In My Shoes

I know the admittedly very creative mathematical ballet short has been the real crowd-pleaser among the widely hyped video essays submitted by this year's applicants to my alma mater, Tufts University, but allow me to cast a rogue vote for "In My Shoes." I say "rogue" not only because "Math Dances" has attracted 97,058 YouTube views while my nominee has logged just 25,541, but because I heard a Splendid Table segment this morning about hunting buffalo in the Alaskan wilderness and now I simply can't get Going Rogue Sarah Palin out of my mind.


[Listen here to an All Things Considered report on the Tufts video phenomenon, and if you're really into amateur, multimedia madness, here is one of the short travel videos I put together in Uruguay in late 2008.]

Medford feast

The last time I had a meal in Medford, Mass., it was at the Carmichael dining hall at Tufts University, an all-you-care-to-eat affair that most likely involved pizza, lasagna and soft-serve ice cream memorable more for the quantity than the presentations or flavors. Needless to say, the feast prepared by our friends Randi and Jeff the other night made me feel like I may have grown up a bit after all.


The vegetable soup was garnished by sage, oregano and parsley plucked from their Medford garden; the peas in the baby spinach and goat cheese salad, grown at Verrill Farm in Concord, Mass., had that energizing crunchiness their frozen cousins simply can't deliver; the ricotta ravioli, served alongside roasted asparagus, tomatoes and black olives from Whole Foods (Rt. 16, Medford), was baked at Bella Ravioli (369 Main Street, Medford).




The ground sole, served with a homemade Parmesan and pine nut pesto, swam in from Captain Boston Fish (377 Main St., Medford). (I wish I could say the bananas in the bananas foster, halved atop heaping portions of vanilla bean-flecked ice cream, also grew in a Medford backyard rather than Honduras, and you know what, maybe they did. Randi and Jeff would not disclose the secret recipe!)