador is a sister brand to Gaggenau and next month, the Thermador Freedom Induction will make its North American debut.

When I was at Bosch/ Thermador/ Gaggenau's new facility in Irvine, CA last week I saw the prototype of this Thermador cooktop and I met the man who designed it. I admit it, I'm a geek when it comes to appliances, induction cooktops particularly. As amazing as Gaggenau's Full Surface Induction is, Thermador's Freedom Induction is even more so. Thermador's Freedom Induction has a 6.5" full-color screen that will teach you how to use the appliance essentially.

Here's a video showing the man behind this innovation, Malte Peters, and an early version of this appliance. The cooktop he's describing has a clear glass surface, so that you can see the many, many induction coils that live underneath it. These smaller coils are how Freedom Induction works.






All contemporary induction coils activate when they sense ferrous metal. Ordinarily, these coils are the size and shape of a conventional, round burner. Freedom Induction allows a user to place odd-sized pots and pans anywhere on its surface and it'll accommodate up to five pots at a time and a user can control each of those pots individually.

What's more is that somebody can move a pot to another position and transfer the cooking settings to the new position. It's revolutionary and this video of the original Gaggenau Full Surface Induction explains how this technology works better than I can.





Induction cooktops make so much sense I can barely stand it. They are significantly more efficient than any other cooking technology out there. They have the same level of control that gas does but without the radiant heat and wasted energy that accompanies gas. And unlike a traditional electric cooktop, the burners and cooking surface never get hot, so they're infinitely safer in homes with children or the elderly.

So if you're on the fence about induction, buy yourself a set of All-Clad cookware and go for it. I have never met anyone who'd made the switch to induction who regretted it. There are a wide variety of models available from Bosch, Thermador and Gaggenau and if you have any questions about this technology, please shoot me an e-mail. I'm somewhat a zealot when it comes to this stuff and I'll answer all questions gladly.

Meet my new living room carpet

I just ordered this carpet the other day. I've been in the market for a handmade carpet for years and finally, I chanced upon an opportunity to take care of the glaring hole in my living room decor.

I've been coveting handmade carpets for years but I've always been concerned about the conditions under which they're made. Enter Novica, a world marketplace that operates in association with National Geographic. Novica gave me a $200 credit that I used toward my carpet.

Novica is sort of like a developing world Etsy in that that site connects artisans from all over the world and allows them the opportunity to sell their wares directly to end users. In my case, my carpet was woven by a man in India named Khalil Ahmed. Here's his statement from Novica's website:

I come from a long lineage of carpet weavers. My ancestors have been in this field for more than centuries now. We are five brothers and two sisters, and we grew up as witnesses to the craft of weaving at home. I remember how enthralled we would be every time we saw varied colors merging into different weaves.

I was just in school when I began to learn this art. I was taught by my father and older brothers, and at the time it was like a game that offered moments of great fun. As I grew up I took the loom and began to weave my own pieces. It felt so amazing when I finished my first piece!

It took me almost three years to learn the fine art of weaving. At first my designs were simple and now, as I've gained mastery, they are more intricate. It also has to do with what people want. Before they wanted simple and elegant designs, but nowadays they are more demanding, not only in design, but also in terms of quality and price. It is therefore my responsibility to update my designs and work with quality materials to fulfill people's expectations and requirements.

As a family, we have seen some hard times. I remember a period during my childhood when the situation was so bad I had to work at a tobacco company all day for only a couple of Rupees. I still to cringe to remember those days, but I do not blame my parents. I know they were extremely difficult times, and that was the only option.

I have seen really bad days in my time, but they have given me the strength and determination to do well in life. For example, I had always dreamt of going abroad, so I worked hard and I realize my dreams. In 1992, I went to London for an exhibition. I also got the opportunity to go to Turkistan and Brazil. They were all wonderful experiences.

Before there were only a few families who designed and wove rugs, and people would have to come to our homes to buy them. Nowadays there are more opportunities for us weavers to sell our rugs and carpets with exhibitions happening every now and then. They offer us to show our products to more people rather than relying only with visitors coming to our homes.

It fills me with great pride to tell you that in 2002, I won National Award for one of my hand-woven dhurrie rugs.

It's a great feeling to be in this field, carrying on such a precious family legacy. I only wish that my children will take forward this art.

I'll write more about my purchase and Novica in the coming weeks after my carpet arrives. It shipped from Khalil's studio this morning and I ought to have it in two weeks. In the meantime, take a look through Novica's offerings. They're providing a forum where the developing world and the West can interact directly. This allows anybody to impact developing world lives personally.

It's precisely these kinds of direct interactions that make the world a smaller and better place. Thank you Novica.

Out, out damned termites

The exterminator just left.

Life in a century-old, wooden structure comes at a price. Namely, drywood termites. Drywoods are one of the three kinds of termites we have in Florida. Whatever their species, they're bad news.

via

There are termite species that live all over but they seem to particularly common in the sun belt. I never remember them when I lived in the Northeast. In Florida however, they are part of the scenery. Just like palmetto bugs, having termites isn't a reflection on someone's housekeeping. Even so, having them makes me feel dirty somehow.

When I first moved here, the only cure for them was to have the house tented and treated with Vikane. Vikane is sulfuryl flouride, a relatively inert gas. These days we spot treat with a product called Termidor and it promises to kill every termite in the area but at the same time be inert to me because I'm a mammal and have a spine, Termidor doesn't affect me. At least according the research Dow's done.

Back to Vikane for a sec however. Sulfuryl flouide is a greenhouse gas and its widespread use is a bad idea. In its place, spot treatments with Termidor are becoming the default mode for termites.

Part of me longs for a day when I could just eliminate everything but it makes sense to spot treat and not damage the atmosphere instead of the scorch and burn method I'd prefer.

The exterminator Steve told me that I shouldn't keep things so neat because he couldn't tell where the termites were. Pardon my hygiene. I'll start allowing dust buffaloes to form under my bed to make life easier for exterminators. Hah!

Does anybody out there have any experience with Termidor? Am I alone in living in an old structure and dealing with termites? I remember seeing termite nests in the trees in Costa Rica and Panama and being awed by them. However, seeing them in my kitchen is whole other matter. If they're in my kitchen, what are they doing to my floorboards and rafters? I need to quit thinking.

Out, out damned termites!

Cleaning hint

I've been on a cleaning jag lately. If it's not moving, I'm wiping or Swiffering it. However, I've always run into a dead end when it comes to dusty lampshades.

I was cleaning my laptop the other day with a trusty can of canned air when inspiration hit.

Canned air cleans lampshades better than anything I've ever found. Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean.

It's island time again, kitchen island that is

Tomorrow morning at 9:30 EST, CBS Sunday Morning will dedicate its 90-minute broadcast to an exploration of kitchen islands. Sunday Morning reporter Nancy Giles will travel the world over and two of her stops on this trip to find the exotic, the unusual, the beautiful and the functional will be in kitchens designed by world-renowned kitchen designer Johnny Grey.

The first of the two Johnny Grey designs Sunday Morning will profile are The Threshing Barn in Arlesford, England. Notice how he took the traditional form of a threshing barn and created a space that's perfectly suited to life in the 21st Century. The forced perspective at work in this kitchen is remarkable.

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

Talk about a lesson in how to define a room within an open floor plan. Wow.

The second Johnny Grey design Sunday Morning will feature is on the other side of the Atlantic in New York. In this room, Johnny introduced an element of hand crafted, nearly whimsical flair to an older home. As a side note, the following kitchen was one of my inspirations when I was starting out as a designer and it's really great that the editors at Sunday Morning see in it what I do.

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

©Johnny Grey Studios

Of all the flourishes in kitchen design I've ever seen, the leg on the island in the final photo has to be my all-time favorite.

So remember to tune into CBS Sunday Morning tomorrow, May 20th at 9am EST to see Nancy Giles tour of the islands and to hear Johnny as well as his clients as they talk about what it's like to live in the spaces they call home. If you miss the broadcast or if you're somewhere where you can't see it, go to CBS Sunday Morning's website and you can see the broadcast there.

Johnny Grey Studios works in the UK, Europe, North America and anywhere else where someone is calling out for an original, thoughtful design. You can contact the studio and see more of Johnny's work through the Johnny Grey Studios website. Johnny's blog, Grey Matters has more information and thoughts on kitchen islands, so head over there and join the conversation!

Introducing Todd Vendituoli

Hello everyone,


My name is Todd Vendituoli and you may have seen me in various places around such as Twitter, Facebook and many other venues. I have been a builder since 1984 and over that period of time I have worked on building new homes, remodeling and commercial renovations. Over the many years there have been vast changes in the construction field resulting from better tools and practices and that continues today. One of the changes that I have been recently pursuing is the area of social media, which I feel very strongly about. Social media is about  the way people reach out to search for information, recommendations and more. It is not a passing fad, and will not be going away. 


Due to the gracious offer by my friend, Paul Anater, I will also be writing here. Now the main focus of Paul's blog is Kitchen and Residential Design so logically that will be my focus as well. I am hoping that I will be able to provide you with additional insight in this area and look forward to your comments and suggestions. 


So to start with I'd like to ask if there are any areas that you would like to see explored or maybe you would like a product installation explained or...  Really I would love to hear from you and what interests you.


Drop a comment below or on one of the other sites or Twitter or Facebook... You get the idea and I'm easy to find.

Lastly I know I shouldn't but I will be speaking at the Coverings Trade Show in Orlando, FL  this April concerning Social Media with some really great people and I would love to see you there.
(http://www.coverings.com/coverings2012/public/Content.aspx?ID=5069&sortMenu=105002) 

I have listed the other places that I can be found below and would love to see you there too!

http://www.thebuildingblox.com/

http://www.socialmedia4builders.com/
And I can also be found around the web on:
https://twitter.com/#!/TALV58
https://www.facebook.com/todd.vendituoli
http://www.glpl.us/Buildingblox.com
http://about.me/ToddVendituoli 

We, ourselves, have grammar pet peeves: a Blog Off post

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive when bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic. The current topic is "Grammar pet peeves." Here's my take:
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I have too many grammar pet peeves to list, so I'll pull out a few that work my nerves the most. As an intro, I pride myself on my knowledge of the English language. I'm not a grammar purist and I don't correct other people, not any more at least. I love English because it's so flexible and it allows its speakers to take all manner of liberties with its structures and norms. However, in order to break a rule of grammar, one has to know the rule he's breaking and do so intentionally in order to avoid looking like an illiterate clod.

My knowledge of English grammar is a direct result of my studying other languages. I never "got" my mother tongue until I learned how to compare it to other languages. It's a bit of a paradox, but the best way to understand English grammar is to study another language. A good grammar handbook helps too.

I still have my copy of the Little, Brown Handbook from college and I say it's the best guide to English there is. Pick up a copy, it's worth the investment.

On to the pet-peeves. (Yes, I know that's a sentence fragment.)

The first one out of the gate is the blatant misuse of reflexive pronouns. Modern English has eight reflexive pronouns. They are: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves and themselves. Reflexive pronouns refer the action of a verb back to the subject of a sentence. A few examples:

I saw myself in the mirror.
You drove yourself crazy.
He worked himself into a frenzy.
She grew that rhubarb herself.

You get the picture. The use of a reflexive pronoun is only correct when it's used in similar ways to the examples above. Reflexive pronouns have to have a verb between them and their antecedents.

I hear reflexive pronouns being massacred all the time and the one that gets beaten up more than the others is the first person singular reflexive pronoun, myself. It's usually misused thus: "I, myself, think that this is the best rhubarb pie I've ever tasted." Wrong, wrong, wrong; and using a reflexive pronoun that way makes the speaker sound like a boob. Don't do it. "I, myself..." doesn't add emphasis in the least; that's why English has adverbs and other parts of speech. "I think this is the best rhubarb pie I've ever tasted." is already making a statement. If you want to drive your point home even further, just add another clause to the end of the sentence. "This is the best rhubarb pie I've ever tasted and I've had some of the best."

Next out of the gate is the misuse of the first person plural pronoun "we." We indicates that the speaker is including other people in the statement he or she is making. For example, "My family and I were on vacation, we went to Paris." See how the first clause of that sentence limited the scope of the second person pronoun in the clause that followed it? It's imperative that a speaker limit the scope of second person pronouns to avoid dragging in innocent bystanders.

Writers from independent blogs to the New York Times misuse that all the time and it goes through me like a knife. When Sarah Palin's not putting her foot in her mouth, she's always making statements like "We're sick of President Obama." Who the hell is we? Please don't include me in your delusions.

If you have an opinion or a statement to make, stick to the first person singular and stand up for yourself. Say "I'm sick of President Obama." Use plural pronouns only with clearly defined groups. If you can't define a group clearly, then use an indefinite article and a noun. Here's an example, "Some people are sick of President Obama." Using an indefinite article in this way is not only correct, it's polite and it's a more accurate description of what's so.

The last one I'll get into here is a disregard to English's subjunctive mood. Modern English has four moods: indicative, imperative, infinitive and subjunctive. I've you've ever studied a Romance language, you know that those languages make ample use of the subjunctive. English reserves it to a handful of uses.

A quick primer:
Indicative is the default mood in English and example is "The dogs are barking."
Imperative is a command, "Don't  just stand there!"
Infinitive mood describes a state of being without referring to a subject directly. Infinitives always have the word "to" in front of them, so a statement such as "He came to see you." is using the infinitive mood.
Subjunctive is a whole other animal and it needs a bit more explanation because it requires a different conjugation.

A verb uses its subjunctive mood when it expresses a condition which is doubtful or not factual. It is most often found in a clause beginning with the word if. It's also found in clauses following a verb that expresses a doubt, a wish, regret, request, demand, or proposal.

The most obvious example is when someone is expressing a thought that's contrary to fact. "If I were a rich man, I wouldn't have to work hard." Collectively, wishes such as this one are called "if clauses." By starting the sentence with "if," the speaker is setting the stage for a statement that's not true.

The subjunctive comes into play in other cases too. If someone asks to you come into his or her office but doesn't specify a time, the correct response would be "Is it necessary that I be there at ten?"

Did you catch that? It's not "Is it necessary that I am there at ten?" Because there's an element of doubt involved in the interaction, the sentence calls the subjunctive mood. In the subjunctive, "I am" becomes "I be."

The subjunctive mood is a lonely thing in modern English and many speakers are all to eager to ignore it. On behalf of the subjunctive mood, I will vouch for the fact that it likes company and it misses the attention it deserves.

English is a remarkably nuanced and flexible language and everyone who speaks it bends it to his or her own will. That's a good thing and I take liberties with it all the time. However, English is a language that's capable of incredible precision. That precision's only possible with a thorough understanding of the many, many rules of English's grammar and the widespread agreement that its speakers abide by the same rules.

I have been studying and trying to master my mother tongue for most of my life and it'll always a work in progress. I'll never have it fully mastered and that's one of the things that makes English so appealing to me. English has as many exceptions as it does rules and I have an incredible respect for anyone who studies it as a second language.

Native speakers have no excuse however. Grammar rules and guidelines are easy to find and though it takes a bit of effort, a facility with English isn't so difficult. If you're someone who writes, speaks or thinks for a living; you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of the Little, Brown Handbook.

Your audience will thank you.

These are my top three and rest assured, there are plenty more. If you're not participating today, what are some of your pet-peeves?

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As the day wears on, the other participants in today's Blog Off will appear today in a table. Click on their links and leave a comment.

Notes from New Orleans and the cities of the dead

One of these days I'll get back to writing about kitchen and bath design but in the meantime, I'm going to continue to write about whatever comes to mind. Bear with me. I'll get back to my niche eventually.

via

I spent a good part of last week visiting some long-term friends (Kevin Smith and Brandon Bergman) in their new hometown, New Orleans.

While the rest of the world thinks of New Orleans in terms of Bourbon Street and the shenanigans that accompany Mardi Gras; or the horrors it suffered when the infrustructure failed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; there is much more to that city. It's a place that doesn't feel like the rest of the United States, and the city's conventions and norms make it unlike anywhere else. New Orleans feels like a place without a time or a country and it serves as pressure valve for the world.

I have a number of friends who've moved there over the course of the last four years from Florida. Collectively, I refer to them as economic refugees. People who moved to New Orleans to seek their futures as the city rebuilds itself in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans is back in a very big way and it's a real thrill to watch my friends there riding the wave of the Crescent City's rebirth; FEMA, BP and the Army Corps of Engineers be damned.

Rebirth isn't really the right word though. New Orleans has been through the mill since its founding in the early 1700s as La Nouvelle-Orléans. The city passed from French to Spanish and then back to French hands before it became part of the US. Huge amounts of that pre-US infrastructure still exist and it's impossible when in the heart of the city to keep an accurate count of the 18th-Century structures that are still in day to day use.

Beyond its architecture, the culture of New Orleans stands apart from the rest of the US. While it's a thoroughly American city, it retains a feel for its founding cultures that the rest of the US has lost utterly. One of the things that amazes me more than just about anything is its numerous "Cities of the Dead," as cemeteries are known.

I had the pleasure to spend a leisurely afternoon this week in Lafayette #1, one of New Orleans' cemeteries in the city's Garden District. Lafayette #1 was established in 1833 and is a perfect example of how the City has sent her residents to their final repose since the city's beginnings.

Unique in the United States, New Orleans disposes of its dead in above-ground crypts rather than burying them. The going story is that the crypts are a function of the city's low topography but that's not really true. It's as much a throwback to its Continental roots and the reality of its lack of space as anything.

The crypts of New Orleans, like everything else about the place, have an interesting story to tell.

Crypts are owned by families or organizations and the crypts sit on leased land.

When someone dies, he or she is placed on the shelf shown here and the crypt is then sealed.

After a year and a day, the crypt keeper opens the crypt and with a ten-foot pole, pushes the remains to the back of the shelf. At the back of the shelf there's a slit and the remains fall through that slit and drop to the bottom of the crypt. The crypt is now ready for the next family death and it's re-sealed. According to the lore of New Orleans, this is the origin of the expression, "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole."

On All Soul's Day every year, the people of New Orleans lay tribute in front of these crypts in the form of flowers, beads and other mementos. It's a touching gesture of respect of the deceased.

Not all crypts are owned by families. Some are owned by fraternal organizations or charities. While at Lafayette #1, I came across a large crypt owned by the Society for the Relief of Destitute Orphan Boys, an organization that still exists in New Orleans.

In the most touching example of an already touching practice, the ledge on the face of the crypt was filled to overflowing with toys.

New Orleans is an amazing city and one with a legacy it's all to willing to share with anyone who asks. So head there some time and ask.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a planetary alignment!

via

If you've been paying attention to the western sky just after dusk in recent weeks, you've been treated to a really great show as the moon, Venus and Jupiter have been engaged in a nightly waltz with one another. Over the course of the next few weeks, Jupiter and Venus will continue to align so keep an eye out for it. If you have an unobstructed view of the western horizon next week, you'll get a glimpse of Mercury too.

This video from NASA explains what's going on in the not-uncommon alignment and what to expect in the weeks ahead.

Those objects are a nearly unfathomable distance from the Earth and it's really neat to just look up at them and ponder. A lot of people like to read all sorts of meaning into objects in the nighttime sky and their movements but really, they don't mean anything. Venus isn't the embodiment of love, Mercury isn't spirit and Jupiter doesn't represent leadership any more than my shoes do.

What they are however, are wondrous other worlds that share our solar system with us. Seeing them is a thrill just because they're there. Excuse me while I geek out on some astronomy.

I can't help but wonder what it's really like on those other worlds when I see them. Here's Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

photo from NASA

It's what's known as one of the gas giants in that it has a tiny rocky core surrounded by hydrogen and helium and a handful of other elements. Its size is mostly gas and that's kind of hard to imagine. Jupiter is massive and this spliced together photo shows it in relation to the size of the Earth. Jupiter has at least 64 moons and the largest of them, Ganymede, is larger than Mercury.

photo from NASA

Simply amazing.

Here's Venus.

Image processing by R. Nunes

Venus is the second planet from the sun and is 20 percent smaller than the Earth. Its size has earned it the reputation as the Earth's sister planet. The similarities end there though. Its surface is permanently obscured by dense clouds of sulfuric acid floating in an atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide. Penetrating radar has shown Venus to have a bone-dry, rocky surface punctuated by some very serious volcanoes.

Finally, here's Mercury.

photo from NASA

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun in our solar system. It's also the smallest of the planets orbiting our sun. It has a molten iron core and a surface composed of silicates primarily. Its surface is pockmarked with craters and appears to lead a pretty tough existence. Its proximity to the sun gives it some amazing temperature variations. During the day, the surface temperature can reach 840 degrees F (450 degrees C) and at night the temperature drops to -275 degrees F (-170 degrees C). Talk about freeze thaw cycle.

These three planets have been observed by human beings since the dawn of our species and until the last few hundred years, no one knew what they were. Living in an age when understanding the planets is a Google search away is an amazing thing. Knowing that Jupiter's made of gas primarily and that Venus exists under a veil of sulfuric acid clouds and that Mercury experiences such wild temperature fluctuations every day fires my imagination more than any myth ever could.

So over the next few weeks, look west just after the sun sets and be treated to one of the greatest shows in the solar system.

The anatomy of a scam

I just received this e-mail:

Note the return address and then note the instruction for me to "activate my PayPal account" through the helpful, secure link provided. This e-mail even warns me about ne'er do wells who want to steal my information.

Interesting because that's precisely what they want to do, despite how official this e-mail looks. This is an attempt to empty my checking account, the virtual equivalent of someone holding a gun to my back while I'm at an ATM.

Once you have an activated account with PayPal, your bank, a credit card or anything else, you will never get an e-mail like this. Always check the return address and NEVER click on a link that's asking you to log into one of your accounts anywhere.

What these people are attempting is highly, highly illegal but the internet is a pretty vast place and the long arm of the law can only extend so far.

Online life gave me a career I could have never imagined ten years ago and internet access is a true marvel. However, a healthy dose of skepticism has never been a more important asset. Question every unsolicited e-mail you receive and be careful out there.

Today would have been the last day of Saturnalia

The ancient Roman holiday best known today is Saturnalia. In the late Empire, Saturnalia was a five-day festival that would have run from December 17th through December 23rd. That happens to be today.

The cultural mishmash that is modern Christmas got its start with Saturnalia. The Roman god Saturn ruled over agriculture and harvests, but more than that he represented a time in the past when abundance and peace reigned supreme.

During Saturnalia, Romans reverted back to that nostalgic time that never existed. Masters served slaves and what was normally forbidden was allowed to thrive. Publicly, the festival was celebrated by a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn and unlike every other festival in the Roman calendar, Saturnalia was observed by everyone under Roman rule. It didn't matter where you lived or how close you were to the nearest temple of Saturn, you celebrated Saturnalia.

Where that festival fits into modern life is that a hallmark of it was that the Romans exchanged gifts with their loved ones during Saturnalia.

Human beings are today what they've always been and it's a human characteristic to express affection through a gift. The Romans turned it into a holiday and theirs is a practice modern people continue today.

The point of this is not to discount why people do what they do in 2011 or to pretend the cultural significance of the next few days isn't different now than it was then. Rather it's to show once again that everything modern westerners do is built on the people who came before us. Every aspect of our culture sits on the shoulders of our ancestors, be they genetic or cultural.

So while you're standing in line to buy gifts over the next few days, blame the Romans. But more than that, thank them for their legacy and for giving you the excuse to express your love for the people who mean the most to you.