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And other news, in trying to catch up with the week, there was the passing of Shirley Chisholm, a Brooklyn figure. While her obituary in the NY Times was interesting (noting that her campaign slogan was “unbought and unbossed” to combat the Brooklyn machine at that time; and touching on her Barbadian childhood following her Brooklyn birth) , this other article – where NY Times’ Randal C. Archibold writes of the memory and memorial of someone of significance in her times, in her own borough – and it’s poignant stuff:

Her face stares out from a wall on an elementary school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, one of the few visible signs that Shirley Chisholm was here, even if she chose not to stay.

Ms. Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first black woman to seek the nomination of a major party for president, some two decades ago left the neighborhood she represented in Congress in a pique. She said she was seeking privacy and had grown tired of detractors who accused of her betraying her radical roots and cozying up with figures varying from George C. Wallace to Edward I. Koch.

“I think she was probably much more respected and controversial in her own time,” said Janet Braun-Reinitz, an artist with the nonprofit group Artmakers who, long before Ms. Chisholm’s death, began helping to organize a large mural in Bedford-Stuyvesant in honor of Ms. Chisholm and other female historical figures. “I think now she is coming back larger than life.”

The artists are working with the newly christened Shirley Chisholm Center for the Study of Women at Brooklyn College, Ms. Chisholm’s alma mater.

But in a sign that Ms. Chisholm’s fame had waned considerably, Barbara Winslow, the coordinator of women’s studies at the college, said that last spring, when she suggested putting Ms. Chisholm’s name on the center as a nod to her lesser-known role as a feminist, few fellow faculty members knew Ms. Chisholm had attended the college.

I liked the video on NY1 on the Chisholm story – the 1960-1980’s pictures of Chisholm really are pieces of those times.

And, while it’s nice that Alberto Gonzales is the first Hispanic nominee to the Attorney General and may become the first Hispanic Attorney General, the senators on the judiciary committee are making it interesting in the meantime. I like that Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was critical, and how, of course, Gonzales would deny approving of torture when asked the leading question of “do you approve of torture?” (as if he would say “Yeah, I think torture works.”). Oh, well.

It looks like the blog has spammers again (maybe – unless these guys are actually being commentators? I can’t tell. I don’t mind commentators, but if they’re just posting to lead us to salvation to debt consolidation or other stupid services, I’d rather they not show up – so note to spammers – go eat spam).

Enjoy Saturday.

— FC, where’s your long-awaited annual recap? Is it going to be posted on the website?

Anyway, some stuff:

An article on tofu in the NY Times by Julia Moskin – fascinating stuff, some of which I never knew or thought about:

But since the opening of En Japanese Brasserie in the West Village in October, New Yorkers have been able to savor tofu that is made throughout the dinner service, coming out of the kitchen every 90 minutes. The fresh tofu is undeniably plain yet addictively cloudlike, drizzled with a delicate, clear soy sauce; the large, soft curds fall apart lightly and melt on your tongue.

“New Yorkers have learned to appreciate so many Japanese specialties, but tofu is still misunderstood, I think,” said Reika Yo, an owner. “It is not a substitute for meat, but has its own stature.” [….]

Megu in TriBeCa imports tofu made by Kawashima, an artisan in Karatsu whose product is famous throughout Japan; it costs $15 a serving. But a dollar on Mott Street will buy you a container of still-warm, custardy tofu doused in sugar syrup, to eat on the street as a snack or dessert. And at the new location of Spicy and Tasty in Flushing, Queens, you can order a plate of “stinky tofu,” a long-fermented Taiwanese specialty that is to plain tofu as Roquefort is to Velveeta.

Tofu, in fact, is made in almost exactly the same way as cheese, but with puréed sweet soybeans instead of cow, sheep or goat milk as its raw material. Because of its ability to produce so many different forms of nourishment, the soybean has long been called “the cow of China,” and tofu was first developed there by Buddhist monks, about 2,000 years ago. The process begins with dried yellow soybeans, called daizu; the fresh, green, immature pods of the same bean are what we know as edamame. [….]

Grace Young, a Chinese-American food writer, says that tofu is one of the most highly honored foods in Chinese culture because of its very plainness.

“Ingredients with texture but not taste are revered in China, and except for tofu, they are the most expensive ones you can buy there — like birds’ nests, shark’s fin and silver tree fungus.” Chinese names for tofu that indicate its high status translate as “meat without bones” and “meat from the fields.”

In Korea and China tofu is often served not as a substitute for meat, but alongside it, with a small amount of meat flavoring enriching the silken tofu, which adds its incomparable body and mouth feel. One such dish, ma-po tofu, from Chengdu, has become one of the most popular Sichuanese dishes in China and in the various Chinatowns of New York, said Ms. Young, whose most recent book is “The Breath of a Wok” (Simon & Schuster).

“It’s often translated as home-style tofu, because it has this rather unusual name, meaning pox-scarred grandmother’s tofu,” she said. “Tofu is a yang” — cool — “food in the Chinese way of thinking, so having it with meat and garlic and chilies, which are all yin” — warm — “makes it a good dish to the Chinese cook.” [….]

Really educational stuff.

“Annie” comic strip has been interesting lately. Annie’s reunited with Daddy Warbucks and Amelia Santiago, and they get mired in this odd storyline where this guy is trying to evict a bunch of singing ranchers from their ranch because he’s convinced that he’s a Queen of the Lizards to bring the Martians to Earth. Umm. Ok, it’s so weird it has actually been the best “Annie” in a long while since these new writer and artist worked on the comic strip. Still waiting for the missing old favorite characters acting like their amusing selves…

Channel 4, WNBC, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the pairing of the longtime newsanchors Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons. As Daily News notes, they’ve lasted longer than most marriages (even – unfortunately for Hollywood watchers – Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston). Crazy, kooky pair (well, half the time Sue’s the crazy one, but Chuck needs the levity and they ultimately balance each other out). Channel 4’s website has a link to some old pictures from back in the day for those two. Such a rarity with the current state of tv anchors splitting up or dropped or traded to different channels (so it goes with NYC’s competitive local news). Heck, kudos to NBC for bothering to celebrate (the network that get so sentimental; they milk every anniversary and farewell, sure, but that’s a nice thing, really – I like that warmth on NBC when it shows up). Happy Anniversary, Chuck and Sue!

Have a good weekend!

It’s Thursday, which is one day away from Friday…

Amidst all the stories of tragedy, gloom, doom, and accusations of stinginess (although the media’s hype of massive generosity seems to belie the accusation of Scrooge behavior) regarding the South Asian tsunami, a Jan. 4 article – NY Times’ David Rhode’s writing on the hopes of humanity’s better nature:

The Tidal Wave Task Force headquarters here is not much to look at, but what is happening inside is extraordinary.

Inside a crumbling, bullet-riddled building in rebel territory in northern Sri Lanka, low-level representatives of the country’s government and Tamil Tigers rebels – mortal enemies in a brutal civil war – are sitting together and planning the distribution of relief aid to tsunami victims. [….]

In a reaction reminiscent of the sense of unity that spread across the United States following the September 2001 terrorist attacks, large numbers of Sri Lankans appear to be spontaneously reaching across the country’s festering ethnic divides and delivering donated food and aid to rival ethnic groups.

“We see people strongly affected by it,” said a senior Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They think about the possibility of working together and the necessity to do so.”

[….]

An array of political and religious leaders has called for national unity since the disaster. In impromptu scenes witnessed over the past five days, Sri Lankans of various backgrounds delivered aid to one another or proudly told stories of food being delivered by one group to another.

While it was impossible to gauge the actual breadth of the sentiment, a new passion for unity has been heard repeatedly in interviews. Asked why he had just delivered a truckload of food to a group of ethnic Tamil refugees on Sri Lanka’s east coast last week, Thavamani, a 48-year-old ethnic Sinhalese businessmen who uses only the one name, said it was his response to the disaster.

“Because of the incidents, we have to get together,” he said. “We have to get together.”

In the mountain town of Teldeniya in central Sri Lanka, Jayasingha, a 32-year-old businessman, was one of hundreds of people who attended a ceremony at a Buddhist temple where monks lit 15,000 oil lamps in remembrance of the dead. Sinhalese, who make up about 75 percent of the population, are generally Buddhists. Tamils, who make up roughly 18 percent of the population, are generally Hindus.

Gently cradling his 11-month-old daughter in his arms, Mr. Jayasingha, a Sinhalese, said the nation’s response to the crisis has shown that Sri Lankans can work cooperatively.

“Muslims, Sinhalese, Tamils, they are working together everywhere with this problem,” he said. “I’m hoping in the future it will be like that.”

Sounds beautiful, if it can happen.

Slate.com’s latest “Jurisprudence” column, by Stanford Law prof Richard Thompson Ford, argues that the liberals ought to embrace federalism. Arguably, he has a point – as much as the left of center folks recoil at the idea of states’ rights, there’s nothing inherently “conservative” about federalism. It always irritated me whenever the conservative types wave their so-called federalism flag, since I always thought that there was more to federalism than “conservative” or “liberal” labels. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but federalism was more than just “states’ rights” – it was the Founding Fathers’ idea of balancing the states and the central (federal) government and included checks and balances of the federal government itself (the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches annoying the heck out of each other with various maneuvers). I mean, those Founding Fathers weren’t idiots or just Dead White Guys – they were trying to make an unprecedented government that functioned somehow for more than 200 years…

(ok, it’s too obvious that I spent my undergraduate years studying the history of the Founding Fathers, isn’t it? Rah-rah for the history majors; or else maybe the poli-sci folks can challenge that.).

Ok, I’m going to have to make a second viewing of the season premiere of “Alias” (I taped it, of course, even though I was watching it). (plus, it’s crazy to put it on Wednesday night – not to say that I don’t prefer this time slot, but it’s up against a lately-more-interesting “West Wing” and I will feel really torn once “Jack and Bobby” is back on Wednesday nights at 9pm from its midseason hiatus – how will I choose between watching the presidential tv shows and the spy show? hmm)…

Anyway, it’s the usual crazy Secret Agent Sidney stuff (What in the world did her father do this time to earn her distrust and angst? — and once it’s revealed, one is left thinking, “Oh, Jack – there has to be more than this, as usual!”; Sloane is still evil, no matter what he does or says; and, with much echoes to the series’ season 1 premiere – like the scene where Jack Bristow saves his daughter Sidney, even though she doesn’t feel the love for him, just like in the series premiere – and some season 1 plot development again – since Sidney is essentially lying to her friend(s) about what she’s doing as far as the Profession is concerned)… Head spinning stuff.

Slate.com – cool slide essay on Isamu Noguchi.

I don’t know why NY Daily News didn’t have this article posted on their website, but I liked it – in Wednesday’s Daily News, Dick Weiss wrote a profile on University of Southern California’s offensive coordinator Norm Chow (USC Trojans won the Orange Bowl Tuesday night) – Head Coach Pete Carroll gave much of the credit to Chow, who apparently had some great plays and inspires quarterbacks. A Chinese-Hawaiian Mormon, he played college football and Canadian Football League; he’s a Brigham Young University Phd., and had been their college football team’s offensive coordinator (mentoring former NFL quarterback Steve Young back in the day). While Chow’s quoted to be interested in being a head coach someday (cool, an APA head coach, if it can happen), Chow’s proud to support the Trojan dynasty (can we call it a dynasty? I don’t know college football enough to say anything). Here’s the profile from USC.

According to Wednesday’s Daily News, Channel 9 (WWOR) will be the free tv station for Yankees games. The NYC area is now living in an age where Channel 11 (WPIX), the station that used to air Yankees games and Phil Rizzuto’s Holy Cow, is showing Mets games – and starting this upcoming baseball season, Channel 9, the ex-Mets station (36 years of the Mets’ era; plus those Kiner’s Korners, where Ralph Kiner interviewed people), will have the Yanks. It’s like Channel 11 and Channel 9 traded places (well, some five years after the fact anyway). And, there is something so wrong about this. (well, that’s just me, I guess).

Did I mention that I had finished reading “Sense and Sensibility” (Jane Austen) last week? Dry humor – funny; ending was a little odd to me; but all right read. I think I preferred “Pride and Prejudice” as far as a novel, although I really liked the humor of “Sense and Sensibility.”

Thursday’s coming…

More photos are here. We wrapped up our attendance of a Hakka Chinese conference at York University. We took my uncle there — he put one kid through there, and has another one presently, so it was kind of a back to school experience for him. That night we went to the Carribean Chinese Association’s New Year’s Eve Ball, which featured a live reggae band. The sight of 400 Carribean-Chinese, many of them middle-aged, dancing to sca and reggae was something amazing. The next day we went to the CN Tower, which was practically empty because of the holiday. Afterwards, we went through the downtown Chinatown, had Vietnamese sandwiches, and then made it back to Eaton Plaza, where we had Carribean ox-tail stew, rice and beans, roti, and whitefish. We quickly ran back to the house for our ride back to the airport. Having a few Canadian bucks left over, we bought some additional duty-free items. After a luggage fiasco (they announced the wrong baggage pickup area) we finally recovered everything and went home. I’m working on my annual recap message now….

The passing of Representative Robert Matsui (D-Ca.).

What is the glory age of NYC, if there was any? Interesting set of proposals by various famous NY’ers in the NY Times.

Virginia Heffernan of the NY Times comments on Regis Philbin as the Dick Clark substitute, and the work of other MC’s of the New Year’s Eve night. Personally, I thought Regis did ok, but sub par for him (and the on-the-street “reporters” helping him were annoying). I missed Dick Clark like anyone else, but at one point, the taped tributes to Dick Clark were annoying too and the music on the show seemed a little… well, dated (Earth, Wind, and Fire? Rod Stewart?). I caught a bit of the Carson Daly NBC New Year’s bash (thanks to my brother’s videotaping stuff or was it NBC’s considerate post-midnight Carson Daly broadcast? I forget now) – thought that Carson Daly was slightly better than Regis, in so far as he had better, more up-to-date musical acts (Heffernan thought he seemed desperate to make Rockefeller Center the Times Square New Year’s rival). (and, ok, so I’m not a big Rod Stewart fan; at least, not a Rod Stewart who’s singing 1950’s standards music – he just doesn’t have the voice for me).

Interesting NY Times article by Kate Arthur about the Zoloft commercials – the ads with the fuzzy blob that suffers from depression but then bounces happily when the chemical imbalance is corrected:

PEOPLE who suffer from panic, feelings of isolation or social phobias would be the first to admit that those conditions bring out their least adorable selves. Certainly they do not bring out the sort of images well suited to a chirpy 30-second advertisement. Facing these long odds, the antidepressant Zoloft’s campaign of four commercials – each featuring an animated blob that goes from shaky and isolated to healed and happy over the course of the advertisement – achieves the implausible. It makes the struggle for stability downright cute.

Two commercials are in regular rotation. In one, the simply drawn blob is in a dark cave. It sighs and groans, and its body, which consists entirely of a face, wears a downcast expression. “You know when the world seems like a sad and lonely place?” a narrator asks. This blob does, because it is suffering from depression. Led by an orange butterfly – is that you, Zoloft? – it emerges from the cave and joins two other blobs. Its mouth turns into a smile, and it bounces playfully after the butterfly.

The other commercial, geared to those with social anxiety disorder, takes the opposite approach. The blob is at a party, pink with embarrassment as it watches a conga line of other blobs. As Latin music plays, it sweats, hyperventilates and backs away from the dancing, party-hat-wearing revelers. There’s no butterfly here, but the Zoloft kicks in anyway: the blob begins socializing, de-pinks and bounces.

Zoloft’s blob advertisements began running in May 2001. They are directed and illustrated by Pat Smith, an animator whose résumé includes directing the former MTV cartoon show “Daria.” The popularity of the commercials can be measured not only in their longevity, but also in the volume of online commentary the blob has inspired. On one message board, participants discuss how sweet-looking the blob is and express a desire for a stuffed animal version.

Sweet-looking, medication-dependent blob. Umm, yeah, I’ve been uncomfortable by the commercials for those reasons.

And, so on and so forth. Have a good return to work-week…

Have a Happy New Year in 2005 everybody. (Now I get to spend the next couple of weeks writing 2004 by mistake and deleting “4” for “5”…)

Some preliminary resolutions (which may or may not happen) —
– updates to my website (still barebones, but at least has stuff on it)
– drink more water
– take vitamins
– exercise just a little more
– have better sleeping habits
– have more disciplined writing habits
– be a better person… (uh, yeah, right…)
Etc., etc.

Saw “Ocean’s Twelve” yesterday. Fun movie watching a cast have fun. George Clooney is fun. Matt Damon – fun. Brad Pitt is just beautiful (eye candy… umm, well, he does demonstrate some acting chops, but he’s still beautiful to look at). Plot holes are… holey. (“Ocean’s Eleven” probably had a better plot, but not as fun in feeling). Thumbs up anyway.

Oh, heck, one more Christmas card to send out, for fear of offending anyone. Thank goodness that there are 12 days of Christmas to cover me….

Tv/law related news: the passing of Jerry Orbach, the former Lenny Briscoe of NBC’s “Law and Order.” An actor whose talents also shone brightly in theater and film, he will be missed.

“Jeopardy” relies even more on gimmicks – they’re bringing back former five-day champions (champions under the previous five-day only rule) to be in a Super Tournament of Champions, to be pitted against Ken Jennings, the champion under the new unlimited rule. Crazy…

College students these days… so-called academic freedom/freedom of speech versus alleged discimination and so-called intimidation; so-called conservative students suing to avoid reading stuff that “offends” their values (umm, the point of a liberal arts education is to open the mind, to see if something actually is offensive), as opposed to so-called liberal students’ demanding to read more (i.e., reading stuff by others than the usual so-called Dead White Men). Ugh. Sometimes I’m almost glad my undergrad education has been long over; I don’t miss the perpetual protesting, frankly (whether from the conservative or the liberal side of campus).

While the human impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami remains unknown at this time, scientists are apparently speculating on the tsunami’s effect on the earth’s rotation – shortening a day by a fraction of a second. The future of the Maldives is in peril. And other stories. Putting aside – for just a second – the sadness for the homeless, missing, and dead, ultimately, this tragedy is still hard to grasp as it’s still unfolding. More to see and just wonder.