Hold Your Water

My report has made it into the book Hold Your Water: 68 Things You Need to Do to Keep Your Planet Blue. I'm number 66!

Oh, yeah, and my birthday is next week. *Sigh*.

On another note, I was talking to someone not long ago about romantic movies, and I realize that I know very few that I liked. They're usually dumb romantic comedies -- though some of these, like The Wedding Singer, can reach the level of quite charming. Others are movies like Titanic which are good as films but weak on romance. When I think about it, the best I can think of in this category are:

1. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset - Not your typical romantic movie for sure, these are amazing movies that everyone should see. The only films where Linklater's hyper-realism comes together (though I am looking forward to Fast Food Nation).
2. Ever After - This movie, though a "small" movie, is still a gem. It's a perfect little fairy tale romance story.
3. Punch-Drunk Love - One of the oddest movies, and not a romantic movie in any sense that you'd wish you were in that relationship, I nevertheless left the theater feeling more romance than perhaps from any other film. Perfect for a date, really.

Now, these are very unusual choices, and really reflect a dearth of true romances, the kind that lets you live vicariously the torrent that dreams long for. Maybe such movies don't exist. But if you have any recommendations, please share.

Sick

On Napster.com, you can listen to any song up to five times for free! This is great news for people with respect for intellectual property rights but not much money.

The House Committee on Government Reform has approved legislation to give DC voting representation in Congress, by giving DC one seat and Utah another seat. While passing one committee is a million miles from actually getting enacted, it is a step towards addressing this back spot on our democracy. We have other black spots, of course, notably that we don't have majority rule. It's ridiculous.

I'm sick. Fever.

A shout out to all the homies celebrating a birthday. Word!

Flushing Meadows

Well, all my weekend plans cancelled on me. But today I crossed another thing off my list -- see a New York sight -- by visiting Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Here are the photos to prove it :) The park isn't that great, all told, but the Unisphere from the World's Fair is really big, and probably more impressive when the fountain at the base is one (right now the basin is fun for skaters). There's a shot of the Unisphere at the opening scenes of King of Queens.

Nearby there are these horribly ugly towers, from the same world's fair and playing a prominent roll in the movie Men In Black, along with a rusty amphitheater.

There were a bunch of people with big, powerful remote-controlled cars who were jumping them off a ramp (like this one caught mid-air!)
Now the only thing on my list is to go somewhere in Brooklyn.

Kite Runner, Yellow Melon, NYPL

My birthday is in two weeks. *Sigh.* I'm reminded of the episode of Friends when Rachel turns 30.

I finished reading The Kite Runner. It's really good. Best book I read since I came to New York. (Second best would be Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which is quite good. Nothing deserves to be in third place, though Middlesex and Survivor were certainly in the plus category.) I recommend it. (And kudos to Matt Frank for making the first book recommendation that I actually liked in years.) In addition to the story itself, it was really interesting reading about Afghanistan -- mostly how very normal it seemed. From the news, it seems like something out of another planet. But there were major gaps in the depiction, including no female characters (were they all struggling with their burqas?), and that the story made the "bad guy" a complete sociopath presenting no insight into the cruelties of normal people. But maybe that stuff is for another book.

Although I've crossed "new fruit" off my list by trying an ugli fruit, I must admit that it was so like a grapefruit, its taste so unremarkable, that I feel a little unsatisfied. I recently had a Hatian mango (yellow on the outside, not as good as a regular mango), but that's also not really "new". So when I saw a 黄金瓜 (literally, "gold melon") in the chinese grocery, I had to buy one. Apparently it's called a korean melon in English. It's so pretty, that this has got to be official "new fruit" territory. Unfortunately, it's a melon, and I don't like melons. Its white inside smells and tastes melony, similar to a honeydew I guess. With my melon aversion, I'd say it's better as decoration than as food. But if you're a melon person, you can have the best of both worlds.

Yesterday I went to my favorite workplace, the New York Public Library. So beautiful. After it closed, I tried working in Bryant Park, because the weather was so good, and I thought it would be nice to have some fresh air. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the no indoor smoking rule, sitting at the park was disgusting. Stupid smokers.

Here's another store I came across in the lower east side, which is cool about New York just because places like this exist.

By the way, I want to change my mind about some political or moral issue. This is a call to arms -- give me something to read that will convince me.

Get Human

Ever call a company and try to get hold of an actual human being? This will help.

Also, reviews of The Da Vinci Code have taught me new words. The New York Times refered to actor Audrey Tautou as a gamine, and The Washington Post called her an odalisque.

Mmm...

Two fancy (veg) restaurants I want to try are Blossom and Franchia. Who wants to go with me? They're too expensive to try alone.

And, if anyone ever finds vegan cheese pizza in New York, please let me know!

Fold your shirts

Learn how to fold a T-shirt. It's not just cool, but I totally fold my shirts this way now.

Clothes, food, and NYC

One thing I noticed in Norfolk is that a lot of people shopped at thrift stores. Which seemed sad, what are they, homeless? The thing is, their clothes looked good. So I was telling my sister about this, and she says that she shops at thrift shops. Apparently this is a common thing, and I'm just out of the loop. So... today was my first time. They're rather yucky places to shop. The Goodwill shop was so unpleasant I just couldn't breathe the air and left. But at another one I found some great slacks, that appear brand new, from Barney's New York. I don't think Barney's sells pants for under $100. Yay.

The rest was exploring New York, and finding so much. Like Yonah Schimmel Knishes, a place devoted to knishes (though they have an occasional latke and kugel too). Isn't it cool that we have a place devoted to knishes? (And then, with the Jewish theme, I had a slice of apple something at Moishe's Kosher Bakery, full of Jewish treats. Along the way I found a restaurant devoted entirely to grilled cheese, and another bakery--Babycakes--devoted entirely to cupcakes (one such, Magnolia Bakery, was featured in SNL's Lazy Sunday, and Sex and the City). Isn't New York cool? I was telling a friend about this, who told me about a chess store -- yes, devoted to chess, I mean, what can they sell? Just chessboards? And you probably know about the peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich restaurant, where you can get one with a glass of milk for like $8. Anyway, I followed up with an eggplant-portabello sandwich with mango harissa at Zozo's -- soooo good. I stumbled across a new vegetarian restaurant in the Lower East Side called Radha, and visited all sorts of cute little boutiques.

Ok, I'm always talking about food. It's just... I mean, you sad people in the rest of the world have no idea...

TORTURE ALERT: CIA Official Says It Tortures

Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress
Washington Post

Mary McCarthy, deputy inspector general of the CIA, says the "CIA people had lied" to Congress in a closed-door briefing that the agency did not violate or seek to violate an international treaty that bars cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, during interrogations it conducted in the Middle East and elsewhere. She for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the agency had conducted abusive interrogations and also its policies authorized treatment that she considered cruel, inhumane, or degrading.

Austin, Tejas

I'm back in New York, everyone! And while it feels good to be home, coming back from a fancy hotel in Austin with marble floors, brass fixtures, and a king-size bed to my tiny apartment with sticky floors gives me pause. My roommate was excited about her new way of avoiding washing diry dishes: she puts them in a pot of hot water and boils it to kill germs, so that no washing is necessary. She was really unhappy when I didn't take a shine to the idea.

Austin is warm. At night, I walked along 6th street, lined with bars with live music and no cover. I would just go from place to place and listen to the music. I don't know if it was a law like here in New York, or if I just got lucky, but no one was smoking inside. That is hugely wonderful. The buildings along the street, even though they were brick and new, had a slight look of an old western film in their design, which was a little cool. At the end of the street you could see the capitol building lit up, which is rather like the one in DC, rather pretty. But I was most stunned by the rising colossus of the Frost Bank building, which was just beautiful. I had some late-night mediocre Thai food and finally went back to the hotel.

Whole Foods was not the wonderland I had been led to believe -- I'd heard stories of chocolate fountains and beer rooms. (Actually, maybe I just didn't see them, since Wikipedia claims they exist.) The meeting was really interesting, though, and I met CEO John Mackey plus many of the animal people I normally know only over email. They provided some delicious food -- a perk of working for Whole Foods, I guess. But most of my time was on the plane flying there and then back. Time to read most of The Kite Runner, which is good, reader jan. But, agha, I should hold off on a judgment until I'm done, so that my review is made with nang and namoos.

I also spent a week in Norfolk, which was great, but that will have to wait...

Some facts

Some new farm animal statistics I recently found:

• 30-35% of dairy cows are lame.
• 14% of cattle develop respiratory disease in feedlots.
• 30% of chickens have their legs dislocated or broken when gathered for transport.
• Up to 80% of pigs have gastric ulcers.
• 28% of pigs have mange.

The show Lost is good... omg, did you see the ending yesterday?

Looking out at the water from the windows here at PETA HQ is pretty...

c bo k tns k s2dr so bn

Can anyone figure out what the title of this post means? You have to know Spanish, or don't bother trying. But big points to whoever does.

Sorry I haven't posted here, I've been away -- and still am, I'm in Norfolk, Virginia, at PETA headquarters, and it is great here. The people are all so nice and friendly and sociable and attractive (yes, I guess vegan diets really do something for you!), it's an incredible place to work and hang out. Also, this weekend I attende the march and tried yoga. And today I had a new fruit -- an ugli fruit. The taste was very ordinary, like a grapefruit with a little orange in there, totally not worth $4. Still, with the yoga and the kickboxing, I've crossed 3 out of 5 things on my list. Actually, I even went to Brooklyn, but just to pick up something to bring on my flight. That doesn't count... so two more to go.