Q u a d r i l a t e r a l

On a sweltering day in the hills of Silverlake, I attended the perfectly constructed (except for the swelter) wedding of Ian and his bride Sara. Having planned a wedding myself, it was clear to me how much blood, sweat, and love went into the affair — from the staff that made Alex spit out his gum before he walked down the aisle as a groomsman, to the swans that decorated the pool during cocktails, to the signature elderflower and champagne cocktail named after their pooch, Lola.

Most impressive in all of the details was the wedding logo, done in the art deco/LA glam style of the wedding itself, and tastefully strewn over the floor, matchbooks, and all of the stationery at the wedding. It was a design element I had only seen realized in wedding magazines, never in life. Wow.

Over the past couple of years I’ve had the honor of working with Prof. Hiroshi ISHII: hardworking hero of a Professor, and father of Tangible User Interface. He is a guidepost of a leader — something to aspire to that you know you will never quite become. Among the many things about Hiroshi that I find endearing are his poetic emails about the inspiration of snow, his use of the term “blah blah blah” to finish all sentences, and most of all, his notetaking.

Hiroshi has a complete system of representational symbols that he uses to capture discussion: the small person symbol, the stack of paper to show work that needs to be done. On Monday, I had my “farewell” meeting with him, and was delighted to watch him notate the last year or two of my life with his pictures.

This weekend I went to Reliable Gold in lovely Wayland Square in Providence, where I encountered an antiquated system for organizing antique silver flatware. I wish I had a picture of the frayed old leather bound book with pictures of all of the patterns. The nice woman hefted it out of the cabinet, along with the tin box full of index cards listing which quantities of which sets they had in the basement. The frilly Chantilly, shown above, is apparently one of the most popular.

I love any situation where the under-utilized index card gets its due. The nice woman suggested that although my in-laws may not have time for it that afternoon, they could spend a future winter afternoon cross-referencing the catalog with the cards.

To many this sounds tedious, but I can’t think of anything more lovely than an afternoon of cross-referencing. I cross-reference to my own detriment: with travel guidebooks, with recipies, when trying to figure out a definition online, I can’t help but compare needless numbers of sources against one another, trying to find the perfect answer, even when there isn’t one.