When I go to Las Vegas, I always enjoy taking in a show or two. You can always find magic shows, comedians, and musical acts of all sorts, as well as burlesque and family-oriented production shows and a few hard-to-categorize acts like Blue Man Group. And then there’s Cirque du Soleil, the artsy Montréal-based circus [...]

One day I glanced at the ingredients on a bottle of Chinese Five Spice in my spice rack and was confused to see that it contained not five, but six spices. When I tried to figure out which was the rogue sixth spice, I ran into some trouble, because in fact there are several different [...]

Living in San Francisco has its benefits: the weather is temperate, the views are spectacular, and the cultural scene and cuisine are world-class. There are trade-offs: the potential risk of earthquakes, the high cost of living, and if the 1955 Sci-Fi movie, It Came from Beneath the Sea, can be trusted, the threat of giant [...]

As I described in Rise of the Bagel at Interesting Thing of the Day, I’m a big bagel fan from way back, but I can’t get over the way some people insist on treating a bagel like a piece of bread or a dinner roll. It’s a wonderful, unique food with a distinctively crunchewy texture, [...]

The idea that there are dozens of Eskimo words for snow is (mostly) an urban myth, but in English, we have at least eight different terms for a snow crust. These are from the Glossary of Meteorology at the American Meteorological Society by way of Interesting Thing of the Day:

snow crust: the general term for [...]

In academic circles, the question of Shakespeare’s “real” identity has long been debated. Some scholars believe, for various reasons, that the historical person known as William Shakespeare was not the actual author of the works he is known for today. Entire books have been dedicated to the subject, on both sides of the issue. I [...]

When you think of The B-52’s, the songs that first come to mind may be Rock Lobster and Love Shack. But as you review the band’s entire oeuvre, stretching back to 1979, the biggest theme that emerges is songs making some reference to outer space. Vocalist Fred Schneider is not only a major Star Trek [...]

Quick, name something that was invented in San Francisco! You probably thought of Rice-a-Roni, and you’d be right. You’d also be right if you said the television, fortune cookies, the slot machine, bay windows, or any of these famous beverages:

The Martini (maybe) The Cosmopolitan (probably) Irish Coffee (sort of) The Mai Tai The Mimosa Bloody Brigid

Because a significant portion of my livelihood depends on Apple’s computers and software, I have more than a passing interest in every new product announcement. But I have never entirely understood the infamous Mac rumor mill. In the days and weeks leading up to any conference or press event, especially if Steve Jobs is delivering [...]

Where else but Las Vegas can you see a different magic show every day of the week (and then some)? In fact, even with the unfortunate disappearance of Siegfried and Roy from the stage, no fewer than ten major magic shows, most of which run year-round, are playing in Las Vegas during 2006.

Lance Burton: Master [...]