Happy Thanksgiving!

I meant to post this yesterday, but got distracted by work...

Every week day morning for over a year now, I walk to the Davis Square T stop to head in to work. On the vast majority of those days, I've taken a copy of the Metro from the same woman who stands at the end of the escalator. (As I have mentioned before, the Metro is not a great paper. But it is free and it has a crossword puzzle.)

When I first started getting the paper from this woman, she never made eye contact and never smiled. She just held out the paper and waited for people to come back and take them from her. When someone did, she'd hold out another paper for the next person... or the person after that if the next person ignored her. It was the same thing everyday, with no sign of personality from her.

I figured she must be bored or shy or both and decided to make it my mission to get her to at least smile. Thus, every morning when I took the paper from her, I would say a cheery good morning. After about a month, she started to look up and smile when I said it. Eventually, she started recognizing me and smiling before I said anything. A few months ago she started holding the paper back from me until I said "Good morning," at which she always responded with a very quiet "Good morning" back.

But yesterday was a big turning point. We did our usual "Good morning" exchange and I took the paper from her. But she wouldn't let go. Instead, she looked me in the eye and said, "Happy Thanksgiving." I wished her the same, and took the paper and headed off to the T.

So, on this turkey day 2009, I am thankful for the Metro lady at the Davis Square T stop and our small little bond. And for Google for sponsoring the free wifi at Logan which is allowing me to post this while I wait for me 6 am flight.

Our fine feathered friend

Today at work we were visited by a guest. After our morning meeting we noticed him (her?) just hanging out by one of the research assistant cubicles. He seemed just as interested in checking us out as we were in checking him out. When I moved the cereal box that was blocking our view of him, he was particularly interested in where I put it. Ultimately, I broke eye contact with him and attempted to take a picture of his backside which either made him lose interest or frightened because he took off from the ledge into the city.

In other news, my phone takes reasonable pictures and can connect to my work computer over bluetooth.

My alma maters are better than Harvard

According to some survey done by the Global Language Monitor, Harvard University only ranks third in public perception -- and the Harvard Crimson is all up in arms about it. The two universities ranked one and two? Michigan and MIT, my alma maters.

It's a fun day to work in a group where over half the people have at least one degree from Harvard.

Go Engineers and go Blue!

The Doogie Howser Cutoff

Today at work, I made a reference to Doogie Howser, M.D. The research assistants gave me a puzzled look as, apparently, they have never heard of him. This wasn't even a look of "Oh, I sort of know what you're talking about," but of complete ignorance of the boy genius. This appalled my (also 27 year old) officemate and me. We set about surveying the office and determined the exact cutoff for knowing about Neil Patrick Harris's pre-How I Met Your Mother fame.

For starters, we confirmed with everyone older than or the same age as us that they knew the show. Thus, we concluded that this is one of those cultural phenomenons that most people who were cognizant in the late 80s and early 90s knew. Of our seven research assistant types (recently out of college), all of those who graduated college in 2009 gave us blank stares. (However, one How I Met Your Mother fan wants to Netflix it now.) Of the three who graduated in 2008, two had heard of it and one had not. We contacted the older brother of the one who hadn't heard of it, and confirmed that he knew of the Doogmeister, thereby removing any bias of her environment growing up and solidifying that this is an age gap thing. But here's the exciting part -- she is exactly one day younger than one of the 2008 grads who does remember watching the show.

Therefore, we conclude that the cutoff for knowing about Doogie Howser, M.D. is February 1, 1986. All those born February 2, 1986 and later have no idea who he was. And some of these people are college graduates.

You can commence feeling old now -- I sure do!

Edited to add: So, apparently Doogie is on Hulu and I've been reminiscing this evening. The conversation summed up at about 1:57 into the second episode of the first season manages to hammer home the point that this show is old from the other direction.