While Appleton has plenty of great Mexican cuisine, I'd like your feedback on the best places around the state to eat.

In Madison, for example, I love the authentic Mexican cuisine at a little dive on Midvale Boulevard north of Highway 12/18. It's Guanajuato's (or Taqueria Guanajuato). Having been in Mexico recently, this place was a refreshing change of pace from the Americanized Mexican food we usually find. Great tortas and other cuisine from the State of Guanajuato. Not far from there, just one exit further west on Hwy 12/18, is Cancun Mexican, a little more standard but very tasty. Their fish tacos are tremendous.

Milwaukee has a huge selection of places. La Perla is one of its most popular gems, one of the few places in the world to offer a chili pepper ride (like a mechanical horse, but it's a chili). The food is actually quite good. But what's your favorite place?

One of the surprising things about Appleton is its rich musical heritage. It is a wonderful town to raise a family if musical education means anything to you. It's also a great place to enjoy numerous musical and theatrical productions.

One of the many gems in the Fox Valley is the Fox Valley Symphony Youth Orchestras, which include the Fox Valley Youth Symphony and the Philharmonia Strings. The Youth Symphony is a dazzling orchestra with over 100 members from grades 9-12 conducted for 25 years now by veteran musician Gary Wolfman. The Philharmonia Strings is a large chamber ensemble for grades 7-10 directed by Greg Austin for over a decade (I think it's been 12 years).

They had their Spring Concert on Sunday, March 21 at Lawrence Chapel. I was so impressed! Greg Austin's own arrangement of the theme music from the Chronicles of Narnia was beautifully performed by the Philharmonia Strings, with a couple other great pieces. The Youth Symphony approached a professional level, with just about as fine a rendition of the Mars and Jupiter segments of Gustav Holst's The Planets that you'll ever hear. Dramatic, awe-inspiring sound. Wow! Very strong horn section, terrific strings, beautiful woodwinds, and powerful, precise percussion. Sweet!

In addition to strong support from the Fox Valley Symphony, Lawrence University, and numerous parents, significant credit for the strong musical education culture in the Fox Valley goes to the visionary musician, Austin Boncher, who had the vision over 35 years ago of a youth symphony in the Valley. His talent, vision, and persistence created opportunities and traditions that continue to enrich the lives of thousands of us in the Fox Valley. The rich musical heritage of Appleton and the surrounding communities is just one of many reasons why this is such a great place to live.

Here are a few photos from the March 21st event, including a shot of Gary Wolfman receiving an award celebrating his 25 years of service, and student Becky Johnson receiving a special conductor's award from Mr. Wolfman. My son Mark Lindsay, a bassoonist, is standing in one also.

The Post-Crescent reports that Appleton's Common Council just voted to rename College Avenue, our main street through beautiful downtown Appleton, to "Google Avenue" to show Google how much we love them. Appleton wants to be one of the next communities to benefit from Google's offer to bring broadband service to selected communities, with speeds roughly 100 times faster than typical.

The Google Avenue name will remain in place through March 26, when our application to Google is due.

If any of you are giving birth in the next week or two, please consider naming your child after Google. I've renamed my neighbor's dog to "Google Adsense." A local salon is offering "Google Wave" perms. And my son's car, which he has long called Lucky, is now "I'm Feeling Lucky."

Even if you can't contribute a child, a pet, or a car to the cause, at least refrain from doing anything that might offend the Google Gods during this critical time. For example, PLEASE DO NOT EAT BING CHERRIES. Don't listen to music by BING Crosby. Don't play with toys that go "Bing!" Don't mess up our chances for being blessed by Google.

Keep you're fingers crossed. We all need to be feeling lucky for this one.

Downtown Neenah along Wisconsin Avenue by their beautiful public library is a great place for a stroll. The marina is beautiful, and there is a big open area where kids can play or people can stroll. If you're hungry, just cross Commercial Street to the wide range of eateries such as Cannovas, Zacatecas, Cy's Asian Bistro, Hong Kong Buffet, Uncle Ned's Deli, and one of my favorites, Great Harvest Bread.

Many people don't know that Appleton has a unique world-class testing and analytical services that provides assistance to large and small companies all over the US and beyond. IPS provides testing of material properties for products like medical devices, consumer products, paper, textiles (especially nonwoven materials), fibers, and a large variety of other goods and materials. I used their services once to get some information about the properties of an over-the-counter medication for one of our clients at Innovationedge. They have some remarkable talent and equipment behind their truly world-class microscopy services.

In the realm of innovation and intellectual property, many people don't seem to recognize how much a patent application can be strengthened with high-quality physical testing. It can help differentiate a product, can help establish ways to detect infringement, and can directly support powerful new claims that otherwise would not have been possible. The folks at IPS have many years of experience in creating unique approaches to highlight patentable novelty with sound testing. In fact, in my role as Program Chair for the paper management side of an upcoming paper industry conference, PaperCon 2010, I've invited Bruce Shafer, Vice President of IPS, to speak about the role that test methods can have in supporting innovation. His speech will be on May 4, 2010 in Atlanta, I hope you'll be there to join us!