We Wish You A...

To all the Christians out there:

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

(My blog has gotten no comments for several weeks so I am officially putting it on hiatus. No point in posting if no one's reading. Maybe people will be back next year.)

The Act

I was never a fan of William Carlos Williams, but this poem struck me...

THE ACT

There were the roses, in the rain.
Don't cut them, I pleaded.
They won't last, she said.
But they're so beautiful
where they are.
Agh, we were all beautiful once, she said,
and cut them and gave them to me
in my hand.

Please do share your own thoughts.

Kite Runner and Bloomberg

I saw The Kite Runner. It was good. It included everything from the book, but cut down so spare, entire scenes distilled to a single sentence, all the details and history and nuance whittled away to bring it down to a two-hour movie. For example, the climactic scene with Assef flashes by in seconds. As a result, the feeling is entirely different. There's none of the tension, the cringing as bad things pile on top of one another, that stress that made the book so visceral. The movie is detached. Just things happen, without creating momentum. It has the feel of a low-budget independent film, with none of the Hollywood slickness.

Christmas is beautiful in the city, again. Skaters at Rockefeller Center beneath the Christmas Tree just make my heart skip. The streets are packed with tourists. A friend took me on a personal tour of the Bloomberg building (see photos right and below), which, founded by now-NYC-mayor, makes financial consoles and films Bloomberg television channel live on the first floor. It's pretty impressive-looking in there, if a bit cold in feeling.

More skyscrapers

The real estate boom, which petered out elsewhere but continues to send prices skyrocketing in Manhattan, has contributed to the throwing up of new buildings everywhere, including signature skyscrapers that will define the New York skyline forever. Some of the new buildings to rise soon include Gehry's IAC building on the West Side Highway, his Beekman Tower (see right) downtown, Nouvel's building across from the MoMA in midtown, and Calatrava's 80 South Street down at the seaport. (And of course, someday, the very un-special Freedom Tower at ground zero.) Alas, the new buildings that have already gone up--like the New York Times building and the Time Warner Center, are modestly interesting at best. The most striking is Hearst Tower, which really stands out in the skyline, but which I wouldn't call pretty -- interesting, but not pretty. Hoping the new projects add more to the city.

Time Out NY

Hey, New Yorkers, get a free two-year subscription to Time Out New York, no strings attached, here.

As a huge fan of Method hand soap for its beautiful container, I had to try Method bloq body wash, for it's unique square packaging. I do so judge a book by its cover (and am also cheered on by Method's eco- and animal-friendly policies). This particular design is strikingly masculine, which is unusual in bath products. (Why any men go for that stupid Axe junk is beyond me, it's just awful-looking and the marketing is moronic.) The texture is very good, almost more a smooth body lotion than a soap. I chose green mint, which was unfortunate, because as refreshing as menthol feels in your mouth, feeling that stinging burn all over your body is just awful. If you get this stuff, stay away from mint. (Smells good, though.)

Went to Gotham comedy club again. One of the weakest shows I've seen there. Included SNL's Darryl Hammond (although he actually looked like this), who had some funny stuff but seemed drunk. Also Ben Bailey from Cash Cab, a Discovery Channel show I'd never seen but apparently other people have because he assumed we'd know what he was talking about. Still, funny, good times.

冬至

Just a reminder: tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter. Traditional day in Taiwan for eating 湯圓.

Word of the day: louche (read in today's NY Times review of Sweeney Todd).

No special post today, because I haven't been getting comments, which I take as a reflection of lack of interest. Perhaps you're all bewitched by the holidays?

Thou shalt not have bad grandparents

I was reading the Ten Commandments today, and noticed this line in #3:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image... thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me...

The italics are mine. Punishing the great grandchildren for the sins of their ancestors? Isn't that horrible? (Also, why do they still use "thou" in Bibles, the original Hebrew has no such form!?)

I saw Amélie. It was a gem. Such a sweet movie. Ok, I didn't like the ending. But I still came away feeling happy. Plus, Paris is so beautiful, and French sounds so pretty, that setting alone gives the movie an extra half-star rating.

Cha-an & 22,000 animals

I have had some good food lately -- standbys like malawach with chocolate, bananas, and strawberries at Press Toast, and new items like sake cheesecake at Kyotofu. But who wants to read about food? I'll instead let you know about a new East Village discovery, Cha-an, an authentic Japanese teahouse (9th St between 2nd and 3rd Aves). The tea is good, the decor is good, everything was beautiful. This place was top-of-the-line in teahouses, no offense to places like Teany and Saint's Alp which are great but aren't doing the fancy thing. The even have a little room for tea ceremonies. Tea here costs as much as a meal in Queens, but it's a little tea gem.

I did a calculation of how many animals each American meat-eater kills each year: 284 animals, including 1/7 of a cow, 1/2 a pig, 1 turkey, 29 chickens, 23 fish, and 230 shellfish. Over an average lifetime, that amounts to 22,000 animals, including 11 cows, 31 pigs, 73 turkeys, 2258 chickens, 1800 fish, and 18,000 shellfish. There are other estimates published, but these are the most thorough in existence (so far). Imagine all those animals crowded in front of you. An enormous audience. Is it really worth all that carnage, just for palate preference? If you're veg, think of how much good you're doing! (And, if you do try to spare animals, start with chickens and fish!)

Class Action Lawsuit

Have you eaten grilled chicken at McDonald's, Burger King, or another national chain? If so, would you be interested in participating in a class action lawsuit to make these companies to label a carcinogen in the meat? Especially if you live in New Jersey, but New York or Pennsylvania too, let me know and I'll hook you up.

I keep watching the presidential debates to try to figure out who to support, but they always say meaningless political talk. "I support better health care, a stronger economy, a better environment, and cute puppies." I really can't tell one from the other. With notable exceptions of Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, and John McCain. I have to say that Kucinich and McCain are my favorites. But perhaps you, dear readers, have other opinions and can point out where candidates have different positions on issues. I'd love to know about it. The whole Obama/Clinton thing of experience versus judgement is stupid and meaningless. So, an open mind is listening, who's the better candidate?

NYSE

Led a protest against KFC at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street today. New York is so pretty.

Had a nice Hannukah-closing dinner. Indian food. Delhi Palace has my favorite utapam.

Me in foreign

I found that my name appears in a lot of foreign language articles.

Spanish: La Agricultura de Races Empeora la Calefacción Mundial
French: Les pires ennemis de l'environnement
German: Positionspapier: Massentierhaltung ist nicht nur tierquälerisch, sondern auch in hohem Maße klima- und umweltschädlich
Chinese (as 諾姆．莫爾): 「禪味」飄入華爾街
Lithuanian: Vegetarizmas laikomas efektyviausia kovos priemone prieš pasaulinį atšilimą
Finnish: Luomutuotteet ja lastenruoat vapaita torjunta-ainejäämistä

Kind of cool. O frío. Ou froid. Oder Kälte. 還是凉....

Happy Birthday!

If today is your birthday, have a happy one.

It is also the last day of Chanukah. Happy Chanukah, everyone!

Foie gras in Columbia

For my readers in Columbia, look how easy it is to make a difference in your own town:

Columbia Flier: "Following outcry, it's au revoir to foie gras"

In a tip of the hat to my sister, a Pearl Jam fan, I enjoyed the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter.

Happy Hannukah

Hannukah is here. It is an odd holiday. It celebrates the dumbest miracle ever -- long-burning oil? Sounds like a commercial for Mobil. I've read about more amazing miracles on my sister's blog. People say it's a minor holiday then make a huge deal out of it. People play dreidel, a game that no one has ever found actually entertaining. We give gelt, which is as best I can tell fake money, actually made of fake chocolate, actually made of some kind of brown wax. Perhaps to remind us of the hannukah candles. Which in turn remind us of the oil. It's all about subtlety and indirection, I guess. Like the strangeness of we, as Jews and Americans, celebrating an insurgency's defeat of foreign occupation.

Not only do we celebrate vanquishing oppressors, we do it with fried foods, showing that we can hurt ourselves without the help of others, thank you very much. Foods like latkes, which are a kind of oil infused with bits of potato. And doughnuts. Yes, Krispy Kreme is traditional Jewish food. Take that, nog. Which isn't even a word. What are Christians thinking?

What I'm saying is, it's an odd holiday.

I'm already annoyed by the nonstop Christmas music pumped into all the stores, but fortunately for Christians, who have trouble putting together a decent holiday of their own (what's up with bunnies hiding eggs?), much of the caroling has been contributed to by Jews: "O Holy Night" (Adolphe Adam), "Christmas Song" (Mel Torme), "White Christmas" (Irving Berlin), "Let It Snow, Let It Snow" (Sammy Cahn and Julie Styne), "Silver Bells" (Jay Livingston and Ray Evans), and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Johnny Marks), as well as the score of "The Grinch That Stole Christmas." Which begs the question, how come there are no good Hannukah songs? "I had a little dreidel"? Please.

At least Jews don't have to lie to their kids, which is not just a lesson in integrity, but it means when our kids are happy unwrapping gifts, they beam at us with thanks, and don't just say, "Screw you daddy, I love Santa."

NAFTA HIghway

Did you see the Republican YouTube debate? You may remember Ron Paul speaking about his opposition to the NAFTA superhighway being built from Mexico to Canada. Apparently he thinks it's an insidious plot to create a North American Union. Apparently three of the eight Republican presidential candidates have co-sponsored a House of Representatives resolution denouncing this project. So it amazes me that there is no such thing. It is pure urban legend. There is absolutely no evidence of any plans for any such a highway. [Source: Washington Post Fact Checker]

Not that I see any problem with a highway going from Mexico to Canada.

I don't know if some of these Republican candidates are freaks or just pandering to freaks in the Republican party, but either way, it's a little bit scary. So far, among the Dems, they all seem like pretty good people.

Scrabble

You may recall that Scrabble was invented here in Jackson Heights. Well, today I played Scrabble with my ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. I just like saying that. Now I need to befriend her other ex-boyfriend just to increase my fun. She beat me by four points. But if I'd known that you can pluralize the word "qi" (for future reference, you can), I totally would have won.

My Samsung Blast phone is very pretty, but not well designed. It's cool that it can do a lot of cool things, but it does them all very badly. Still, it's pretty...

Alien

This cracked me up:

Taiwan is a good recycler

For my Taiwanese readers: Taiwan teaches a lesson in recycling. I remember how careful and diligent people were about recycling everything recyclable there. Here, no one is willing to change their lifestyle much for a greater good.

By the way, that teacher in Sudan in the earlier post charged with defaming Islam when her students voted to name a teddy bear Muhammad was found guilty and sentenced to 15 days in prison. "Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded [her] execution." [Source: NY Times]

Perhaps you heard of the story in Saudi Arabia of a man and woman who were raped at knifepoint by seven people. The rapists were sentenced to prison, but so were the victims, because they had been in a car together even though they were not related, each sentenced to 90 lashes while in prison. Those were increased to 200 lashes each when their lawyer complained to the media, and the lawyer lost his law license.

The Pig of Happiness

New job

Congrats to anyone getting a new high-paying job! (You know who you are.) The light is breaking, good things are coming your way....

Beowulf

News from Sudan:

A British teacher under arrest in Sudan was formally charged Wednesday with inciting hatred for allowing her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

If convicted, Gillian Gibbons, 54, could be sentenced to 40 lashes, a fine or six months behind bars. The case goes to court on Thursday. ...

Gibbons, a teacher at the Unity School in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, was arrested after her class chose potential names for the stuffed toy and voted overwhelmingly to name the teddy Muhammad.

Muhammad is the most popular boy's name in Sudan and in much of the Muslim world, but some consider giving it to an inanimate object to be blasphemous. ...

Robert Boulos, director of the Unity School... has closed the school until January for fear of reprisals. [Source: BBC]

I saw Beowulf in 3D on an IMAX screen. Watching a movie in 3D was cool, especially fighting a dragon through the air. However, on an IMAX screen, people's heads were three stories tall, and in 3D they were right in front of your face. You were constantly staring at enormous pores. It was really annoying. It was just too big a screen for a movie full of close-up shots. Watch it in 3D on a regular screen. (As for the content, you know the story, not that special. Brave fighter fights monster saves village.)

Train philosophy

Imagine that a train is barreling ahead towards a crowd of people. All of them will be killed, there's no chance for them to get away. Unless... you're standing next to the train switch; if you pull it, the train will go down the other track, missing the crowd, but hitting a lone person. What's the right thing to do? Do you pull the switch, so that one person will be killed instead of a whole crowd of people? What do you think?

Now imagine instead that there is no switch. The crowd is doomed. Unless... there's actually a really big guy standing right next to you. If you push him right in front of the train, it will stop the train and save the crowd of people. Your body is too small to stop the train, but this guy will do the trick. What's the right thing to do? Do you push him in front of the train, letting one person die to save the crowd of people?

Did you answer the questions? I read somewhere that most people think it's right to pull the switch, but wrong to push the guy in front of the train. But they can't really explain why. I want to know if this is true. Is that what you said? And if so why? Maybe you can explain it to me.

I don't see the difference. Either way, one person's death is better than many people's death, and it's that simple. I was talking about this with a friend who said the opposite: in both cases, let the crowd die. Her view was that it's wrong to cause someone to die, no matter what the consequences of inaction. She wouldn't kill a person even to prevent the deaths of all life on earth--that person included--because in her view killing is wrong.

Autumn

A nice Thanksgiving with the family. Made kolak, but it didn't come out good.

The trees -- something you might not notice in New York -- huge things of burnt sienna and ochre, just beautiful. Next to my family's house, a tree of dark, nearly black trunk against blazing crimson leaves, so super-saturated that it seemed unreal, so stunning, preternaturally stunning. Two days later, when I left, the leaves were all fallen, carpeting the ground with firey blood. So ephemeral is beauty, are the moments of life.

It was a really nice weekend, but that tree stands out over everything. Still, I miss New York, and am headed back in a few minutes. See ya soon...

Writer's Strike at the UCBT

Friday I went to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater to see the improv show "Death by Roo Roo". It was really funny (and the title means nothing). Thumbs up from me, better than ASSSSCAT3000 (unless an SNL star shows up, you never know with that show).

Speaking of which, I should have gone the next day. With the writer's strike having shut down SNL, they performed the show Saturday night at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, using improvized sets, making jokes they can't do on TV, and hosted by Michael Cera no less!

Even better, on Monday the show "30 Rock" performed there! Imagine seeing Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Kenny the page boy, and the rest performing live, in front of a laughing audience! I so would have gone...

I Am An Animal

A new documentary, I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA, is supposed to be really good and is airing today on HBO at 8pm. I don't get HBO (in part because I got rid of my TV), so you'll have to tell me how it was.

Oinks, Kolak, Shirley

I am finally back in New York, and none too soon. Good to be back. Nothing like a stay away to appreciate how sucky the rest of America is. I spent my last night in Norfolk (not counting the night at the airport hotel when my flight was cancelled) playing games, starting with Cranium, which was fun, and ending with Pigs in a Blanket, which was moronic. If you don't know the game, it involves everyone covering themselves with blankets and making pig noises so that a guesser has to guess, based on the oinks, who beneath the blankets is whom. I was thinking to myself, what, am I five? Then again, I was thinking, how did I become such a curmudgeon that I can't enjoy simple things I did when I was five?

Last night I had homemade kolak, which is an Indonesian desert soup with pumpkin, sweet potato, and palm seeds cooked in coconut milk and pandanus leaves, soooo good. Apparently it's standard fare for iftar after the Ramadan fast, and can be made with plantains, jackfruit, tapioca pearls, all sorts of yummy stuff. I still have some, come and try before it's all gone.

My sister will be happy to know that there is another famous Shirley now, a new character on the show Scrubs. I think this is the first Shirley character since Laverne & Shirley, and Shirley Temple before that. Unfortunately, the character looks exactly like my sister's stereotype of what a Shirley looks like (except in this case she's a nurse rather than a waiter). (Why did they choose the name Shirley? Might be because the actor previously played a character on the show named Laverne.)

I would be in a fourth documentary, being filmed today, except that my ticket to New York was a day before the film crew arrived in Virginia. So, maybe I should revise me "none too soon". Oh, well. I should drown my remorse in chaat.

And props to my friend Susie, who appears on MTV.com handing a key to Hilary Cruz and wearing the biggest smile I've ever seen.

Strawbagging

Sometimes the entire office goes outside to bag straw, which we provide free for people to use to keep doghouses dry and comfy for dogs left outdoors in the winter. We all become field hands (albeit in the parking lot) and yee-ha.

Prawns feel pain

An article in the New Scientist describes a new study showing evidence that decapod crustaceans feel pain. While there have already been studies on lobsters showing their reactions to anesthetic and the pain-mediating opiate receptors in the nervous system, this study was done on prawns. If lobsters feel pain, why wouldn't prawns? I guess it makes sense.

Robert Elwood at Queen's University Belfast in the UK and his colleagues claim they have found convincing evidence that prawns do feel pain. When they dabbed an irritant - acetic acid - onto one of 144 prawns' two antennae, the creatures reacted by grooming and rubbing the affected antenna for up to 5 minutes. This focused reaction is similar to that seen in mammals exposed to a noxious stimulant (Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.07.004).

Elwood says the results show a centrally organised response to the irritant. "The prolonged, specifically directed rubbing and grooming is consistent with an interpretation of pain experience," he says. [Source]

I used to tell people, shrimp are a grey area, maybe you can eat them. I guess I should take that back, and restrict my grey area to clams and scallops, and only because those really haven't been studied.

New phone

I got a new cell phone. What they don't tell you is I now need to buy a memory card, a bluetooth converter, and bluetooth headphones.

There's really not much else to say about this wilderness.

IMDb

Many of you may know and use the Internet Movie Database, a great resource. How many of you, though, peruse the listing of stars and luminaries, and think, “I know him, that’s my good friend [fill in name of your personal sex symbol]!” If you’re thinking, “not me,” then guess again...

It's also fun to see a certain someone listed as an author on Amazon.com here and here for his US PIRG reports.

Help me. So... boring... here...

Bush manipulating the courts

I have on occasion pointed out some of the insidiously evil but very subtle things that the Bush administration does (for example). I find these things outlandishly obvious, but it amazes me how successful they are, people don't seem to notice. There are so many examples, but let me point out one that they use to completely subvert the law and the constitution and violate people's rights at will, like a dictator.

Although we think that we have rights protecting us from government, the Bush administration routinely ignores these protections, for example, throwing people in prison without justifiable cause. Much of the time they get away with it by sending people to prisons abroad outside of US jurisdiction, or citing "national security" as a blanket reason for not showing anybody -- including judges or detainees -- why they're being detained. But that doesn't always work. No problem, any person who's rights have been violated has to go to court. And even if the court decides in their favor, they have to wait for the government to appeal. They languish for years in court while the case makes its way to the Supreme Court. And then, just before the Supreme Court decides, they government changes its policy, making the case moot, so it gets thrown out. So, (1) the government acts with lawless impunity for years, (2) the Supreme Court has not striken down their policy, so they can do it all over again to someone else, and (3) the change of policy can be something small that is still a severe violation of the law, but would require starting in the court system all over again with a new complaint. In this way, the government just manipulates the system to buy it time, and more time, on and on forever! Even when the Supreme Court decides against them, they don't have to listen, they just make an insignificant change in the way they do things, and force the detainees to go through the court system again to complain that the supposed fix is not what the Court is saying.

Bush has done this again and again, but I've never seen it discussed by the media. (For example, here's an example in the New York Times.) The evil frosting on the cake is that, whenever the government makes some maneuver to take the case out of court and buy themselves more time, they play it as goodheartedness, "look how we're revising our policy to give these detainees more rights", even though in fact they are just trying to prevent them from getting the greater rights they'd get under the law if the court decided the case.

You hear about big corporations manipulating the legal system, threatening to keep complaints against them locked up in expensive legal battles that go on for years to keep people from legitimate lawsuits. But when the government does it, well, what rights exist for us at all? Can we not imagine concentration camp victims waiting for their lawsuits to wend their way through the system as they are daily being shoved into ovens? There's got to be a better way.

Diet studies

There have been some major stories on diet which are misleading, but often people who read the headlines don't hear about the follow up.

For example, this month the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition announced that pregnant women should eat at least 12 oz of seafood each week. This was a surprise, because the government (the FDA and EPA) warns pregnant women to eat no more than 12 oz of seafood each week, because of mercury contamination. (Personally, I think it's a bad idea to consume any mercury, and stay away from seafood as a rule. But I'm vegetarian, so it's easy for me.) It turns out that even organizations who were part of the coalition do not agree with its conclusions, and that the fishing industry funded the group to make its announcement. So, the house of cards falls. [Source: NY Times]

Another example: it was widely reported that eggs are not bad for you after all, maybe because they raise good cholesterol as well as bad. Turns out it's not true: eggs do worsen the overall cholesterol profile. [Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutriton] (Of course, it's still possible that they don't hurt you for some mysterious reason.)

It also turns out that overcooked meat has powerful estrogen-mimicking compounds which can contribute to breast cancer, which may explain why meat consumption is correlated with higher breast cancer rates. [Source: Science News] Of course, regardless of the reason, the fact that women who eat the most meat have the highest rates of breast cancer should be troubling.

I hear about this stuff because of my job. But we've all heard that meat is unhealthy and fruits and vegetables are good for you. So in a way, it's common sense. But with industry-promoted studies trying to get you to ignore common sense, it's good to have some perspective, which these few examples (and there are many others) help to give.

Norfolk

I’m in Norfolk, Virginia. I rented a car for a day, and went to coworkers saying, “I have a car, I can go anywhere and do anything. Got any ideas?” They came up with nothing! Except maybe going to Virginia Beach, but I work during the day when it’s nice there. So, even the locals consider this place a wasteland. I’m so glad I’m a New Yorker. I almost feel like I should have brought good food down with me, to lighten the dreary lives of the culturally impoverished denizens here. But then again, that may be a cruel taunting of their penury

What is Native American food? In the most international city in America, and perhaps in the world, I realize I've never seen any of the only peoples who are not immigrants, ironically enough. Is there a Native American neighborhood in New York, any Native American restaurants?

I like this quote by Dale Jamieson, director of environmental studies at New York University: "It's like if you go to McDonald’s and order a hamburger and then recycle the packaging, that’s the most trivial thing you can do," he said. "Because most of the environmental impact is in the meat production."

Spooky Scary

In October, my blog got about 2500 visitors, more than five times as much as any preceding month. That's a lot of comments that should be--but aren't being--left! (Honestly, which one of you is reading my site from 2000 different computers?)

Went to a Halloween party in Hell's Kitchen, but as you can see, it looked kind of gay, so I didn't stay too long. Still, it was my first "professional" New York Halloween party, so I'm happy.

Gotta catch a flight to Virginia soon, don't know if I can update from there, just warning you.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. Tonight I fly for an extended trip to Norfolk. This weekend, at a Halloween party that was a college anachronism--cheap decorations, the stench of beer, people making out on the couches--I had my laptop stolen. Ouch. Apparently it wasn't just me, at least two other people were robbed. The next day, I was going to go to a real party, but was held up by someone crying until 1am, even then it was hard to pull myself away. Sunday, at least, ended well, with a pumpkin spiced latte at Starbucks with a friend, and a midnight walk all the way across Central Park, from the SW corner at Columbus Circle all the way to the NE corner in Harlem. It was cold, and quiet, and empty, but I'd never have thought I'd make such a long trek.

War cost, updated

Updating an earlier post, "Starting at Sept. 11, 2001, war-fighting expenses total a staggering $800 billion or more." [Source: NY Times] That's about $8000 per US household. Just think what it could have been used for. (And as I said before, you haven't paid this cost yet, but the bill will come. Plus interest.)

Philadelphia

Last week I went to Philadelphia on a work-related trip. I am quoted at the end of an article in The Jewish Exponent on it. The quote they used is bland, considering there was so much wrong with what the speaker was saying, but at least it's in there.

While in Philadelphia, I was struck by the fact that Center City (that is, downtown) Philadelphia, though almost entirely unchanged in the past 10 years, now has (big exception here) three skyscrapers under construction, including the Comcast Center which will outdo the Liberty Building as the city's tallest (and looks cool too). This is quite a shock, since no tall buildings have been built since the 1980s. Another one, the crystal-like Cira Center, is covered with a grid of lights that can be turned on at night in any pattern, to display pictures: when I was there, it showed a pink ribbon, perhaps for breast cancer awareness? All this construction, in spite of the fact that Philadelphia is perhaps the only major city to see its population keep falling, year after year, since 1950.

Philadelphia was wonderful. It is like going back to my home town, in a way that visiting Columbia never is. It was so beautiful, the old buildings, walking through Rittenhouse Square, the shops on Walnut Street, it really is a great city. And I got 豆花(douhua) with toppings -- 綠豆(mung bean) and 西米(sago) -- and it was good. That place is where I first had 豆花, and even though the kind they sell is Taiwan is more slick and professional, I still prefer that homemade-like taste I get in Philly's Chinatown. Ah, Philly. I remember when I first came to Philadelphia for grad school, I asked the cab driver what he thought of the city, and he said, "It's ok." That's the common feeling among locals, but not among me. This time, when I got there, just for kicks I asked my cab driver the same question. He answered with the exact same, "It's ok." Ah, nothing's changed :)

Rock climbing

Start with a question: if you are friends with any of your exes, do you think it's better to stay away and then later, when you've gotten over them, rebuild a friendship, or try to spend time with them while acting just like friends to acclimatize yourself to a new way of being with them? Anyone with the experience to know which strategy works best?

This weekend I went rock climbing. It was so fun! Hanging just barely onto a wall a couple stories above the ground is terrifying, but exciting. Terrixciting. Must go again.

A recent unblogged weekend, I was eating a yummy Soul Chicken Sandwich at Red Bamboo when I see at the next table a guy I'm sure is Christopher Ford, a guy I saw in a bunch of Waverly Films online. So I go up and ask him, and yes, that's he. A sighting! Alright, he's no Brad Pitt, but if felt exciting to see him eating at the next table, come alive in flesh and blood from the screen. (The guy is, for example, Ned in this clip, or Evan in this clip, or Ford in this clip, or the inventor in this clip, and so on.)

Philly

I'm going to Philadelphia for work purposes. I'll post when I'm back.

Also, my sister Ariella's birthday is in two days. Anyone know what she wants as a present?

Eid Mubarak

To all my Muslim readers (alright, there are none), happy Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan).

Blacks in Prison

"We have more work to do when more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America."
--Barack Obama, NAACP forum, July 12, 2007.

As the Washington Post points out, this is completely false. There are five times as many young black men in college as there are incarcerated. (John Edwards' statement that "pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison or dead." is even more ridiculous.)

At the same time, the statistics are utterly shocking. An August 2003 Bureau of Justice Statistics analysis shows that one third (32%) of black males born in 2001 can expect to spend time in prison over the course of their lifetime. That is up from 13.4% in 1974. By contrast, 17.2% of Hispanics and 5.9% of whites born in 2001 are likely to end up in prison. Kind of makes you think that prison just isn't an effective deterrent. I mean, who would commit crimes knowing he had a one in three chance of going to prison? I guess a lot of people.

(Yes, I know, the chances of a criminal going to prison are a lot higher than one in three, because that statistic includes all the law-abiding people. That just makes my point even more stark.)

New places in the city

This weekend I went to Le Souk, a Moroccan restaurant/nightspot that was so cool-looking inside, with hanging Moroccan lamps and candles in stone-like recesses in the walls, and hookahs everywhere, but was too dim for me to take pictures. They had finger-cymbal-clashing belly dancers, both male and female. The food was only ok -- no bastila! -- but that's probably Morocco's fault. It certainly looked good. Also, the music was way too loud, you really couldn't talk to anyone.

I also saw the movie Superbad which was quite funny in parts but did not live up to the hype. I hate hype, ruins everything.

Last weekend, my sister and her boyfriend visited and we stumbled across what both of these coffee aficionados consider the best coffee they've had in their lives at Cafe Grumpy in Chelsea. They boasted to me that they're the only place in NYC with a clover machine. Whatever that means. [Update: according to the New York Times 1/24/08, "New York City now has five of the devices, two of them at the Chelsea branch of Café Grumpy."] Anyway, the coffee looked really good in those cute little espresso-sized cups.

We also went to see Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind which does 30 plays in 60 minutes. It was full of randomness, but that's not enough to make entertainment. Thumbs down from me. But we went to Gotham Comedy Club too, and that was so hilarious that I literally choked when breaking into uncontrollable convulsions of laughter while sipping tea, and found myself coughing painfully for the next 15 minutes. That place is a winner (sorry Fran).

I took my sister and her boyfriend for chaat, which they both loved (when they managed to cross the street through the Hispanic Day Parade which runs right by my home). My roommate liked it too. But two other people who visited me did not. So, mixed reactions overall.
But this weekend I also tried a nearby Indonesian restaurant, which an Indonesian told me is the best in New York, called Upi Jaya It is small, with bad decor, and no air conditioning. But the food was delicious. It was the first time in my life I've ever had tempeh that was yummy -- and it was with no sauce at all. Gado-gado is delicious, with its yummy peanut sauce. So good.

Finally, a shout out to 裕珍馨, that place that makes taro cakes in Taichung, Taiwan. They are sooooo good, omg. And their brown sugar 奶油小酥餅 was truly transcendent pleasure in my mouth, a bit of heaven, the best non-chocolate desert I've ever tasted. If you're ever in Taichung, get some, because if I ever get my hands on any, don't even think about asking me for a taste, you're prying these out of my cold dead hands.

TORTURE ALERT: No court remedy

Court says that if the government illegally tortures innocent people, they can't sue because a trial would expose state secrets. Just think what that means...

Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen, has said he was detained by Macedonian police and handed over to the CIA a few weeks later. He said he was taken to a secret CIA-run prison in Afghanistan and tortured before he was flown back to the Balkans without explanation in May 2004 and dumped on a hillside in Albania. German officials said they were later informed privately by their U.S. counterparts that Masri was detained in a case of mistaken identity, apparently confused with a terrorism suspect of a similar name.

Masri in May was committed to a psychiatric institution... His attorney blamed his troubles on the CIA, saying the kidnapping and detention had left Masri a "psychological wreck." [Source: Washington Post]

Chew on This

This video is not graphic, very short, but packs a punch. I wonder what you think.

Of course, I definitely encourage people to view the other somewhat longer documentary video narrated by Alec Baldwin viewable at meat.org that goes through the many cruelties of the modern meat industry, including beating animals to death; chopping off their beaks, tails, genitals, even removing internal organs without anesthetic, confining them in spaces so small they can never even stretch a limb; keeping them so deep in their own filth that it burns their skin; and so on... this video does not.

Salsa

I went salsa dancing at Link, which I hadn't done in 9 years, and it was fun. Only thing is, apparently here in New York people dance New York style salsa, which is different than the international style everyone else uses. That's the problem with living in a city so cool that it has its own style of dance. I couldn't learn it on the fly, so I just went with what I know -- it's a good thing that the man leads, and the woman just has to follow...

The national median home price is $224,500. In Manhattan, it's impossible to get even a studio for that much -- except way up in Inwood for a 5th floor walk-up that requires renovation. [Source]

Death penalty and innocent people

I am opposed to the death penalty because murder is wrong, and it is arrogance for us to believe that we are moral people who deserve to live while these others deserve to die--in truth we are all sinners and should have compassion for our fellow too fallible human beings, we should never let our hatred take that away from us and turn us into sadists who take satisfaction at the suffering of another. I also have compassion for the accused's innocent family members who are cruelty devastated by the state as they are forced to watch their child, their parent, their spouse killed in cold blood. But other people are more concerned with the danger of executing innocent people.

In fact, in a 2007 study, University of Michigan Law School professor Samuel R. Gross analyzed 3,792 death sentences imposed from 1973 to 1989 and found that 86 death row inmates, or 2.3 percent, had been exonerated through 2004. [Source] An even higher percent must actually be innocent. Can it possibly be worth the very significant danger of killing an innocent person? And these were only death penalty cases -- rates are surely higher for less serious and less publicized convictions which receive less scrutiny.

Papua

Selamat pagi! Papua punya orang-orang asing...

The tree people of Papua build their homes high in the trees, as protection from enemies and mosquitoes. The women wear only grass skirts, and the men wear only a gourd or nutshell over their penis, and maybe a necklace decorated with animal teeth. Different tribes have different kinds of gourds--one uses a thin one that is several feet long and holds up hoops hanging on their body, another uses one the size of a large bottle in which they can keep supplies, yet another uses a bird's beak, and another still just ties it in with a leaf. The tree people want nothing to do with civilization, and are one of the last remaining stone-age societies.

Another is the Asmat, who don't live in trees but are famous for cannibalizing their enemies after killing them. In addition to using skulls as pillows and other fearsome traditions, they are name hunters. Every person was named after someone deceased, or after a killed enemy. A child was sometimes given a name only ten years after it was born, and after its village set out to kill a man from an enemy village nearby. They had to learn the name of the man they killed, and then bring his skull to their village. Only in this way could a person get a name. Supposedly missionaries and some trade in wood carvings have mellowed out the murdering.

By the way, an orangutan is Indonesian: "orang hutan" = "forest person". Cool.

Happy Sukkot!!!

If you don't know what Sukkot is, here's a quick description.

Navy swastika

$600,000 of your tax money is going for camouflage for a naval barracks building that, from the air, looks like a swastika. Sigh. [Source]

No comments on any of my topical posts. You guys prefer the personal stuff? (Post your answer to this question in the comments section.)

Immigrants steal our jobs

Immigrants--legal and illegal--come here and take jobs, but they also make jobs. They need people to grow and sell them food, to provide them with housing, to cut their hair, to sell them cars and clothes and medicines, so they don't just take jobs, they make more jobs. If more people meant fewer jobs available, then we should be against a growing population. Yet the US population has grown at a clip for centuries, and we still haven't run out of jobs.

There may be some people who are hurt by immigration. If a boatload of physicists crossed the border, there might be less jobs for American physicists, even as there are more jobs for restaurants, doctors, and cell phone manufacturers. But those who say the overall economic effect is harmful are not looking at the big picture.

Plus, we should consider what dire situations cause people to risk their lives crossing deserts to get here. These are desperate people, and we should help them if we can, especially since they are not looking for a handout, just for a job, usually a hard and crummy job, with which to feed their families.

Illegal immigration does pose problems that legal immigration does not. These people are often afraid to go to the hospital when sick, afraid to go to the police when victims of crime, afraid to complain when mistreated by employers, and so on. In my mind, the solution is to make is easier to come in legally, and welcome the huddled masses. The second solution is to invest in the economies of developing nations so that they don't have to come here to eke out an existence. There is something ridiculous in the fact that a restaurant busboy in the US makes more money than a college professor in much of the developing world.

War cost

Bush's request for war funding for 2008 is about $190 billion. That's $1800 per US household. That's how much you're paying for the war in this one year alone. And don't think that's covered in your taxes, we're borrowing the money for the war, so you haven't paid it yet. The bill will come later, but it will surely come. The human price of the war far outstrips the economic cost, of course, but this gives an additional sense to help you answer the question of whether it's all worth it.

Gender happiness

In a recent happiness survey, men and women often gave similar answers about what they liked to do (hanging out with friends) and didn’t like (paying bills). But men apparently enjoy being with their parents, while women find time with their mom and dad to be slightly less pleasant than doing laundry. Could it be that women are doing work with their parents (planning events? paying bills?) while men are just watching TV?

Also, in the early 1970s, women reported being slightly happier than men. Today, the two have switched places. Women spend about the same amount of time on unpleasant tasks, but men work less and relax more than they used to. Back then, women spent 45 minutes a week more than men on unpleasant tasks; today it's 90 minutes.

It's true in high school too. About 25% of male high school seniors say they are very satisfied with their lives, up from 16% in 1976. Roughly 22% of senior girls now give that answer, unchanged from the 1970s. [Source]

Democracy fails in DC

Legislation to give voting representation to DC in the House of Representatives (and also an extra seat to Utah, so that it won't change the party balance) already passed the House, and had 57 votes in the Senate, but that wasn't enough to overcome a Republican filibuster. Yes, Republicans are against democracy for the people of DC, a population bigger than Wyoming. Shockingly to me, John McCain voted with the Republicans against the bill. I have always respected McCain and he's my favorite in the Republican primary -- or was. Anyone who doesn't support something as basic as democracy is off my list. (Two Democrats, Byrd and Baucus, joined Republicans in voting against cloture.)

中秋節快樂! Happy Moon Festival!

Look up at the full moon tonight, perhaps with a pomelo or mooncake in hand, and read the story of the moon festival. (You can find the story online. There are many versions, so just pick any one.)

Acupuncture, Kytofu, etc

Interesting study:

Six months of acupuncture provides more relief for back pain than conventional treatments, according to a large new study. But surprisingly, fake acupuncture works just as well as the real thing. Nearly half the patients in the acupuncture group reported significant relief, compared to just 27% in the conventional therapy group. But nearly as many people in the group given fake acupuncture — 44% — also reported significant relief. Real acupuncture did reduce the need for pain medicine. Only 15% of patients who received real acupuncture used extra pain medication, but 34% of patients in the sham group and 59% of patients in conventional therapy needed extra pain pills. [Source: NY Times]

If you're in need of lower back pain relief, ask your doctor about acupuncture, and if she doesn't know, berate her incompetence for peddling inferior treatment. I certainly don't know how many other maladies have effective non-drug treatments that doctors simply don't bother to learn about because it's not what they're used to, forcing "alternative medicine" into a realm where it's impossible to tell BS from the real thing. [Steps off soapbox]

Random health facts:
* In studies, the only food that has been shown to have an affect on the rate of mosquito bites (garlic doesn't) is drinking alcohol, which attracts them. [Source]
* A study found that hot tubs reduce male fertility, though the effect reverses after a few months. [Source]
* Hookahs are no safer than cigarettes. [Source]

I went to the Japanese desert place Kyotofu (finally). It was really good. Probably overpriced, at $10 a desert, they were good but not different from the higher-end quality deserts elsewhere. Maybe you pay for ambience and presentation, which was beautiful. Still, I enjoyed my sesame douhua served in a wineglass.

So few people answered my poll, I can't seriously believe so few people read the blog. Really, how hard is it to comment "yes" or "no"? I'm disappointed in you. But for those in the dark, a "butterface" is a woman who has a good body but an ugly face -- that is, who is attractive "but-her-face". And since no one asked about Raksha Bandhar (aka Rakhi), that was a national Indian holiday in which sisters tie a string bracelet around their brother's wrist as a bond of protection, meaning that if she needs help (say, when her husband is away), her brother will be there for her. The brother gives the sister presents. It doesn't have to be between biological sisters and brothers, it can be for anyone who takes that role for the woman. How sweet.

Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

My neighborhood in Queens

I live in Jackson Heights. Famous people who grew up here include Lucy Liu, John Leguizamo, Susan Sarandon, Carroll O'Connor ("Archie Bunker"), Don Rickles, and Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss, among others. Charlie Chaplin had an apartment here. Scrabble was invented here.* It is home to the original buildings of the Garden City movement, buildings built around private gardens that I can't go into but which are now part of the Historic District.

It's a nice area. Even so, the 115th police district -- which includes a lot more than Jackson Heights, also East Elmhurst and Corona -- has so far this year seen 4 murders and 27 rapes. Damn. That may sound like a bad area, but it's not at all; the Greenwich Village precinct has also seen 4 murders this year. I guess New York just has a lot of people...

Walking at 5am you can see people in restaurants, with hijabs and robes, eating their breakfast before daybreak and Ramadan fasting (or, as the Bangladeshis here call it, Ramzan). Thinking about it is making me hungry...

*Also a bunch of other people I haven't heard of, but maybe you have: Kevin Dobson, Paula Garcés, Avi Roy, Juju of The Beatnuts, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Sandra Cisneros, Michael Gonsalves.

Inequality in America

This graph (from Paul Krugman's blog) showing the share of America's wealth that belongs to the top 10% earners is really interesting.

It shows that the era of prosperity dominated by the middle class, an era brought on quickly by Roosevelt's New Deal policies, was a temporary period that is now gone, a change that came with Reagan-Gingrich-type conservatism. Today, when you hear about the economy booming and notice that it hasn't changed your life much, it's not because the rivers of cash aren't flowing, it's that they are windfalls of income that are being absorbed entirely by the super-rich, while the rest of America has seem essentially no increase in wages. "Between 1979 and 2005 the real income of the median household rose only 13 percent, but the income of the richest 0.1% of Americans rose 296 percent." Also: "It’s important to know that no other advanced economy has seen a comparable surge in inequality."

Reminds me of my earlier post on our ridiculous wealth distribution.

Stupid roach

I saw a roach in my trash bag, so I grabbed the bag and ran to take it out to the trash chute, in such a hurry that I didn't realize until it was too late that I hadn't unlocked the door. I was locked out of my apartment, in the little vestibule that opens to the elevator, the trash chute, and two apartments. I had nothing, no keys, no phone.

And no pants.

This was bad.

I tried using cardboard to break in, but that went nowhere. I climbed up on the roof to look for something I could use, but to no avail. From up there you have a nice view of all Manhattan, and presumably they had a nice view of me too, but I tried not to think about that. Finally I sucked it up, went up a floor and knocked on another apartment door. A woman holding a baby answered. I said, "This is really embarrassing, but I was locked out of my apartment, can I please call the super?" She looked down at me in my underwear and said, matter-of-factly, "No." "I can't just make a call?" "No."

I stewed in the vestibule a while longer, tried banging on my door as if magically someone would be inside and open it for me, and finally went down a floor to try another apartment. A Nepali man in there was nice enough to let me use his phone. Of course, the super didn’t answer when I called. Neither did my roommates. I finally reached one via instant messenger, and he kindly left work to come back and let me in.

It’s a good thing that I telecommute. I wouldn’t want to be calling up my boss and saying, "It looks like I’m going to be late today, or not make it in at all, because, um, er... I’d probably get arrested on the way there..."

Multiple stab wounds may be harmful to monkeys

Margerinehead

To all of you who sent well wishes for the new year, thanks. And to all of you who sent well wishes for the new year, how friggin' unoriginal! May you have happiness and prosperity and everything you want and health and peace blah blah blah. How impersonal can you get? Translating this stuff into normal English reads: "Look, be happy you got something at all." Just for next time, to whoever you send well wishes, just put in a little effort, just enough to give the person some hope that there's some sincerity in there somewhere.

I learned a new word today: "Butterface". Just curious, an informal poll: do you know what it means? Just comment "yes" or "no" for me, thanks.

Happy 5768!!!

Paan

I know I've been raving about what a great place Jackson Heights is, but I went to Forest Hills today, and Austin Street is so much better, than I realize how relative it all is. I'm still happy because I'm so much closer to Manhattan, and I probably can't afford to eat out every meal in Forest Hills like I can here. But if you visit, keep your expectations in check.

I also tried paan, which is like an Indian candy or after-dinner mint It is a leaf filled with coconut and spices and sugar and stuff, which you chew on. It's tasty, but then I looked it up and found... apparently it's carcinogenic! The Betel leaf it's wrapped in is a stimulant and causes oral and esophageal cancer. Indians I talk to tell me, no, it's the tobacco that is often wrapped inside by people that causes cancer, but this sweet paan is something kids eat all the time. They are wrong! The tobacco does it too, but Betel leaf is itself bad. Which reminds me of when I tried betelnut in Taiwan -- people chew the nut with tobacco as an addictive stimulant there -- I was assured that it was ok because they left out the tobacco but now I'm not so sure.

Oh, did you catch from the earlier post, that the 5th ocean is the Southern Ocean? It was added to the other four in 2000, and surrounds Antarctica.

Starch did it

I went to L.A., got there around midnight local time, enjoyed time in a hotel (I love comfy-looking beds, and I had two of them!), then spent the morning filming. Because airplane noise made me stop talking every minute or two, I couldn't get a lot out, so I'm sure my contribution to the movie will be short. It sounds like a very entertaining film, though, and they hope it'll be in the coming Sundance Film Festival.

Have you heard that theory that hunting and meat eating is the reason that humans evolved such intelligence? One thing you should always know about theories on how we evolved is that they're all essentially conjecture -- we have almost no data, and so people just guess, and the dominant guesses of the field change with time. This particular theory has now shifted from blaming meat to blaming starch (as primates moving out of the woods started eating roots and tubers which are high in starches), because at just that time genetic selection for starch-digesting enzymes skyrocketed, and the teeth of early humans are not well suited for eating meat. While it's still not conclusive--like I said, this evolution stuff never gets even close to conclusive--it makes people who used this excuse for meat-eating look pretty stupid. [Source: NY Times]

Waverly Films

If you're looking to waste time, Waverly Films has a lot of funny/weird videos in their "clips of the week". Check out, for example, "Pick up the Phone".

Also, I added sound to my page, experimentally. What do you think, atmosphere or annoying? (This is "Early in Summer" by the Japanese musician Piana.) (To watch the Maria Mena videos, or any others, you'll have to click to the original YouTube pages or you'll have cacaphony.)

Maria Mena

Went to Forest Hills for Labor Day, the part across the railroad tracks with the beautiful brick houses that look like they come straight from old Europe, like stepping into another country. Party in the backyard of the house of a gay priest (not that I want to define people that way, but that's kind of special) with yummy make-your-own-pizza, grilled fruit, and more. (Can't show you pictures, because someone does not want any mention in this blog.)

I tried Dosa Diner, a badly decorated dosa restaurant here in Jackson Heights (the "Little India" which is apparently mostly Bangladeshi) and had uthappam and idli with sambar, very yummy. I may have had these before in restaurants but was totally unimpressed. Here it's something else, it's good. If you ever feel like eating Indian, just come up here. Really.

Max Brenner, the chocolate restaurant, is still decadently delicious (melty heart chocolate cake, ooh), though their new food menu means that delicious stuff I would used to get is gone (then again, a lot more vegan choices now), and so our the calorie listings which were really useful but perhaps unwise from a sales perspective for a place that specializes in guilty pleasure.

Stardust was a cute movie, not one that came together enough to become a classic, but a happy-making fantasy that is formulaic in the best it's-worked-since-fairy-tales sense and which probably came from a book that was a great read. (If Robert DeNiro can't do a British accent, why was he in the movie? He was weak, weak, weak.)

I've been listening to Maria Mena. Haven't heard of her? Neither have I. From Norway, apparently. Her songs, though poppy, are perhaps overly full of angst in an almost emo way (I've only heard one happy song, the rest are all about being miserable -- and they're all about relationships), but then again, aren't those overemotional moments perfect for what songs do?
Well, what do you think?

Off to L.A. tomorrow...

Michael Vick

Oceans

Tony Snow resigned as Press Secretary because he wasn't making enough money. Which is understandable, considering that his press secretary salary was a paltry $168,000 a year.

Can you name all 5 oceans? Don't look them up online, that's cheating. If you don't know, just wait for the answer.

This post loads faster in Japan

Did you know that in Japan, internet is 10 to 30 times faster than it is here -- and cheaper too? "The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure. Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine -- which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance -- and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010." [Source] Why is Japan always ahead of us in technology? Well, except for the iPhone.

Happy Raksha Bhandan!

I learn about these things living in Little India. Such a sweet holiday.

Gansevoort

Tonight I spent the evening at the famous Gansevoort in the Meatpacking district. The night was fine, and the view from the rooftop bar was excellent. You could see, below on another rooftop, the pool that Carrie wanted to go to in Sex and the City -- so I heard, I never saw that. It was not how I thought, I was woefully underprepared.

Lower East Side and Death

Walking around the Lower East Side today, I found that my favorite Manhattan falafel place, Askara Vegetarian, is now Ashakara Grill and Green. That's right, they've added hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and so on to their menu. Alas. Still great falafel, though. I stumbled across a number of places in the area I want to try, like Rayuela, and Open the Sesame, and Pangea, and Rockwood Music Hall, the last of which is a performance space/bar the size of a living room. Sitting there watching someone play is really like they're playing in a room of your house, it's so tiny and, um, cozy. And the music sounded cool. I'll go sometime.

Do you have a list of things to do before you die? What's on it?

Jacques Prévert

Are these Jacques Prévert poems really so good, or am I just o'er-enchanted by the French, which makes everything sound so romantic? (I don't know if anyone who reads this blog even knows French! But they likely know how much of a romantic I am at heart.)

Le Ruisseau

Beaucoup d'eau a passé sous le pont
et aussi énormément de sang
Mais aux pieds de l'amour
coule un grand ruisseau blanc
Et dans les jardins de la lune
où tous les jours c'est ta fête
ce ruisseau chante en dormant
Et cette lune c'est ma tête
où tourne un grand soleil bleu
Et ce soleil c'est tes yeux

***

Le Jardin

Des milliers et des milliers d'années
Ne sauraient suffire
Pour dire
La petite seconde d'éternité
Où tu m'as embrassé
Où je t'ai embrassé
Un moment dans la lumière de l'hiver
Au Parc Montsouris à Paris
À Paris
Sur la terre
La terre qui est un astre.

***

Trois allumettes

Trois allumettes une à une allumées dans la nuit
La premiére pour voir ton visage tout entier
La seconde pour voir tes yeux
La dernière pour voir ta bouche
Et l'obscuritè tout entière pour me rappeler tout cela
En te serrant dans mes bras.

***

Alicante

Une orange sur la table
Ta robe sur le tapis
Et toi dans mon lit
Doux présent de la présent
Fraîcheur de la nuit
Chaleur de ma vie

Miranda and the Chocolate Factory

Did you know that, before publishing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl cut out the character of a sixth golden ticket winner, Miranda Mary Piker, a teacher's pet and tattle-tale? If you're curious, read the missing chapter in which she, like the other children, meets an untimely end to her factory tour.

Israel is turning away and deporting back to Egypt refugees from the genocide in Darfur, without interviewing them on whether they need asylum. What the hell? Have they forgotten what it was for fleeing Jews being turned away by other countries? I know it's difficult to absorb so many people, but this is a pretty fundamental moral question. Damn.

Papdi chat and Imogen Heap

Today I tried my first chat (चाट), which is apparently a kind of Indian food served in bowls on the street as a snack. I always ordered dishes by sight (I want this, and that over there with the eggplant), because the menu offers no explanation of what "sev poori" or "kulfi" or "pav wada" is. (I actually ordered a kulfi once, and when he brought out an ice cream popsicle, I embarrassingly had to "change my mind"...) But I saw someone order something that looked special, layering different things into a bowl, and ordered one of those -- turned out to be "papdi chat" -- and it was so good! In fact, I bought another chat, "bhel poori", to eat later (which was good but not as good). And the next day [this is an update] I got "pani poori" -- little bite-sized fried poori balls (a translucent-thin bread fried hard like a cracker after puffing into a hollow sphere) that you break a hole into, fill with a potato-chickpea stuffing, and then pour the mint masala water into. In spite of the fact that it is bread and paper-thin, the poori is apparently waterproof, so you can eat the liquid-filled crunchy ball. Fun. I will have to keep ordering different chats randomly to explore this whole new thing. Really, I've always thought of Indian food just as okay, but I've been really craving the stuff all the time lately.

So, if you're keeping track of Indian things to try: 1) papdi chat, 2) kaju pista roll.

I just met my roommate's girlfriend. Her name is pretty. No, I mean, that's actually her name.

I keep hearing in my head the song "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. Doesn't that not even look like a name? Apparently Imogen is a Shakespeare character. And doesn't she look just like a transvestite? Anyway, this song was used in the pretty funny SNL digital short "Dear Sister", and it sounded really good there, but actually that's only a part that comes near the end of the song. (And they used it because it was used as the music in a dramatic moment of The OC.) The point is, listen for yourself...

Kaju pista roll

I pulled 3 all-nighters in a row, working. Then I went to see Becoming Jane armed with a soy chai to sip when my eyes drooped. Didn't make it through a fourth night, though.

I've moved into my new apartment in Jackson Heights, which is Little India. Indians, Bangladeshis everywhere. I've been eating every meal at Rajbhog. Indian breads are so good... I've never cared for Indian deserts, but the Kaju Pista roll is really yummy, if you see that somewhere, try it. (Kaju = cashew, Pista = pistachio).

I invite y'all to my new neck of the woods, and I will take you on a culinary adventure.

Yu will do what I tell Yu to

First, another motivation to stay fit: exercise makes you smarter!

Second, is your life just a computer simulation, like the Sims? Tierney argues that logically, it probably is.

I just pulled two all-nighters in a row working on a project, and feel sick now. It's not pleasant. That's why I'm going to keep this post short. I am enjoying my new apartment. My roommate moved in last night from Shanghai. His name is Yu. When the guy moving out told me, "This stuff is for Yu", and I thought it was for me, I realized that the comic possibilities with a name like that are endless. :P

Last night I also met two other "roommates", little mice in the kitchen, they are soooo adorable! Like two little Stewart Littles. I know many people don't like mice, but to me, it's like having a puppy infestation. Just makes me say "Awwww...."

Oh, yesterday was Mark Melnyk's birthday, and this weekend he's getting married, so a shout out to my homeboy on his special day: mad props, and represent!

Let me add a peeve: Why do people keep pronouncing Venezuelan president Chavez as "Shavez"? For that matter, why do people call former Chilean dictator Pinochet as "Pinoshay"? And why do people pronounce Beijing as "Beizhing"? Do people really like saying everything foreign as if it were French? It's not like we talk about Vice President Dick "Shenay". (By the way, Chavez's first name Hugo is pronounced "Oo-go", "h" is silent in Spanish. So get it right.)

Living ain't cheap

Last year numbers:
Average rent, Manhattan studio: $2000 (up from $1660 when I moved here)
Average rent, Manhattan 1-bedroom: $2700 (up from $2200)
Average rent, Manhattan 3-bedroom: $5500 (up from $4100)
[Source, does not include rent controlled/stabilized apts]

Prices have been shooting up without slowing. Everyone ♥ NY!

七夕 Qixi

Tomorrow is Chinese Valentine's Day (pronounced Chee-shee), known as the Night of Sevens, because it takes place on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. The stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky, and the Chinese tell this story.

A young cowherd named 牛郎 Niulang ("the cowherd", the star Altair) happened across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox (yeah, sure, blame it on the ox), he stole their clothes and waited to see what would happen. The fairy sisters, not knowing what to do, picked the youngest and most beautiful sister 織女 Zhinü ("the weaver girl", the star Vega) to retrieve their clothing. She did so, but since Niulang had seen her naked, she had to agree to his request for marriage. She proved to be a wonderful wife, and Niulang a good husband, and they were in love and very happy together. But the Goddess of Heaven found out and was furious. In some versions of the story, she is mad that a mere mortal has married a fairy, whie in others, she is mad because the marriage has taken her away from her job of weaving colorful clouds in the sky. Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way, which separates stars Altair and Vega. Zhinü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar and takes care of their two children (nearby stars β and γ Aquilae).

But once a year all the magpies in the world take pity on them (in some tellings, the Goddess of Heaven takes pity on them and commands the magpies) and they fly up into heaven to form a bridge over the star Deneb so the lovers may be together for a single night, the seventh night of the seventh moon.

How romantic and sad. So, do something romantic tomorrow :) Sit under the stars and tell the story...