Category: Brooklyn

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.

Some stuff…

The whole flu vaccine shortage is quite a debacle; I like how this NY Times article demonstrates how the debacle crosses into areas of science, politics, human psychology (for instance, it’s amazing how news of the shortage turned into population panic, with the lines of people getting all angsty over not getting their shot; versus reasonable doctors on tv telling people, “You know, if everyone washed their hands, we’d actually have an easier time preventing flu…”), and law. Yep. Just what we need… in the middle of an insane presidential election season (see, complete crossover into everything in life as we know it).

NYC has its first Asian fire chief, as Sophia Kwok – a Brooklynite via Hong Kong – was promoted to deputy chief of EMS operations last week. Cool.

NY Times’ Hilary De Vries interviews Korean-American actress Sandra Oh – very interesting stuff on what it means to be Asian, female, and a character actor in Hollywood.

Yankees v. Bosox. Crazy stuff last night – the game started looking like a football game, with that score (Bosox lost, 17-6); impossible for Bosox to come back from a 3 game deficit – or… well, things remain to be seen, of course. ‘Nuff said there.

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.

Ah, short work week means we’re that much closer to the homestretch called the weekend.

Presidential debate #3 – on domestic issues. Umm. Hmm. Talking about the Iraq war (again) is talking about a domestic issue (?) – well, I guess so, in this day and age. Wasn’t too wild about some of Bob Schieffer’s questions, but figured that it was just another draw between the candidates.

Seriously, the debates have been like the ultimate reality show (well, without the physical stunts anyway).

Check out this week’s Doonesbury – (i.e., look for comic strips for the week of October 11) – cartoonist Garry Trudeau, via the Mark Slackmeyer character, is directing readers to websites of editorials or other articles written by disenchanted Republicans/conservatives who disapprove of the current Bush administration (or, are too frightened of Kerry to overcome whatever obvious qualms they may have about the administration).

Not exactly the funniest Doonesbury this week (Wednesday (10/13/04)’s was funny though – Mark advises a college kid to borrow a laptop to read a Salon.com article on the conservative disenchantment of Bush/fear of Kerry; this is because said kid’s laptop is in the shop for repairs; Mark returns to check on said kid – Mark says, “Well?”; said kid says: “Oh…um, I’m still checking my e-mail.”)

But reading the articles Trudeau’s been referring have been very interesting (one citation to a John Eisenhower editorial – son of Dwight D. Eisenhower, was a Republican who says he will go independent this election year). Trudeau’s Moral: Getting different perspectives doesn’t hurt anyone; you might learn something (well, he’s not a favorite of the Bushies anyway).

The passing of Christopher Reeve, actor who will be remembered for his work as Superman and lobbying for many political and public interest issues.

South Asian Hindus of Queens celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Lights, a month early – to take advantage of the nice weather.

Plus, on Slate.com – “Ad Report” presents a review of the latest Burger King ad: wherein Burger King (and I mean literally – a person in robes and wearing a plastic mask with a BK crown) serves a guy a BK breakfast in bed. I think the ad is strangely funny, in a camp sort of way, although I wouldn’t give it the high grade that Slate.com’s Seth Stevenson gave it.

Enjoying what’s left of the three day weekend.

Local UPN station had plugged in to the Yankees game on ESPN on Friday night, and delayed broadcasting “Star Trek: Enterprise” ‘s season premiere until Saturday night, so I ended up accidentally taping 45 minutes of the game Friday night. I did end up taping and watching the season premiere; umm, I cannot make an honest assessment until Part 2 of the season premiere airs this coming Friday. Part 1, to say the least, left me thinking, “What?” The Enterprise crew continues to cease to amaze me; digital filming of the episode made for a clear looking cinematic look; and poor time traveler Daniels… his fate is bizarre, as usual.

Saw “Garden State” on Saturday. Good movie – sad, darkly funny. Decent soundtrack. Moral of the movie – it’s ok to feel and to live and all that. Oh, and actress Natalie Portman can act (as opposed to how George Lucas’ Star Wars reduced her talent to pretty minimal stuff); actor/writer/director Zach Braff (whose day job involves playing that screwy doctor J.D. on NBC’s “Scrubs”) – pretty interesting talent he has – to write and direct and act (and I think even produce?)…

Yankees v. Bosox – argh. How much more of the running soap opera can we put up with these two teams?

Happy Columbus Day. Geez, I actually miss Toyota’s Christopher Columbus Action Figure. ’nuff said…

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?

Tuesday – The VP debate was odd tv viewing. Cheney was being all mean. Edwards was trying to be persuasive. Neither made much headway, in my opinion – a draw. I suppose trying to make it a roundtable made it look silly (I know that the Cheney group liked it that way, but it’s not good debating style for viewing).

The Yankees v. Twins game on Wednesday night – a neverending game; plus, I was expecting the Yankees to never say die. Ah well.

Thursday – I finished the book I read on Saturday – The Salmon of Doubt – the last book (sort of) by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Essentially a collection of his essays, drafts, speeches, and unpublished materials (including a half-done – obviously so – novel (or novella, to be more precise)) put together by his editor. Adams died in 2001, too soon and too young – and this book was a nice homage to his intellect, his humor, and his insight. The half-done novel was… weird. There was the sense that Adams really wasn’t sure of what to do with his ideas, and just wrote them out; his editor figured that this might as well be published, even if there was no real ending (seriously, no there wasn’t). Nonetheless, this book was decent subway reading. I will get to reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide soon enough – am looking forward to it…

More presidential debating this Friday, town hall style. (sure, let’s watch a bunch of intentionally-selected Average Joe Schmoes ask their (already approved) questions to the candidates)…. (umm, pardon me for letting a little cynicism ooze there)…. 😉

The Supreme Court reopens for business today. The major item on the docket is about sentencing guidelines this time around, but the major issue of import to me is about eminent domain. The decision may decide what happens to Brooklyn over the next 20 years. The media is interested as it had not been before in the Supreme Court, from who is going to retire, to where exactly is the highest court in the land (it’s not the velvet curtained courtroom – it’s the basketball court on the fourth floor). They even recapped how it ruled in the past that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit (for the purposes of an import duty).