Triscribe

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  • 6 Steaks, 5 Takes, 0 Sense

    We watched Bobby Flay’s Takedown last week on the Food Network, in which each week he has his own private Iron Chef-like dual with people with a particular expertise in a certain dish. He got his butt kicked by Tony Luke’s, who operates cheese steak restaurants in Philly and in New York. He won with his speciality cheese steak, “Steak Italian”, which is made with provolone cheese and sauteed broccoli rabe (aka “Chinese” broccoli). The broccoli rabe makes the sandwich much lighter than the traditional “wiz with”.

    We had to try it out ourselves, so we went with P-‘s friends there on Friday through the rain. The service was slow (our steaks took a good 40 minutes to come out of the kitchen) but when they came out, it was as perfect as could be expected outside of Philly. Fresh, chewy Italian bread, paper-sliced tender steak, stir-fried broccoli rabe, all bound together with the cheese. P- got the chicken version, which was made with stir-fried chicken breast slices, which were succulent and perfectly cooked.

    Just finished watching 5 Takes USA on the Travel Channel, which is basically a non-competitve version of Amazing Race. A group of 5 people from Asia are given $50 a day and a video camera, and they have to tour several American cities and give their reactions as non-Americans. Getting on the 5 takes team is the prize – there’s no million dollar pot at the end of this trip. Zack, the guy from outside Manilla, looks a heck of a lot like our friend AS. The footage is edited and shown the following week. They survived Los Vegas and the Grand Canyon, and are now in Alaska. They will be in New York Thanksgiving week, so that should really be a lot of fun for them. Recommended.

    Slashdot reports NY Courts proposed rules considering attorney websites and blogs – or just about anything put into media or on the Internet – as regulated attorney advertising. The pertainent proposed rules, pushed by the NYS Bar Association, requires filing an entire copy of a website each time a change occurs on the site (i.e. each blog posting), and that the filing is public record. The City Bar and a gazillion other people put out strong objections to the proposed rule changes on First Amendment and stupidity grounds. While we’re not advertising anything (we’re not even using our real names), Triscribe could conceivably be covered by the proposed rules if we link to any law or lawyer sites. I don’t know.

  • Saturday

    Weird weather in the city.

    “My Life in Tickets.”  A little essay on MSNBC – and now I’m relieved that I’m not the only one who keeps ticket stubs.  Well, okay, so maybe I’ve a little OCD and I’m a terrible pack rat, but it’s nice that you can review what you’ve done on little slips of paper.

    Election Day’s coming – and, boy, it’s just been nuts in NYS and the national stuff – well, ain’t it interesting?

    This has got to be the cutest thing on YouTube: a Welsh Corgi puppy!

  • TGIF!

    Interesting article on Barack Obama on Slate. The coverage on his (maybe) presidential intentions – well, I’m a fan of his, but I’m on the fence of whether he’s to pursue the presidency in 2008 or not, but the article makes the pro argument fairly well (while still taking into account realities). Got the new Obama book, so looking to read it soon – from what I can tell, not quite the poignancy of the first book, but it (more importantly) still has his voice.

    Game 5 of the World Series… sorry, Detroit.  St. Louis Cardinals are Champions.  Darn.

    I’m really getting into YouTube – watching these various clips or videos.  Prof. Tim Wu explains on Slate that YouTube’s pretty legal.  Not completely, but pretty much so.
    The amusing Direct TV ad with William Shatner as Captain Kirk inserted in a clip from (apparently Star Trek VI, not clear) which movie – praising that Starfleet installed the crystal clear picture… Actually, Shatner looks really odd due to either age or the walking in front of a blue screen to make the ad. But, what I really loved – the theme song (the one from the movies/Next Generation) – the majesty of the tune just makes the Trekkie in me swell with pride and hum along. Ah, 40 years of Trek indeed! Almost made me want to get DirecTV – almost!

  • Good partners

    Saturday judged three rounds of moot court. If you’re really into it, judging can be as draining as being up there as a moot court competitor. I didn’t judge the team from our school but they managed to advance to the nationals. The two members of the team work well together, complementing each other.

    On the Amazing Race, the chivalrous Korean Cho Bros are putting the best foot forward for Asian American racers with their good karma, singlehandedly helping 3 teams while catapulting from last place to fifth. The only question – what is up with their t-shirts? The Kuwait episode has to be one of the best editions of the race – hard puzzles in foreign languages, lots of driving around – think about this one for Emmy number five.

  • Monday

    That was a nice “How I Met Your Mother” episode on CBS tonight – Lily realizes that her dream job was what she had in the first place: her old job as kindergarten teacher; Ted achieves his dream to become the Youngest Architect in Charge of a Skyscraper Project (Probably), after standing up to his jerk boss; and Marshall gets a B+ in his constitutional law class – after Barney slept with Marshall’s professor (played by Jane Seymour, the ex-Medicine Woman) and achieved — well, you can guess what Barney achieved.

    Bill Gates, Sr., on public service law.  Heck, I didn’t even know that Gates, Sr., was a lawyer.  Cool.

    The passing of Jane Wyatt, best known to the mass audience at the mother in “Father Knows Best” – but best known to us Trekkies as Spock’s mom, the human Amanda Grayson who married the Vulcan Ambassador Sarek (and somehow put up with her husband and her son’s logical feuds).  Check out the link from Star Trek’s official website – there’s the clip where Jane Wyatt as Amanda slaps Spock for refusing to help the sick Sarek – the two actors at their best in character defining moments (the whole Spock internal conflict of his dual heritage; his mother’s commitment and love to the love of her life, even if it means overcoming serious motherly love).

    October 23, 2006

  • Sunday

    Study says that chefs don’t count calories when you eat out – of course not!  That’s not their job.  As much as I don’t care for the big portions, the idea is that they give the big portions to convince you that you’re getting your money’s worth of food.  Plus, they want you to feel full.  The key, I guess, is that people shouldn’t eat out regularly; if you make your own food, you control your calories.  Or, if you eat out, know what you’re getting.

    Starbucks’ overtaking culture, as the arbiter of what movies, music, and books we read.
    And, in the world of comic strips and the Internet: boy, are people really mourning the passing of Aldo of Mary Worth?  Aldo was Mary Worth’s semi-stalker, to the point that Mary’s friends gave him an intervention (instead of, say, calling the cops), which frustrated Aldo’s intentions of dating Mary such that he went back to the bottle and then fatally drove drunk off a cliff (accidentally driving off; not like he intended to committ suicide – Aldo’s stupid, but not that stupid, apparently).  Wow.  Could it be that Mary and the soap opera comic strips are making a comeback?  Or is it that Mary’s comic strip is the one where we get some strange characters for our (un)intended amusement?  (Aldo, Smitty Smedlap – a serious grouch who had his own odd crush on Mary, plus “Woody” – who became psychotic after finishing his dissertation and failing to flirt with Mary’s neighbor Dawn).

    October reading:

    John Le Carre’s first novel: Call for the Dead.  Great read – the weight of the emotional baggage of the characters – George Smiley, Elsa Fennan, and the weird office politics of British Intelligence (which felt a lot like anyone else’s insane workplace), and the feeling of being in another time – the Cold War at its height.

  • Malaysia

    Back here ,2 days for work, stayed the weekend and now headed back.  A  bit early at KLIA but is ok.  KLIA has a lot of new things and B-‘s shopping and looking around.  Next month, going to be on the road a whole lot more :(.

    Trying to take things a lot less fast and stress. 

    Still need to put up the Hawaii photos and story.  11 roles of film and a lot of it was really nice :).  I’d like to take photo lessons and golf lessons.

    Nothing new else to report but check in soon.  Work will suck up a lot of my time.  Such it is…

     

  • Patently Taxing Advice

    OK, now this takes the cake. Somebody’s got a patent for a method of creating a tax shelter. There is a whole list of patents of this type on the US Patent website. Unless it has something to do with recycling a stack of CCH books to make a lean-to, I don’t see how it ought to be patentable – it is purely an idea, not an invention, and it will be just horrible for attorneys having to wonder if there is some sort of patent associated with their advice. What’s next, Barry Sheck will get a patent for a method of freeing death row inmates using DNA? Andrew Oh has been checking up on the case in his blog.

  • Mets

    And, so it goes: so long to the 2006 season; see you in spring training next year, Mets. Didn’t think you’d make it this far (I never thought it way back in spring training of this year), but my God, you were NL East Champs and got into the playoffs. Sorry you couldn’t get to the World Series. Heartbreaking loss (Mets had bases loaded; man!). But, proud that you made it as far as you did. Better luck next year.

  • Rainy Tuesday

    Boy, college protest season started early – but, found Slate’s Explainer explaining the protests at Gallaudet U to be fascinating. Not entirely up on the issues yet (still reading up), but kind of interesting that, no matter how differently abled they may be, college kids are still the same – the vigors of youth going to action on the issues they find important. Rather inspiring, to say the least.

    A Slate article on San Francisco’s architecture. That’s certainly what I had liked about it when we were there – the buildings had character and color. Whether it’s “poor architecture” isn’t for me to say (I’m no expert) – but I had liked seeing the stuff – very different, to say the least (seeing private homes done in pastel – well, it’s different).

    Barack Obama’s new book “The Audacity of Hope” is out; NY Times’ Michiko Kakutani gave it a pretty good review – with at least complimenting that he kept the voice he had from his previous book (pre-US Senatorial days – probably that much more an authentic voice) “Dreams From My Father” (which I read and highly recommend). Senator Obama’s the cover story on this week’s Time and an excerpt of the book is inside – which does seem to keep that voice. Whether he’s ready for 2008 – as President? Vice President? – well, there’s still time for that.

    Wow – a back story on P.L. Travers, the woman behind Mary Poppins.

    And a back story on Dr. Shing-Tung Yau, the mathematician of the Calabi-Yau space in string theory.

    And, just a few weeks ago, I was watching Nova Now on PBS, where Dr. Tyson hosted and there was the story on the search for the newest elements on the Periodic Table – and the NY Times reports that maybe the search has succeeded – for about a few fractions of a second. An emphasis on the maybe!

    Let’s Go Mets! Got to hang in there!