Category: En route

Day 1 of the conference. The keynote speaker is seriously flailing, mostly because he’s trying to present a 3 part paper in 20 minutes. More updates when P and I awake.

Landing at Toronto Airport

Sandwich board selling Subway sandwiches at Union Square

Last night was the winter solstice, which is apparently some Chinese excuse to freeze and eat a lot of good Chinese food made by P’s mom. P and I get into the house, drop our stuff and immediately make our way back out to go to the fruit stand.
(in Cantonese)
P’s mom: Where are you going?
P: FC wants to buy oranges.
P’s M: You don’t have to. (the subtext being, "it’s nice that you remembered that you’re supposed to bring oranges")
P: (to me, pushing me out the door) Go, let’s go!

The FC family’s annual pound cake ritual… Over 30 years of making pretty much the same thing 30 or more times. This is the first year my dad was totally sidelined, only giving advice from his bed. However, the cakes are pretty much the same as they have always been. There have been the occasional radical thoughts of adding chocolate or other flavors, or morphing them into ice cream cakes or biscotti, but those ideas don’t last long.

In catching up with the media news through late night recordings: Bill Moyers signed off from NOW last week. His feature piece on the vast right wing media conspiracy was really preaching to the choir, for those who would be convinced. The point worth remembering was his extended interview clips with his conservative counterpart, whose name I will stick in when I get the correct spelling. [It’s Richard Viguerie.] What is astounding is that these two Texans from opposite sides of the aisle can actually be cordial, dignified, and gentlemen-like. So unlike today’s political life! That’s what we’re going to miss about Bill Moyers.

The F is running express after witnessing one of the world’s worst pickup attempts on the train. The guy just graduated from NYU. The girl is doing finals in her graduate degree program at NYU. Goes for the throw — incomplete!

Oh! Taisho on st. Mark’s

It’s 22 degrees F out, and New York can use all of the warmth it can get. So when L&L Hawaiian Barbecue opened on Fulton St., it was a quick taste of sunshine that I had experienced last year. It’s half way between the Seaport and the Fulton St. A station, across from the Burger King. If you’re just starting out, get the mini-plate versions of the plate lunch, which are really the human size, and will set you back $5. The regular size plates can easily serve 2-3 people, and cost around $8. The chicken katsu is the speciality. If you’re real poor (like me after Christmas), get the Spam musubi, which is a 1/4 inch slab of SPAM luncheon meat marinated in soy sauce and quickly grilled, then placed on a wedge of hot sushi rice and wrapped in nori. 2 for $3. P and I on Sunday barely survived the glutony that is L&L. Recommended.

AirTrain JFK, 6:30 in the morning.