The Folklore project is legendary designer Andy Hertzfeld's collaborative undertaking to collect anaecdotes from the birth of the Macintosh from the people who were there when it went down. Multiple perspectives illuminate the subjetivity of memory and the way that things are different from different points of view. (The back-end is a new software project meant to allow for folkloric collection and organization regarding any subject).
The first time we went to lunch, I found out that Burrell's creativity extended beyond his engineering work. He would often try to convince our waitress to concoct variations of the standard fare on the menu, thinking of something different every time.
For example, after he successfully persuaded a waitress to divide his pizza toppings into thirds, he asked her to do fifths the next time. Or he would sometimes try to order mixed sodas as if they were cocktails, in ever varying proportions, like three quarters Coke, and one quarter Sprite. Often, the waitress would balk but Burrell was sometimes charming enough to eventually convince her to comply. He would also obsess on certain foods, becoming fixated on Bulgarian Beef sandwiches from Vivi's for a while, and then a Pineapple Pizza phase (see Pineapple Pizza) , evolving to his most enduring favorite, sushi, which provided a new range of interesting choices and combinations.
(via blogaritaville)
