Creative Typography

I guess those are supposed to be her, um... eyes?

Maine Reds!

Sweets & Eats, South Windham

While other states are know for their maple syrup or cheese, in Maine, it's our red hot dogs. Originally conceived as a marketing gimmick by Schonland Brothers's Packing Company in 1895...

Doe's Dogs, East Millinocket

...the Maine Red Hot Dog (aka "Red Snappers" and "Red Hots") became the popular standard for hot dogs and is sought out by discerning road foodies when they visit the state. This natural-casing, all-pork dog (colored with a harmless vegetable dye) is now made by Jordan's Meats in Portland Maine.

Marketing Tips

Even when giving away a free item, it's best to not point out the major product flaw.

Six hundred and seventy five souls

I've spent the last two days paying my respects to 675 people I never knew and am  not related to.

The project was simple enough. Map all the headstones in an old burial ground on Cape Cod. Positional accuracy required - six inches, plus or minus. The technology is straight forward. Rent a $5300 Global Positioning Satellite receiver with a $2500 high sensitivity antenna, stand in front of each stone and listen to the GPS receiver as it acquires the signal from the satellites orbiting 12,550 miles above - "beep, beep, beep". Once the signal is acquired, wait  for the satellites to move enough to refine their triangulation on your position. The satellites are moving at 9000 miles per hour, so 30 seconds is usually sufficient. Record the number of the headstone. Move to the next one.

Thirty seconds is not enough time to do much of anything.  So you read the stones and wonder about the people below you. What does Hannah Agry, died on Nov 19, 1792, in her 27th year think of the short, bearded fellow with the odd, beeping yellow box standing above her? Is she amused? Angry? Is Rebecca H., wife of Josiah Melcher, happy to be getting some attention 164 years after her passing? Or is she not thinking at all because she simply turned to dust long ago and that was that. Repeat 675 times.

Stata Center, MIT

I bought a new wide angle lens.



But I'm not sure I like it.



It really seems to distort everything.

TWiN BAKERY

The Bakery.




The Twins.

Why Are Cemeteries Named Pleasant?

Both in Livermore Falls, Maine.

It's Been a Long Winter

In Bethel, Maine they create the world's largest snowwoman to pass the time.


Despite a treacherous plaza of lumpy ice, a steady stream of camera toting visitors makes their way to the foot of the snowwoman. Be careful Grandma!


Oh snowwoman, please make this winter end!


Bah! Don't bother me you pathetic warm-blood. I will freeze you and crush your tacky duplexes! Bu-wah ha-ha!

Can you spot the non-MIT student?

At Kendall Square T station in Cambridge...


...three out of four passengers...


...are students at MIT.


Can you spot the non-student?

A Walk Through Augusta, Maine

Augusta, Maine's capital and nerve center. Teeming with state employees from 8 to 5 on weekdays. At 6:00 AM on a Saturday, not so much.















The famous Mid-State College (not to be confused with Max-State College or Average-State College).















The Colonial Theatre, built in 1913. Every 10 years there seems to be a movement to restore and re-open it. Alas, not yet.

A Visit to Sing Sing

I’m on a trip to New York, staying at a campground in Westchester County. Driving through Ossining I see the name on a map - "Sing Sing Prison".

Sing Sing?! The actual Sing Sing Prison? The setting for The Big House and movies starring James Cagney? The origin of the phrase "sent up the river"? The home of "old Sparky" the first electric chair in the USA?

I take a turn off Route 9 onto a quite suburban street. The neighborhood becomes more residential as I approach the Hudson River. The road curves to the right and there is a fence to the left. With concertina wire on the top. I crest a small hill and suddenly a blank concrete wall - 20 feet high - looms ahead.

The road turns right and follows the wall towards a corner with a tower.

I park in a small pull out and walk up the street to the corner. The wall continues for half a mile. I snap a few pictures.

Suddenly, a door clangs above. "Hey you! You can’t take pictures here!" A large, heavily armed guard glares down at me from the wall. "Oh yeah?" I say "Try and stop me!" I run for the car as an alarm wails from somewhere beyond the tower. Spotlights flick on as I open the door and hop in. "Stop! Stop or I’ll shoot!" "You’ll never catch me copper" I yell as I hit the gas and speed off down the street.

Later, at the Ossining Quimbaya Coffee Shop, I watch the meter maid check my time. She doesn’t suspect a thing.

Warren, NH - Town Motto: "Close Enough!"

Alan B. Shepard, the first American launched into space, was born in New Hampshire. But not in Warren.


This is a Mercury-Redstone 1 single-stage ballistic missile. It is not quite the rocket that Alan Shepard was launched on, which was a Mercury-Redstone 3 two-stage rocket. But it's close enough.