Author: F C

Saw legendary travel writer Arthur Frommer live yesterday at an alumni hosted speaking appearance on Tuesday. Like the Zagats of restaurant rating fame, he retired from being a white shoe litigator to pursue his travel enterprises.

We as a society have lost the skills for long form oratory. Frommer presented non-stop for a whole hour with ease, possessing notes consisting of perhaps one index card, yet he were able to cite (at my count) over 2 dozen travel resources, including websites, distinct details of each venue or vendor – especially his tales of summertime study at Oxford of really ancient Egyptian history (as in pre-Pharaoh days). Afterwards, he went on for another hour at a reception that followed.

Nowadays, the norm is the sound bite. Even the best moot court advocate does not have to go on for more than 15 minutes without interruption! Presidential debates used to go on for days – the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates are a prime example. Now maybe you get 3 minutes for each of a dozen candidates.

If we just took more time for exposition, maybe we would know more.

Happy Birthday to SSW (that was yesterday)!

Sorry that Triscribe was out most of the day Sunday, because I forgot to renew the domain name (whoops). Got it fixed in 10 minutes, and even snagged a coupon code. We’re good for 3 more years….

First snow this season – took P’s sister’s dogs out for a romp while she’s away in Belgium.

RIP Daredevil Evel Knievel, succeeding when actually failing to jump over objects, earning the Guinness World Record for broken bones (40).  In the weeks before his death, he amiably settled a trademark suit against Kanye West’s parody of Knievel’s Snake River rocket shot, and was baptized on the Crystal Cathedral’s Hour of Power show. Definitely did things his way.

Stuck into a monster collage aid bill is a requirement that colleges and universities provide subscription plans for download music and to implement blocking for P2P file sharing, or their students lose all of their federal financial aid. Let’s get this straight — we can’t make sure students have a health insurance plan (many college students lose their health insurance in their senior year soon after because they age out of their parent’s health plans – most law students are completely bare except for what they can get from the institution or the ABA, and that is generally major medical only) but we can mandate that they pay for a music subscription plan. What kind of logic is this?

Brunch: Belleville – P got an omelet, I got the Norwegian eggs Benedict. Both were served with hash potatoes and a green salad. Her omlete was perfectly fluffy; my dish was excellent except a dry muffin (but that could be our fault for showing up at 2 PM). Web reviews seem to be down on them lately, but if they can cook decent eggs, the kitchen deserves a chance.

Earliest Christmas carol: I heard the Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…) on Veteran’s Day. That’s really lame, it’s almost like, let’s just get through Turkey Day to get to massive shopping the next. Kind of the same for my birthday – it was one of those, not a milestone, nothing to see, moving on type of days.

Jade Asian Restaurant, Flushing: Dimsum in the old Gum Fong. New decor is one part Shanghai Tang, one part Blue Ribbon. Ha gow and ha chern both excellent, as well as their other dumplings and buns. Jook (congee) was average, obviously using a boat motor blender as a shortcut. Check it out. Average tab: $15-20.

Downtown Atlantic: 10 minutes in this place, and you will be dying of hunger, as the scent of baking cupcakes will whet your appetite. Tried the Grandma’s Sunday Gravy (Spaghetti with tomato sauce with stewed meatballs and sausage, for those not having the privilege of having an Italian Sunday dinner). It was passable, but obviously they had to cut out significant trans-fat, which I had to supplement with dollops of butter. The other brunch options looked quite nice, topped off with your favorite baked good and a strong coffee.

Beltway elite now shopping at Costco. It’s rediscovering the Protestant work ethic for Thanksgiving – still feed everyone well, but at least you can say that you were frugal. I suppose that FreshDirect performs a similar function in New York City, although Fairway and Costco are serious competition here.

And the hunt is on for Christmas shopping – Black Friday loss leaders not worth it (and I’m not waking up at 5:30 to get them), but P and I bought snow boots at 20% off at EMS.  Anyone know where you can find a Wii? Happy Holidays!