Lost at Home

PART V: Joy over survival, tears at extension

Can the long separation be extended further? Yes, and for some there's major fighting ahead. Fifth of a seven-part series on the longest deployment of the Iraq war. Sgt. John Kriesel, right, watches television with his two sons, Elijah, 6, left, and Broden, 5, at their home in Cottage Grove, Minn., Monday, April 7, 2008. Sgt. John Kriesel comforts his son, Broden, 5, outside a mall in Roseville, Minn., Monday, April 7, 2008. Kriesel lost both of his legs in a roadside bomb attack while patrollin...

Sgt. John Kriesel's Purple Heart is shown at his home in Cottage Grove, Minn., Monday, April 7, 2008. Kriesel lost both ...

AP - Sgt. John Kriesel's Purple Heart is shown at his home in Cottage Grove, Minn., Monday, April 7, 2008. Kriesel lost both of his legs in a roadside bomb attack while patrolling near Fallujah, Iraq in December 2006. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Sgt. John Kriesel wears prosthetic legs while resting at his home in Cottage Grove, Minn., Monday, April 7, 2008. Kriese...

AP - Sgt. John Kriesel wears prosthetic legs while resting at his home in Cottage Grove, Minn., Monday, April 7, 2008. Kriesel lost both of his legs in a roadside bomb attack while patrolling near Fallujah, Iraq in December 2006. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The True Story of the Hurricane Katrina Lightning-Laser Memorial and the Peg-Leg Biologist [Lightning Laser Tower]

Joe Davis is telling me about his design for a 110-foot lightning-laser tower that will literally seize a hurricane’s force, bottle it up and hurl it angrily back into the sky. It’s intended as a memorial for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Davis—whose official role at MIT is research affiliate associate in the biology department—plans to name the tower "Call Me Ishmael." I ask him why, but before I finish the question, he smashes his steel peg leg down onto the table, making me jump i...

Richard Pare, Russian Avant-Garde Architecture, and the Melnikov House

Every year or so I look for an excuse to blog about Konstantin Melnikov's architectural masterpiece, his own home. This year's excuse is that house now has it's own website: Melnivkov House and that Melnikov's wikipedia page has been considerably beefed up with many good links including one to the Russian Avant-garde Heritage Preservation Foundation (which led me to the excellent Russian Utopia Depository of Paper Architecture). This web meander started because I was looking at Richard Pare's w...

Scenes From This Weekend, Part 2

Drove up to New York on Friday with rigelkitty and Renfield. Dropped Renfield off at Dad's place, went down to Xakor's in the city. Picked up Renfield Saturday morning and searched unsuccessfully for Pleasantville's Lost Cave which is allegedly near Banks Cemetery. Our next destination in the 90-degree weather (cooled briefly by heavy rain en route) was an abandoned insane asylum. Rigel kept watch while Renfield and I skulked about inside. We ran into a group of three other explorers there; they...

I Think I'm Going to End Up with Lots of Frequent Flyer Miles

This past weekend, there were a couple of moments where I found myself getting a little weepy. I'm sure it didn't help that I was surrounded by estrogen for three days. This is the thing...it was the first time that I'd spent more than a day or two in San Francisco and I didn't see my Mum and step-dad. Even if I was just going up for the day, I'd usually call, to at least let them know I was going to be around, and maybe to see if I could take advantage of their parking space. It felt weird to ...

Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 503 - Rhode Island, Texas' Antithesis.

Texas = Prosperity; Rhode Island = Patrick Kennedy- Last month, WILLisms.com examined the notion that Texas is Michigan's antithesis, economically. Maybe Rhode Island, home of the Fightin' Lincoln Chaffees, is a better comparison than Michigan. First, a recap of the data from a month ago: From May 2007 to May 2008, Texas was responsible for (BLS .pdf): 53% of all net jobs created in the United States. 5% of all net government jobs created in the United States. 112% of all net private-sector jobs...

Mission accomplished: 'Lost' finds its way home, but now has Emmy wandered off base?

You can bet that there was wild cheering at ABC offices today when "Lost" was on the list for best drama series when Emmy nominations were announced. The fact that "Lost" didn't nab that nom in 2006 after it won...

Mighty Mighty Benjamin: Month Twenty-Four

Dear Benjamin, Today you are two years old. That's the most unimpressive sentence every written here because you have been acting like a two-year old for well over a month now. Daddy and I are really not looking forward to the next several months if that is going to continue. This month you went to your first summer camp at the local synagogue. You were the youngest in your class (by a year and sometimes by two) and I was a little concerned that might cause some problems - especially since you a...