Night of the Budapest Bunny

A Thanksgiving Tale from the Wild Wild East
We careened through streets, shrouded in darkness, packed into a grubby ersatz-Fiat 128, a Soviet-era knockoff. I was compressed, folded, and spindled into the back seat, a human shock absorber, a Dell Optiplex cradled in my arms. With only me between the PC’s steel case and the car’s [...]

A Means to an End

The failure statistic is often cited, usually with a moan and a wail. It goes like this: 30, 40, or 50 percent of all IT projects go bad. The rest — the ones that actually succeed — well, they go “slightly bad too.” At least some of them do. In the end, nobody’s happy. Jobs [...]

Café au Lait

It was perfect, the perfect cup of coffee. I’m not even that fond of coffee, but for that moment, it was eight ounces of heaven in a cup.
Not only was it heaven, it was the last thing I expected. I was not in a terrific mood; unhappy with the world in general, little sleep, and [...]

French Fries — Near and Far

Despite their “American” name, French fries are not French.  Most people attribute their origin to Belgium.  However, there is a bit of a controversy. 
Some think that the “French” in French fries actually comes from the verb “frenched” — meaning to cut into thin strips.  Why do I care — well, I like French fries, I [...]

Shameless Promotion & Nepotism

People who know me know that I am quite proud of my brother.  Frederick is the Chef at the Tenaya Lodge just outside of the gates of Yosemite National Park in California. 
I grew up around food. I can’t remember when I didn’t know how to cook and I was a teenager before I knew [...]