Paris Plage

Sur les pavés, Paris Plage.

Yesterday was the last day of Paris Plage. Notice the enormous foosball/baby-foot table in the first picture: six a side!

Professor Tournesol

Professor Calculus is called Professor Tournesol in the original French versions of the Tintin comics.

Étienne Marcel

Sunset near the Étienne Marcel metro.

Musée des Plans-Reliefs

The Musée des Plans-Reliefs in the Hôtel des Invalides (the final picture above shows the most deliciously named 17th century fort, Fort Paté).

Sapience

Above the entryway to the part of the ENS containing the cognitive science department and the Institut Jean-Nicod.

Box of Philosophy Books

As mentioned before, I packed up all but one box of philosophy books that I anticipate using this year. For a couple of days I was irrationally afraid that it was lost in the mail, but it finally arrived.

Mackerel and Sardines

Tins of Mackerel and Sardines from G. Detou.

Moving Books

We packed up about 70 boxes of books for the move. All but one box of essential philosophy of language went into storage.

Library Fines

I'm closing out my account with the Regenstein Library, returning all my books and paying my fines. I just found the following letter I received from the library a couple of years ago:

"Hello - I have had the opportunity to look over your fine appeals;
let me say that they were articulate and humorous. My problem
is in September of 2005 you had $72 in fines waived; in January
of 2006, we waived $87 in fines. Now you want us to waive $102,
or $261 in roughly a year.

The purpose of a fines are to encourage, if that's the word, people
to comply with library regulations, especially as they pertain to
books other borrowers need. We occasionally waive fines because
we believe that the borrower will not get him/herself in a similar
situation. In fact, it seems that each time you appeal fines,
the amount is larger ($72 - $87 - $102).

So, I am not willing to waive these fines. If you wish to appeal
my decision, please contact [so and so], who is the Head of
Access Services.

Sincerely yours..."

I'm happy to pay the remaining fines--I agree completely with the "Dedicatory Epistle" in James Redfield's Nature and Culture in the Iliad:

The Regenstein Library is very large, very expensive, and it works. Probably no environment better adapted to the activity of scholarship has ever been created. In this library much that had been impossible becomes possible, and much that had been difficult becomes easy.

Frederick the Great's Coffee Recipe and Taste Blindness

About a year ago Jay told me that in Serve it Forth, M.F.K. Fisher describes Frederick the Great's recipe for coffee:




There are many references to Frederick the Great's method of making coffee online, usually followed by expressions of disgust. As far as I can tell, no one who has written about the recipe has actually tried it. But it seemed to me that there was at least the possibility that it could turn out well.

Jay and Dan and I gave it a shot on our recent trip to St. Louis.



It was terrible. But not because of the mustard. Adding mustard actually made it taste better. The problem was the hot champagne. Just the smell of hot champagne was awful.

Fisher's description doesn't rule out a chilled version of Frederick the Great's recipe, however. So her charge of taste blindness might still be disconfirmed.

Graduation! (Part 2)

Hooding ceremony for humanities grad students in Mandel Hall.