Hope you took a moment to observe the meaning of Memorial Day.
Saturday: saw “Angels and Demons” – nothing spectacular, but Tom Hanks as Prof. Robert Langdon is bearable; Stellan Sarsgaard handles himself well; and Ewan McGregor as a hot priest — mmm! Except for the twist that should have been foreseeable, McGregor was good old fashioned fun.
Sunday: re-watched the Star Trek movie. Still good fun.
Really great cover article by Time’s Nancy Gibbs and Michael Scherer about Michelle Obama. I liked these lines: “Maybe this is what women watching her covet: not the clothes or the glamour or the glory, but the fact that she seems to be having a blast, in a way Laura Bush and the rest never did. After working hard for 20 years, she gets to take a sabbatical, spend as much time as she wants with her kids, do as many high-impact public events as she chooses and, when it’s all over, have the rest of her life to write the next chapter.”
So… it was only last week that Time.com got on board with this story about how Big Law Firms are deferring the 1st year associates? The rest of us in the industry have known about this for awhile now. Frankly, the deferred ought to count themselves lucky – when I got out of law school, $60k for that first yr in a non-Big Firm job was good thing. Or maybe the mainstream population ought to start getting scared: if salaries for one industry is starting to drop (or be corrected by market forces), then I’m not sure what can happen to everyone else’s salaries.
In an alternative universe, I think Pres. Obama could be on the US Supreme Court (or maybe in a distant future? Hey, it happened to Pres. (and Ch. J.) Taft!). At any rate, as David Brooks noted on Friday’s Lehrer Newshour, noted, “This is something we’re actually used to, and it will probably unfold in a pretty predictable way,” i.e., that at least S.Ct. selections are something we’re awfully familiar with (the controversies, the debates and ultimate confirmations). I think that it’s pretty cool that this time, it’s a Constitutional Law prof who’s doing the selection and that he knows so much about the process and the substance.
Meanwhile Slate reminds us about how soap – even a dirty bar of soap – is useful stuff, and how those masks aren’t that useful (that’s right – it just doesn’t do all that much good, so how reasonable is it to walk around with those masks on anyway?) – stuff we should have learned from SARS in the first place. NY Times’ Elizabeth Rosenthal also recalls the same her experience with SARS about the ineffectiveness of masks and the better use of hand-washing and just walking away from people with symptoms.
May 1 was also the first day of the summer blockbusters, with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” A Slate article to explain the fascination with Wolverine; oh, and he’s Canadian (well, a certain kind of Canadian – apparently, not the East Coast liberal Canadian, but probably more like West Coast libertarian Canadian; he sure never seemed to have the Canadian accent in the cartoons though).
And, cherry blossoms in Brooklyn (sadly, I missed the festival this year, but the pictures on the NY Times website are lovely).
Because we of Triscribe are Asians and lawyers, we touch on issues on Asians and lawyers. Consider the following (yes, still part of the whole I’m-catching-up-on-blogging, since I fell behind; where are the other triscribers…?)
I’m not a Yankee fan, but even I was amazed by the how-low-can-you-go of yesterday’s game by Chien-Ming Wang – with the historic 14-2 by the end of the second inning and total loss of 22-4, and it’s not clear what’s the matter with the guy. The fans aren’t too happy in the Bronx at the new Yankee Stadium.
Lithwick on the subject of a gender balanced US Supreme Court. I do think that true diversity – whether by educational background, social class origins, career background (the justices can’t all be ex-law profs/appellate judges) racial/ethnic/gender/religious/etc. – would make for more than just the usual right-of-center thinking on the court… Just my opinion; I could be wrong.
While Dean Koh is dealing with the process of being confirmed, we get other things that impugn the standing of Asian Americans: one of those kinds of “are you serious” stories… Texas legislator’s suggestion that Asian names should make the government’s life easier. Guess the legislator doesn’t understand that confusion regarding the transliteration of names into English are not necessarily the fault of the people with those names… Meanwhile, NYC Councilman John Liu demands an apology from said TX state legislator…
Mussolini made it difficult to be a Jew in Italy, apparently; but that didn’t stop Rita Levi Montalcini from becoming a Nobel Prize winner and now living at 100 years young. Interesting story about her.
A poignant piece – maybe art is the only thing that can save us from doom. … Okay, I exaggerate. But, still, kind of funny to think that the some Wall Street people are just repressed artists.
Slate’s Fred Kaplan raises interesting points on maybe a coalition of nations should gather and discuss ways on addressing the pirate problem; but historically, not an easy issue. So… we have G20 to address the economy and we’ll need more international cooperation for security and legal issues? Hmm… We live in interesting times.
Slate’s John Dickerson says sometimes a dog is just a dog; I say: nothing is easy when you’re president and there’s a whole lot of stuff to deal with. Your only best friend’s going to be your dog anyway…
So, they’re changing the way they do news at NYPD; will any new way be any better? If the White House fixed up the press space, why should the NYPD evict the press? Ridiculous (but, that’s just my two cents on that; not like I want the mayor coming after me because I disagree with him).
Plus — the new phrase of the week is: “glimmers of hope.” Hmm. Can I have “Audacity of Hope” back, please? One speaker out there compared “glimmers of hope” to like the green sprouts of spring; well, the hard part is keeping those sprouts growing…
Fell behind on things, including blogging. Ah well.
As we head towards April, that McDonald’s Fish-o-Filet promotion’s coming to an end, and that might explain why there’s less of THAT commercial; nonetheless, I’ll link to this: Channel 11’s Kaity Tong commenting on that McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish commercial; yeah, THAT commercial. The commercial actually makes me sing along with the silly song, and of course, what did I do – I eat the filet-o-fish sandwich. The idea that Kaity Tong and her co-anchor Jim Watkins were talking about the commercial means that… they’re a lot like us at work, talking about the commercial…
My NCAA Men’s Basketball brackets went kaplooey when Syracuse went down the other day; why did I get caught up in their magical moment? Oh well. Now with even Pittsburgh out, I’m still have my other two final four picks alive – UConn and Louisville (at least, I hope Louisville stays alive).
Plus, well, the speculation continues, but I think Lithwick’s article, about the US Supreme Court’s coyness about their futures, makes an interesting point: do we really want a spring of endless speculation, and – big if – a summer of confirmation insanity?
More followup on Chancellor Michelle Rhee of Washington D.C.’s public school system: I think NY Times’ Nicholas D. Kristof raised some interesting comments on the D.C. education reform situation, under their Chancellor Rhee – yes, there’s a need for reform; yes, her “bedside manner” needs some help; but all this also assumes that everyone buys into coming up with compromise – the stakeholders (parents, principals and rest of management, the teachers, the students, the people-at-large) aren’t actually giving me the feeling that they’ll end their stalemate.
Bittman’s video and article of his variant of “anti-ramen” – Egg Noodles in Soy Broth (with the not-so-secret ingredient of ketchup) – the idea of using a simple base – sounded quite cool.
Time Magazine is covering the issue of Big Law Firms’ plans to defer 1st year associates’ start date by sending them to work as subsidized $60,000/year public interest lawyers (or in some cases, outright rescinding the employment offers to the 3L’s, in the name of cutting back for financial reasons). When a trend makes it to mainstream media (like Time) rather than remaining in the confines of industry reporting (like Law.com, where – face it – only us lawyers/law students read), it must mean that the trend is real. Big Law Firms subsidizing law students to go into the public interest (because the firms have no work and won’t pay the 6 digit salary…) – yeah, that’ll save the legal field… Pardon some slight skepticism on my part, but this is a trend to watch, I think.
Every death leaves a conversation unfinished. The one I regret not finishing with the historian John Hope Franklin, who died Wednesday at the age of 94, focused on what it was like to be a rising black intellectual in the Jim Crow South. In particular, I wanted to hear more about Dec. 7, 1941, the day he and his wife, Aurelia, drove from Charleston, S.C., to Raleigh, N.C. — covering the better part of two states — before they reached home and learned that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.
Clearly, the car had no radio. But wouldn’t they have heard the news when they stopped to gas up and get something eat? No, he said; I had misunderstood the period. Black families motoring through the Jim Crow South packed box lunches to avoid the humiliation of being turned away from restaurants. They relieved themselves in roadside ditches because service-station restrooms were often closed to them. They worried incessantly about breakdowns and flat tires that could leave them stranded at the mercy of bigots who demeaned and wished them ill.
“You took your life into your hands every time you went out on the road,” he said. It was, of course, a relief to come upon a black-owned service station. But he said that you could drive from Charleston quite nearly to Baltimore before finding one.
We had that conversation in 2006, in connection with an article I wrote for this page on his powerful autobiography “Mirror to America.” [….]
He continued to speak out against injustice and never let himself be flattered into the role of the black factotum who would conveniently declare the race problem solved. If anything, the militancy grew fiercer over time. It reached its zenith in “Mirror to America,” which recounts in vivid detail how the decision to segregate the armed forces poisoned American civic culture. He refused to serve during World War II for a country “that had no respect for me [and] little interest in my well-being.”
I had hoped to sit down with him one more time to reconstruct that trip back in 1941. I must now do that without him.
Arby’s in the Gage & Tollner? Look, I like the roast beef sandwiches and all, but… this is so wrong on so many levels.
Another local bit: This article‘s now making me really wonder what on earth is going on with the TGIF’s near the office, which apparently had a drug bust (or at least employees who were involved in some illegal drug activity). The customers weren’t expecting anything like this; no kidding! I haven’t been there in so long and never thought it was that kind of place. Some year or other ago, they had a murder or something; now this; like what? I know business on Wall St. hasn’t been doing too well, but this is a bit much for TGIF.
An interesting NY Times article on the increased patronage of public libraries in Westchester. I’m all for using the library – I still patronize my local branch – but NYC public libraries are facing serious budget cuts – and that means cutting back hours and access. Good for Westchester, maybe, but not so good for NYC.
Dreadful news – fire at Totonno’s means no classic Coney Island pizza for awhile.
Something we are all getting used to on Facebook: Facebook’s latest format. Personally, I’m still wary about new status bar thing’s asking me “What’s on your mind?” Time.com’s report on this makes the point of how this can be a bit much of the — uh — let’s say egotism of a Facebook user.
Since we of triscribe are APA’s and people of color and all that, some items of note:
I’d read Seattle P-I online for the comics section, since Daily News comics section isn’t as expansive as it used to be. I do think it’s sad that Seattle P-I’s paper version is going to be gone – it is the end of an era when a major newspaper of a major newspaper (the first one apparently) is going only on-line. What about people w/o internet? What does it say about access to info?
Eventually, I’ll do a post on the latest views on tv items, but let’s end on a happy note in the meantime, as we head into March Madness and the Crazy Land of Bracketville – enjoy a little something weird and funny: British actor/comedian Ricky Gervais with Elmo. The Time.com article and the AP video (see below) together are hilarious.
Finished the story, not just hit the 50k word minimum. We’re all winners!
I’m not sure if I’ll touch this story again – something I’m calling “The Mystery of the Venerated Chalice” (take a guess – the mystery isn’t exactly about the chalice itself) – it’s a historical romantic murder mystery, with too many characters and coincidences. Plus, taking place at a historical time that I’m not exactly up on (research? what research?). But, the murderer’s sanity completely cracked and the male inspector and the woman of interest reached an understanding. It ended in a nice way, but I didn’t quite feel I knew the characters and it can be quite confining to write a mystery with clues along the way and not make it that obvious that I know who’s the murderer already (short of, say, putting an anvil on the murderer’s head, along with big red glowing arrows).
But, it was fun to have hanged out with other NaNos and cheering each other on, and maybe I’m creatively re-charged to get back on track with non-NaNo projects, of which there are many!
On to items, of the more usual triscribe note (as I dust around here while my fellow triscribers are… not here…)…
Asians/APA’s in the news… (for better, or for worse!):
On a belated note, Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO. Well, there are many reasons for this – not getting that Yahoo/AOL merger was probably one thing or the thing with Microsoft, and maybe getting pommelled by Google… There seems to be discussion that he wasn’t enough of a leader – perhaps even too… “apologetic.” The latter link there is to a NY Times blog post that kind of concerned me – if Jerry Yang were a white man, would the commenters in that post say the same things? Am I reading more into this than I should? After all, poor business judgment transcends cultural/racial backgrounds. Plus, Yang seemed too wishy-washy about things. Maybe.
Part of me could be more concerned for Yang, but for the moment, I’m just hoping that Yahoo keeps going, since I’ve tons of e-mail there.
Speaking of other CEO’s with trouble… I don’t envy the situation of Vikram Pandit of Citigroup. His 11/25/08 interview on Charlie Rose could’ve been more interesting, but there wasn’t much Pandit could say about the developing situation other than “let’s see what will happen next in this unprecedented situation. Thank God we’re getting help from the government.” Or maybe I got bored because finance and economics bore me until they scare me. But, it’s cool that Charlie Rose got this exclusive. He really asked questions, even if he got mostly non-answers (and probably shouldn’t be blamed for what his predecessors caused).
Time’s cover article is about Michelle Rhee, superintendent of the public school system of Washington, D.C. Another person whose job I don’t envy. After reading the article, I can’t say that I quite agree with her tactics, but I guess it’s clear that her intentions and ideas seems genuine. There’s also an interesting accompanying on-line video.
Plus, this issue of Time has this fascinating article about a walking desk (that is, a desk with a treadmill, so you can walk and work). The article’s author, Belinda Luscombe, was even generous in demonstrating the device in the on-line video. In high heels! (visually confirming what she described in the article). How she managed to do any work amazes me. Plus, her British accent made the whole thing seemed very authoritative. But, was Time awfully nice about putting such an item up – the video, that is. But, the article was illuminating too, so read it!
Fascinating bit on Newsweek.com – a Q&A with Jean Ping, Chairman of the African Union Commission, on whether Africa may have a federation much like the US (well, we’re still one nation, with various states) or the European Union (hmm – now that’ll be interesting – a whole continent in economic collaboration). Turns out that Jean Ping is half-Chinese and half-Gabonese – which might give him a unique perspective – at least, I wonder if it does?
Yoga is a centuries-old Asian exercise, so… kind of interesting to read that various Muslim clerics in Malaysia are now saying that yoga makes a Muslim less… Muslim, just when yoga’s turning into quite a trend for middle class people looking to find ways to relax and be fit. Hmm…
Spent Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C. with the siblings – We saw a Nationals v. Braves game on Saturday night; otherwise much sightseeing. Weather was nice and the sights were amazing.
The World War II Memorial – quite a memorial! I liked it for giving quite the feeling of the American contribution – the 50 states and the territories.
Walked toward the Lincoln Memorial. The Reflecting Pool seemed to have a lot of duck crap along the way… hmm…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was interesting, but not my cup of tea – yes, seeing FDR’s words etched on walls were quite powerful but seeing the statue of him straight out of the old photos of the Yalta summit and sitting by his little dog Fala — well, I can’t say that I felt impressed. The Wikipedia entry has some nice photos of the memorial.
I kind of thought that D.C.’s Metro was impressive – more or less clean; fast; plus electronic signage that tells you the next train’s ETA. It did look a lot like PATH, in my mind; but PATH’s trains looks more like something out of the 1970’s – so you can’t have everything.
Watching some of the Republican convention, mostly out of trying to get context and to watch history in the making; I can’t say that I agreed with much of what was said on Tuesday night. Hmm. Anyway, I credit PBS for airing the full Joe Lieberman speech; ABC cut it off to get to local news; come on, networks – you’re doing people a disservice!
I’ve been on a bit of a Spring Break hiatus (thanks for SSW for holding down the fort). I’ve upgraded to WordPress version 2.5 on the back end, which is actually quite nice. Will make some changes to the template. In the interim, I’ve been doing the following:
Seen Rent – the musical (have seen the movie, have the cast album, and played out the song book, but finally got around to seeing it in real life). Its run has been extended to September.
Was in Washington, D.C. for a couple of days for a conference, coincidentally when the Spitzer story broke.
Seen Patrick Stuart in BAM’s rendition of Macbeth. Awesome, and has been carried over to Broadway.
Overdid Brooklyn Restaurant Week, visiting
Blue Ribbon Sushi (awesome as usual – sushi/sashimi combo the best value)
Uneventful flight, although coworker did not make the flight thanks to the MTA not having A train service on the weekend. He ended up being on standby for about 6 hours. My hotel reservation was screwed up also – they put down February instead of March, and they were totally sold out of rooms. I ended up staying at the brand new Westin in Arlington for about 3x the cost. Arlington feels like Hoboken, and it is about half an hour out of the city, but thankfully near the Metro.
Sitting in on a conference session on CMS’s – user created websites. Will make a separate food entry later on today.
Made a quick run to DC’s Chinatown during a break Tuesday. The traditional gate is very impressive – it’s at least 5 stories tall. However, there was a definite dearth of Chinese people around. There were about four blocks of quasi-Chinatown, but apparently someone told these people that everyone has to have Chinese on their signs whether they are actually Chinese or not. So the Irish pubs, the CVS, and the brick oven pizza all have Chinese signage. It’s nice but it’s kind of just trying too hard.
