Doris Ann wanted to know what was for dessert (truthfully, it was something wet, bubbly and hoppy) and so I thought the following picture would do nicely--I'm getting ready to eat a mealworm in this picture from Bugfest 2009 last weekend. The mealworm in question was a little bit crunchy on the outside with soft and squishy innards, a little nutty up front with a nut brown and sweet finish:
I've got a few more pictures from Bugfest on the other side, if you're interested.
NPR did a report this morning on the $8 billion in the stimulus package that's designated for high speed rail routes in the US, Stimulus Puts High-Speed Rail on the Fast Track. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has sent a memo to the White House outlining the major corridors for high speed development--if you click on the image to the left it will take you to NPR's full size PDF of the proposed corridors. As I've written before, this is one of the best aspects of the stimulus package--infrastructure building that doesn't just maintain the status quo but actually works to make the mass transit system more user friendly. I'm quite certain that if we had fancy-looking fast trains like they have in France in Japan more people would be keen to ride on them.
The Texas portion of the plan isn't quite the one I was hoping to see. While it does include a corridor from San Antonio up through Dallas (and on to Tulsa?) and one that goes up to Texarkana (double-??), it leaves Houston out of the mix. I can't understand why a connection to Texarkana trumps including Houston, especially when Houston is planned to be connected to the Eastern Seaboard through New Orleans. Hopefully, with further input from Texas stakeholders they'll see the wisdom of the Texas T-bone approach, pushed by the Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation. From the NPR story:
Just got into Boone, NC yesterday and so I'm going to try to blog from the road. This is the window from my bedroom, looking down and out over lots of trees and mountains. It's definitely different from Austin! I'm in a little coffee shop called Conrad's Coffee Company so the view out the window is a little bit different. North Carolina playwright, novelist, screenwriter and former news anchor Bob Inman just walked in the door and is talking to a young fellow at a nearby table. He was the voice of local news when I was a kid, splayed out on the floor in the den on the shaggy green carpet. The last time I was up here we were eating at a local family restaurant called The Mountain House and bluegrass and folk legend Doc Watson walked in. This place is just crawling with celebrities.
Time to catch up on the news and figure out if there's anything worth posting about. Happy Christmas Eve!
