Author: F C

Who are we putting up as role models for this generation? Superman? Batman? Masks of Kerry or expressions of Bush? Vote or be killed by P-Diddy running the NYC Marathon last year (the marathon is next Sunday)? Saints played the role of superheros in times past — you recognize them by their back story, distinctive symbols, and their superpowers. In the end it’s not much different than Marvel Comics. Today, I think we need them, more than ever. Miracles happen — look at the Red Sox, who won an unpresidented 8 consecutive playoff wins after 3 consecutive losses, and the Packers D’s who won the Election Bowl barely by a referee call that negated a Redskin R touchdown .

Let’s all be careful out there! Remember to plan to vote on the right day!

Dropped by the New York City Transit Museum during lunch – it was free today for the centennial. Most of it were the same since the last time I visited. The new exhibit was about the opening celebrations 100 years ago , including the solid silver control handle used on the first ride, and several hefty silver Tiffany mermentos. I picked up some centennial first day covers from the postal workers there. I also like looking at the maps – my childhood house was near the juncture of two overhead lines, so I like trying to find it on old maps.

To top off the ominous potents, tonight there was a total eclipse of the moon. I was looking at it, the ‘hunters moon’, and it had turned dark red. Some of the best viewing was had along Ocean Parkway. Once the moon was dark, the stars came out in a way you don’t get to see any other time. Historically, eclipses and comets mark tramatic events on earth — will it occur again? Like those typhoons, something you have to experience for yourself.

A real assortment today:

The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow : It’s a play about a wired agoraphobic adopted asian american trying to find herself and her Chinese birth mother by creating a robot version of herself. OK, that’s pretty wierd, but it won two best new play awards, so there must be something to it. It’s playing at Yale; maybe it’s an excuse to check out New Haven.

Grecian Formula: New York Times reports on Physics World’s poll of the greatest equations of science. Some of the bogus entries included 1+1 = 2 . The real winner was Euler’s Equation:

e ^πi + 1 = 0

I remember my high school calculus teacher used it as a proof of God’s existence: how could so many physical constants be so perfectly interrelated without some sort of plan? I don’t know, but it’s really cool regardless.

Ms. Subways: subway guerrilla theater artist Caroline Sanchez-Bernat wins the Ms. Subways contest, which was revived by the MTA for tomorrow’s centennial of the subway. She beat out Asian college student Elaine Chan and two other contestants. The owner of Ellen’s Stardust Diner was a former Miss Subways; she has posters of all of the other winners, which included Helen Lee from November 1949: “At Columbia she majored in Chinese. Now she’s studying voice — training her mezzo-soprano — hopes for a musical comedy career. Favorite pastime: Interior decorating (modern) — and football games (escorted by Yale beau).” Fascinating.

Taiwan in the news: Colin Powell touches off a firestorm on CNN regarding Taiwanese independence; Taiwanese legislators throw eggs and lunch boxes at each other in food fight; NYU Taiwanese students host “Enchanting Taiwan” exhibit at the student center.

Could Kerry be hoping the Red Sox lose? If the American League Red Sox break the curse, it may seal Kerry’s fate. However, supposedly the Washington Redskins predictor is more accurate — it has been right since 1936. The deciding game is this Sunday vs. the Green Bay Packers – Redskins for Bush, Packers for Kerry. For more deciders, check this column out.

I’ve gotten rid of all of the spam messages that are linked. Now, comments are moderated — they won’t appear immediately until one of us approves them from the Edit menu. What a pain!

Ballgame over…Series over…Pennant’s over…. you know the rest. Pretty poor performance on the part of the Yankees. P– is probably not in a good mood…. I only heard it on the radio, but it sounded like it was the pitching that was at fault.

Listening to PBS’s Broadway series. It sounds something like Ken Burns’ Civil War miniseries documentary. While generally good, there are some serious gaps: what happened to the Three-Penny Opera (Mac the Knife)? They tag Show Boat as the first modern Broadway musical, although I think that Gilbert and Sullivan counts. Coincidentally, The Three-Penny Opera was based on another British musical, The Beggar’s Opera, which was performed on Nassau Street around the corner from J&R Music World in 1750. For more info, see Musicals 101.

For everyone trying to get an education at the Electoral College in this election cycle, check out Electoral Vote 2004. I don’t know how this guy can consolidate 41 polls a day.

Shoutout to ssw — two years at the same job! Congrats!.

What do you do when you lose confidence in the system? What if you don’t know how the system can be changed? Do you reject the system or do you continue to participate in changing the system? What happens in the interim? We’re not up to that point in the election, but I am up to that point in yesterday’s competition.

I don’t know what it is about having to wake up real early and being totally unable to go to sleep at night. I’m going to have to get to Chinatown by 8:45 am to be picked up to go to Newark to judge a moot court competition. I’m catching up on old tv shows that I haven’t seen this week: Survivor (cool earthquake), Saturday Night Live (funny Town Hall debate parody), Tucker Carlson (spends a lot of time trying to convince you not to vote, idiot) , Enterprise (the other Tucker’s in Brooklyn).

Dallas BBQ opens up one block away, really bad. $6 for a fresh juicy rotisserie chicken is good eats. They are doing gangbuster business, taking far better advantage of the space there.

Pei dragged me to the doctor on Saturday. I had a low grade back pain, and there were some kind of unusual bumps on my back. Pei thought the worst. Anyway, 2 out of the 3 turned out to be knots in the muscle fiber caused by too much stress, so I was given some muscle relaxants to help straighten them out. The third one turned out to be a benign lipoma, which should it grow will have to be removed surgically. The muscle relaxant knocked me out for most of Sunday morning, but I stayed at Pei’s house just to be cautious. Not exactly the best way to spend an anniversary, but at least we’re together.

Things came together this weekend. My dad finally came home from the hospital on Friday, but he is still quite fragile. P– drove us back in the Zipcar (it’s a good thing that their cars come in different sizes). However, we had a hard time getting him up the brownstone steps.

Saturday, we raided the Stop and Shop for Bounty paper towels (it was $10 for 15 rolls). There was this old Chinese guy that really couldn’t get a clue on the price, and was arguing with the cashier. I ended up paying his 94 cents in tax just so I could go. Also there was this weird woman that was standing in line behind me. She stood just 2 inches from me and creeping me out, and I was holding the old guy’s place in line, so I wanted her to go ahead of me.

Me: Ma’am…. Ma’am….. Ma’am
Her: I’m not your mother, or your sister, or anything, you god damn…
Me: Do you want to go ahead of me?
Her: ?

She shuffles ahead of me.

That night, P– and I celebrated early our 1st anniversary at Essex, where we had first met at a brunch. It had occurred to me that we hadn’t gone back in a long time: we were not disappointed when we came to our senses. The cuisine was, appropriately for the Lower East Side, Jewish influenced Asian/Spanish food. Potato pancakes covered with lox were a great hit as a starter, and the entrees of wasabi salmon with string carrots and roasted duck breasts with mushroom risotto were both winners. P– also got us $10 off using her deal-a-meal deck (I forgot its real name).

Sunday night was Indian night: while I was helping to coach some law students in moot court, she pulled off succulent lamb tandori, curry chicken, and those fried crisp flat bread things made out of beans that I can’t remember the name of. Also there was spiced califlower — hotter than you would think, but delicious.

Of course P– reads this (she actually asked me when I was going to post tonight), and of course she has to know that I love her, especially because she puts up with me. How’s that for a shout-out?