Madrigals

This weekend I, my sister, and her high school friend went to see Tom Osborne, a fellow singer from high school, sing with a band at Michael's Pub in Columbia. There's something cool about seeing people years later, looking older. I don't have a picture of him today, but another high school singer uncovered a photo of our high school Madrigals group. That's me middle back, and Tom's sitting in front. Ah, it's been so long since I wore tights and poofy hats.

No Acorns

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! When taking in the brisk air as the dead autumn leaves crunch underfoot, did you see any acorns?

You didn't, did you. Big mystery this year: no acorns! None! Not a one, anywhere! The trees just aren't making them, and no one knows why. [Source: Washington Post]

This is a disaster for squirrels, who are starving. So, please leave out nuts for any neighborhood squirrels! They have a long winter ahead and are already dying.

Gay Mawwiage

This election cycle, perhaps the most talked-about ballot issue was California's Proposition 8 gay marriage amendment. My question is: why?

Of all the issues up for a vote, this was probably the one the mattered least of all. It is of purely symbolic value. Gays in California are already permitted domestic partnerships, the only difference is in the name "marriage". What's in a name? Ok, words matter and symbolism matters, but they matter so much less than almost everything else. No lives are ruined by this vote. At the same time, people are being murdered every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. Animals are languishing in pain and misery by the billions! People are dying for lack of health insurance, families are falling apart under the stress of financial problems, the world is riven with extreme poverty and violence and disease and starvation and discrimination and desperation and this semantic caviling about a word just doesn't seem like it's worth all the Sturm und Drang.

I am passionately opposed to the references to God on money and in the pledge of allegiance. It is brainwashing people to accept one particular religious view at the expense of others. However, I remember Jon Stewart saying: let it go. It really doesn't make much difference. And I think he's right, in the scheme of things this isn't worth the effort it would take to change. There are so many serious problems, so serious that they make the problems in your life seem like a day at the park. They won't get addressed without a ton of effort, so let's not waste time on symbolism.

Cleanliness next to ungodliness?

Interesting study: subjects were asked to rate the ethical wrongness of different acts, but one group was told that the room had to be kept clean and had to wash their hands before doing the activity. Interestingly enough, the clean group found behaviors more acceptable than the unclean group. "Those exposed to ideas of cleanliness rated eating the family dog at 5.7, on average, on the wrongness scale whereas the control group rated it as 6.6. Their score for using a kitten in sexual play was 6.7; the control group individuals gave it 8.3." [Source: Economist]

They theorize that. if you feel dirty, you also feel the moral wrongness more intensely.

Another study (which sounds like it might be related) showed that, if there was graffiti on the wall, people are more likely to litter; if people set off illegal fireworks nearby, people are more likely to litter; if bikes are locked to a chain link fence against the rules, people are more likely to trespass; and if there is graffiti or if there is litter, people are more likely to steal! [Source: Economist] So whenever you're tempted to commit a small infraction like littering, realize that you could be contributing to bigger crimes. The broken window theory is proven scientifically.

Psychology is fascinating!

A cabinet of losers

Biden for Vice President, Clinton for Secretary of State, Richardson for Secretary of Commerce -- it seems like running for president is a ticket straight to positions of power. You'd think the fact that these people lost should mean something -- particularly Clinton, who slammed Obama for being naive and irresponsible in talking to foreign governments, and whom Obama slammed for supporting the war. How on Earth could this seem like a good idea? What's next, Mike Gravel for UN Ambassador?

Como trabajo yo

Today's fun-to-say word: mollycoddle

Conjugal bliss

The last time I spoke to my first girlfriend was eight years ago, in 2000, strangely enough while I was staying with her family for a few months. I don't know why exactly she decided to stop talking to me. We had broken up two years before and been rather good friends since. It was her idea to let me stay with her family while visiting Taiwan. And then, mysteriously, nothing. I've always guessed that she felt she needed a clean break to get completely over me, or something like that, but I suppose anyone's guess is as good as mine. I would, from time to time, be in touch with her sister with whom I lived during my time in Taipei, as the sister married her boyfriend of something like ten years, as her mother got cancer and died, as she ended her postdoctoral work at Harvard and moved back to live in Taiwan. But when I occasionally tried to send her a tentative hello, it was always ignored. It is strange, because I don't feel like she's just someone I once knew, like so many people with whom I have parted ways and never seen again. I feel more like she's a family member who won't talk to me. It is strange, and that sense has never gone away.

I just stumbled across her wedding page. Apparently she's getting married in a few weeks, interestingly enough on the day after her birthday. The site has many pictures of a person I hadn't seen at all in so many years, and she looks so very different that I very well might not recognize her if I saw her. There's also a video of her performance in an ice skating competition, in which she skates backwards and does spins, which seems unworldly to a person like me who can only sort of skate forwards.

I feel so happy for her. She is getting married! That's incredible, she has found the person she wants to spend her life with and there is nothing more magical, I think. To think of her walking down the aisle, starting a family, the whole shebang, it fills me with a kind of pride and joy that I suppose I can only compare to how I'd feel if one of my family members got married. (So far, none have, and I have a sneaking if facetious suspicion that my sister's children will be the first to do so.)

At the same time, I feel some bitterness at having to stumble upon this event. It's the feeling of being utterly shut out, not invited or even informed. Of course, there's no reason she has to or should let me know. I haven't even talked to her in close to a decade. Nevertheless, the sting is still there.

There is also another feeling too. She has found her soulmate, and so far I have not. She is my only ex to have gotten married, and her achievement draws attention to that as yet unfound unfilled place in my own peregrination.

It feels very strange to be happy for someone who won't acknowledge your presence and likely has forgotten your existence. I suppose this is my nature, I make friends easily and forever. I am reminded of my college roommate who gave up talking to me after a fight, and that hurt for a long time, and though it is long past, I still remember and know that if I saw him I would instantly feel like close friends though I'd know he must not after all this time. Indeed, I saw him at our reunion a few years ago, and that's just how it went down. We were friendly but I never heard from him again thereafter.

I don't have even an address to which to mail congratulations. So on this blog, where she will never see the words, let me say Congratulations! I genuinely and wholeheartedly wish this couple a lifetime of true happiness.

More innocent people languishing in Guantanamo Bay

A federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years in Guantánamo Bay and ordered their release. This was the first hearing ever on the government’s justification for holding a detainee, and apparently the justification (still a secret shown to the judge in closed hearings) was bupkis. Remember, these are people Bush has been saying are the worst of the worst. In his State of the Union address to the nation, he specifically mentioned these detainees, claiming they had been planning a bomb attack on the United States Embassy in Sarajevo. But as typical, when forced to justify these people's detention, they dropped that apparently utterly unsubstantiated charge. Liars. And whatever accusation they were still making, when forced to give evidence, they had nothing that holds water. [Source: NY Times]

Seven years! We owe these people something in compensation.

Hope Agitprop

I hate this poster, which seems popular with the Obama campaign. It looks to me like those terrible Soviet agitprop posters.
What do you think?

However, I love the Obama logo, which has brought real graphic design into political campaigns. It's a logo that speaks.

I also find it troubling that Obama is a smoker. Supposedly he tried quitting for the presidential campaign, but whether he was successful, or whether he will stick with it, is an unanswered question. Among smokers, nearly 1 in 100 die at his age, twice the rate of non-smokers and no negligible amount. [Source] Plus, think of the bad role model this provides for Americans who, to their credit, have a smoking rate that recently dropped to below 20% of the population. This is far lower than rates of around 40% in countries like Cuba, Russia, Kuwait, Bangladesh, and Chile, though still far higher than rates in countries like Nigeria, El Salvador, Ghana, Ethiopia, all in the single digits. [Source] Let's catch up, people -- and if Obama smokes, let him do it only in secret. We don't need that kind of presidential image.

Codenames and more chocolate reviews

As you may know, our president-elect's secret service codename is "Renegade", his wife's is "Renaissance", and his daughters "Radiance" and "Rosebud". Besides being gender stereotypical, they're pretty boring. Joe and Jill Biden -- "Celtic" and "Capri" -- are better. They all beat George and Laura's "Tumbler" and "Tempo". But I do have a thing for Karenna Gore's "Smurfette".

More chocolate reviews: I tried Vintage Plantation, and found it very different -- earthy, almost like dirt. Actually, as soon as I thought of this, it tasted like it had dirt in it to me and I couldn't eat any more. So I have extra if you want some. It's not only vegan, but celiac-friendly, whatever that means. I like the word celiac. If it wasn't a disability, I'd want to be one. The soft "c" makes the word. I also tried Scharffen Berger semisweet. Perhaps it's the "semisweetness", but I didn't care for it. The sweet notes were much too strong. Not that sweet isn't good, but it has to be balanced well with the chocolate flavor and not distract from it. Plus, nothing organic or fair-trade about it. I suffer here so that you don't have to. Stick with winners like Equal Exchange and Green & Black's.

Obama is white

People are making a big deal out of the fact that Obama is black. The thing is, he's white! Or at least, he's just as much white as he is black. Why do people insist on denying half his heritage? Well, the answer is obvious: racism. In America, racists concerned with keeping racial bloodlines pure passed laws that anyone who was even one eighth black are considered black for the purposes of slavery and Jim Crow laws, and we are still ensnared in the racist thinking today. This is an almost uniquely American view, to consider mixed-race people black. It is racism pure and simple, that can look at a person and see only "colored". An Italian-Irish doesn't have to pick, and neither does an Asian-Native American mix. Tiger Woods is widely touted as a black golfer, even though he is only 1/4 black, doesn't consider himself black, and gets annoyed when people try to say he is. But most Americans still see race through the eyes of racist Southerners. We should eschew this thinking, and celebrate Obama as a white president too.

Britain's Prince Charles turned 60. Sixty years old and still not king. That must be annoying.

President cuffed

Chen Shuibian, until this year's recent election Taiwan's president, was led away in handcuffs after his arrest for corruption while in office. In this pictures he stands defiant, shouting "long live Taiwanese independence" and "political oppression".

How I yearn to see President Bush carried off in handcuffs this way! He explicitly and brazenly broke so many laws -- not just the warrantless wiretapping and the torture, but a million other laws he justified with signing statements (that is, he'd sign a bill passed by Congress into law while saying that it doesn't mean what it clearly says it means). Alas, I fear that Congress has no nerve, and would rather put it all behind them than have some accountability for fear that it will make them look partisan. However, without accountability, future presidents will know they can break the law with impunity, and that is scary for the future of a free democratic country.

Saturday Night in Alphabet City

Went to two cool lounges this weekend: Arlo and Esme has a exposed-brick cafe-and-art vibe, while Katra has a North African thing going. China 1 is cool too, with its, you know, Asian thing.

And the matcha green tea sorbie at Saints Alp is matchariffic.

I'm really experiencing Builder Bar withdrawal, after three days without one. What do they put in those things? The cravings...

Dirt Candy

Another veg restaurant opened up in the East Village, and I have got to try it! I'm not sure what I think of the name -- Dirt Candy -- the name is certainly evocative but it doesn't make me think of vegetables as candy from the ground but it does make me want sweets and it isn't a sweet shoppe.

I'll add it to Lula's on my to-try list.

Godiva 72% Cacao

Latest up in my chocolate tasting odyssy is Godiva. It was very yum -- really rich and smooth. However, it's neither organic nor fair-trade, so no reason to go there with so many more responsible choices.

I keep trying more chocolates, but I think I will stop posting reviews. On the one hand, no one seems to care, and on the other hand, you really have to taste it yourself, because it's all good and the differences are subtle.

However, speaking of Godiva, did you know that this is a Latinized version of her name, which was actually Godgifu? Not nearly as pretty, but it is Old English for "Godgift", that is, gift from God. No one knows if the legend of her going through town naked to get her husband to rescind his oppressive taxes is true, but it's from this story that we get the phrase "peeping Tom". According to the story, before going out she made a proclamation that everyone had to shut their doors and windows and not look, but that Tom watched through a hole in the wall, and as a result was struck blind.

Kiva

Wanted to let you know about Kiva. Like I just did, you can go to Kiva's website and lend as little as $25 to someone in the developing world who needs a loan for their business - like selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent - and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going. I just lent to Anna Abanji who sells cocoyams in Cameroon.

The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back - and Kiva's loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly. Cool beans.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

I saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was a cute movie, and made me happy with that feeling at the very beginning of a relationship, when you meet someone you like and have your first kiss and all. The comparisons to Juno are unavoidable--with Michael Cera, teeny bopper love, and so on--but this was definitely a different and inferior movie, but that's really more a testament to Juno than a criticism here. Both Nick and Norah came off as attractive in that not hot but totally lovable way, which is hard to capture.

And although I left the theater thinking, "What a perfect date movie", reflecting back I realized the movie had some truly dumb aspects. Some characters and scenes were utterly cartoonish stereotypes. Moreover, I'd forgotten that these people were in high school; every single character had been sexually active for years, and the whole idea of sleeping with someone only a couple hours after you meet them is not remotely romantic in my mind -- I'm surprised I didn't notice what sluts all these people were, maybe because they had a stereotypically slutty character in there to make these people seem like good kids in comparison. I don't know how these teenagers got into these clubs, is it that easy to fake a New Jersey ID? Also, the Jewish references, though entertaining, seemed forced to me. And I hated the running gum joke.

But I really liked seeing New York in this movie. I know that half the movies out there are in New York, but this showed places you don't normally see -- not just Rockefeller Center and Central Park and Chinatown and Washington Square Park, but Veselka and Gray's Papaya and Katz's Deli and Sunshine Theater and all those places I walk by all the time -- it was really like watching a movie taking place right in my neighborhood rather than in that iconic monster that is New York City far too mammoth for me to every get my arms around it and consider it mine.

I've never really cared for Veselka, actually, maybe because Ukranian food isn't that good. But I was walking through Little Ukraine the other day, passed by First Avenue Pierogi and Deli, a little hole-in-the-wall take-out place, and figured I'd get some borscht -- when's the last time I've had borscht? -- and it was good, in that hearty homestyle way of food that so differs from the perfectly balanced flavor food I usually go for. Frankly, I think it's cool that we have a Little Ukraine at all where I could, if I wanted to, grab a fresh-made blintz and stuffed cabbage.

Apparently picking up hookers is ok

Eliot Spitzer, our former governor who resigned when caught using prostitutes, will not be charged for any crime. According to the New York Times, "Justice Department policy generally discourages bringing criminal charges against customers who purchase the services of prostitutes or transport them across state lines." It's illegal but people who break the law don't get prosecuted? What's up with that? It's only pretend illegal?

Oh Happy Day

This is an amazing day for America and for the world. Great hopes lie with our new president-elect. I was hoping for a filibuster-proof Senate, and it looks like that's not to be, but still a lot of good news.

Included is that, thanks in part to your funding for commercials, Prop 2 passed in California by a landslide 2-to-1 margin. This is a great day of hope for billions of suffering, mutilated farmed animals nationwide.

Just remember, never ever ever buy eggs that aren't cage-free! Cage-free doesn't mean humane, though--male chicks are still thrown alive into grinders, females have their beaks painfully seared off, and they all still live crowded in their own poo for just one egg-laying cycle before being killed, so I do really urge you not to buy eggs at all. But at a minimum, give them enough room to extend a limb!

I want to be there to bring down the statue of W!

So much hope rests before me, so much hope, but now is the time to see how much hope is disappointed...

Obama and McCain on animals

WIth one day before the election, this is your last chance to save the world -- volunteer to save America by calling swing voters and reminding them to vote for Obama. It's so easy, and can make all the difference in the world... so much depends on it!

You know where the candidates stand on many issues. What about animals? The Humane Society Legislative Fund has endorsed Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and here's why:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a solid supporter of animal protection at both the state and federal levels. As an Illinois state senator, he backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including those to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty, to help animal shelters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently co-sponsored multiple bills to combat animal fighting and horse slaughter, and has supported efforts to increase funding for adequate enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and federal laws to combat animal fighting and puppy mills.

In his response to the HSLF questionnaire, he pledged support for nearly every animal protection bill currently pending in Congress, and said he will work with executive agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to make their policies more humane. He wrote of the important role animals play in our lives, as companions in our homes, as wildlife in their own environments, and as service animals working with law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. He also commented on the broader links between animal cruelty and violence in society.

Obama has even on occasion highlighted animal protection issues on the campaign trail, and has spoken publicly about his support for animal protection. In reaction to the investigation showing the abuse of sick and crippled cows which earlier this year led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history, he issued a statement saying "that the mistreatment of downed cows is unacceptable and poses a serious threat to public health." He is featured in Jana Kohl's book about puppy mills, A Rare Breed of Love, with a photo of Obama holding Baby (shown above), the three-legged poodle rescued from an abusive puppy mill operation, and his political mentor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), is the author of the latest federal bill to crack down on puppy mills.

Importantly, Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has been a stalwart friend of animal welfare advocates in the Senate, and has received high marks year after year on the Humane Scorecard. Biden has not only supported animal protection legislation during his career, but has also led the fight on important issues. He was the co-author with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the 108th Congress on legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fishermen. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit trophy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he successfully passed the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On the Republican ticket, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has also supported some animal protection bills in Congress, but has been inattentive or opposed to others. He has voted for and co-sponsored legislation to stop horse slaughter, and voted to eliminate a $2 million subsidy for the luxury fur coat industry. But he has largely been absent on other issues, and has failed to co-sponsor a large number of priority bills or sign onto animal protection letters that have had broad support in the Senate.

The McCain campaign did not fill out the HSLF presidential questionnaire, and has also not issued any public statements on animal welfare issues. He was silent during the downed animal scandal and beef recall, which played out during a high-point in the primary fight. Yet he did speak at the NRA convention earlier this year, and is the keynote speaker this weekend in Columbus, Ohio, at the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance rally—an extremist organization that defends the trophy hunting of threatened polar bears and captive shooting of tame animals inside fenced pens.

While McCain's positions on animal protection have been lukewarm, his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-Alaska) retrograde policies on animal welfare and conservation have led to an all-out war on Alaska's wolves and other creatures. Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States.

Palin engineered a campaign of shooting predators from airplanes and helicopters, in order to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters. She offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf as an economic incentive for pilots and aerial gunners to kill more of the animals, even though Alaska voters had twice approved a ban on the practice. This year, the issue was up again for a vote of the people, and Palin led the fight against it -- in fact, she helped to spend $400,000 of public funds to defeat the initiative.

What's more, when the Bush Administration announced its decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Palin filed a lawsuit to reverse that decision. She said it's the "wrong move" to protect polar bears, even though their habitat is shrinking and ice floes are vanishing due to global warming.

The choice for animals is especially clear now that Palin is in the mix. If Palin is put in a position to succeed McCain, it could mean rolling back decades of progress on animal issues.

Please vote Obama-Biden on election day! And remember... please don't forget to VOTE!

Halloween

Halloween in New York is a special time. The streets are crowded with adorable with adorable little kids in costumes. And then later, with adults decked out every which way. Some of the costumes are amazing. But they are everywhere, the entire city is on display.

The Halloween parade was what it usually is, a lot of people in various costumes. I don't know if this happens every year, but this year I caught the start of the parade which was so cool! I can't really describe the ghosts floating overhead, it doesn't come through so well on video, but let's just say it was something truly special.