I really like this short post by Rich Kaarlgard on his Forbes Blog:

More often than not, what is called innovation is really a recombination of the existing. Steve Jobs married Moore's Law to pop culture ... and he still does, better than anyone. Howard Schultz married the Italian streetside cafe to the American franchise model. SUVs wedded the American family wagon to a truck. Bill Walsh took a fast-break basketball offense and adapted it to the gridiron. George Lucas took Lawrence of Arabia into space.

Putting things together is a fun way to get business ideas: New York style tourism (food tours) and Austin. Flickr and (you name it -- food, wine, clothes, etc....). Staying on the cutting edge -- being "trendy" -- helps you have some cool cutting edge models to apply to *other* businesses.

This would make for a great presentation on imagination & innovation. Show pictures of the pairs of things, have your audience guess what the two synthesize to become, show the answer on the next slide.

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Simple Birthday Party Theme for Young'uns

Sports bottle as sippy cup stand-in

Diaper pail management

What's your superpower?

Out with friends last night, the movie Superman sparked a conversation about superpowers, particularly the superpowers we already have. Ben's would be "large amounts of useless trivia." Mine? The ability to cut through bull and artifice with a single stroke -- my symbolic weapon a samurai sword.

Oh -- and a conversation topic for all these (potentially tiresome) SuperMan conversations we'll be having over the next month: Flying or Invisibility, which would you choose? (Courtesy of a 5 year old This American Life episode.)

Red Hot Brownies

I invented a fabulous recipe the other day. One box Ghirardelli Brownie Mix, made to specifications. Add 1 tablespoon dried red pepper to the mix. Bake as directed.

This is a tasty treat -- the pepper adds a zing to the chocolate that is hard to beat.

Food Tours

We're visiting New York soon, and as part of that trip we're doing a food tour of the Meat Packing district. It got me thinking -- Austin is a great place for food tourism (I take visitors to both Central Market and the downtown Whole Foods), but we don't seem to have a food walking tour. (Ok, ok, so Austin's not the friendliest walking city, but still....)

So if someone was to start a food walking tour of Austin, where would you take it? Here are my thoughts:

Downtown:
Whole Foods
Downtown Farmer's Market?
IronWorks BBQ
Manuel's

I'm thinking there could also be one of the South Congress area, and perhaps of many of the ethnic restaurants in the North Lamar area. Any other ideas?

Undercover Bridesmaid

I went to the wedding of a friend this weekend. The wedding was lovely, but what I particularly want to point out one of the ways she simplified her wedding to suit her Quaker values. Quakers don't have ministers at their service, so you can imagine that a bunch of attendents in matching dresses would be a bit gauche. Instead of having attendents, her would-be bridesmaids dubbed themselves a variety of names ("faux bridesmaids", "not-a-bridesmaid", and probably the best "undercover bridesmaid") and we took on many of the traditional duties, but without the expensive dress and flowers: fielding panicked phone calls from the bride, throwing a shower tea, helping her dress, etc. I have to say -- it was lovely and I recommend it to anyone looking for a way to simplify their wedding.

The new head of the Episcopal Church, USA, is married to a theoretical mathematician. Math and religion.... makes sense to me... to big to be totally understood, but worth it in the trying.