Happy Friggin New Year

What a horrible New Year's Eve.

I spent more than $100 to go snowboarding, waking up at a ridiculous 4am to stand in the freezing cold for an hour and a half. Was it because I love snowboarding? No, I had no interest in snowboarding, and wouldn't have paid a fraction of that price for such a trip, but I went because my friend really wanted to go, and seemed so disappointed when I said I didn't want to. So, to make her happy, I did. (And, no, I couldn't manage snowboarding, and am covered with bruises to prove it.) When we got back, I went to a restaurant I didn't like because she wanted to.

Then, she wanted to go home. It was New Year's Eve! Even if we don't go to Times Square, we should do *something* at midnight. I couldn't have made it clearer that it would ruin my entire holiday if she insisted on going home. But that didn't deter her at all. She was tired. And, though I was certainly tired waking up at 4am for her, staying up another two hours for my sake was not in her repertoire. I feel stupid for going on that ridiculous snowboarding trip.

I almost thought of abandoning her and going by myself to this party I had planned on going to. But the host had called me at 2am the night before to shout at me, so that was probably out. And just to be sure, I tried calling the host, but she couldn't talk to me. My other visiting friend was already doing stuff without me because I'd spent the day with this one. And none of my other friends invited me to do anything, I'm hoping because I already had plans. Did I mention my original hope had been to go to Philly, which I'd wanted to do for so long for New Year's Eve? She nixed that early on. I should have just gone without her. And now I'm so angry and upset. Damn damn damn. I hope she really really enjoys the extra hours of sleep. Happy friggin New Year. Another year begun upset.

Oh, there was a particularly biting bit of conversation, which reminded me of a similar one when I was in Columbia visiting my family, very close to where she lived. I asked if she wanted to come visit me and she said, "Why would I want to visit you?" Ouch. The same things happened tonight. Me: "You came all the way to New York to visit me. You want to just sleep?" Her: "I came to go snowboarding. Why else would I come to New York?" *Wince.* Apparently not to see a friend. I'm such a dupe.

Didn't even wish me a happy new year.

This actually came up over dessert, that it would be a horrible New Year's Eve if I were blogging at midnight. Well, here you go. Dammit. When people visit, I always try to do whatever they want to make them happy. Next time, if anyone visits, I'm just doing whatever I want and if they don't like it, they can leave.

McDougall Newsletter and me

My global warming report still lives. It is now in the McDougall Newsletter (circulation 30,000), with the iconic picture of my smiling visage.

(I am also cited in an article in the Rappahannock News, although they cite me for a scientific fact on global warming that I mentioned but by no means came up with. Still, it's nice to see my name in print.)

Christmas in the City

Have you ever made plans to go traveling with one friend over New Year's weekend only to have completely forgotten that another friend was coming up to visit? Awkward... still, I'll have two friends over, I'll be snowboarding, maybe visiting Philly, maybe going to a party, but definitely busy. Here comes 2007...

After feeling only annoyed by the stupid Christmas decorations in Virginia and Maryland, and come back to New York and see it's done right. Walking around Fifth Avenue is so beautiful, the trees decorated so very perfectly, the enormous wreaths sparkling with ornaments, the gold, red, and green flags around Rockefeller Center, everything so very pretty. Only in New York City is Christmas lovely. (And the pictures don't do it justice.) And I'd thought Christmas was over now, what was I thinking!

Cruella

Someone tell Aaron that Christina Ricci, slammed by PETA for wearing fur, has apologized and promised never to wear fur again.

Smoke

I'm back in New York! Yay! Being away makes you appreciate the monster all the more.

I went to a bar with my sister, her boyfriend Victor, and an old acquaintance of ours visiting from California. It was ok hanging out until it started to get smokey, so I said, "It's getting smokey in here. Can we go somewhere else?" Victor asked, "Where do you want to go?" I said, "Anywhere not smokey."

So he took us to a gay leather bar where he knew the bartender. This bar was full of smoke. Just stepping in the door it was hard to breathe. I commented on the smoke, and they kept asking if they have my permission to stay. I felt bad to say no, so I just stayed silent. When they pushed me, I said it would be unpleasant, but I don't want to be in the position of telling them whether they have permission to be there. I thought I was pretty clear about how I felt, but they decided to stay for "just one drink".

I tried to distract my senses from the foul air by constantly shoving popcorn down my throat. I thought they were pretty inconsiderate for choosing to be somewhere they knew would be unpleasant to me, but maybe they really wanted to see the bartender and instead of blaming them, I should blame myself for having come along. If it wasn't bad enough, Victor pulled out a cigarette and started smoking! To be "considerate", he moved from sitting next to me to sitting one seat down, as if that would solve the problem. Again, that just seemed blatantly rude. I ran out of the bar and hung around in the cold but fresh air most of the evening, occasionally coming in to see how much progress they were making on that "one drink". Very little. Finally, though I felt bad about doing so, I complained, and we left. I hurried home to throw my clothes in the washer, praying that the smell wouldn't stick.

It was, all-in-all, a gross and unpleasant night. Really, I shouldn't say they were rude. It's not my place to tell them what to do, I just shouldn't have come. I'll remember that next time...

However, it was all another lesson in how wonderful New York is, where everywhere is toxic-fume-free.

Happy Winter Solstice

Happy 冬至! Eat your 湯圓!From here on in, there's no way to go but up!
(Daylight-wise, at least.)

A post-9/11 perspective on Chanukah

Just got in to my family. My present from my family: a small pocket-sized set of tools (made in China).

My letter to a slaughterhouse that was employing felons, telling them that it's a bad idea to put animals in the hands of criminals with violent histories, had been covered in the press, but I heard it was mentioned on the Rush Limbaugh show. He was saying making fun of us, of course, saying, what can be more humane than slaughtering them? How about slamming them into walls, throwing them in the air and hitting them with baseball bats, squeezing them until their insides come out, sexually assaulting them... all these things (and worse!) have been caught on film by PETA undercover investigators at poultry slaughterhouses.

I was thinking about Hannukah -- a guerrilla army of Jews hiding in caves in the mountains and fighting against the vastly stronger army of the superpower of their day that didn’t respect their religious ways and in order to reestablish religious control over their land. Sounds an awful lot like the Taleban, doesn’t it?! Indeed, there’s the story where the Assyrians were forcing Jews to eat pork, and Mattathias, outraged, kills all the Assyrians and Jews alike -- that's hard-core al-Quaeda behavior. Put that together with the stupidest miracle ever, and it really gives me a new perspective on this festival of lights of ours.

Hannukah Donuts!

Today I went to a Hannukah party with some fellow members of the tribe at PETA. Unlike Matt's party, this one was all nerds, but I mean that in a good way. Ate latkes and donuts (yes, vegan donuts, a first for me, and they tasted exactly like regular donuts, making me wonder why they put eggs and stuff in them at all), lit candles, actually played dreidel, listened to Jewish punk (it totally exists, rockin' to Maoz Tzur). I also saw a bottle of He'Brew (see photo). The host was there with her Methodist boyfriend -- well, actually, when she visited his family, the bf's mother mentioned,

BF's Mother: "My family used to serve kosher food in our house."
BF: "Mom, why would you serve kosher food?"
BF's Mother: "Because my mother was Jewish."
BF: "!!! How come you never mentioned this to me before?!"
BF's Mother: "You just never listen."

Which is such a Jewish mother thing to say. So, it turns out her boyfriend is, to his surprise, a Jew. And now he totally identifies: kippah, blessings, food, and all. How come this never happened with any of my girlfriends?

Congressman Goode makes outrageously prejudiced statements about Muslims, calling Muslim Congressman Ellison anti-American for swearing in on a Koran, and calling for a reduction in illegal and legal immigration to keep Muslims out. And then he didn't understand why Muslims were offended. Ah, Republicans.

Incidentally, while I've been at PETA, two people -- completely independently -- said I look like Seinfeld! The first time, I thought he was crazy, but now I'm feeling paranoid. Do I...?

Las Vegas

For all of you who have been pulling your hair out in anticipation of pictures of Las Vegas, pull no more. Photos are available for all to enjoy, except be forewarned: Anyone who hates Tsoching should not view them (you know who you are).

Las Vegas

For a sampling of video clips, you can see:

Gondala at the Venetian (this is indoors; the gondoliers sang opera)

View from The Mix atop THEhotel

Water show at the Bellagio

Me bored on my last day

What can I say. Live vicariously.

Gelt, Pom Horrible, and Sex

HAPPY CHANUKAH!!!


While I like the taste of Pom Wonderful, apparently it's not so wonderful after all. This juice company experiments on animals to "test" their juice in really awful ways -- damaging rabbits' arteries to induce sexual dysfunction, asphyxiating animals to cause brain damage, and so on. You can watch PETA's video about it, however be warned that it is a PETA video and will make you cry. [Update: PETA pressure has succeeded in ending the tests. Pom is safe again, and lives are spared. Yay.]

According to the U.S. Census, American males aged 30-34 have had a median of 6.4 sexual partners; for women of this age, the median is 3.8. (It's not much different for anyone 25-40.) How do you compare?

Party time (excellent)

I'm back from Las Vegas and in Norfolk, where there's no internet where I'm staying, making it hard to blog, so if you're waiting for intel on the trip, you'll have to wait. (In a nutshell: ho-hum.) But here at PETA it's apparently party-time. Wednesday was the annual organization party, where they had a potato martini bar -- yes, types of mashed potato with various toppings that you put into and ate out of a martini glass. Yesterday was a department dinner. My boss has a party this weekend and there's two Chanukah parties this weekend and next week. Whee.

The Conservative movement of Judaism has voted to accept gay marriage. Also to oppose it. That's what happens when you don't need a majority vote -- both opinions are acceptable so each person can decide for themselves. How did they get around the Torah statement that for a man to lie with another man as with a woman is an abomination? Well, you can get married, you just can't have intercourse... see how flexible logic can be!

Finally, what you always knew to be true:

New study: High IQ link to being vegetarian

According to findings published in the British Medical Journal, those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10. For each 15-point rise in IQ scores in the study, the likelihood of being a vegetarian rose by 38 percent. Even after adjusting to factors such as social class and education, the link was still consistent. "There is quite a lot of evidence linking vegetarianism to a lower risk of heart disease. People who are vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels and they do have a lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease," Dr. Gale added.

Air hockey for girls

It's freezing. And I'm indoors! What's this Starbucks' problem?

It's been a productive week. I hung out with a job applicant who asked me what's wrong with fishing as she pined for her steak and potatoes. But she's a big PETA-lover. I went to a hockey game, which was probably fun... for the people playing. Why people are entertained by watching other people have fun, I'm not sure. I went there with a coworker who told me about how he wanted to be a rock star, but guitar wasn't for him, so he finally found his niche: air guitar. He started as an air drummer in an air band, and now competes in air guitar, and says he's the second best air guitarist in Norfolk. It made me think how fun it would be to have competitions for other people who lack a talent. What about air tennis? Air car racing? American Lip-sync Idol? Air Q-bert? Or you could air sky-dive without actually jumping out of a plane, just lay on the floor and act like you're falling. Think of the possibilities for all of us who could never make it on actual skill!

The New York Times had an article about kids who don't conform to gender stereotype, for example, boys who want to wear dresses and pig tails and play with dolls. This, of course, gives them many problems, as they receive intense pressure from parents and teachers to conform to arbitrary societal rules. Well, the way I word things, you can see where I stand. Why does wearing a dress make a little boy a freak? It's not like he's doing it for some sexual reason. Nor is there something intrinsically feminine about dresses -- Scots wear skirts, Japanese samurai wore "robes", Renaissance French nobility wore all sorts of frilly dress-like clothes with pantyhose and high heels and long-hair wigs and everything. In fact, the photo here is of a boy's dress from the civil war era. And here's a Quaker boy's dress from 1840. It's just a changing fad. But if a boy or a girl doesn't follow lock-step with the current fad, they are either some kind of deviants to be squashed, or they are homosexual. Why can't everyone just be themselves, who cares?! This is not just abstract, I was inspired to this rant when someone told me that she'd never been comfortable wearing girly clothes and doing girly things, and she wondered if that means she should be a man and have sex with women, even though she's not attracted to them. My god, just because you don't fit some stupid arbitrary stereotype doesn't mean you're not a woman or a man! In my opinion, insofar as "gender identity" is a separate concept from "gender" (as it is in the article and among psychologists), gender identity should be destroyed entirely, along with racial identity and any other identity that's supposed to dominate your life based upon something arbitrary. Let’s all just hold hands and live in harmony. Where you and me are free to be you and me. Kumbaya.

Soon I'll be on a jet plane for Vegas. Don't ask me what will happen there, because, well, you know what they say about Vegas.

My racist roommate

Last weekend my roommate mentioned that some car was ticketed for parking in front of a driveway, and it wasn't the first time. I pointed out that, if you're rich enough, I guess there are no parking rule for you, because you can just pay whatever fines. She said, "Such a Jew."

I don't know what that means, it doesn't make any sense to me, but I know it's anti-Semitic. If it was just one time, then ok, she's trying to make a joke, but this was at least the third time she's said something like that. Why she keeps propagating such vile anti-Jewish stereotypes, I don't know. I know she didn't mean anything evil by it, or she wouldn't have said it to me. But if she's comfortable saying things like that to me, who knows what she says when Jews aren't around. So I complained about it. I figured, if no one ever says anything, she may never realize that it is so offensive. The only way to stop prejudice is to always, always say something.

So I asked for an apology, figuring she'd say sorry and that would be the end of it. What really shocked me is that she wouldn't apologize! She said she was just kidding, but then defended herself by saying everyone's a little racist. What kind of excuse is that? I tried to ask her not to say things like that, even when Jews aren't around, because that spreads prejudice and people will judge others based on such prejudice. I tried to tell her that other people might be offended when she says such things, but won't say anything. She just said, I won't convince her. Even though she admitted that I wasn't like that about money.

So, my roommate is an unapologetic racist, if only a little. Great.

On a separate note, I was talking to this lawyer last night over pizza, and he told me about this case he had in which an inmate serving time for raping a minor hung himself in his cell while supposedly on suicide watch, and the parents were trying to sue the prison for letting this happen. He said this looked like an impossible case, because who would side with a child rapist over the correctional officers? It turned out that the people watching his cell were actually other inmates assigned to the task, and instead of watching the cell, they would hang out with the prison guards and watch porn! After the suicide, the guards lied when they said they checked on the prisoner a hour earlier -- he'd been dead for at least a day. Even so, the lawyer thought a jury might not side with a child rapist, but it turns out that this guy was convicted for sleeping consensually with his girlfriend, who he's been with for years, but because he was 19 and she was underage he went to prison. The lawyer was talking about how 20 correctional officers testified at the trial, and they were such idiots that the jury was amazed that these people were prison guards and not inmates.

Everything about this story makes me depressed about the system. From this person spending five years in jail to the jury even caring whether the inmate (and guards) were sympathetic in deciding the facts of the case.

Interesting fact: An amazing 3% of American adults -- 7 million people -- are in prison or on probation. That's more than, say, the population of Israel.

Ol' Virginie

It is ironic that, when there's nothing to blog about, I have plenty of time to post, but when things are abuzz, all you kind readers are left with a cold shoulder. Rather than leave you parched, I will give you bits and pieces...

Waiting for the bus to Virginia, I visited Kyotofu, which looks super-cool. This new, trendy soy-based Japanese desert place was too pricey for me to spring for dessert alone, but I will have to find an excuse to go there with someone. With items like "warm chestnut mochi chocolate cake with green tea-anko cream and fig yokan" and "crystal plum sake anmitsu"... mmmmmm... (I chose examples that sound yummy to me, but if you're more conservative things like parfait and cheesecake might be what makes your mouth water.)

And the bus ride, a grueling ten-hour overnight trip seemingly without heat on Greyhound -- the worst form of transport available. But it's great here in Virginia. First, the office is an amazing place, and the people are all nice and peppy and attractive. I've been getting tons of work done. I also attended a court case, with all the "objection, hearsay" and "would you please tell the court" and "so help you God". My favorite was "Oye oye oye. The honorable court is in session. God save this court and the United States." Isn't "oye" Spanish or something? And what's this about "saving" the court? Anyway, it was ridiculously boring, and I'm so glad that I'm not a lawyer. Or even worse, a judge. He, of course, got to interrupt people and ask questions and criticize their arguments at will -- he was basically ruler of this domain and could do whatever he wanted, which might be fun. He did give everyone a full opportunity to make their case, and seemed very fair.

The PETA house I'm staying at is beautiful. My room is surrounded in windows, and the whole place is so nice, I love it. The bathroom is so clean and blindingly white, it's a pleasure. Better than a hotel. They also have a treadmill, so yesterday I went running on it. There's only one other person in the house, a chef, and he had left to spend the day cooking at someone's house, so... alright, this story is too embarrassing for me to write here. But later, all sweaty from my run, I took a nice relaxing bath and then went to Sangeeta's house where we watched the chef dude cook. It was like the cooking channel, but live. Watching someone make a sauce starting from fresh heirloom tomatoes, wow, who makes sauces? (See the pic of tomatoes baked in olive oil and garlic destined for saucitude.) I was a little skeptical watching the cooking -- cakes of tofu purée with mustard did not sound so yummy -- but when it was all fried up, placed on a bed of chard sautéed in garlic on a plate of just-baked tomato sauce with fried mushrooms, it was so delicious, the flavors combining perfectly, like a gourmet restaurant meal. Those tofu cakes ended up, surprisingly enough, looking and tasting like fried melted cheese. If only I could cook like that...

At one point, Sangeeta was in the other room, and asked "what is this music from?" and I called back, "Carmen". The chef looked at me and said to me, "Yeah, ask the gay guys." !!! Apparently he assumed I was gay, what does that mean? Maybe I should take that as a compliment, coming from a gay person. But then again, their gaydar should be well-tuned, I'd think -- what kind of vibe am I putting out? Or, maybe the treadmill incident had something to do with it...

Anyway, Ana joined us and we ate and chilled and talked religion and physics for hours. Very cool, being down here. If only all of this was in New York...

Happy Feet

Yesterday I saw Happy Feet, which was certainly not a perfect movie, but surprisingly good. The animation was amazing, much of it truly photo-quality, particularly the Antarctic landscapes. Plus, there were actual themes that might not mean much to kids, like religion, environmentalism, aliens, and so on. It also was very much an animal rights movie, skewering fishing, zoos, and so on. This movie tries, as the main penguin says, "to appeal to [our] better natures." Of course, in the real world, where Canadians club baby seals and Japanese turn the ocean red slicing open live dolphins, perhaps our better natures are silent. (I won't even mention meat-eating, when conditions on modern facts are far more cruel than any of these.) Still, there's always hope... is there, kind-hearted blog-reader?

Didn't care for the pop-music songs, from Prince, Elvis, R. Kelly, and such. But the movie made me want to learn more about these Antarctic fellas. I'd never heard of elephant seals before. Or knew that Adelie penguins are pronounced "uh-DAY-lee". And what are those colorful things on the one Adelie penguin about?

I also had Italian at Gennaro's on the Upper West Side. I always find Italian boring, but this was really good. So, maybe I should try Italian more often.

There's also a new Korean restaurant on St. Marks called Gama, which not only looks really nice, it's vegetarian section fills a page of the menu -- very very rare for Korean food! I'll have to try it. If you go, note that they posted in St. Marks Market thta you get 10% off if you mention the Market. (In other St. Marks gossip, CBGB opened a retail outlet there, officially selling out. And apparently the Cuban Cafe Fuego is owned by a model dating Halle Berry.)

Finally, you should sign up at Ebates.com. When you shop online, instead of going to Amazon.com or Buy.com or Target or whatever, go there through Ebates.com and you get cash back -- essentially they're sharing with you the money they get for bringing you to their site. It's free, they have like every store online, there's no reason not to do it. You even get $5 for signing up (though you can't cash it in before buying stuff). And--this is the most important part--when you sign up, please say I referred you and I get $5.

Slow news day

I bought a Method soap dispenser, and put in on my sink. It's so beautiful! My bathroom doesn't deserve it.

I like Boathouse juices. They are yummy.

Here are some special effects for your amusement:
Black Dots
Rotate
Colors

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. 45 million individuals had their throat slit for this day. That's more than the entire population of Spain, or more than 5 times the population of NYC. How does a person deal with that horror? Try not to think of it... I spent my Thanksgiving with a room full of Chinese, chattering away in Chinese. Boring. Should have organized my own Thanksgiving.

I was looking up the most popular baby names of 2005, and while the boy's names are all standard stuff -- Ethan is the least ordinary at #5 -- girl's names are a different matter, with Madison at #3, and ugly Abigail, Olivia, and Isabella following. Ava is in there at #9. What an unfortunate generation that will be. I should be happy not to see Martha, Wilma, or Edith in there...

There's a rare hereditary condition called synaesthesia in which senses mix. For example, when they hear music, they also hear it as colors; or 5 plus 2 will look blue. A very rare form of this -- with only 10 known cases -- has people tasting words. There's no obvious connection between the word and the taste: for one person "Stephanie" tastes like sage stuffing, "London" like potato, "microscope" like carrots, and "confess" like coffee. One subject hates driving because road signs flood his mouth with the flavors of things like pistachio ice cream and earwax. (From the New York Times)

My posts have become very random.

Ali G

I thought watching Ali G totally embarrassing his interviewees Bekham and Posh was hilarious, so feel free to watch.

My global warming report (and more importantly, my name) is mentioned in another article printed in Health News Digest, the Southwest News-Herald, and PoliticalAffairs.net. Apparently, according to The Higher Pie, I was also in the August issue of VegNews; in June I was mentioned in the Good News Broadcast; the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter cites me; and I'm even cited in WikiHow. Not to mention a lot of blogs, like The Green Report. Used to be that Googling my name brought up diversity, from computer programs in Esperanto to guitar transcription of Yellow Submarine to work on fuel economy. But now, that one report seems to have crowded out the rest. Well, the message lives on.

That's all I have for you today, but for the sudden onrush of Thanksgiving, it's pumpkin smells and orange-brown hue, and trying not the think of the screams.

In a random experiment in writing without typing any actual letters, this post was brought to you by:
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Angels & Demons

The New York Times has an article about how, in France, the marriage rate is 45% lower than here, and the rate of out-of-wedlock children has shot up -- but these aren't single mothers. Couples are building families simply without bothering to get married. It is seen increasingly as an unnecessary formality. These include members of Parliament. This is so different from how I think. To me, committing to someone and becoming family seems extremely meaningful to me, and defining of my life. What do you think: is marriage just an expendible relic of tradition?

I saw Stranger Than Fiction. It was ok, I was entertained, but it was nothing amazing, easily skipable. There were a couple jokes, but they were rare and it really isn't a comedy at all.

I also stayed up all last night -- until 8am -- reading Angels and Demons by the writer of The DaVinci Code. It is incredibly similar to the Code in a hundred ways, that it's almost the same plot. However, the Code is much better. This book has a lot of dumb conversations clearly meant to explain stuff to the reader, and predictable stupid Hollywood-ish things in it, the worst of which is when the evil killer says something like, "I'm going to kill you now. But first, let me explain to you the secret plan." Tsk, tsk.

Meg

I'm quoted in an article. I didn't expect it, someone just asked me if it's possible that lobsters could get nourishment from the biowheel in the filtration system, and I said that it's nonsense. And voilà, my name in print.

And, oh my gosh, I just saw that the person who does the voice of Meg on Family Guy is the rich girl from That 70's Show.

To top off this meaningless post, some nostalgia from the arcade days...

Farewell, Bangalore

I remember the durian (榴槤), that spiky fruit with the mushy brain-like innards that smell so very badly and, though called the king of fruit, must be an acquired taste... apparently they are not well-liked by the Singapore MRT (subway). Dangerous, those things.

A VRG poll found that 2.3% of Americans are vegetarian, including 1.4% who are vegan. Margin of error on poll is ±3%. My, I thought it was higher. Kind of depressing, really.

Did you know the average American adult male is 190 lbs and female is 164 lbs? Seems more than I'd expect...

For some time now, the Indian cities of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras have been Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Now, farewell to Bangalore as well, and a hello to Bengaluru.

Actually, that's fun to say: "Helloo, Bengaluru!"

Just discovered Google docs. Now you can write and save your documents on the web, and have them available from any computer. Yay.

Seitan bliss

Bringing Scrubs week to a close, here is a short joke. But the one I wanted to share is here, but they didn't edit out the junk before and after. So skip ahead and start at 1:57, and watch until 3:00. Just one minute total. Once you get to the title screen, you can stop, it's not funny after that.

Today I went for the first time to Franchia, the Korean teahouse. It was good! And serene. I don't know why the name of the place is Italian. Then walked up Fifth Avenue to the Apple store, where I finally rode the elevator! Somehow that seems cool to me, because it is round like a cylinder, and all glass, including the door. Then I went to Candle 79, a beautiful (if expensive) restaurant, where the food was amazing, oh my so good. If you're a vegetarian, you have to eat here and you must order something seitan. The weather was also incredible, and the city never fails to impress. It was a sweet day.

Pigs and Doves and Forest Whitaker

Did you know this about Forest Whitaker? So cute! I kind of like the name "True".

Speaking of animals, while the Democratic takeover of Congress has brought hope that America may return to the fold or civilized nations, there's also good election news on state ballots. Arizonans overwhelmingly voted to ban crates for pigs and for veal calves -- these animals spend virtually their entire lives in crates too small to turn around or even lie down comfortably. (Of course, the state has just one industrial hog farm, and no veal farms, but still that one farm has tens of thousands of pigs, and it's a start.) Also, Michigan voted against dove hunting -- essentially target practice on live animals that kills millions of birds, in large measure shooting them down to die slowly of their injuries somewhere. Yay!

Amazing to me, though, is Florida, which voted to require a 60% vote to pass a ballot measure, a practically impossible threshold. Why would voters vote to take awaytheir own right to vote? Ballot measures are quintessential democracy at work. Every state should allow them. (Ironically, this measure passed with less than 60%.)

No one seems to like (or at least, comment on) the Scrubs jokes, but it's Scrubsweek in Blogsville people, so suck it up.

Yay!

Yay! Yay! Yay!

And to celebrate, another Scrubs joke:

Hamas women

Today's Scrubs joke of the day awaits you:

Election day, and I predict that Democrats will not take the Senate -- they won't even reach 50 Senators -- and they may take the House but by a small margin. Why? Because Democrats always do worse than they think they will. But in my book, even taking the House by one vote is a great victory which will make me cheer. Please vote!

The other day, the Israeli army had Hamas gunmen surrounded and holed up in a mosque, but when they tried to move in, the gunmen would shoot at them, resulting in a firefight and a stand-off. A groups of women, dressed in abayas, started approaching the mosque into the line of fire to act as human shields, and to bring them abayas so they could escape disguised as women. Some of the women got shot but the rest kept going. This poses a moral quandry for Israeli soldiers. Should the women be considered civillians because they're unarmed, or should they be shot at because they're trying to help the gunmen? What do you think?

Soda

Back in NYC, eating at the restaurants that have become comfort food for me. Ahhh...

Today's joke from Scrubs, perhaps the funniest show ever (video to the right).

Wish you had your own domain name, like noam.org or i-love-salmonella.com, but didn't want to spend the money for the domain, and more money for web hosting? Now you can get any domain for FREE, including 5 email addresses @noam.org (or whatever), website visitor stats, and everything. More amazing still, it's not from Google, but from Microsoft. Hurry and claim your favorite domain before it's taken.

In a related note, don't update to Internet Explorer 7. I did, and it just crashes on startup, and I can't go back to 6, so now it's useless. Really, everyone should just use Firefox.

Looking for vegan turkey for Thanksgiving? (You know you are!) There's something new on the block. And if you are wondering whether to get a turkey, see PETA's recent undercover investigation of Butterball.

And make sure you vote tomorrow! It's a super-close election, and you must vote.

Going postal

I had asked people if they'd sent me a package, because the post office said it was returned to sender. Once again, they lie. I went down there, and there the package was. I went down there after waiting all day for another package to be delivered, which they said it would be. Another lie! The local station hadn't been told anything. This is not my first debacle: never believe anything they say at 1-800-ASK-USPS, always call up the local post office branch, which is hard because often the numbers aren't listed.

Resveratrol

I voted today, absentee. Election in just a few days, one that could change the future course of the country and the world. Please vote! Check out www.humanevoting.com for candidates endorsed for their animal-friendly positions. In Maryland, vote Cardin for Senator and O'Malley for Governor, these are close elections! (Unlike New York.)

Also, after another article about the reduced calorie diet -- remember this, that eating 30% less calories than normal but still getting all the nutrients can make you live 40% longer, including aging slower, no wrinkles and diseases and stuff? Anyway, after an article about how that works for monkeys, there's a new publication on resveratrol, a chemical in grape peel that allows mice to eat junk food diets and get fat without any of the health problems -- they live as long and as healthy as the mice on a good diet, and way better than those eating junk food without this substance. Although this is a crime against the mice forced to grow obese and then cut up, just imagine if it works on humans the same way! I'm wondering if I should start taking supplements. Although it's in grape peels, and red wine, you'd have to drink like 100 bottles to get a significant amount.

Lost was good this week. Finally. Still think they're trying to stretch things out to milk this money-maker for longer than the story justifies.

Kyotofu

I just want to let you know that I'm not the least bit bitter that no one, in all the time I visited my family and friends, asked to see pictures of England. Not in the slightest.

While I hate to be caught up in buzz, which is probably just marketing hype since the place hasn't even opened yet, I am still weak and hapless enough to fall for it and feel I have to go the new soon-to-open Hell's Kitchen Japanese goodie place Kyotofu full of stuff made from soy, like soymilk brownies and tofu cheesecake and so on. (I do wonder, is it Kyo-tōfu (きょ豆腐), like bean curd, or Kyōto-fu (京都ふ), like the city?)

Here's a tip: do you ever buy things from Amazon.com? Next time, buy it from this link, so that PETA will get a portion of the proceeds.

Maryland: The simple pleasures

I've been back in the US for two weeks now. It's so different here, where autumn is spreading like a beuatiful malignancy. Sitting in the den of my family's house, looking out the window at yellowed trees steadily dropping yellow leaves like light rain onto the street.

I helped my sister move into her new house, and joined her at a party in Washington, the first brithday party at someone's home with valet parking. The house was maticulately designed and decorated, like something out of a crate and barrel or west elm catalog. The catered food was really good too.

Most of the week is work and time-wasting with little of note. However, yesterday I went shopping in Tyson's corner. I do enjoy shopping for clothes, but more than that I love the little world created by the way these stores are put together, the dark interiors of Ruehl and the weathered nature of Anthropologie and the elegant simplicity of Banana Republic. It's like visiting the countries of Epcot Center, little sensory aesthetic experiences.

There was a new one in particular called Cusp -- why do chain boutiques often start in Tyson's Corner? -- and although it was not for me (all girl stuff, and with $70 T-shirts and $500 jackets a bit out of my price range), they had a line of things that looked like bath products (soaps, shampoos) but were actually food! Like chocolate that looked like and was packaged like soap, marketed as good for the skin. And bottles of what looked like shampoo and labelled "skin firming" or "anti-aging" but which were actually drinks, again fortified with supposedly skin-nourishing vitamins. It was cool, kind of the anti-Lush, since that store sells bath products that look like food.

Then I went to Adams Morgan, my favorite corner of DC, which doesn't say much about the city. Unfortunately, I was not able to eat Ethiopian food, truly the gem of this part of the world, but I did chill at Tryst, the best place in the city, where I relaxed in a couch sipping a yummy Cuban.

All in all, a great day.

Jhoon Rhee

If you have not yet called your Senators about the horse slaughter bill, go to the post below now! Really, how hard is it to make a 30-second phone call? Lives are at stake.

This will mean nothing unless you're from Maryland and about my age, so the rest of you can skip this, but if you are, enjoy the memories.

Stop Horse Slaughter

I know I haven't posted since returning to the states, but this is urgent. A bill to ban horse slaughter has passed the House and now needs to be passed in the Senate, but there's only two weeks left before the session ends and we'll have to start all over again from scratch. Call you Senators ASAP and say, "I'm calling to ask Senator XXX to co-sponsor S. 1915, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act."

Don't be nervous, the person who picks up the phone is some teenage intern who gets these calls all day and writes down the messages for the Senator. It takes 30 seconds and could save 90,000 horses a year.

Live in Maryland? Call

Senator Barbara Mikulski at 202-224-4654, and
Senator Paul Sarbanes at 202-224-4524

Live in New York? Call

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at 202-224-4451
(Senator Schumer is already a cosponsor)

Live anywhere else? Find your senators here.

Please call! Your one call totally does make a difference on issues like these! Please!

Spittalfield Market, Camden Town, and Farewell

Last night I spent happy wandering through the best parts of London: Soho, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Oxford Circus. These are all next to each other and cover a pretty small area altogether, so if you come to London, spend your time here. My last night splurge was to eat at London's reputed best vegetarian restaurant, Mildred's. It was pricey, but it's my last meal, right? Lots of things on the menu had “rocket” in it, whatever that is (the waiter said it was a kind of leaf). I ordered the most British choice, mushroom pie with mushy peas and chips. An American “pie” is a tart here. In England, pie is a savory food, more like chicken pot-pie: usually meat based in a flaky crust. You see these pork pies and steak & kidney pies everywhere. This mushroom pie was much too salty, I had to eat it with mushy peas to dilute it. Mushy peas are peas the consistency of mashed potatoes, mixed at least in this case with some really good spices that I can't quite identify. The food was, however, the kind of thing that would easily satisfy a carnivore, not the old-school veggie food of hippies and co-ops. I was too full for pudding (which is their word for dessert). Which reminds me, here cookies only refers to chocolate-chip type cookes, not to Pepperidge Farms or Oreos or E.L. Fudge. Those are all called biscuits.

Today I fly back to the states, but not until 6:30 pm, so I took my luggage and went to two of London's markets. I'd been to Borough (pronounced ber-uh) Market by the office, beautiful food stalls teeming with people. So I figured I'd done the market thing. And seeing the vegetable stalls and antiques of Portobello Road made me even less keen on markets. I hate antiques. Really, I'd pay to have them kept away from me. They have the old, dusty, corpse air about them.

I was wrong to compare them. Each market is so very different. When I heard about Spittlefields Market, the name was so gross I just had to visit. It turns out it's Spitalfields, and this was a very fancy type of market. The stalls were mostly selling clothing, and they were off-the-rack quality, they could have been trendy boutiques. It was really nice and the area was quite upscale and fancy. There was a gallery there displaying metal twisted in humanoid and dog-like forms with hydrolic parts that turned out to be robots, it the sense that they could be moved and mechanically controlled, but in a rather retro way. The hydrolics made them move like those animatronic dinosaur displays. Still, a twisted metal dog-like thing would come at your across the floor with powerful metal clanks and hydrolic hissing like some kind of construction equipment.

Which reminds me, here they don't say construction. It's engineering. There are a lot of British terms that threw me for a loop. What's an “off license”? It's a liquor store. This was confusing because “fully licensed” means they can sell alcohol, so why would you go to the off license for liquor? Or, what are Wellies? There was a joke in a display on Wellington that though he died, his name lives on as a kind of footwear. Apparently, Wellingtons are what they call galoshes. And while they eat jam and bread here, don't call it jelly – that's what we call jello. One last example that confused me was a dummy. What's that? Their word for a pacifier – just thing, the comic possibilities are staggering.

Maid: “The baby wants his dummy.”
Wife: “Henry's in the loo, he'll be here in a moment.”
Audience: “Polite BBC-type ha. ha. ha. cheerio.”

Speaking of which, did you know that a ha-ha is a ditch with a retaining wall used to divide lands without defacing a landscape? Another word I learned here. Just think of the possible punnery…

Anyway, I then went to Camden Town, which is also so very cool. It's like the South Street of London (why doesn't NYC have one?) lined with alternative, gothy clothing stores, jewelry, and stuff. Camden Lock has a cute little bridge and an actual lock for the canal, how sweet and un-funky for such a very funky place.
Both markets were crowded tight with people, which was great. The really best part, though was strolling through cool, crowded markets dragging a big heavy piece of luggage behind me. The rumors are all true, you haven't lived until lug a big suitcase through the site of London damn stupid bag oh alright is was a nice day.

And now, farewell London. This is a great city, really, if you're looking for a cool town rather than a tourist sight. It was lov-a-ly. I'd be sad to leave if I didn't have the Big Apple waiting for me :)

Last day and Oxford

I thought about doing something touristy on my last day in England, but I just don't feel like it. Instead, I thought I'd chill in my favorite part of the city, the Covent Garden/Soho area. It's so nice here.

In Leicester Square, a crowd formed around the exit to a theater where they were filming a live show. Apparently a celebrity was going to come out, and we were supposed to all boo him and call him a loser for the TV cameras. The celebrity was Sam, of Sam and Mark, hosts of the TV show TMi (Too Much Information). Yeah, it's a British thing, apparently they're former Pop Idol finalists, I've never heard of them. And yet, I waited for a while there, and took pictures and film. The power of celebrity! So, I'm probably on TV here as one of the faces in the crowd.
Which reminds me, I owe you uploads of Oxford, so here are some clips of New College.

Here's the chapel at New College. All 36 college have their own chapel (i.e., church), but they're not so used now like they once were.

After visiting the chapel, I walked into the Cloisters of New College.

The cloisters were really creepy in a dark mideval monastary kind of way. You probably can't tell from the video.

I don't want to bore you with endless photos of pretty buildings, so here's just a small taste of Oxford. Interestingly, the youngest person currently at Oxford is a 12-year-old Chinese kid studying Materials Science. He's not the first prodigy they've accepted, but he may be the last, due to the exposure to lawsuits of professors working one-on-one with kids. Although rowing is the biggest sport--and when a college wins a race, they often chalk the walls with graffiti that stays there for years--they have many other sports, like ballroom dancing and wine tasting. Yes, wine tasting is a competitive sport here. I don't know if that makes them geeks or lushes.
Are you sick of tourist postings? Wishing for the old school stuff about Guantanamo Bay torture and such? Incidentally, there was an article yesterday on a person imprisoned and tortured by the Taleban for refusing to fight for them. They forced him to make a video saying he was a US spy and now supports the Taleban. Proof of all this was easily available in public newspapers. However, when the US took over Afghanistan, they took him from the Taleban prison and sent him to Guantanamo where he languished for years. This reminds me of the guy Canada turned over to the US as a suspected terrorist by mistake. They caught their mistake, and told the US, but he was still kept in Guantanamo Bay and then sent to Syria where he was tortured. Innocent guy. America has gone dark side.

Anyone have ideas for birthday presents for Ariella?

Notting Hill tidbits

I can't be all negative -- it's not in my nature, so let me add that I did come across this place. If all eateries in England were like this, then this vacation would be on to something! I love the menu in the window.Moreover, this on the right is a real street sign I saw in Notting Hill.

In other words, go mingle! Or else!

Just a reminder, if you don't ask me to bring you something back, you don't get anything...

Notting Hill Darkly

I was excited to stay with a host in Notting Hill. This was a big mistake. I found myself torn between horror and amusement as I was plunged into something from the movie Through A Scanner Darkly -- the movie about a bunch of unemployed weirdos living in a broken down house in a state of drug-induced half-sensical paranoid psychosis.

This tiny basement hole was dirty, unkempt, and littered with paraphernalia. The walls were covered with such random things: a blackboard with bible verses, Irish memorabilia, photos taken apparently by my host of unattractive naked women (so gross!), Free Palestine stickers, and other bits of junk collage-like over everything. The air was filled with smoke and my host, an Irish man in his 40s or 50s, with a beard and a pot-belly, rolled himself another cigarette. What have I gotten myself into?I warn you not to zoom in too closely to the picture, of you will see some gross things that should not be broadcast on the web.

He was there with a friend, a short bald man wearing a winter cap. Personality-wise, the host would be the Keanu Reeve character and his friend the Morton Downey Jr character. They told me about how the moon landing was faked, handing me a huge tome documenting the facts. They explained that HIV, as well as a host of other disease including Parkinsons, were hatched in CIA bio warfare labs. The friend explained his theory that Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak was made up, as an excuse for the government to perform the world's largest animal sacrifice. I found this paranoid half-sensical world highly entertaining. They kept me up until 1:30am talking about such silliness. My host explained, at one point, that he took a severe hit in the head, and now his brain doesn't work so well. You can guess what I was thinking.

Esperanto gave way to English quickly, because he wasn't very good. He explained that his is an intermediate-level speaker, so when he tried to talk he loses his confidence. That's why, when he talks to someone, he says, "Mi ne havas konfidenso parli faĉil," and his confidence immediately goes up. This translates roughly to: "I confidacion don't have to spike eashy." Hahahahaha.

They were very nice, though, and clearly gracious to let me stay there. I slept on the floor, with a dusty sofa cushion for a pillow and a filty duvet. There's no shower. I am now feeling gross and don't know if I should check into a hotel just to get clean. But I thought, at least I'll see the Portabello Road market here in Notting Hill, which my guidebook says is open from early on Friday. When someone first mentioned the Portabello Road market, I instantly heard this song in my head, which I hadn't heard since I was a kid but apparently still remember. I couldn't remember where it was from, though -- do you?

Portobello Road, Portobello Road
Street where the riches of ages are sold
Anything and everything a chap can unload
Are sold off the carts in Portabello Road

(I looked it up, so if you can't remember, check the comments.)

Sadly, my guidebook is a liar. It's only a weekend thing. Today, Portabello Road is just a road. The shops along it are all antique stuff, flea-market types of things. At one end there are stalls selling fruits and vegetables, and a few selling old (er, "vintage") clothes. So, probably nothing I'd really want to buy, nothing movie-magical.

Ugh.

In two days, I fly...

Richmond

After work last night, I hurried to my new quarters in Ladbroke Grove, and rather excitedly too, as I'd looked up the new location and found it is in Kensington, the very rich area by Hyde Park with all the royal palaces, and better yet, it's right in Notting Hill--like in the Hugh Grant movie! Oh, I hate that pervert. Anyway, when I got there--an hour’s trip, to be sure--my host did not answer my repeated calls and messages. Finally, realizing that the Tube would soon close, and that my previous hosts were all asleep, and unable to reach my backup hotel, I made my way back to the office, my luggage dragging behind me, for another night on the floor. At least this time I could use my old clothes from my luggage as a pillow.

The upside is, I always get up earliest when sleeping on the office floor. So, bushy-tailed, I headed outside London for Richmond. Which was boring. Pleasant enough, walking by the river with ducks, through the park with trees and grass. Nothing special. Taking the District Line Tube was interesting -- the trains has wooden floors and balls-on-springs to hold on to and was not tube-shaped. So, anyway, day wasted, back to work...

For you smokers: Don't smoke! But if you do, use a company that doesn't take animals and force them to breathe smoke in tiny chambers for experiments. American Spirit and Nat Sherman are cruelty-free. Anything else is cruel.

Thruppence

Have you ever wondered about British money, all those pounds, shillings, tuppence, farthings, sovereigns, half-crowns, guineas, quid, florins, groats, bob and so on? Ever since they went decimal in the 1970s it got simpler: 100 pence (or "p") to a pound (or "quid"), though the currency is called "sterling" (as in, "Is that money in sterling?").

It used to be more complicated. A pound was 20 shillings, a shilling (or "bob") was 12 pence, and a pence was four farthings. That means that a pound was 240 pence, or 960 farthings. A shilling coin was called a sovereign, a 5-shilling coin was called a crown, and there were tuppence (2-pence), thruppence (3-pence), and sixpence (6-pence) coins too. That means a half-crown coin was worth "two and six" -- 2 shillings and 6 pence. A florin was a tenth of a pound (2 shillings), and a groat was 4 pence (a third of a shilling). Got that? Prices were given as "4p-2s-6d" (4 pounds, 2 shillings, 6 pence -- I know it's a "d", it's some Latin thing). Stupider still, in my opinion, was the guinea, worth one pound and one shilling -- that's like £1.05 today! Do they really need a separate unit for that? Regular people were paid in pounds, but gentlemen were paid in guineas. (You can read about all this here.)

It all seems incredibly complicated (so, how much is 1500 farthings?), but I guess time is not that much easier (how much is a million seconds?), and if anyone out there can tell me how many inches in a mile without looking it up, you win a big kiss from the girl of your dreams. (Compare that with asking how many centimeters in a kilometer? Duh.)

Speaking of which, they use a seemingly arbitrary mix of metric and imperial units. Weights are always given by the 100g -- how much is that!?

Back to today, the smallest bill is a fiver, which is like $10, so those coins in your pocket are easily worth a lot of money. Which as a tourist is kind of cool, like medieval times when it was all just coins.

I left my Tooting Bec place today, where I'm being charged, for free accomodations in Ladbroke Grove. I'll let you know how that goes, but here's a farewell pic to Tooting Bec--the main street isn't residential like this, it's brimming with shops, almost all Indian-related.
And, for anyone interested in British culture, here's how they like their cereal boxes -- freaks.
[Answer key: A million seconds is 11 days, 13 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds. 1500 farthings is 1p-11s-3d. That's one quid, 11 bob, and thruppence. Or one guinea, two crown, a half-groat, and a penny. 1 km is 100,000 cm. 1 mile is -- girl of your dreams still waiting...]

Greenwich

Only a few days left in England, how sad is that! A month goes by quickly... if you want anything from London, better tell me quick.

Today I went to Greenwich. I took the Underground to the Isle of Dogs, which is interesting because it has a patch of tall buildings, big modern glass towers, so unlike London. From across the river, it looks like the center of some small city, maybe Hartford, a couple skyscapers rising together from the surrounding houses. (Also, no dogs.) I then took the Docklands Light Rail across the River Thames past places with names like South Quay (pronounced "Kee"), to Greenwich (pronounced "Grenich"), and these adorable British kids (pronounced "wee laddies") were singing in cute little accents. In Greenwich, the Royal Naval Academy was very nice: Classical baroque, with domed towers and a courtyard facing the river.The Painted Hall was magnificent, the walls and ceilings all painted in columns and angels and gods and so on. It was impressive to think that, the walls and ceiling were just flat and plain, without any columns or adornments, this was all painted on and yet it looked so amazing. My sister's getting a new house--maybe she should try this...Across the way, the chapel was extremely baroque. No plans to fix it, though. [insert groan here]The Maritime Museum was like an Air & Space Museum for 1900, before the invention of air or space -- all sorts of ships and boats and olde tyme maps and such, done very cool with well-done effects that would entertain the kids. This bit, about arctic explorers who starved to death and ate each other, was quite grisley!Here's the prince's regatta, one of many pieces at the museum. If you look closely, you will see next to it the official royal regatta photography-prohibited sign. Oh, the irony!Ok, not really irony, maybe the word I'm looking for is: D'oh! In any case, I then walked up the pretty green hill to the Royal Observatory, where scientists meticulously charted stars for many hundreds of years -- everything in England is really so much older than in the US!That's me using an invisible telescope. I bet you didn't know that ancient astronmers looked through telescopes with their nose. Also, they had to box space-bears, so this stance was very useful. Through here runs the Prime Meridian Line -- zero degrees longitude -- that defines time zones everywhere (you know, "Greenwich Mean Time"). That's me, with one foot in each hemisphere. Yeah, I know, imaginary and arbitrary line placed there purely by convention, shut up you, I'm straddling!My arms may look like I'm having trouble balancing across such an important imaginary line, but in fact I am holding at bay two recumbant space-bears. Bless you, my space-bear children. From up on the hill, I had a nice view of the Royal Naval College below, and the River Thames, and beyond that Canary Wharf with its patch of tall buildings rising from the Isle of Dogs, and to the right the Millennium Dome, wasting away since the Millennium, but it will become a stadium for the 2012 "New-York-didn't-want-them-anyway-bloody-buggers" Olympics.Happy Double-Ten Day. And, though I forgot it entirely, a belated Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!