Google has a “Local Guides” program, where users can provide information to help others. The system will sometimes ask a specific question about a business, such as “Does X offer good vegetarian options?”. Because I’d like there to be better information out there, I’m often willing to contribute.

But recently while traveling, I received the following prompt:

Oh god! Over 1,000 people need my help? Right now? This is so much pressure, Google.

“Don’t be evil” was a nice thought, but it seems Google has found “Exploit the better angels of humanity” a lot more profitable.

While visiting San Francisco yesterday, I stopped into an old favorite restaurant: The Pinecrest Diner. It had been over a decade since my last visit, but I found the hash browns as delicious as ever.

[Photo credit: P. Kafasis]

While there, however, I noticed something curious. No matter how much I scoured their menu, I could find no prohibition on poached eggs. That might seem an odd thing to look for, unless you know the Pinecrest’s infamous history. In 1997, it was the site of a homicide which purportedly took place over poached eggs.

When I was visiting the restaurant more regularly back in the 2000s and early-to-mid 2010s, I heard whispers of this story, but it very much had the smell of an urban legend. Still, there was no denying that poached eggs really were expressly prohibited by the menu. Here’s a picture I managed to dig up on Tripadvisor:

A previous Pinecrest menu
[Photo credit: FrancescaM]

Zooming in, it reads “We regret we cannot prepare poach or boiled eggs.”

Assuming we can trust the photo’s baked-in date, the prohibition lasted at least until 2018.

I don’t even eat eggs, but during late night visits, I felt something akin to the call of the void. I would fantasize about making a seemingly oblivious request for the forbidden dish, or endorsing the diner to others by suggesting that they “try the poached eggs!”.

After my recent meal, I decided I should learn the true story. A quick web search led to a 2021 piece Katie Dowd wrote, which provides a thorough history of this incident. She details how shift manager Helen Menicou and cook Hashem Zayed really did have a fight about a special order for poached eggs, and spells out the fatal results. It was a terrible waste of two different lives.

Despite that tragedy, the diner itself has lived on. I’m not sure what their current policies are regarding special orders of items not on the menu, but it’s probably better safe than sorry. While I can certainly recommend you visit Pinecrest if you’re in San Francisco, I cannot in good conscience recommend that you try the poached eggs.

The bleachers at Fenway Park are a near-uniform sea of green. However, in section 42, row 37, seat 21, there is a lone red seat.

[Photo credit: Ewen Roberts]

That special seat marks where Ted Williams hit what is recorded as the longest home run in Fenway Park history, at 502 feet. As the folks over at Uni Watch note:

The seat was turned red in 1984 to commemorate the massive blow and has since become part of the team’s lore and culture. The seat’s mystique grew following Williams’s death in 2002, as the Red Sox kept the seat vacant for the remainder of that season. (Fans who’d already purchased tickets for that seat were upgraded to better locations in the ballpark.)

Now, a second lone red seat is headed for the living room of some lucky Red Sox fan. Jordan’s Furniture has created a special green and red couch as a promotion, and I’m grateful that friend-of-the-site Jason S. gave me a heads-up. Now, you can feast your eyes on the delightfully-named “Sectional 42”:

[Image: Jordan’s Furniture]

That is just some outstanding marketing. There are a lot of bad ads out there, so it’s nice to spot a good one once in awhile. And if you’d like to win this sweet sofa, enter over on Instagram. You’ll also be helping raise money to fight cancer.

When writing about the massive monument to the hero rat Magawa, I noted that it looked like wood, despite all reporting stating it was stone. I went so far as to feed a picture to A.I. to try to learn more, and the robots suspected it as wood too. When pressed, they suggested it could be something like sandstone, however.

Not content with this uncertainty, I contacted Apopo’s press office. A day later, I received this ever so helpful reply:

Hi Paul,

Thank you so much for your support over the years, we really appreciate it.

Yes, I can confirm that the Magawa sculpture is indeed made from stone. It’s carved from the same type of Cambodian stone traditionally used in Angkor Wat, which is part of what makes it so special.

I agree it can be surprising from certain angles, the craftsmanship is extraordinary, and the finish and detailing can sometimes give it a warmer, almost “wood-like” appearance in photos and video.

If you haven’t already seen it, here’s the making-of video which shows the process in more detail: https://youtu.be/sPeRQieGMoE

Thanks again for helping share Magawa’s story.

What a delightfully definitive answer. Though my eyes still struggle to believe it, the Magawa statue is indeed made of stone. And sure enough, Angkor Wat is made of millions of sandstone blocks. The making-of video confirms it’s yellow sandstones, and at about the 6:15 mark, there’s even footage of the carving process showing a nascent Magawa:

I am delighted to have been shown this video evidence, and to share it with you. Now I’ll close with a link to Apopo’s donation page, where you too can sponsor a real-life landmine detection rat for that special someone in your life.