Category: Manhattan

Spending the Friday afternoon away from the office. Thank goodness. ’nuff said.

What is up with the Yankees? Well, glad that I’m more NY Met fan, but the media frenzy in NYC over the Yankees is kind of sickening.

The NY Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman on Soft Shell Crab Poor-boys. A la Homer Simpson: Mmm. Soft shell crabs. Beware of the video accompanying the on-line article – Bittman warns that there is brutal violence toward crabs.

The NY Times’ Linda Greenhouse on Justice Ruth Ginsburg‘s finding her voice via dissent.

Interesting profile in the New York Observer on Rohit Aggarwala, head of NYC’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability and behind Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC (the whole trying to fix transportation and going green in the city plan). An APA in public service. Cool. Well, ok, disclaimer: he was my TA when I was an undergrad taking an American history course, and he was a nice guy. I may be cynical about how the hometown may one day be a better city, but I guess we got to keep hoping.

TV season finales — umm, yeah, I think I’ll write up some commentary on that. Soon. Really.

Cool You Tube video – amazing look at female portraiture in Western art over the past 500 years:

Sunday night: my Alma Mater APA alumni group today did some theatre (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre‘s presentation of the play, “Tea” on the experiences of Japanese war brides) and dinner at Franchia (Asian/vegetarian cuisine and tea). I missed the play (but heard that it was good), as I was watching “Shrek” with the siblings per prior plans that couldn’t be avoided. I would have liked to have seen the play, so who knows whether I’ll catch it before it closes.

Franchia – food seemed very nice – meat-like food seemed meat-like, and good tea.

“Shrek” – hmm. Visually stunning. Some good one-liners. But, not nearly as good as, say, the first Shrek movie.

WNBC -Channel 4 in NYC – brought back its old “We’re 4 New York” promotion. It’s a catchy tune, and one can’t resist singing along. Thanks to the Power of Google, I found out why the promo’s back – Gothamist reports:

We talked with David Hyman, WNBC’s Vice President of Programming and Creative Services about why they brought back the classic campaign now and what they are going to do with it.

Why bring back We’re 4 New York now?
There are many reasons for it. We were considering doing a fresh new branding campaign, which we haven’t done in a few years and we thinking about different messages and what our message is exactly and all of the different platforms we are living with now. And we all started talking about 4 New York.

There are really very few campaigns that have had this resonance and response that 4 New York had over the last fifteen years or so. Very few broadcast campaigns in New York have had that kind of reaction and response and legs. We were thinking about it and we were thinking New York is strong, the station is strong and it was probably a great idea to bring back what is considered to be a great branding campaign.

I have talked to people, across all ages and stripes, when I mentioned 4 New York people just had this sort of wonderful glowing response to it. While we certainly don’t make our decisions based on that, anecdotally it was interesting to find that out. It has changed a lot since its infancy in ’92. This new campaign is more sophisticated than the original one. At the end of the day it is something that has a tremendous positive upbeat message, it doesn’t make any overt claims really and it is something that makes you feel good.

I agree – “We’re 4 New York” is a happy, feel good thing. The new version has the Sports Guys together (Len Berman, Bruck Beck – who’s turning out to be quite a busy guy, covering for Len on Fridays and Weekends, and then staying up late to be the back up for Mike’d Up on Sunday nights – and Otis Livingston) singing, Tiki Barber, Brian Williams, and of course Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons (the longest running paired anchors in NYC’s local tv). I kind of missed how the old one had Al Roker and Len together; but yeah, these days, Al’s the Man on the Today Show…

Ultimately, I do like the “We’re 4 New York” promo – it kind of grows on you, and it’s quite all right to be a promo that’s seen every couple of years; that way, no one gets to hate you and your promo.

As Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month is winding down, I’ll link to the NY1 Special Report on APA’s. Seems like NY1’s theme for this year was on Carribbean/Latino Asians. Interesting – these would be Asians who are not just bi-cultural, but tri-cultural, even – Asian, American, Latino or Carribbean.

A NY Times article on how the folks in Flushing are learning to speak Mandarin to deal with the neighbors.

NY Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman on making a good burger. Check out the included video demonstration on his cheese lamburger “inside-out lamburger” – wherein he inserts smoked mozzerella cheese into ground lamb, grills, and makes what looks like a fantastic cheeseburger (although, I can’t say that I’m into lamb). As Homer Simpson would say: Mmm. Burger.

A NY Times Magazine’s interesting article on how we came to have the whole 5-cent returns for cans, and why can’t we have that for the ubiquitous water bottles – and what may be really happening with our society and the issue of recycling.

Interesting article in the Week in Review on tourists – “Ugly American” be damned: they’re all ugly. Paul Vitello writes:

EVERY summer, people all over the world become acquainted again with a deep truth spoken by the philosopher-tourist Steve Martin.

He was speaking for tourists everywhere, not just to France, when he said: “Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything!” [….]

But it is bad news only in those isolated cases (which you hear about if you talk to cabbies, tour guides and certain sarcastic individuals in sales) where the awe of Mr. Martin’s revelation is supplanted by the ugly reality of a culture clash — a tip denied, a personal boundary violated, or a long line at a drug store counter jumped by a family of Italian-speaking people, who forever thereafter shall be remembered by the offended party present (an acquaintance of mine) as those “ugly Europeans.”

Let it be said that no group holds a monopoly on the title of “ugly.” Tip-stiffing, line-jumping, excessive price-haggling, sidewalk-blocking-when-stopping-suddenly-to-take-pictures-of-a-person-playing-the-steel-drums — none of these are unique to any national group.

Expedia, the online travel service, conducted a survey of tourist boards around the world that rated British tourists as the most obnoxious. Some people in the tourism world claim that the Chinese, the newest wave of world travelers, are even more so.

Whatever. Is it time, at least, for retiring the term “ugly American” from the dictionary of foreign phrases?

The answer, according to experts in the rarified field of tourism anthropology, is a possible yes.

“Ugly” behavior in tourists is almost always in the eye of the people being toured; and Americans are no longer the only, or even the dominant group of tourists out in the world. We are now as often toured as tour-ing. [….]

To be an ugly tourist is to miss the fundamental truth in Mr. Martin’s statement. “It is to have an overall lack of understanding that there is such a thing as cultural difference,” wrote Prof. Inga Treitler, the secretary for the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, in an e-mail message.

Valene Smith, an anthropology professor at California State University at Chico who pioneered the academic study of tourism and travel in the 1970s, said that the tourists most likely to be deplored by their hosts these days are not the euro-rich Europeans or the British or the standard ugly Americans but the Chinese.

“They have only been traveling widely in the last five years or so, but they are touring in numbers no one has seen before — by the thousands,” she said. “They behave as they would at home — there is a lot of pushing and shoving. Very few speak languages other than Chinese.”

Last summer, in an incident widely discussed among travel experts, she said, 40,000 Chinese tourists descended on the small German city of Trier to visit the birthplace of Karl Marx.

“It was quite a mess,” Professor Smith said. “No one was prepared ahead of time. The Germans were quite upset.” [….]

Gee-whiz. Chinese tourists making it possible to say… “Ugly Chinese”? Just ain’t good, man. Just ain’t good. Ugly Europeans. Ugly Americans. Ugly people, period.

And, on that note, take the good, the bad, and the ugly to just sit back and reflect on Memorial Day’s true meaning.

Catching up: this week was the Alma Mater Law School Reunion – umm, yeah, interesting. Chelsea Piers’ The Lighthouse; took a bit of public transportation; would’ve been nice if it hadn’t rained; but the food was pretty much okay; dessert spectacular. I’ll let FC and P put in their own say about it; suffice it to say that we agreed that the little crabcakes and dessert wontons were quite good.

NBC’s “Heroes” season finale tomorrow night. Get ready!

Watched the end of the “Grey’s Anatomy” season finale – give actress Sandra Oh an Emmy; I was amazed by the ambiguity of her character Christina – she loves Burke, no doubt, but does she want to get married; is she just a surgeon; is she really “free” as she proclaimed in tears that were hardly of joy? And, Meredith Grey – Lord, the woman is messed up, and meanwhile is the show setting us up for another Grey? I gritted my teeth and realized why I’ve been losing interest in the show and have scaled back on watching it – it’s no fault of either of the actresses playing Christina or Meredith, but the plots drive me nuts.

ABC presented a review of “Lost” which helped me appreciate the craziness that is “Lost.” I may very well end up watching the season finale next week.

PBS showed the documentary “The Slanted Screen,” on the portrayal of Asian/APA males on the screen. I was watching most of it the other night – interesting takes and I thought it was overall a pretty good documentary with clips of, say, one of George Takei’s roles (I keep forgetting he did stuff other than Star Trek) but I kind of agree with an analysis over why the documentary had to be limited to Asian/APA men? Not to say that the men’s portrayal has been very good on tv/movies, but neither has Asian/APA women. Portrayal of Asian/APA people in general leaves much to be desired.

But, we can be hopeful, when shows like “Lost,” “Heroes,” and “Grey’s Anatomy” have more diverse casts – and actually use these talented actors of color – and more Asians/APA’s in the directing/writing/producing side of things (I heard Nair’s “The Namesake” was doing well; I really have to read the book and watch the movie already). Then again – “Lost” and “Heroes” are using Asian/APA’s actors to play Asians, and not really as APA’s (check out this Newsday article on the topic of Asians/APA’s on tv) – and I’d like to see just a few more APA’s on tv (speaking as an APA). Well, we’ll see.

TV industry rolling out their fall 2007 schedules this past week. Goodbye to the NBC tv show “Raines” – which was pretty good with Jeff Goldblum and a diverse and interesting cast; too bad you didn’t get the ratings numbers and no good time slot.

NBC jumps deeper in the trend to have British actors play Americans (Damian Lewis, the insane Soames Forsythe of British tv’s “The Forsythe Saga”? Well, he has played American before, so I guess I can’t criticize).

CBS renews “How I Met Your Mother” – hooray! NBC renews “Scrubs”! Whoa.

All the networks are seemingly going for more quirky shows. I don’t mind quirky, but sometimes I’d like a little originality. Come on, a vampire private detective? WB already did that – it was called “Angel,” and unless they’re going a different route on this (I guess doing something without Angel’s emotional baggage). Moreover, NBC’s “Chuck” also sounds an awful lot like old UPN’s “Jake 2.0.” Other ideas include: musical tv? (even after just about 15 years, have we not learned from “Cop Rock,” even if this new show has Hugh Jackman and is derived from a British project?); an immortal cop? A bionic woman?

(Okay, NBC, let’s see what you can do with the return of Jaime (not Jamie?) Summers; I actually watched those reunion movies back in the 1980’s and 1990’s where Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man saved the world and finally got together, and I enjoyed them – call me sick; there’s always potential for this kind of idea – but if you’re going to make Ms. Summers like Sydney Bristow, Buffy or Veronica Mars… well, you’re going to have to really work at it to impress me).

I can’t help but be intruiged by FOX’s using Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton to do another take on a sitcom taking place at a tv network news setting. It’s seems just a bit different for a sitcom – and returning two familiar faces who do bear resemblances to local anchornews people. Hmm.

APA’s in the news: Sunday Times: profiling David Chang, rising foodie star.

Time magazine profiling Khaled Hosseini, the writer of “The Kite Runner,” whose new book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is getting rave reviews.

Daily News’ coverage of City Councilman Eric Goia’s experiment of living on one week’s worth of food stamps was interesting. Goia’s closes it with suggestions on the food stamp issue, including giving recipients ability to buy healthy food. He noted being hungry, yet managing to gain pounds off of the less healthy cheap carbs he bought – which goes toward showing the sad reality of how poor populations develop heart and weight problems.

Mets. v. Yankees subway series – game three tonight. Go Mets!

Happy Mother’s Day to all Mothers Everywhere.

Hmm. Spider Solitaire (usually found on Windows XP) – an addicting game to say the least – really have to pull away from it. Really. I’ll say that much.

Just a little catching up: last Sunday’s APA Heritage Festival at Union Sq. was very nice – pretty much bumped into everyone!

The custody battle for a beloved dog.

A look at the art of Edward Hopper.

Last month, I noted the story of the governor who tried to live off of food stamps for a week. Saturday’s Daily News reports that, this week, City Councilman Eric Goia (D., Queens) is trying out the experiment. He’s apparently coming down to the determination that there are people in hunger in this city. No, really? Well, we’ll see if this trendy experiment will bring up new ideas and ways to battle poverty and hunger in this city/state/country.

Interestingly, NY Times has an op ed on the subject of hunger and food stamps this Mother’s Day.

Presidential candidates’ personal preferences.

A rather amusing article reviewing the release of the DVD of Season 1 of “Hawaii 5-0.”

NY Times’ Mark Bittman on getting the best steak frites in Paris. Mmm. Fries.

Plus, Bittman with a risotto recipe, along with the accompanying video. The butter and oil that chef Mario Batali put into his risotto – goodness. But, looks tasty and otherwise, Bittman and Batali made it look easy. Almost makes me want to cook. Umm, yeah, right…

A profile on Allyson Hannigan, the ex-Willow of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame, and currently Lily on “How I Met Your Mother” on CBS, a pretty darn good comedy. And, I agree – Lily and Marshall are probably the only couple in the TV multiverses who are in a healthy relationship – heck, they’re surviving Marshall’s time as a Columbia Law student. All they have to do is get through Marshall’s bar review experience, and they’re golden.

Serious note: Law Day – celebrating rule of law, not about celebrating lawyers, the NY Times editorial on May 1 notes. I’ll applaud that.

But, meanwhile, I found it highly disturbing that the Daily News spent Sunday and Monday on a Special Exclusive on the city’s alleged worst lawyers – people who resigned or were disciplined because they seriously screwed up. That’s nice to know, but not quite sure what else Daily News was trying to do – as if people didn’t already have little faith in the system as it is – as if we don’t learn what not to do.

Interesting article on the current trends on Civil Rights history, Southern history, and American conservatism – as a new generation of historians consider examining the Civil Rights era from the lenses of the White moderates. Patricia Cohen writes:

Conservative appeals to limit the government’s reach and emphasize individual freedoms resonated not only in the South, but in the North as well, said Joseph Crespino, 35, whose book, “In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution” (Princeton University Press), was just published.

The racial and religious conservatism of whites, for instance, “converged in unexpected ways in the fight over federal tax policy toward Southern private schools,” Mr. Crespino writes. He said that while many Southern whites set up “segregation academies” for the sole purpose of avoiding school integration, others were genuinely interested in sending their children to church schools for religious reasons. “By the late ’70s, this issue of defending church schools against harassment by the federal government and the I.R.S.,” Mr. Crespino explained in an interview, led to the “mobilization of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians.”

Mr. Crespino, who grew up in rural Mississippi, said his research was partly inspired by his experience. Many of the African-Americans he met in the deeply segregated precincts of Chicago while he was an undergraduate at Northwestern University had come from his home state and were struggling with the same issues they had had down South. “Rather than treating white Mississipians as these racist pariahs in larger postwar liberal America, I wanted to treat them as part of a broader popular reaction against modern liberalism,” he said. “I wanted to show how central the resistance to civil rights policies were in shaping modern conservative policies.” [….]

Like Mr. Crespino, Matthew D. Lassiter was motivated to research his own Southern roots. He found a gap between the history he had learned in school and his experience growing up in its wake in Sandy Springs, a white, middle-class suburb of Atlanta. “I was trying to find my own people, my parents and grandparents,” said Mr. Lassiter, 36, who wrote “The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South” (Princeton) published last year. “There were a few white Southerners who were liberals, a larger number throwing the rocks with the rioters and the vast group in the middle were left out of the story.”

As a graduate student at the University of Virginia, he taught undergraduates and assigned the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” in which he wrote, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride towards freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than justice.”

Reading this just tempted me to go get the books; really reminded me of what I studied back in college and discussing the course of post-World War II America with the TA’s. … ok, pardon, geeking out as the former history major that I am. 😉

But, it is interesting to wonder – what is the moderates’ position in society? Are moderates more a threat than they realize, by virtue of what they hold as priorities? Or are they too busy concerned about stability and status quo (maybe even too scared shitless) to dare pursue a course of justice and a better world?

Hmm. Kind of makes me question why I consider myself a a left-of-center moderate. Kind of.

Leading to an interesting question, which NBC’s “Heroes” made me wonder: “If You Could Save Millions of Lives, Wouldn’t You?” Would you dare to save the world? … Well, Monday’s episode was just plain awesome. And, reminds me once again why time traveling episodes drive me a little nuts (the possibilities of paradoxes astound me). Actors Masi Oka (as Future Hiro and Present Hiro – thumbs up!) and James Kyson Lee (as Hiro’s sidekick Ando) play well as Asians/APA’s on tv. Oh, and finally (even if it was in the future) the character Dr. Mohinder Suresh takes a heroic action ( I won’t say more, in case others haven’t watched yet)… once we head back to the present, well, surely the hard part’s coming…

More cool space stuff: pictures from Jupiter.

On the local side of things:

The planned arts library in Brooklyn is hitting a snag; not easy when the Brooklyn Public Library is experiencing another change in leadership. Guess I can only hope for the best for BPL, since libraries in the city need better hours and facilities as a basic matter.

And, last but not least: Frank Bruni reviews Max Brenner. I did like the Union Sq. one myself, but he’s right – it can be a bit much.

Last Wednesday, managed to catch the Design Made in Africa exhibit at the World Financial Center, co-sponsored by the Museum for African Art. Fantastic looking and very utilitarian pieces of furniture and other object des arts – modern Africa heading towards the 21st Century – at the Courtyard Gallery in the World Financial Center from April 12 to June 24.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D., Ore.) is trying out an experiment: can he live off of food stamps for a week? Apparently, he’s trying to raise awareness as to how not very good the food stamp program is to feed people in need. Part of it is indeed a question of when was the last time the governor actually did his own food shopping, but I’d still applaud him for trying – imagine if we made all the politicians perform this experiment. Perhaps it’d force them to really think about ways to really help people.

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick on the oral arguments at the US Supreme Court on the whole question of campaign reform. The article was quite funny, in a sad way (sad, well, in terms of political thinking, and depending on where one is on the political spectrum…).

9/11/01 remnants for archivists’ subject material.

FC, P, and I saw “Hot Fuzz” on Saturday. In the movie, Sgt. Nicholas Angel, a cranberry juice drinker, is sent to the boondocks because he’s too good a cop for his superiors in London to accept (because, well, he makes them look bad). However, Angel finds out that there’s more to the boondocks than he would have thought. Much more.

Slate’s movie critic Dana Stevens says, “Hot Fuzz is like an Agatha Christie novel directed by Michael Bay and adapted for the screen by P.G. Wodehouse.” Well, I’d agree on the Michael Bay part; less so on the Agatha Christie (unless you’re thinking of Christie’s creation of Miss Marple and Miss Marple’s town of St. Mary Meade, where – you guessed it! – the town’s murder rate is kind of ridiculous and Miss Marple’s probably a closet psychopath); and really less so on P.G. Wodehouse (well, unless you’re citing Wodehouse as the source of wacky British humo(u)r; I’d say Monty Python would’ve been a better reference). Honestly, I’d expect good old Inspector Morse walking into “Hot Fuzz.” The whole beer thing would’ve been perfect for him; but not, say, the gun thing. No, that’d still be in the realm of Michael Bay.

All in all, thumbs up to the movie.

FC, P, and I later had afternoon tea at Sweet Melissa Patisserie, across from the movie theater. We managed not to give in to the sweets – but they looked soo good.

Daily News publishes Mario Cuomo’s thoughts on the recent Democratic debate – with his idea that there ought to be a permanent debating system to let the candidates talk about actual ideas. I thought there were some good thoughts. Personally, I kind of feel for the candidates who aren’t likely to make headway – Joe Biden actually does have real ideas on Iraq (not that I’ve read up on them enough, but he certainly knows what he’s talking about) and Bill Richardson has quite a resume – he’s now a governor and was a UN Ambassador and is Latino (although, his tenure as US Dept. of Energy Secretary included the debacle toward Wen Ho Lee – something APA’s aren’t going to quite forget – at least I haven’t). The candidates are many; the competition will be rough.

“Heroes” – a bit caught up. The episode of 4/30/07 will be interesting…

What lovely weather – finally spring outside, not reserved to the tulips in my office at work.

Time Magazine’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen posts on her blog the Asian-American journalist’s dilemma in covering the Virginia Tech story. It made a lot of sense to me – you don’t want to make race/ethnicity the issue, but then again, you want to present a full picture. And the dilemma doesn’t make it easier when you feel personal about it – you may feel relieved if the shooter isn’t from your own ethnic group (since, after all “Asian” covers a lot), but in the end, the shooter is still from your group (“Asian” to the outsider is just “Asian” – as if the outsider cares whether one is Korean, Chinese, or what – we are all going to be seen as the “foreigner,” the marginalized, etc.).

Charlie Rose interviewed a panel on Thursday night that included Columbia Law Prof. Patricia Williams, Time’s Managing Editor Richard Stengel, and others, covering the Virginia Tech story, the Supreme Court’s decision on (so-called partial-birth) abortion, US AG Alberto Gonzalez, and the presidential election in France. I thought Time’s announcement on putting the Virginia Tech kids on the cover to be a good idea and Stengel’s argument on Rose’s show was persuasive: put the emphasis on the loss – the pride of potential – not on the murderer (who has his own issues, to be certain). I’d also say let’s not forget what we as a society may have to figure out. NY Times had a similar approach – and it resembles the Profiles in Grief that they had done after 9/11/01.

The pictures of the Virginia Tech struck at me for being a portrait of the diversity and spirit of American universities today – from the professor who was a Holocaust survivor and survivor of Communism and protected his students, to the RA who was a band guy and a soon-to-be engineer, to the hardworking Asian-American freshman and so on. It reminded me of how it was when I was in college, and how we can all empathize over what had happened at Virginia Tech – goodness, it could have been anyone. Crime on campus is not what we want to imagine, when we look to academia as our safe haven.

Slate’s Explainer explains why the media hasn’t quite figured out whether to put out the Virginia Tech shooter’s first name first or last name first (Asian style); apparently, ABC went with the American style in a quicker manner, after consulting with its own Korean/Korean-American staff. I think ABC made the better decision – it’s not like the guy was a foreign student – he was a green card guy – which means first name first, last name last (at least for the purposes of being in this country). Perhaps I’m being narrow-minded in that line of thinking – but it did kind of bothered me that the media seemed act like it was trying to be “sensitive” about the nationality thing – as if they were thrown off by Cho’s non-English name. If his name was “John” Cho, would they have gone with Cho John? I’d doubt it, but I guess his lack of an English name put him in even more isolation, which is sad to think about.

Come to think of it – Friday’s Slate has a lot of interesting articles. One fascinating feature – a slide show essay by David Segal on the history of racist advertising mascots, in light of the new portrayal of Uncle Ben (of Uncle Ben’s rice) on the company website as Ben, CEO, of the rice company (thanks to Slate and Segal for the link). Almost laughable, if it isn’t kind of sad. Segal observes that this is apparently also consistent with, say, the evolution of Aunt Jemima, who no longer wears a kerchief – but wears pearl earrings because, well, she too is the fictitious CEO of the company (okay, maybe not quite, but check out the website, where they –profile the history – that in 1989, they ditched the kerchief and in 1992, “During a frozen package redesign Quaker tilted Aunt Jemima’s head into a more upright position,” and notes that, today, “The Aunt Jemima products continue to stand for warmth, nourishment and trust – qualities you’ll find in loving moms from diverse backgrounds who care for and want the very best for their families.” Diversity wins, hands down, thank goodness; but, hey, Jemima still wants you to eat well).

Hell, Madison Avenue even did it to Betty Crocker (we just don’t have the same racial connotations with Betty Crocker – no, just sexist ones) – transforming her from housewife to CEO… who still bakes brownies. (thanks to Wikipedia for the link to the website on the evolution of Betty Crocker; can’t seem to track down the latest image of her as a multi-ethnic woman; the official website of Betty Crocker seems to have a treasure trove of recipes and stuff – I won’t criticize, as I don’t cook/bake/etc., and I grew up on that stuff, so really, I can’t criticize!).

Met’s re-opening of the Greek-Roman galleries – having removed the old cafeteria, we can now see the Romans in their better glory – well, the NY Times’ Michael Kimmelman previews it – and it looks great, at least from the Times’ website feature anyway. So looking forward to going up there soon and seeing it!

Florida Gators win NCAA Men’s tournament. Pretty good game, actually, even if Ohio State (with the quite good Oden and Connelly) couldn’t quite beat Florida (where the guys played like a team – what spirit, really). And, scarier – my bracket survived: I had picked Florida… now if only I can win the lottery; then I’d be set for life!

Too bad about the Rutgers’ Womens basketball team – Tennessee bested them in the NCAA Women’s tournament. Ah well. At least the ladies had the metro area a little more excited about Rutgers athleticism.

In the category of “good grief”: KITT 2000 – KITT of the old ’80’s show “Knight Rider” – is up for sale. Or, at least, a version of him that was filmed for tv and that doesn’t go into Super Pursuit Mode or make snide remarks in the voice of actor William Daniels (aka Mr. Feeney of the 1990’s tv show “Boy Meets World” – is there any other actor that has captured the imagination of the young for two decades?). Personally, I had no idea that Williams Daniels is a Brooklyn native – imagine KITT with a Brooklyn accent.

Oh God. I actually remember “Super Pursuit Mode.” Man, did I watch too much Knight Rider back in the day.

Prehistoric whale fossil… in inland Italy?

Was Jane Austen pretty… and does it matter?

Monday night: I attended NYU Law School’s APALSA’s Korematsu Lecture – speaker: Judge A. Wallace Tashima – he discussed the Japanese Peruvian experience of being interned in the US during World War II and briefly his own childhood experience at an internment camp during World War II. Apparently, during the war, US pursued a policy of protecting the Western hemisphere by interning persons who seen as the enemy (I think the Monroe Doctrine made that work, even though various Latin Americans countries were officially neutral on the war), forcibly removing Japanese Peruvians to Americans camps.

Things didn’t get that much better when the war was over, because Peru didn’t want the Japanese Peruvians back (talk about racism there), and the US viewed the Japanese Peruvians as “illegal aliens” (never minding that the US brought them to the country in the first place). The status became the loophole that prevented the Japanese Peruvians from collecting a larger amount in the reparations in 1988. It’s an interesting story, and thought it was fascinating that Judge Tashima discussed it and demonstrated the parallels to the current usage of Guantanamo Bay. History repeating itself; dare we learn from our past? Hmm.

Coincidentally, the NY Times published an article on the parallels of the Japanese-American internment and the experience of Muslim immigrants.

It’s that time of year: college acceptances out to the nervous high school seniors. Loved this headline in the Times: “Rejected by Harvard? Your Valedictorian Probably Was Too.” It’s getting really competitive when Alma Mater’s admissions rate is down to slightly less than 9 percent, or you have the realization that Harvard rejected 91% of applications. Every year it gets crazier – you got to save the world first before you can get to college? You apply on-line to more than 10 colleges? And, then you complain when NYU, Wesleyan, and UMichigan accepted you, but – say – an Ivy didn’t? Relax: NYU, Wesleyan and UMich aren’t exactly low tier and you might have ended up where you meant to be. Besides, the riches of choices for the colleges are making us alumni look embarrassing, the second linked article notes (and certainly highlighted what I’ve wondered):

The competition was ferocious not only at the top universities, but at selective small colleges, like Williams, Bowdoin and Amherst, all of which reported record numbers of applications.

Amherst received 6,668 applications and accepted 1,167 students for its class of 2011, compared with the 4,491 applications and 1,030 acceptance letters it sent for the class of 2002 nine years ago, said Paul Statt, an Amherst spokesman.

“Many of us who went to Amherst three decades ago know we couldn’t get in now; I know I couldn’t,” said Mr. Statt, who graduated from Amherst in 1978.

Life is busy – sigh.

Belated link: Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter on the coverage of the Edwardses’ story – Elizabeth’s cancer, and John’s continued presidential campaign – from last week. He picked up on the Daily News’ publication of Jane Ridley’s writing on how she felt disturbed about what she thought was the Edwardses’ selfishness. Alter notes:

I’m paid to judge other people, but some things should be beyond judgment. I’d put John and Elizabeth Edwards’s decision to keep campaigning in that category. Anyone who, like me, has had cancer knows this. Tony Snow, whose colon cancer has spread to his liver but who plans to come back to work, gets it. Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, herself a breast-cancer survivor (and, like me, in remission), said as much on the TODAY Show Tuesday. When it comes to cancer, judge not, lest you be judged someday, if you should be so unlucky. [….]

Ridley’s core argument—a fairly common reaction—is that the Edwards’s invocation of service “rings hollow to every mother in the land.” Every mother? This isn’t about ambition trumping love of children and it takes a lot of nerve to suggest that it is. It’s about how to cope with the worst news imaginable. Ridley and the other know-it-alls around the water cooler are essentially telling Elizabeth to give up. “If I had given up everything that my life was about, I’d let cancer win before it needed to,” Elizabeth told Couric. She said she wasn’t ready to “start dying.”

That’s not ego speaking, but a genuine reaction to her predicament. No one can say how you—or anyone else—will react until actually faced with a devastating diagnosis. In my case—and Tony Snow’s, Laura Ingraham’s, Jay Monahan’s (the late husband of Katie Couric) Elizabeth Edward’s and hundreds of thousands of others—the choice was to try to hold onto as much of our old life as humanly possible. Don’t judge that.

I remembered reading the Ridley writing in the Daily News and feeling rather shocked by how – well – visceral? judgmental? – the sentiment was. There are those who have personal misgivings about what the Edwardses are doing, but I’d have to agree: who are we to judge? At most, our duty is to vote on whether Edwards can be president; what about his wife or their kids – well, is it really for us to say? It’s not nearly as simple as we might think, and it’s their decision, so it’s not as if we’re privy to what’s going on in their minds or hearts.

I didn’t think Katie Couric did a bad job with the “60 Minutes” interview, since she asked hard questions (I was more concerned that she’d end up asking softball questions) that had to be asked (and the Edwardses did good jobs answering them, clearly demonstrating that they’re lawyers who prepare, prepare, prepare – not crumple over the hard questions and bravely heading forward – and still came off feeling like human beings who you wouldn’t wish this to happen) and then I was struck by remembering how Couric’s husband had passed away because of cancer and she has her own crusade against cancer. The Edwardses and Couric, and Alter – models of life moving on, putting aside what we may think politically or whatnot. Time’s Swampland blog in March had some great commentary on this topic too, with Jay Carney and Ana Marie Cox discussing what the Edwardses’ actions mean (apologies for not posting the direct links).

And, in light of the condition of White House press man, Tony Snow, and how cancer is something testing our world today, perhaps it’s no surprise that Alter’s experience gets this coming week’s cover of Newsweek – it’s very well-written, I have to say.

Went to the Opening Ceremony of Asian Pacific American Awareness Month (APAAM) at Alma Mater on Wednesday night. Great keynote speaker: Evelyn Hu-DeHart of Brown University, reminding us of the historical struggle of APA in becoming part of America. Entertainment was pretty cool – spoken word by Giles Li, and performance by the student bhangra group. Bhangra? The group was terrific – great enthusiasm, great dancing, and certainly highlighted the diversity of APAs; where were they when I was an undergrad? 😉

Saturday: Of course, putting up with the usual weekend vagaries of MTA subway service into Manhattan. Ah, well – wasn’t so bad, since I got out of Brooklyn way early in the morning (sick, I tell you). Attended Dean’s Day at Alma Mater, where there were (a) free access to Internet at terminals (ah, institutions of higher learning!); (b) terrific lunch (chicken, asparagus; dessert! thanks to some kind of donation or other); and (c) closing reception with even more food. Oh, and lectures from amazing professors on developments of literature, environment, history, etc. I had the good fortune of picking some interesting stuff to attend, I have to say, and the networking was interesting.

Ah, another week ahead.

AS returned to the land of the rising earthquake today. He was still experiencing culture shock as of last week, when we went to PJ Cooke’s, an American diner type place. He just flew back from Miami, and was having a little trouble reading the English menu, I guess because he’s been in Asia for like 7 years. I was trying to help him out with a little translating:

Waitress: What do you want to order?

AS: [Hopeless trying to read the menu, grunts, finger pointing]

FC: This part of the menu are the hamburgers and here are the brunch specials….

AS: Huh?

FC: Je ge hai ham bo pou…

AS:???

FC: Esto es hamburgesa con queso, y eso es huevos rancheros…

AS: Oh. [Having a double take] Wow, the menu actually says “huervos rancheros”!

…..

Went to Sobaya tonight with P- for Japanese Restaurant Week. I had the duck soba, and she had the chirashi udon. Both very good – rich broths, handmade noodles with bite – impressive. What was more impressive was the starters, especially the yuba “sushi”, which was bean curd skin wrapped around fresh soft tofu, and then offered with real wasabi and dumpling soy sauce. Outstanding, and 20% off this week. Recommended. Afterwards, P- had a chocolate craving, which was satisfied by going to Max Brenner’s Chocolate by the Bald Man, the neighborhood edition. This new cocoa outpost around the corner is way less crowded than the flagship store, but just as audacious. We had crepes to top off desert, but it was just way too rich. Maybe we should have had the ice cream at Sobaya instead.

Trip on Saturday to DC, woo hoo. P- gets a 5 day girls night out….