New Thing #145: Wayland Town Center

There's a new complex opened up in Wayland town center. It's called Wayland Town Center.

The old Wayland town center is just a big intersection of two big roads.

This Wayland Town Center is anchored by a Stop and Shop and has other stores and restaurants sprinkled through it.

And there's a lot more coming.

We went there Saturday to eat at the Bertucci's. (I had been to the Stop and Shop once before.) There's also a Supercuts open, an Anton's Cleaners, a Subway, Panera Bread, a bank, and a frozen yogurt place (more on that tomorrow).

I saw that there's another restaurant due to open in June - called The Local - as well as a town green (date TBD). I guess they're opening up a green where they can have concerts and such within the same complex.

It's a nice space, and it's been wasted space for a number of years. It's kind of cool to see all of these places popping open, but at the same time you kind of wish everything would open up all at once so you can get an idea what the whole place will end up being like.

It's a convenient location too. For those who don't know, Wayland is about 15 minutes from where I live, Framingham. It's between Sudbury and Weston, and it's convenient to a number of other towns that I don't really know that I have the geographic know-how to list.

It's right off Route 20, if that makes a difference to you as a point of reference.

It's convenient enough for us that we'll check it out every once in a while. It's not going to be our go-to place for a supermarket or a bank or a hair cut or a restaurant.

But it's shaping up to be a pretty nice place to go to.

New Thing #144: Community Service In Allston

Every year my school has a Community Service Day. It's a great event - every student and adult in the school is involved in some community service activity on a Friday in late May.

This is the third year, I think, that we've done it.

And this year, for the first time, I went to an off-campus site.

I was assigned, with another teacher and five students, to help out at the Boys and Girls Club in Allston, Massachusetts.

I was curious how I would be able to help, because the only thing I knew about our work there was that we would be doing a little planting around the building and maybe some clean-up.

Clean-up I could handle. Planting? Not so much.

So when our liaison there asked who'd be interested in planting and my co-worker jumped at the opportunity...I wasn't disappointed to be handling the indoor activities. (The picture you see above is the result of his handiwork.)

I helped the indoor students inventory some sports equipment and re-organize some library books. Probably more my speed.

As for the Boys and Girls Club - it's a great facility, and they do great work there.

You know they do a good job of selling what they do when you leave there wanting to do more.

Which, I guess, is the point with Community Service Day.

New Thing #143: Forgetting Dates

Today is May 23rd. I know there's something important about the date.

It could be that on May 23, 1999 I graduated Boston University.

It could be that on May 23, 2005 I graduated Lesley University as a graduate student.

It could be that one - or both - of those events happened on May 19th, and neither happened on this day.

But the reason I bring this up is that my mind used to be a steel trap for information like which day I graduated college.

Nowadays - it's more like one of those cartoon nets that catch lions, when they spring up into the treetops from the ground.

It has a lot of holes.

May 22nd is one of my favorite days: I have a friend who shares that birthday with his wife. They're the only people I know where that's the case - husband and wife sharing a birthday. (Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are the only other two I know of in this category. But I don't know them know them.)

Usually I'll shoot him a text early in the day to wish him a happy birthday. Yesterday? It wasn't until I saw a note on Facebook that I remembered.

And Facebook is part of the problem. It used to be that it was a mark of pride that I remembered birthdays. I think it's because growing up my mom always had people's birthdays on the calendar, and that's a practice I've continued into adulthood. But the problem with Facebook is that now, there's no reason to write down people's birthdays - it reminds you whenever someone's birthday happens. My own personal protest has been to ignore that tool - it's out of spite, I know that. And I've suffered because of it - because I'm caught in between new technology and an old school strategy that is failing me these days.

Because I don't think Facebook is entirely to blame. I think I'm storing more important information in my brain and trivia like dates are getting squeezed out. I still remember April 8th (Gary Carter's birthday), October 25th and 27th (Games 6 and 7 of the 1986 World Series), June 14th (Flag Day, and the day the Rangers won the Cup in 1994), and the birthdays of my wife and family. (My middle daughter is a little tricky. The doctors promised us as my wife labored that she would arrive on 9/18...but she just wouldn't come out and was actually born after midnight on 9/19. So I struggle to remember her actual day. It's not automatic, in other words.) So I remember those dates, but other dates are getting squeezed out by information about work, my daughters, and other things that are at the top of my priority list these days.

And, I hate to admit this - I'm getting older. Sometimes I feel it physically, but sometimes it manifests itself in other ways.

I was texting with a friend recently and we were both watching the Red Sox on TV. I asked him if he noticed that each year NESN's score bug in the top left corner of the screen gets harder and harder to read. Why are they making it smaller? I asked. He replied that it's possible it's poor design by them...but it's also more likely that our eyes are getting worse and worse as we get older.

And I sometimes think my memory is going the same way. And I pride myself on remembering. So I work hard to keep that brain of mine sharp. I do crosswords. I keep myself busy with trivial little things like '365 New Things In 2013.'

I bet you were worried if you logged on early this morning and saw there wasn't a New Thing waiting for you when you woke up. I do my best to have these written and ready to go the night before. Sometimes I just get too busy.

But there's no reason to worry all that much.

It's not like I forgot.

New Thing #142: The Memory Palace

This is a unique time for me: I'm all caught up on my podcasts.

This includes the newest addition to my podcast subscriptions.

It's called The Memory Palace.

It's hosted by a guy named Nate DiMeo, who according to the show's website, co-authored a book about Parks and Recreation.

He's been doing this show for a bunch of years, I guess, and recently he was picked up by the Maximum Fun network of podcasts.

And that's how I found out about it.

You remember the Maximum Fun network...I mentioned it when I told you about Bullseye back in January.

The Memory Palace is a history podcast, but it's history told in story form.

Which is a huge strength...but also a weakness of this podcast.

It's a strength because it's cool to hear some of these stories which I've never heard before. The best episodes are ones that remind me of Paul Harvey stories - there's a little twist and you expect to hear, "And now you know....the rest of the story." Man, I loved those.

But it's a weakness because some of the stories I've heard a version of on some other storytelling-type podcast. And when I've already heard the story and you can see what's coming, well, that's not The Memory Palace's fault, but it definitely takes away from that particular episode.

Here's the type of episode I loved: A story about the first elephant to touch American soil. I never would have thought about that, but obviously there had to be a first of every non-native species. That was a cool one. There was a good one about the Otis family - as in the Otis elevator family. (Otis didn't invent elevators...he invented the braking system!) And another story about Roger Babson, which doesn't seem like it would be interesting, but it was.

And, oh man - Episode 44 (distance) - that one's amazing. Start there if you're interested. I won't even give you a summary, because it's almost a near-perfect example of the form.

If you're interested in PT Barnum, he pops up every so often...and is probably rivaled by only the Civil War in the 'most mentions' category.

The podcasts come out about once a month these days, and they're pretty short. I caught up on the whole catalog that's available in about a week. (I don't think the first 10 episodes were available, so I still need to listen to those - I need to see if they're available on the website.)

But perhaps the best thing about this podcast? It's good for kids. I've already played a couple in my classroom - the elephant one, one about Henry 'Box' Brown, and I plan on playing one about 'Crazy Bet', a woman who helped spy for the Union Army in the Civil War. I'm always on the lookout for podcasts that I can bring into the classroom, but most have something that makes it tough for me to have fifth graders listen to. Most of these episodes are OK.

And now that I'm caught up on this - and the rest of my podcasts - it's time to try a new one. I'm thinking of exploring education - some podcast about education and teaching, not necessarily an educational podcast.

I'd be happy to take your suggestions.

New Thing #141: Beer At John Harvard's

Historically I haven't been much for the places that brew their own beer. But on Saturday evening we went out to dinner at one of them - John Harvard's.

There are a few John Harvard's locations - it looks like a couple are in upstate (?) New York - but there's one here in Framingham and another in Harvard Square.

We eat there (or, more accurately, get takeout from there) quite a bit, but I haven't had a beer there in years.

I don't think I liked it.

But on Saturday I did.

I had what they call a Bushwacker IPA (pictured). My wife had the Pale Ale. Both were really good.

I think my taste in beer has changed over the years. Matured, maybe. Or maybe I just have a better idea of what I like in a beer so I'm ordering more wisely.

I love Belgian whites. I don't know if I know exactly what that means...but I think I can pick something off a menu that seems like a Belgian white.

I'm not even sure the Bushwacker is the closest thing to a Belgian white they have - but I think I also like IPAs. (I don't even know what IPA stands for.) But I wanted to try it...and then I was glad my wife was trying the Pale Ale so I could have a taste of that too.

It was such a good experience I'm kind of looking forward to going back and trying some of their other brews - they have a nice page on their website showing the types of beer they offer. (I like the looks of the Kolsch.)

They also have jugs - primarily of the Pale Ale, but I wonder if there are other choices - to take home. I'm willing to explore that as well.

It's also opened my eyes to the possibility that I'll enjoy other breweries' selections. For a long time I didn't really like the beers at Boston Beer Works. Apparently, that's a chain. And there's a brand new location opening here - Framingham Beer Works.

Stay tuned for that New Thing...because I will be trying it out.

New Thing #140: Boston Strong

I'm not thrilled about doing a Boston tribute song on a day where the Rangers trail a series with the Bruins 2 games to none. But this was the new music for the week, so here we are.

It's a song called "Boston Strong", and the artist is a guy named Young Beedah.

I read about it last week in - of all places - Sports Illustrated.

And it was in the strangest of contexts.

Maybe this happened to you too - I was reading an article in SI about the Vanderbilt pitching staff. They have another talented staff, following in the footsteps of guys who have already made an impact in the majors.

But in the article they mention this guy named Tyler Beede, a pitcher on the team, who was playing in Fenway Park the week before. Playing, as in his song played over the loudspeakers - Jarrod Saltalamacchia chose it as his music coming to the plate.

It's called "Boston Strong." I guess it was originally going to be released this summer, but after the Marathon bombing, Beede moved up its release. He's from Auburn, Massachusetts, and I guess it was his way of dealing with everything.

I didn't know what to expect - I guess my expectations were low. But I rationalized and figured, if Saltalamacchia was willing not only to give the song a listen but also to use it as his at-bat music, it's the least I could do.

And it wasn't terrible. So our first rap Music Monday belongs to Young Beedah...and if I trust the YouTube description it's a remix of Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us."

Also, for what it's worth, the reimaging of the 4 major Boston sports teams' logos at the beginning of that video is pretty cool.

New Thing #139: Watching The End of 'The Office'

Thursday night was the series finale of The Office. My wife and I watched it on DVR delay Friday night.

It was pretty good - like much of the recent history of the show it wasn't the best TV I ever watched, but it also wasn't terrible.

Still, I found it very touching.

And I think that's due to a number of factors.

First of all, and I don't think I'm alone in this experience - The Office, especially in its finale but, as was made clear in the finale had been happening for nine years, captured what a workplace is like.

And that spot towards the end where Jim calls it (I don't remember exactly, so I'll paraphrase), "The most awful, amazing, terrible, terrific" place - I can totally relate to that. Not in my current job - I'm lucky in that way - but in my time in the TV business.

My first professional work experience was not great. But it was so great. It was a terrible place to work because it was run by terrible people...but it was an awesome place to work because it was filled with awesome people. I only maintain tangential relationships with those folks, but we all knew we were in a tough situation together work-wise, and we made the most of it socially. Not unlike the characters in The Office. (I also met my wife at that job. Not unlike the characters in The Office.)

The other thing that struck me as the show ended - and I could be way off base here because I'm only remembering something in the moment - The Office could very well be the longest-tenured show I've watched from start to finish.

(I say longest-tenured because as my wife pointed out when I mentioned this to her we watched Ben and Kate from beginning to end, but that's clearly different. Also - bonus! - Dakota Johnson, aka Kate, appeared as 'Dakota' in The Office finale.)

So let's break this down a bit. Although I've seen every Seinfeld episode, I only began watching that in season 2 or so. I remember my parents watching it before I did, and I only caught up through syndication. The Simpsons was the other show I was on early and watched straight through...for about 15 years. But that show has just kept going for another 10, and I haven't watched in about a decade. I loved Scrubs, but that petered out at the end and the network switch threw me. Cheers and the big series finales of my childhood started when I was too young, and Friends I only watched sporadically...and I think it ended while I was preparing for my wedding and I don't know if I ever watched the tape of the finale. (Now that I'm doing this mental checklist I'm realizing next year's How I Met Your Mother finale will fall into the same category as The Office.)

The funny thing is I didn't like The Office all that much at first. I found it uncomfortable (like many others, I think). I remember thinking, "Why is it being shown like a documentary?" Remember how different that was back then? Eventually I began to really appreciate how funny it was.

I assumed I missed some shows early on...but I must have seen all of the episodes in repeats that first season, because watching that retrospective before the finale I remembered everything.  (I have this weird thing about TV shows, by the way. Some of the stuff they show from 7 or 8 seasons prior seems to me like there's no way it could have been that long ago. Like the diversity episode. That was season 1? Seems more recent than that to me. Maybe because my mind works in years and not 22-episode chunks - I have a hard time following TV calendars, I think.)

But I kind of love that the documentary piece was addressed so strongly in the final season. I love that they didn't mess with Jim  and Pam too much - that made me very uncomfortable during this season. And though it had its weak moments, I looked forward to watching the show more often than not.

Series finales are always touching in some way or another. This one felt a little more so than others.

New Thing #138: My Longest Streak

I don't know what it is about this year. Maybe trying New Things has made me smarter.

Or just luckier.

But if this sounds familiar, it's because back in February I went on a long winning streak in one of my fantasy sports games.

And Friday night, I had another career-long streak in another game come to a screeching halt.

It looks like 17 is my new lucky number.

As you can see, Robinson Cano and Vernon Wells now enter the pantheon (I looked it up - I'm probably misusing the word, but I think you catch my drift) of players I will never select again in 'Beat the Streak' because they did not come up big for me when I needed them. They both posted 0-for-4s. Against Mark Buehrle! I think I could get a hit off Mark Buehrle. This year. Not back in his White Sox days when he was decent. (Or at least decent enough to throw two [2!] no-hitters.)

(FYI - I picked these guys because they had decent numbers against Buehrle. But now they join the likes of David Ortiz as guys I'll never pick again. I've picked Cano a lot, and he fails me often. Now we're done.)

You may (or may not) remember - I've written about Beat the Streak before. (Sorry, non-sports fans.) It's one of my favorite things about baseball season.

Coming into this year, I think my longest streak ever was about 12 games. So this 17-gamer was a big deal.

I didn't double down all that much - I just methodically built up to 17 games. I feel like I can do it again. But the amazing thing is to even challenge the million-dollar prize I'd have to do 17 games more than 3 times in a row, because you have to beat Joe DiMaggio's 56-game streak for the big money.

I think I'd be happy if I got somewhere around 30.

And I'll try again starting today. I took Daniel Murphy, who's swinging a good bat lately, and Miguel Cabrera, who often comes through for me. (An anti-Cano, if you will.)

And the next time I feel like maybe I should take Paul Goldschmidt rather than doubling down with two Yankees...you'd better believe I'm going to go with that first instinct. (Goldschmidt, who I thought long and hard about taking, was 4-for-5 on the night my streak ended. Ouch.)

New Thing #137: Refinancing Our Mortgage

I don't even know really if this is OK to write about. We're refinancing our mortgage.

And by "we" I mean "my wife" is refinancing our mortgage.

I'm just going along with it and signing the papers.

That's not 100% true - I am trying to follow along with all of the information.

It's just...finances. It's a hard thing for me to wrap my head around.

But you know what I like less?

When the lawyer comes to our house for some signatures.

That was Thursday's deal.

So it involves tidying up, making sure the girls are set for bed...and pretending like I'd rather be signing papers than watching the Rangers playoff game.

The last time we had someone come to the house for a situation like this I had to give blood and pee in a cup. I asked my wife if we needed to do that. Apparently that was not for any refinancing. That was life insurance.

But still I'm suspicious the whole time - why do they need to come to the house? Are they going to be looking at the house to assess its value? (Good thing I mowed the lawn last week! Does it matter that we have a tree slowly dying outside our front door?) Are they suspicious of us like I am of them? Why would they even be suspicious of us? Why would I even be suspicious of them?

Everything went fine - it took just a half-hour. It was essentially like doing a closing. I signed lots of papers, and I was able to get back to watching hockey. (For those wondering, my wife watched 'American Idol' live, and 'The Office' series finale would wait until Friday on the DVR.)

What did I learn? My wife is a slow and soft signatory (does that word apply to a single person? or just, like, large entities like countries?) while I really lean into my signatures. And I get awful at writing my 'J's after a while.

All in all, it turned out the lawyer was just here to collect signatures (no bodily fluids), and we were just trying to take advantage of current rates and cut ourselves a deal.

Is that right? Current rates? Did we get a deal?

I need to go ask my wife.

New Thing #136: Shadows In Color

I took this picture following my daughter's dance recital more than a week ago. I figured one day when the ol' creativity well ran a little bit dry I could use it as a New Thing.

Which is not to say I don't like the picture - I really do.

It's just that I realize it's a little bit of a stretch to use it as a New Thing.

But here we are.

One disclaimer - I know when I started this project I didn't intend to post a New Thing a day. By the end of the year I was going to have 365, and if that meant I missed a few days and then made up for it with a few posts in a day, well, that's what I would do.

But I've gone 135 straight days now, and I kind of want to try to go 365 straight.

But it's a tough time of year. I don't know if you remember last May, but May is a tough month with everything going on at school. Last May was so tough, I almost missed Johan Santana's no-hitter because it was on Friday, June 1st, and that day I was just so happy May was over that I went out for a little bit just to catch my breath and I didn't get home until the middle of the 5th inning.

But I digress. Here we are halfway through May, and I'm doing OK. I just haven't been experiencing a ton of New.

Except for snapping this picture.

We celebrated the recital at my daughter's favorite restaurant: Margarita's. My two oldest daughters got balloons there. I don't know that I've noticed all that much when a shadow is anything but black. But for some reason this one stood out to me more than most.

So I took a picture.

And now that I think of it, it reminds me of this picture I took a couple of years ago:

Except there's color. And that's pretty rare. So. New Thing.

New Thing #135: A Rangers-Bruins Playoff Matchup

There have been a lot of high-profile New York-Boston matchups in my time in the greater Boston area. Of course, Yankees-Red Sox happened in the playoffs for the first time in a long time, I think, in 1999...then happened a lot through 2004.

But I didn't care all that much.

Then the Celtics and Knicks matched up a couple of times in the playoffs.

I cared slightly less.

The Jets and Patriots were high stakes - and there was a big win in there for my team.

But until now there had not been a Rangers-Bruins matchup in the playoffs...and it might end up being the most exciting of them all.

I texted with my friend Justin Monday night about the fact that I didn't think there had been a Rangers-Bruins playoff matchup since our college days...and he dug a little deeper to find it hadn't even happened in our lifetimes. 1973 was the last time the Rangers and Bruins met in the post-season. That kind of seems impossible.

But it makes this year's matchup a definitive New Thing.

And it'll be a good one - the past few years have featured a lot of tight games between the two teams...and they've both played a number of heart-stoppers in the post-season the past few years against other teams.

So I expect a lot of nail-biters in the series. Which is not something I am particularly looking forward to.

There's a whole lot that's troublesome about this matchup, in fact - if the Rangers lose I can expect to hear it from all sides (there is a very passionate Bruins fan base in Boston, which I acknowledge...but let's just say that since they won the Cup that fan base has spread wider and been more vocal), if the Rangers win I will only feel quiet satisfaction, and no matter what, I think the series will cause me some late nights and some more white hair.

I'll look on the bright side - the Rangers won their Game 7 against the Capitals Monday night. That means they have this second round series to play. For me that means that I have another week-plus of hockey that I care about. That helps me inch ever closer to the end of the school year - Rangers playoff hockey helps mark time through the month of May.

And it sure beats those years when they missed the playoffs.

And...who knows? Maybe I'll end up getting a ticket to a game in Boston.

New Thing #134: Circadia

I downloaded a new app (thanks, Starbucks 'Pick of the Week'!) last week. It's a game called "Circadia".

I'm not going to lie - these games don't last too long on my phone anymore.

I deleted 'Fibble' last week - I hadn't played it in months, and my daughters long ago stopped asking about it.

But 'Circadia' has some potential to stay a little longer.

I'll tell you why.

It's not plot-driven, as 'Fibble' was intended to be. (Though what that plot was I don't know if I ever figured out.)

It's more of a skill game.

There are a couple of levels of skill involved - using sight, sound, and, I guess, memory.

Here's what happens: There's a white circle somewhere on the screen. Then there are other circles (early in the game there are two - as you progress more come into play), and they emit these rings. The rings grow at different rates, and your goal is to get them to cross the white circle at the exact same time.

The rate at which the colored circles emit the rings is based on their tone - the deeper the color tone, the slower the rings come. (There's a corresponding audio tone as well.) So you have to work on the timing so that the rings approach the white circle at the same time.

Once you hit the white circle with all the rings at the same time, you advance to the next level. I imagine they keep adding colored circles, and there was even a level I played that had a moving white circle. But I've only advanced about 30 levels.

It's fun, and - good for me - not all that addictive. I can play it for just a few minutes to pass some time and put it aside pretty quickly.

Those are all elements that add up to a game that I don't expect to be deleting anytime soon.

New Thing #133: Clover

One of the most unoriginal things I've done in my life is become a fan of Huey Lewis and the News. I only liked the band (at first) because my eldest cousin, who I looked up to, was obsessed with them.

(That's the cousin in the picture at the left - plus me, my brother, and Huey Lewis.)

I listened to a lot of sports radio - hardly any music on my own - so when people asked what my favorite music was, I just said I liked Huey Lewis.

Later, when I actually did listen to them and owned their albums, I really did like them.

And Huey Lewis is in the top 3 of my early music influences - along with Billy Joel and Elton John.

About the only trivia I knew about Lewis, though, was that his real name is Hugh Anthony Cregg III.

But this week I learned a little more about him.

I'll explain the picture in a minute. First...Huey Lewis and the News is (are?) releasing a 30th anniversary edition of 'Sports', their (its?) hit album.  The album features live versions, I hear, of all of the songs on the album.

So as part of the promotional tour, I guess Huey Lewis is making the media rounds. He was on two of my favorite podcasts in the last week - WTF with Marc Maron and Bullseye.

That means I heard two versions of his stories - sneaking onto a plane to travel to London for a year in Europe at the insistence of his father rather than going straight to college to play baseball, his brief time at Cornell (brief because he wasn't as interested in engineering as he was in music), and how Robert Zemeckis and he differ on the story about how The Power of Love came to be used for Back to the Future.

It also means I heard twice about his early music experience before 'The News' - he played in a band called 'Clover'. I had no idea.

I found a couple of their songs on YouTube - including one in which Huey Lewis sang lead. (He was primarily a harmonica player in the band, and it seems like this one is  a rare one where he sings. I put that video at the end of this post.) As you can probably see, that song sounds a lot like Huey Lewis and the News, mostly because of Lewis' voice. Overall - and especially the ones where Lewis is just doing harmonica or percussion - the songs have a more funky, 70's-ish vibe.

As for meeting Huey Lewis? I've told this story to many people verbally, but I don't think I've ever written it. (I often tell it when I wear that orange shirt I'm wearing in that picture. I call it my 'Huey Lewis shirt'.) My cousin and I used to go to Hofstra in the summer to see Jets training camp. The day we went that year (according to the time stamp I guess it was 2005) Huey Lewis and the News played a venue on Long Island. My brother, through his radio job, thought he could get us tickets. As the day progressed, he thought he could even get us backstage to meet Huey Lewis. This was thrilling news. (It was almost too thrilling for my cousin.) But I couldn't meet Huey Lewis dressed in a sloppy Jets t-shirt.

So off to the mall we went. Eddie Bauer had a sale on these orange shirts. There was a whole rack of them, only $10. Sold. We went to the concert, got pulled into the 'Meet and Greet' area, Huey said to us, "You guys are cool, right?" My brother finagled some autographs (I have a 'Fore!' record autographed) and the concert was excellent.

Pretty great memory.

I don't know where you stand on Huey Lewis...but give it a shot - it's good music.

New Thing #132: Gratin

Before there were the beet burgers, there was beet greens and rice gratin. This was another of those healthy New York Times recipes that my wife cooked up, shortly before the beet burgers, that was met with much more success than the beet burgers.

I liked this dish a lot.

It's kind of like a quiche. And, actually, I'm not really sure what the difference is between a gratin and a quiche. Maybe the gratin is thicker.

As it says in that link, it's a Mediterranean gratin, bound by rice and eggs.

What intrigues me the most about it is the fact that the article says it is just as good cold as it is hot.

I had it hot - but I'm looking forward to having it again and trying it cold.

And that's about the extent of what I can write about gratin. Although now that I think about it, I was going to say I had never heard of gratin. But isn't there a thing like potatoes au gratin? I wonder what the connection is there. I don't know that there's any relation to what I've written about here.

New Thing #131: Front-Running With The Knicks

There was a time when I lived and died with the New York Knicks. They absolutely broke my heart in 1993.

Then in 1994.

And then they did it again in 1995.

And for the first time in my life I decided maybe my approach to sports wasn't healthy and maybe I needed a break.

I still rooted for the Knicks through college, but when the NBA lockout hit I took out my aggression from the baseball strike on the NBA.

And I didn't really watch any NBA games for the next decade-plus.

But lately I've been watching the Knicks again.

I'll admit it - it has all the markings of me being a fair-weather fan.

They're good again, and I'm following closer than I have since 1999 - that's the definition of a front-runner.

But I've paid dues.

I was furious at Charles Smith for not dunking 20 years ago.

I cried after Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals.

I went into a severe funk after Patrick Ewing missed the layup against the Pacers in 1995.

It's not like I'm a total Johnny-come-lately to the Knicks scene.

But there was a time a 54-win season would have put me over the moon. This year it barely registered. So I know I'm no longer a die-hard.

That was clear in the first playoff game against the Celtics when I texted my friend Justin with each name I heard from the team, in disbelief that these were guys who now played for the Knicks. I couldn't believe I had absolutely no idea who was on the team besides maybe Carmelo Anthony.

(Meanwhile, man is he a frustrating player to watch. When the shots fall he's amazing. But when they don't - yikes. I've watched like 8 games in a row at this point, and I don't think I've ever seen him pass.)

Besides Anthony being essentially a talented chucker, this isn't the most likable collection of talent in NBA history. Too much talking, that whole black suits to the Celtics funeral thing - it's annoying. Just play winning basketball.

When the Knicks did beat the Celtics last week, it was their first playoff series win since 2000. I'm glad I didn't miss anything while I was gone.

But I'm also glad that if and when this season ends - probably short of an NBA title - it won't affect me the same way it did 20 years ago. And if all that goes well and the Knicks don't break my heart...maybe I'll watch them from the start next season.

New Thing #130: Maron

Warning: Adult Content. I feel like I need to preface this one with that warning because I know what I'm about to write about won't be for everyone.

And usually I go out of my way to avoid anything that isn't family-friendly.

(I always think about my kids approaching an age where they will find this and read it, and I don't want there to be anything embarrassing. Same with work - I don't want to offend anyone. I do work with children, after all...and I'm aware someone will stumble across this site eventually.)

But the host of one of my favorite podcasts now has his own TV show and it would be wrong of me to not write about it.

It's called Maron, and it airs Fridays at 10pm on IFC.

Marc Maron is a comedian. He's been around for a while, and I remember him from the late 1980s (or maybe early 1990s) when we used to watch Stand Up Stand Up or shows like that on The Comedy Channel.

(I came to this realization last year when Maron appeared on Louie C.K.'s show Louie. In that show there were clips from 20 or so years ago of Maron and Sarah Silverman doing stand up. I recognized Silverman easily, and then had a huge flash of recognition of Marc Maron as a young man. I used to see him doing stand up all the time on The Comedy Channel. I had zero memory of C.K., for whatever that's worth.)

Anyway, if you've ever listened to his podcast you know what happened in the past 20+ years. He fell into drugs, got sober, married, divorced, married, divorced, did some radio work, hit bottom, then found new fame with a podcast where he talks with other comedy folks (and, lately, musicians) about their lives. It's called WTF, and it's probably my favorite of the podcasts to which I subscribe.

The podcast has been so successful it's led to other opportunities, hence, Maron on IFC.

For months I worried about what I would do when May 3rd rolled around. That was the show's premiere, and I really wanted to see it, and I didn't think we had IFC in our cable package.

On May 2nd I finally got around to checking out the channel lineup to see where IFC fell, and lo and behold, channel 234 - IFC! So that problem was easily solved.

Like Louie, this is a 'me' show...not an 'us' show. It's not one of those where I feel compelled to wait for my wife to watch it with me. It's not her cup of tea...though last week's pilot episode was surprisingly clean.

Some of the ads I saw for the show made me laugh out loud. I don't think that exactly happened with the first show, but that's not to say I didn't think it was funny - I liked it. I just wasn't rolling on the floor or anything.

If there's anything I've learned from a lifetime of watching TV it's that it's very hard to draw conclusions from one episode of television.

I think Maron has an initial run of 10 episodes here. That seems like a pretty good sample size from which to draw a conclusion. I'll be watching all 10.

But I'll also say this - I'm biased because I love the podcast so much. It would have to be a terrible show for me to not watch all 10...or any future seasons.

And that's the other thing about WTF - Marc Maron is so honest and open that you just want to root for him to do well. So I doubt I'm alone among fans of the podcast who, no matter how good the TV show is, are just rooting for Marc Maron to have success.

New Thing #129: Working With Copper

I could probably stretch out my time in Quebec into a hundred New Things. (And come number 250 or so I might regret not having done that.)

But I think the last thing I'll write about from my time there is the fact that we visited a copper museum.

That's what you see here.

But visiting the museum by itself, while new, wasn't the highlight of that part of the trip.

That would be the fact that while we were there we all had the chance to do our own work with copper.

The name of the place was Cuivres d'art. I think, as the subtitle indicates in the above picture, that means copper art. But I want it to be, like, Museum of Copper Art.

Except, I suppose, it wasn't really a museum.

There is a display about the availability of copper in parts of Canada and the United States.

And there's a big exhibit in the back featuring incredibly detailed copper images of the life of Jesus. Religious or not - they were pretty impressive.

But the central spot is a display area, featuring copper you can buy as well as the spot where our activity was done, where we all made an image in copper.

I wanted to do something appropriate to our trip, so I decided on the maple leaf. That was a clutch decision I'm proud of, because it perfectly captured the trip, and usually I have trouble with those types of decisions.

I don't remember all of the steps exactly at this point, since I'm so far removed from it, but the first step was to trace (or create, as I did) your image onto the blank copper piece with a sharp tool, and then you had to just trace the inside of the image - kind of to give it depth.

Then you took a little rounded tool and traced around the outside portion, which made your image pop out a little more. Then there was one more step, which I don't remember. It might have been flattening somewhere else.

But it was a cool experience - definitely something I've never done before. (Though close to what I've seen some of my students do in their art class using clay, I think, as a medium.) Here's what the process looked like, kind of step-by-step:

New Thing #128: Married For Nine Years

Nine years ago today was one of the happiest days of my life. I don't say the happiest day of my life because we have three daughters, and I think my wife will agree that the days they entered the world certainly give our wedding day a run for its money.

(Then again, the days our daughters entered the world were very different for my wife than they were for me...so maybe she does view our wedding day as the happiest day of her life, since no other humans emerged from her body that day.)

Anyway, the point is that today is our 9-year wedding anniversary.

It's not the most original of New Things, but each year deeper into marriage something comes along that I've never experienced before.

The obvious thing is the kids - when we got married in 2004, both my wife and I knew we wanted children. What we didn't know, of course, is that 9 years later we would have three girls. What we now know is that we won't be able to predict any of what our next twenty years or so will be like together, because almost everything we do together is dictated by those three girls.

And we love it that way.

It's kind of a cliche, but we won't be backpacking across Europe anytime soon...because that's the type of thing you sacrifice when you have 3 kids in a span of 5 years. Man. That seems kind of crazy. I've never actually written or said that before. The 3 kids in 5 years part. Not the backpacking across Europe part. Because, truth be told, that's not really our thing. We wouldn't have backpacked across Europe anyway. Maybe driven cross-country. That's what I want to do. But we can probably do that with kids anyway. Backpacking across Europe sounds like a real hassle to me.

I'm going to get real sappy here for a minute: My wife is the best. I know I'm not an easy person to live with. I am such a pest. And then there are the sports and other various obsessions. It's not everyone that could compete and coexist with the ridiculousness that is my day-to-day life.

But my wife does. And she actually encourages these, um, eccentricities. (Exhibit A: We saw the Mets play in Arizona on our honeymoon.) And she's managed to maintain what is kind of a delicate balance: She has nurtured these obsessions of mine while helping me to grow immensely as a person.

I shudder to think where I would be without her. She helped me see what I was capable of in my TV news career, and then when that was no longer fulfilling to me she helped me decide on and gave me the direction I needed to pursue my teaching career, which has lasted as long as our marriage.

A favorite question on anniversaries like this is, "Can you believe it's been 9 years?"

I kind of can't. They've been a bit of a flash. (Thinking about 9 years ago in Arizona I also have a comparative reference point: it certainly feels like 9 long years as a Mets fan.)

But I know this: anyone who knows my wife knows why those 9 years have been so happy.

New Thing #127: Administering Standardized Tests On An iPad

At the school where I teach, we give a standardized test each year. It's very low stakes - my approach to it is always that it's more a chance to expose the students to these types of tests rather than being a test of what they know.

(I do like to use the scores as a chance to assess myself and how I'm doing teaching certain skills.)

This year, though, for the first time since I've been teaching (just about a decade) the tests were given on iPads rather than a test booklet and answer sheet.

It was a different experience.

First of all - I do not regularly use an iPad.

I have used iPads, but we don't own one, and my use has been sporadic.

The funny thing about giving the tests this way is that the students are probably more comfortable with the iPads at this point than I am.

But there's still a certain anxiety that comes with doing something new with something that's viewed as so important. (Despite my efforts to downplay the tests in general - and especially with the new format this year - it still is something the students tend to take seriously. It means a lot to them.)

Overall, the process went smoothly. It was cool because as the test administrator I could see where each student was as they progressed through the test, and I could also check general results much more quickly than in the past. (I have yet to find out how I could see a question-by-question breakdown of the results, which is a more valuable way of assessing the work done, in my opinion.) It's also pretty much child-proof - it's like they know lots of 10 and 11-year-olds would be taking the test! If a student accidentally pops out of the test session, we can put them back in very easily and they pick right up where they left off.

What I didn't like was that there are certain aspects that go against how students have been taught to take these tests in the past - no longer could you cross out the answers you were eliminating. This particular test structure was also weird in that sections that had about 40 or more questions would stop you halfway through before you could proceed to the next half. That meant once you advanced to question 22, you could not go back to check numbers 1-21. That seemed to also go against what we try to get kids to do.

In the end it's probably a wise shift to make at this point - I imagine by the time this year's fifth graders are ready to take SATs they will have to do it online. And if not, it'll be graduate-level tests for sure. (When I took my GRE in 2003 or 2004 I had to take it on the computer.)

I don't know that administering this kind of test will be a skill I'll have to employ all that often. But I do know that as my daughters get to the ages where they'll have to take these types of tests, I'll probably be glad that I had a chance to experience it early on.

Unless by then there's a whole new technological way of taking standardized tests.

New Thing #126: Neutral Milk Hotel

Last Monday or Tuesday my Twitter feed was filled with excited news about Neutral Milk Hotel. My New Thing antennae were raised - might this be new music I should check out?

The big news? They were touring!

It seemed to me like an overreaction.

Unless, I thought to myself, it was a group that hadn't toured in a long time.

Then a little alarm went off in the back of my head because a memory was sparked and I knew that Neutral Milk Hotel was going to be my next Music Monday experience.

When I was in Quebec I was talking with a friend of mine about podcasts. I think it was podcasts. Or passions. Things we were obsessed with. Or quirks. Like the fact that I had to listen to all the episodes of a podcast before starting to listen to a new podcast. Or obsessions about quirks and passions. I think I was doing most of the talking.

Anyway, she said that she didn't think she had anything which she was as passionate about. Then she stopped and thought and said that there were certain bands that she was obsessed with and if given the opportunity she would follow them around from performance to performance.

She asked if I had ever heard of the Elephant 6 collective. I had not. She mentioned a number of bands and singers, and started telling me about this guy she had run into in a Brooklyn bar and how he was a somewhat reclusive singer for one of the bands in the collective and if he ever got that band together again to tour it would be the best thing ever.

I thought that qualified as pretty passionate.

Turns out, after I heard the news about Neutral Milk Hotel I vaguely remembered that this was the band that she was talking about and Jeff Mangum, the lead singer, was the guy in the bar, and all the pieces fell into place. It was just so weird that she brought that up and then less than two weeks later that exact thing happened.

(It's also weird to see the words Neutral and Milk and Hotel together. I wonder if the band just thought of three words that have absolutely no relationship with one another and picked those three words for its name. Because I have trouble getting past the fact that it makes no sense to me.)

I asked her to borrow the album "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea", and she told me I should probably listen to it 6 or so times before making any judgments. For some reason this comment coupled with what I remember her telling me in Quebec made me think it was really heavy (like heavy metal) music that I wouldn't like. But I was willing to give it a shot.

Then I texted my brother. I asked him if he was familiar with the band. He said he was - a friend had told him about them in college. I asked if he liked them. I'll show you the conversation from that point forward - he's gray, I'm blue:

He closed by telling me he'd save specific thoughts for after I'd heard the album.

The fact that he thought it was a masterpiece made me start thinking I would like it - because, and I don't think he'd disagree - my brother's music tastes in college were somewhat unrefined. If this was something way outside the box, he'd probably have hated it at that time. So I was encouraged.

I have to tell you - it did not take me 6 listens to like the album. It opens with some guitar strums that I immediately liked. And my initial thoughts about what kind of music it was were wrong - I don't know if I can describe what it's like, but it's good.

I think that first song is my favorite - it's called 'The King of Carrot Flowers Part One". I also liked the title track.

I'm not sure I listened all that closely to the lyrics - as I listened I kept waiting for something to hit me that I wouldn't like, because of the cautious way it was set up that I may not like what I heard.

But I liked it.

I won't be following this much-awaited tour around the world...but I like the music.

(One note: I'm not sure if my brother even realizes this, but I wouldn't be surprised if in a subconscious...or maybe conscious, I've just never spoken about this with him...way Neutral Milk Hotel influenced his music. There's a similarity not in singing style, but in guitar style. Especially the opening to the song "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" and his "Brake Lights". Just pointing out the similarity.)