“Variations in aerial photography are endless, from a child pressing a throwaway camera against the Plexiglas window of an airliner to a space shuttle astronaut giving mankind a stunning view of the earth.

“At UConn, nobody is better at explaining the science behind aerial photography than Dr. Dan Civco …”  (from a university newspaper profile)

* * *

Like millions of others, every now and then I enjoyed tuning into Julia Child's long-running “The French Chef” on public television.  Her recent death at age 92 prompted me to pull her 30 th anniversary French Chef Cookbook off my shelf and leaf through some of the recipes.

It probably was about 30 years ago that I first became interested in cooking in more than a casual way.  I checked out James Beard, Craig Claiborne, Julia Child and then began sampling ethnic cuisines.  Anyway, Julia probably was the first one to introduce me to such ingredients as shallots, mushrooms and saffron.  So today, a word about mushrooms.

A week or so ago after one of our frequent rains, I walked around the periphery of the property and found all manner of mushrooms had popped up.  I gathered a dozen or so in two varieties and sat down at the kitchen table with my mushroom handbook and tried very carefully to match my harvest up with edible varieties.  I also compared them, even more carefully, with the much smaller number of poisonous varieties.

Satisfied that they would not comprise my last meal, I set out to prepare them as Julia Child might:  (from an on-line beer and food review column)

* * *

“The kids had spent a couple of sessions on the Sound with their teacher when I went aboard as a visiting scientist.  There I was, surrounded by young people anxious to absorb whatever wisdom I might convey.  A net was pulled up.  In it were several crabs.  I was about to make some learned observation or other about these creatures when a young lady said, “Same animals we saw yesterday, female crabs.”

Innocently, I asked, “How do you know they're females?” She looked at me, aghast, no doubt thinking Bayer must be in real trouble if this hotshot scientist can't even identify a female crab.  She explained to me that you simply turn them over and look for certain features.  I have since forgotten what they are, but I'm confident male crabs have committed them to memory.”  (anecdote from an after-dinner speech)

* * *

“It Flies!” trumpeted Time magazine after the largest airplane ever built briefly took to the air for less than a minute, its first and only time aloft.

The flight of Howard Hughes's “Spruce Goose” on that windy November day in 1947 over the Long Beach, California harbor, was an unforgettable moment in aviation history.

Even today, as the world prepares to greet the Airbus A380 super jumbo jet, the Spruce Goose retains its power to awe.  Its wingspan is the length of a football field, end zones included, and an astonishing 57 feet longer than the new 555-passenger jet's wingspan.  Each wing has 5,000 square feet of surface.  (from an aerospace publication)

* * *

The rolling hills of Fairfield County are home to companies producing everything from postage meters to paper, from polyethylene to WrestleMania.

WRESTLEMANIA?

It may come as a surprise to denizens of Fairfield County that the boisterous bouts funneled to television sets literally around the planet originate not in Jersey City, but Stamford.

Let us clarify: The bouts originate in Stamford in the same sense that polyethylene originates at Union Carbide in Danbury. The stuff isn't actually made there, but…  (from a “coffee table” book about Fairfield County, CT, businesses)

* * *

At first glance, global warming might seem like a welcome phenomenon to a corporation whose primary business is global cooling.

But for Carrier, the slight rise in the earth's average temperature each century may represent more of a threat than an opportunity.

The reason is that Carrier's products and manufacturing processes contribute – as do infinite other products and processes – to the global warming problem.

They do this simply by…  (written for an air conditioning company publication)

* * *

A story going around Wallingford holds that the town was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for the dubious distinction of having more liquor licenses per square mile than any other place on Earth.

Whether the story is true or not, it's a fact that finding a barstool or a package store in Wallingford isn't much of a challenge.  Unfortunately, the widespread availability of alcohol in this town of 43,000 means that young people inevitably grow up with alcohol never too far away.

Craig Turner would like to do something about that…  (from a Connecticut campaign against underage drinking)

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