The crème fraiche dialogues

We were recently in Paris. It was delightful.

This is a delightful place in Paris.

Sadly, I experienced a bout of illness after a meal at a delightful place in Paris, and was incapacitated for an entire day. Troy, in his solicitude for my well-being, purchased a variety of soothing foods before heading off for a delightful evening of watching repertoiry film on the Left Bank. They were the usual––apple sauce, soda crackers, juices, and yogurt.

The next morning, I remarked to him that the yogurt tasted a little strange, whereupon I noticed that it was not in fact yogurt. It was “crème fraiche,” which Troy had mistakenly purchased, largely because it was in that part of the grocery store (you know that part) where one might expect to find yogurt, and indeed, it was packaged as if it were yogurt. This is important.

FLASH FORWARD SEVERAL WEEKS.

I was strolling through the dairy aisle at our local supermarket, when a woman, standing in front of the yogurt selection turned to me and said, “Excuse me, I am French, may I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” I replied.

“I am looking for crème fraiche, but I cannot find it.” She gestured at the sour cream. “Is it the same …?”

I assured her that sour cream was not what she wanted; I even mentioned that I’d been in Paris recently. She was unimpressed by that fact (who hasn’t been to Paris recently?) but after thinking, I said, “it might be in the cheese section.” Sure enough, there it was, packaged as if it were cheese:

Looking like cheese …

The woman was grateful, but mystified, just as I had been by Troy’s thoughtful purchase.

And now you know “plus de l’histoire.”

Au revoir mesdames et messieurs!

Now all I have to do is get a job at Apple

New sign for our bus stop. You might have to blow up to read print in green.

This will either be the bane of our existence or increase the value of our home by 20%. Or both.

Maybe sent from a phone

Some tags are bigger than others

Best song ever

How is it that I’m just learning about this song this week?  I had a vague sense of who this doctor was…  but just now learned of her theme song.  It was during the check up of nervous 2 yr old.  As I started to auscultate her heart, the excited 4 yr old sibling starting hopping and singing…

Thanks to the conditioning of this show, I’m expecting no more nervous patients in a few more months.  Do they have a song about getting your booster shots?

A Xword first

Two cousins in the same puzzle!

Holy Microclimates

Do I trust this map before hiking to the Castro?

The Ghost Ship Lydia

Another Sunday stroll, another nephew/niece sighting. This time: embedded in the sidewalk near the ballpark.

Y’all know the story of the Ghost Ship Lydia don’t you? If you don’t, um … ask Lydia.

Hey y’all (I mean: you guys)

A friend of ours turned us on to a version of the Harvard Dialect Survey, made available by the NYT recently, that asks you questions about your word choices and pronunciation, and gives you a “heat map” of your dialect. The idea is that the warmest spots indicate a high probability that a random person from that area would answer the quiz the same way you did.

Here is Dan’s (he’s from Seattle):

And here is Troy’s (he’s from northern California):

But Utah is us! How romantic is that?

Also, they’re potato bugs. Just sayin’ …

BMB- sightglass

Does anyone recognize this rock star in line?

BMB–nephew edition

For the second Saturday in a row, we’ve tried out a new spot for brunch. And for the second time, a menu item was named after a nephew.
Special prize to whomever can guess which niece or nephew will be named next week. Dan’s money is on Afton.